Evaluation of hardening mechanisms of iron-doped Ti4Al3V alloy obtained using dual-wire electron beam additive manufacturing

A.V. Nikolaeva

, A.V. Vorontsov

, A.O. Panfilov, S.Y. Tarasov

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Received 19 June 2025; Accepted 09 September 2025;

Citation: A.V. Nikolaeva, A.V. Vorontsov, A.O. Panfilov, S.Y. Tarasov. Evaluation of hardening mechanisms of iron-doped Ti4Al3V alloy obtained using dual-wire electron beam additive manufacturing. Lett. Mater., 2025, 15(4) 249-255

BibTex https://doi.org/10.48612/letters/2025-4-249-255

Abstract

Fe additions (1.0–8.0 wt.%) to additively manufactured Ti4Al3V alloy induce a columnar-to-equiaxed grain transition, with grain boundary strengthening prevailing in yield strength enhancement at 1.5–3.0 wt.% Fe.

In this work, the evolution of the grain structure, phase composition, and mechanical properties of the Ti4Al3V alloy additionally alloyed with iron in concentrations ranging from 1.0 to 8.0 wt.%, and manufactured by dual-wire electron beam additive manufacturing (WEBAM) was investigated. A quantitative analysis of the contributions of various strengthening mechanisms to the overall strengthening of the iron-added Ti4Al3V alloy was conducted. It was found that in the range of iron concentrations from 1.0 to 3.0 wt.%, the main strengthening mechanism is grain boundary strengthening (≈59 %) due to a decrease in the average size of prior β-Ti grains (from 580 to 470 μm) and the thickness of α-phase lath (from 0.61 to 0.36 μm). The contribution of grain boundary strengthening to the yield strength of the Ti4Al3V-7.5Fe alloy is only 19 %. This is due to a reduction in the number of grain boundaries resulting from the transformation of β-Ti grains into a β / ω composite structure. The obtained results enable us to determine the concentration ranges of iron in the Ti4Al3V alloy at which the respective strengthening mechanisms make the greatest contribution to its mechanical properties. Consequently, the presented approaches and models can be employed to optimize both the composition and processing parameters of titanium alloys alloyed with varying iron contents.

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Funding

1. Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science of the Siberian Branch of the RAS - FWRW-2024-0001