Increase in elastic and hardness anisotropy of titanium with oxygen uptake due to high temperature oxidation: A multimodal framework using high speed nanoindentation mapping
Résumé
Titanium and its alloys combine an important mechanical anisotropy and a high capacity to dissolve oxygen. The detailed evolution of the elastic compliance of titanium as a function of its oxygen content is only partially known, despite its importance in structural applications. Here, high speed nanoindentation mapping (HSNM) was conducted on a grade 2 commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) to probe elastic and hardness anisotropy as well as property evolution as a function of the oxygen content within Ti using pre-oxidized specimens. The oxygen concentration investigated ranged from 600 ppm to 20% atomic. Pre-oxidation of the CP-Ti was performed at 700 °C for 100 h under air to create a gradient of oxygen content within the metal, denoted oxygen-rich layer (ORL). Local oxygen content was quantified using microprobe analyses (EPMA) and crystal orientation using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). Reduced modulus and hardness maps were obtained on the pre-oxidized sample within the ORL and far from the ORL using large but highly resolved nanoindentation technique in continuous stiffness measurement (CSM) mode. Data merging techniques were used on this multi-modal dataset to statistically link local mechanical properties to chemical and crystal orientation information. Oxygen insertion in the Ti lattice was found to significantly increase the hardness and elastic moduli of titanium and was correlated to orientation of the c-axis of the α-Ti as a function of the nanoindentation loading direction. Using the Vlassak and Nix theory, it was possible to identify the evolution of the Cij terms of the stiffness matrix as a function of the oxygen content up to 20% at. in O.