Microstructure Evolution and Enhanced Hot Workability of TiC/Ti-6Al-4V Composites Fabricated by Melt Hydrogenation

Improving the hot workability and reducing the processing cost are critical steps to expanding the application of TiC/Ti-6Al-4V composites. This study employed melt hydrogenation to fabricate TiC/Ti-6Al-4V composites under a mixed atmosphere of hydrogen and argon. Experimental results indicated that hydrogen had an obvious influence on the growth and morphology of eutectic TiC particles, and the size of eutectic TiC and primary β grains was significantly increased. As a result, large-sized eutectic TiC was distributed along the grain boundaries of primary β grains. Hot compression results showed that the peak flowing stress of composites was reduced by hydrogen, which resulted in an improvement of hot workability, especially in the (α + β) phase region, and the best results were obtained at 900 °C/0.01 s^-1, at which the peak stress decreased from 241 ± 9 to 190 ± 8 MPa (a decrease of 21.2%). Inspection of the microstructure after hot compression showed that hydrogen improved the proportion of DRX grains from ~62.7% to ~83.2%, and hydrogen also decreased the density of dislocations, which were attributed to hydrogen accelerating atomic diffusion. Enhanced hot workability resulted from hydrogen atoms decreasing the atomic bonding force of the titanium matrix, hydrogen reducing the β/(α + β) transition temperature, the higher proportion of DRX, and the higher mobility of dislocations. It is expected that the findings of this study may support the development of a simple and efficient method to reduce the processing cost of TiC/Ti-6Al-4V composites.