Crack initiation mechanism of a silicide-containing high-strength Ti–5Al-7.5V alloy under low-cycle fatigue loading

In this work, the dual phase titanium alloy Ti–5Al-7.5V was subjected to low-cycle fatigue at room temperature to reveal the deformation mechanisms of fatigue and crack initiation. Transmission electron microscope analysis showed that planar dislocation slip, most of them localized at the basal and prismatic planes of α phase, is the primary deformation mode of low-cycle fatigue. Multiple slips operate concurrently in the high Schmid factor planes within a single grain. Moreover, a limited number of observed microcracks were formed along the basal slip bands. Electron back-scattered diffraction analysis evidenced that numerous microcracks were formed along basal planes. And, the microcracks were confined in primary α grains without propagation to surrounding transformed β matrix, indicating that the alloy exhibits a high tolerance to microcrack propagation. The α grain aggregate oriented for basal slip is a fatigue-critical microstructure configuration, which provides a high Schmid factor path by linking adjacent grains and potentially lead to internal crack initiation with the formation of a field of facets in the cycling process. While the silicides were observed in contact with the microcracks and slip bands, no evidence of crack initiation from silicides was detected. Given that the microcracks were formed along the pre-existing slip bands, it remains an open question whether the silicides can act as the dislocation sources for planar slips and facilitate crack nucleation from these silicides.