Browsing by Author "Pickering, E. J."
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Item Open Access Impact of weld restraint on the development of distortion and stress during the electron beam welding of a low-alloy steel subject to solid state phase transformation(Elsevier, 2021-01-21) Sun, Y. L.; Vasileiou, A. N.; Pickering, E. J.; Collins, J.; Obasi, G.; Akrivos, V.; Smith, M. C.Electron beam (EB) welding has a low tolerance to inter-part gapping distortion and can generate complicated stresses, which pose challenges to weld quality and integrity. This study investigates welding distortion and stresses in an EB welded plate made from SA508 Grade 4N low-alloy steel. A thermal-metallurgical-mechanical model was developed to predict the temperature, micro-constituents, hardness, distortion and stresses in the EB weldment; the predictions are in good agreement with experimental results. Different restraint conditions on the weld plane were modelled to examine their effects on distortion and stresses. If welding is performed with no restraint, inter-part gapping develops ahead of the beam position that could exceed the tolerance for a sound weld. In contrast, tack welds at the plate ends significantly reduce this gapping, but induce additional tensile stress at the stop-end tack weld. This stress is particularly high as the beam approaches the tack weld. Increasing the extent of the tack weld reduces the tensile stress, while increasing number of distantly distributed narrow tack welds does not help. A full through-length restraint eliminates the opening gap and minimises the development of tensile stresses ahead of the beam that could potentially break the restraint. The applied restraint on the weld plane has little effect on the final residual stress field, since this field mostly develops during cooling after the EB weld is complete. The weld-induced martensitic transformation suppressed tension or promoted compression in the EB weld and heat affected zone (HAZ). A steep gradient of residual stress exists, with high tensile stress concentrated in a narrow region immediately outside the HAZ.Item Open Access Microstructure transition gradients in titanium dissimilar alloy (Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr/Ti-6Al-4V) tailored wire-arc additively manufactured components(Elsevier, 2021-11-03) Kennedy, Jacob R.; Davis, Alec E.; Caballero Ramos, Armando; White, M.; Fellowes, Jonathan W.; Pickering, E. J.; Prangnell, P. B.The nature of the chemical mixing and microstructure gradients that occur across the interface transition, when manufacturing tailored components with the two high-performance dissimilar titanium alloys (Ti-6Al-4V (Ti-64) and Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr (Ti-5553)) by the wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) process, are reported. It has been shown that a relatively long-range chemical gradient occurs during the transition between layers produced with the two different titanium alloys, due to convective mixing in the melt pool between the substrate layers and new alloy wire. This resulted in a stepwise exponential decay composition profile normal to the layers, the width of which can be described by a simple dilution law, with steep local composition gradients seen within the boundary layers at the fusion boundary of each individual layer. The alloy-alloy composition gradients had little effect on the β-grain structure. However, they strongly influenced the transformation microstructure, due to their effect on the parent β-phase stability and the β → α transformation kinetics and reaction sequence. The microstructure gradient seen on transitioning from Ti-64 → Ti-5553 was significantly more abrupt, compared to when depositing the two alloys in the reverse order. Under WAAM thermal conditions, Ti-64 appears to be more sensitive to the effect of adding β-stabilising elements than when Ti-5553 is diluted by Ti-64, because at high cooling rates, stabilisation of the β phase readily suppresses α nucleation when cooling through the β transus, and the normal Ti-64 lamellar transformation microstructure is abruptly replaced by finer scale α laths generated by precipitation during subsequent reheating cycles.Item Open Access The potential for grain refinement of wire-arc additive manufactured (WAAM) Ti-6Al-4V by ZrN and TiN inoculation(Elsevier, 2021-02-23) Kennedy, Jacob R.; Davis, Alec E.; Caballero Ramos, Armando; Williams, Stewart; Pickering, E. J.; Prangnell, P. B.Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) of large near-net-shape titanium components has the potential to reduce costs and lead-time in many industrial sectors including aerospace. However, with titanium alloys, such as Ti-6Al-4V, standard WAAM processing conditions result in solidification microstructures comprising large cm-scale, <001> fibre textured, columnar β grains, which are detrimental to mechanical performance. In order to reduce the size of the solidified β-grains, as well as refine their columnar morphology and randomise their texture, two cubic nitride phases, TiN and ZrN were investigated as potential grain refining inoculants. To avoid the cost of manufacturing new wire, experimental trials were performed using powder adhered to the surface of the deposited tracks. With TiN particle additions, the β grain size was successfully reduced and modified from columnar to equiaxed grains, with an average size of 300 µm, while ZrN powder was shown to be ineffective at low addition levels studied. Clusters of TiN particles were found to be responsible for nucleating multiple β Ti grains. By utilizing the Burgers orientation relationship, EBSD investigation showed that a Kurdjumov-Sachs orientation relationship could be demonstrated between the refined primary β grains and TiN particles.Item Open Access β Grain refinement by yttrium addition in Ti-6Al-4V Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing(Elsevier, 2021-11-14) Kennedy, Jacob R.; Davis, Alec E.; Caballero, Armando E.; Byres, N.; Williams, Stewart; Pickering, E. J.; Prangnell, P. B.Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) of large near-net-shape titanium parts has the potential to reduce costs in aerospace applications. However, with titanium alloys, such as Ti-6Al-4V, conventional WAAM processing conditions generally result in epitaxial solidification from the melt pool fusion boundary, which over many layers can generate coarse cm-scale,<001>//ND fibre textured, columnar β grain structures within the deposited metal. The mechanical anisotropy caused by this coarse primary grain structure cannot be eliminated by subsequent solid-state phase transformations. In order to attempt to refine the size of the solidified β-grains and reduce their strong texture, the growth restriction efficiency of low addition levels of the strongly partitioning element (k = 0.1) yttrium (Y) has been investigated. Less than 0.8 wt.% Y was sufficient to reduce the widths of the solidified columnar β grains from 1 to 2 mm to 100–300 µm. Y was also found to induce a columnar-to-equiaxed transition (CET) in the latter stages of melt pool solidification, which benefits from a lower liquid thermal gradient and higher solidification velocity. Inter-dendritic segregation of Y was also found to be significant and oxygen scavenging led to the formation of Y2O3 particles in the inter-dendritic liquid, with a previously unreported irregular eutectic morphology. High-resolution EBSD analysis showed these particles exhibited specific orientation relationships with the solidified β grains, which were confirmed experimentally.