Abstract Scope |
The current study investigates the effects of built orientation and T6 ageing heat treatment on mechanical properties and microstructural evolution of Ti-modified Al 2024 alloy. The additive manufacturing of high-strength Al alloys such as Al 2024 alloy, suffers from high solidification cracking. Therefore, the present work has attempted to incorporate Ti to promote the columnar to equiaxed transformation and reduce the solidification cracking. The mechanical properties such as tensile, hardness, fracture toughness, and fatigue life were measured experimentally for different orientations in as fabricated and aged samples, and the corresponding strengthening mechanisms were explored in detail. The ultrafine grains (of average grain size 0.4 μm) produced due to Ti addition, along with the strengthening precipitates such as Al2Cu and Al2CuMg, characterized through SEM/EBSD & TEM, were observed to be the primary strengthening mechanism contributing to the high mechanical properties, which are comparable to their conventional wrought counterparts. |