THE TENSILE BEHAVIOR OF GAMMA-TITANIUM ALUMINIDE INTERMETALLIC

The titanium aluminide alloys based on gamma have, in recent years, en gendered considerable scientific and technological interest because th ey offer several useful properties that are either comparable to or be tter than those of the conventional alloys of titanium and nickle-base superalloy families. In this paper, the tensile behaviour of a gamma- TiAl intermetallic is reported. The intermetallic has a near lamellar microstructure comprising regions of single-phase gamma grains, coarse twin-related lamellae and fine lamellae. The tensile properties of th e intermetallic containing chromium and niobium are inferior to those of the binary counterpart. Tensile fracture was primarily by intergran ular rupture with microcracking along the grain boundaries.