Development of Lightweight Aluminum-Titanium Alloys for Aerospace Applications

Aluminum (Al) and Titanium (Ti) based lightweight alloys have been a topic of discussion and research for a few decades now. Resulting alloys with hard intermetallic phases in Al-Ti binary system have good microstructural and mechanical properties including low densities, high specific strength, better resistance against oxidation and corrosion which are highly desirable in aerospace industry. Such an alloy system was studied in our research. Powder metallurgy (PM) was used as processing route because of its economical and easy operation. Samples were prepared using metallic powders of Aluminum (Al) and Titanium (Ti) with varying compositions of 95 at.% Al-Ti, 90 at.% Al-Ti and 88 at.% Al-10 at.% Ti-2 at.% SiC. After compaction, pressureless sintering was carried out at 620°C for several hours in Argon atmosphere followed by annealing resulting in a reasonably dense Al-Ti alloy. Microstructure and phase composition of alloy was analyzed by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. Hardness was evaluated by Vickers micro indentation test. An increase in hardness was observed. Sample containing reinforcement particles (SiC) demonstrated highest value of hardness.