Materials, Vol. 12, Pages 3402: Formability of Ultrasonically Additive Manufactured Ti-Al Thin Foil Laminates (Materials)

This study investigates the effect of strain rates and temperatures on the mechanical behavior of ultrasonically consolidated Titanium–Aluminum thin foils to understand and characterize their formability. To this goal, laminated composite samples with a distinct number of layers were bonded using ultrasonic consolidation. Then, tensile and biaxial hydraulic bulge tests at different strain rates and temperature conditions were conducted. The effect of the sample orientation on the mechanical response was also examined. Tensile and hydraulic bulge tests results were compared to observe differences in ultimate tensile strength and strain levels under uniaxial and biaxial loading conditions. The effects of loading condition, strain rate, and temperature on the material response were analyzed and discussed on the basis of test results. In general, it was concluded that the maximum elongation values attained were higher for the samples subtracted along the sonotrode movement direction compared to those obtained from the normal to sonotrode movement direction. The elongation was obtained as high as 46% for seven bi-layered samples at high-temperature ranges of 200–300 °C. Hydraulic bulge test results showed that elongation improved as the number of bi-layers increased, yet the ultimate strength values did not change significantly indicating an expansion of the formability window.