Effect of hot working on microstructure and mechanical properties of TC11/Ti2AlNb dual-alloy joint welded by electron beam welding process

The influence of hot working on the microstructures of TC11/Ti2AlNb dual-alloy joints welded by electron beam welding (EBW) process was investigated. The tensile tests were performed at room temperature for specimens before and after thermal exposure. The results show that the fusion zone of TC11/Ti2AlNb dual-alloy joint welded by EBW is mainly composed of β phase. After deformation and heat treatment, the grain boundaries of the as-cast alloy are broken and the fusion zone mainly consists of β, α2 and α phases. The fusion zone performs poor property in the tensile test. Specimens before and after thermal exposure all fail in this area under different deformation conditions. The ultimate tensile strength of specimens after heat treatment is up to 1190 MPa at room temperature. The joints by water quenching after deformation have better plasticity with an elongation up to 4.4%. After thermal exposure at 500 °C for 100 h, the tensile strength of the specimen slightly rises while the ductility changes a little. SEM observation shows that the fracture mechanism is predominantly transgranular under different deformation conditions.