Effect of Al addition on phase constitution and heat treatment behavior in Ti-8 5mass%Mn-1mass%Fe-Al alloys

Titanium is considered to be a ubiquitous element since it has the 9th-highest Clarke number of all elements. Iron and manganese can also be used as beta stabilizers for Ti alloys, and can be considered to be ubiquitous because of their 4th- and 11th-highest Clarke numbers, respectively. However, investigations into the behavior of Ti-Mn-Fe alloys during heat treatment have shown that in some alloys, the isothermal omega phase is precipitated. Because this phase can lead to brittleness, it is very important to prevent it from forming. It is well known that aluminum can suppress the precipitation of the isothermal omega phase. Thus, in the present study, we investigated the effect of Al content on the phase constitution and heat-treatment behavior of Ti-8.5mass%Mn-1mass%Fe-0 to 4.5mass%Al alloys using electrical resistivity, Vickers hardness, and X-ray diffraction measurements. In all solution-treated and quenched alloys, only the beta phase was identified, thus confirming the suppression of omega-phase precipitation. The resistivity was found to increase monotonically with Al content, while the Vickers hardness decreased up to 3 mass% Al and then remained constant.