Abstract
Titanium alloys are composed of α and β phases and are classified as near α, dual-phase α+β, and β types. This study attempts to derive their general composition formulas within the cluster-plus-glue-atom model by interpreting Ti-6Al-4V and other popular dual-phase α+β Ti alloys with well-established chemical compositions. Our model identified a molecule-like structural unit that covers only a nearest-neighbor cluster along with a few next-neighbor glue atoms, which can be represented as “[cluster](glue atoms)x”. The structural units of the α and β phases in Ti-6Al-4V, α-[Al-Ti12](AlTi2), and β-[Al-Ti14](V2Ti), were derived first and were in an unusual unit ratio of about 2.33:1. To obtain an alloy composition formula that satisfied this unit ratio, the two clusters were treated as hard spheres of different radii and packed according to the cluster-plus-glue-atom model. Our calculations determined that the Ti-6Al-4V alloy unit is composed of 12 α-[Al-Ti12](AlTi2) and 5 β-[Al-Ti14](V2Ti) units (Ti-6.05Al-3.94V wt.%), with the fractional volume of the β phase being 32.5 vol.%, which is in agreement with experimental data. Finally, we describe how the chemical formulas of the α and β phases explain the high temperature near-α alloys (such as Ti-1100, [Al-(Ti0.97Zr0.03)12](Al0.67Si0.12Sn0.18Mo0.03)1.01Ti1.99) and high-strength β-Ti alloys (such as Ti-5553, [Al-Ti14](Al0.24Fe0.03Cr0.20-Mo0.18V0.35)2.45Ti0.55), respectively.
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This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFB1100103), the Science Research Project of Liaoning Province Education Department (Grant No. JDL2019023), the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (Grant No. 2020-BS-208), and the Open Project of Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams (Grant No. KF2006).
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Liu, T., Zhang, S., Wang, Q. et al. Composition formulas of Ti alloys derived by interpreting Ti-6Al-4V. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 64, 1732–1740 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-020-1812-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-020-1812-9