Preparation of porous Ti35Nb alloy and its mechanical properties under monotonic and cyclic loading

The Ti-35%Nb (mass fraction) foams were prepared by a powder metallurgy method, and the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the foams under monotonic and cyclic loading were investigated. The microstructure of the foams mainly consists of β phase, and the foams exhibit the homogenous pore distribution with the average pore size of 252 μm. The foams with 66% porosity show a typical stress-strain curve of the open-cell foams, and the plateau stress is about 56 MPa. The fatigue strength of the foam is 15.12 MPa at 107 cycles. The fractographic analysis of the foams reveals that the cracks nucleate within the struts and grow in a fatigue mechanism, resulting in the acceleration of the fatigue damage of the foams.