Investigation of Densification Behaviour on Yttrium Oxide Reinforced Ti-6AL-4V Nano-Composite Through Powder Metallurgy

Titanium based alloys are attracted in many applications due to its excellent properties. But it is not suitable for high temperature components due to poor performance at elevated temperatures. In this paper, a new attempt is done to improve its high temperature performance by adding yttrium oxide (Y O ) as reinforcement in a titanium alloy matrix. 2 3 Yttrium oxide reinforced Ti-6Al-4V nano-composite was manufactured through powder metallurgy technique. Yttrium oxide was added in a range of 1-3% with matrix metal. The compaction pressure of 560 MPa was determined by using powder compression techniques. The composite preforms was made by cold compaction and green compacts were o sintered through pressureless sintering process at a temperature range of 1200-1400 C to improve the densification behaviour. Densities of preforms were measured by using analytical and Archimedes' principles to determine the densification behaviour of nano-composite. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to confirm the distribution of reinforcement with matrix metal. The nano-composite prepared by adding 2% of yttrium oxide provides higher densification behaviour compared to other additions of reinforcements.