Analysis of the plastic anisotropy and pre-yielding of (γ/α2)-phase titanium aluminide microstructures by crystal plasticity simulation

The plastic deformation of lamellar microstructures composed of the two phases γ-TiAl and α2-Ti3Al is highly orientation dependent. In this paper we present a homogenized model that takes into account the micromechanical effect of the plate-like morphologies that are often observed in two-phase titanium aluminide alloys. The model is based on crystal elasto-viscoplasticity and 18 deformation systems were implemented that have been identified to govern the plastic flow of the lamellar microstructures. The model is validated against experiments on polysynthetically twinned (PST) crystals and shows good agreement with the data. On a larger length scale, the model is applied to a 64-grain aggregate to investigate the mechanical response of two different kinds of microstructures. Different magnitudes of the kinematic constraints exerted by the densely spaced and highly aligned interfaces are shown to affect the macroscopic flow behavior of the microstructures. The phenomenon of pronounced microplasticity of fully lamellar material as well as the stress variation inside two-phase microstructures are studied quantitatively.

► A computationally efficient model that captures the micromechanics of two-phase titanium aluminides.
► Simulates deformation of lamellar and “refined” microstructures at the grain length scale.
► Explains pre-yielding of lamellar microstructures by their anisotropic plastic flow properties.