Effect of alloying elements on the properties of Ti-Al-Si alloys prepared by powder metallurgy

Highlights: • Ti-Al-Si-X (XCo, Cr, Fe, Mo, Nb, Ni) alloys prepared using mechanical alloying and Spark Plasma Sintering. • Alloys have fine-grained and homogeneous microstructure with low porosity. • Alloyed elements increased hardness and compressive strength values. -- Abstract: Intermetallic alloys based on Ti-Al-Si system are significant for their excellent high-temperature properties, especially for resistance against oxidation and for achieving good mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. The main problem of these materials is high brittleness at room temperature. In the previous work, selected alloying elements were added into the Ti-Al-Si alloys prepared by reactive sintering, but the properties did not meet the requirements for subsequent use in the automotive or aerospace industry, since the materials had a very porous microstructure. Here, the addition of cobalt, chromium, iron, molybdenum, niobium and nickel into the TiAl15Si15 alloy prepared by mechanical alloying and Spark Plasma Sintering is tested and it is expected to improve the mechanical and high-temperature properties. In this paper, the Ti-Al-Si alloys have been assessed on basis of microstructure, phase composition, mechanical and tribological properties, such as hardness, fracture toughness and compressive strength. Cyclic oxidation tests were performed for 400 h at the temperatures of 800 and 1000 °C. The cyclic oxidation tests simulate industrial processes, where the material is alternately exposed to elevated temperature and subsequent cooling (eg, engine components). From the viewpoint of most of the tested properties, alloying by niobium seems to be the most promising.