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Microstructure-Tensile Properties Correlation for the Ti-6Al-4V Titanium Alloy

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Abstract

Finding the quantitative microstructure-tensile properties correlations is the key to achieve performance optimization for various materials. However, it is extremely difficult due to their non-linear and highly interactive interrelations. In the present investigation, the lamellar microstructure features-tensile properties correlations of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy are studied using an error back-propagation artificial neural network (ANN-BP) model. Forty-eight thermomechanical treatments were conducted to prepare the Ti-6Al-4V alloy with different lamellar microstructure features. In the proposed model, the input variables are microstructure features including the α platelet thickness, colony size, and β grain size, which were extracted using Image Pro Plus software. The output variables are the tensile properties, including ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, elongation, and reduction of area. Fourteen hidden-layer neurons which can make ANN-BP model present the most excellent performance were applied. The training results show that all the relative errors between the predicted and experimental values are within 6%, which means that the trained ANN-BP model is capable of providing precise prediction of the tensile properties for Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Based on the corresponding relations between the tensile properties predicted by ANN-BP model and the lamellar microstructure features, it can be found that the yield strength decreases with increasing α platelet thickness continuously. However, the α platelet thickness exerts influence on the elongation in a more complicated way. In addition, for a given α platelet thickness, the yield strength and the elongation both increase with decreasing β grain size and colony size. In general, the β grain size and colony size play a more important role in affecting the tensile properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy than the α platelet thickness.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China with No. 20116102110015, the New Century Excellent Talents in University with No. NCET-07-0696, and the National 973 Project of China with No. 2007CB613807.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, No. 127 Youyi Xilu, Xi’an, 710072, P.R. China

    Xiaohui Shi, Weidong Zeng, Yu Sun & Yuanfei Han

  2. Northwest Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals, Xi’an, 710016, P.R. China

    Yongqing Zhao & Ping Guo

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  1. Xiaohui Shi
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  2. Weidong Zeng
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  3. Yu Sun
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  5. Yongqing Zhao
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Correspondence to Xiaohui Shi.

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Shi, X., Zeng, W., Sun, Y. et al. Microstructure-Tensile Properties Correlation for the Ti-6Al-4V Titanium Alloy. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 24, 1754–1762 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-015-1437-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-015-1437-x

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