Heat Treatment Effects on Mechanical Properties of Wire Arc Additive Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V

Directed energy deposition (DED) is an attractive additive manufacturing (AM) process for large structural components. The rapid solidification and layer-by-layer process associated with DED results in non-ideal microstructures, such as large grains with strong crystallographic textures, resulting in severe anisotropy and low ductility. Despite these challenges, DED has been identified as a potential solution for the manufacturing of near net shape Ti-6Al-4V preforms. In this work, we explore several heat treatment processes, and their effects on tensile properties of wire arc additively manufactured (WAAM) Ti-6Al-4V. A high throughput tensile testing procedure was utilized to generate statistically relevant data sets related to each specific heat treatment and sample orientation. Results are discussed in the context of microstructural evolution and the resulting fracture behavior for each condition as compared to conventionally processed Ti-6Al-4V.