Solid Particle Erosion Behaviour of Laser Sintered Heat Treated Ti–6Al–4V Alloy

Abstract

Ti–6Al–4V alloy is used in high-temperature aerospace applications such as aircraft turbine discs, airframes, and other structural parts. Solid particle erosion is quite common in aerospace components. In the present work, a study has been conducted to see the effect of solid particle erosion on Ti–6Al–4V alloy fabricated by direct metal laser sintering. The fabricated sample was characterized using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It was observed that a long martensitic phase structure (in the form of α/α' laths) was retained since the heat treatment temperature was far below the β transus value. Using the Taguchi experimental approach, the SPE tests were conducted for different impact angles, velocities, and temperatures. This approach optimized the number of experiments for measuring the erosion rate and predicted the most influencing variable in the test. The scanning electron microscopy technique was also used to characterize the eroded sample. The effect of impact velocity dominated the erosion behaviour of Ti–6Al–4V alloy, followed by temperature and impact angle. At highest temperature of 650 K, erosion rate decreased with an increase in impact angle and increased with an increase in impact velocity. This study aims to identify the optimal parameter combination to minimize the erosion rate.