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Observations on electron beam melting of titanium and its alloy

University of British Columbia

The advantages of the melting of titanium and its alloys in an electron beam furnace are well understood in terms of homogenization, but it is clear that a major problem is that of evaporation of volatile elements. The purpose of the present study Is to investigate the evaporation of solutes such as aluminum from titanium alloys and the conditions under which the evaporation takes place. The surface temperatures of the molten metal were measured by an optical pyrometer. Its accuracy was checked by measuring the evaporation rate of pure titanium over the range of experimental temperatures used. From the analysis of the aluminum evaporation rate from Ti-Al-V alloy, it has been established that the Langmuir equation may be applied; that is, the evaporation takes place from a well-mixed pool of uniform composition with a very small mass transfer resistance. Also, the specific evaporation constant and the activity coefficient of aluminum were calculated. Attempts were made to use the EDX equipment directly to measure the aluminum concentration changes during melting. This technique may be promising although the method and conditions were not fully defined.

Text

2010-05-24

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/24944

Materials Engineering

University of British Columbia

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