Nano-scaled creep response of TiAlV low density medium entropy alloy at elevated temperatures

A low density, medium entropy alloy (LD-MEA) Ti₃₃Al₃₃V₃₄ (4.44 g/cm³) was successfully developed. The microstructure was found to be composed of a disordered body-centered-cubic (BCC) matrix and minor ordered B2 precipitates based on transmission electron microscopy characterization. Equilibrium and non-equilibrium modeling, simulated using the Calphad approach, were applied to predict the phase constituent. Creep behavior of (110) grains at elevated temperatures was investigated by nanoindentation and the results were compared with Cantor alloy and Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Dislocation creep was found to be the dominant mechanism. The decreasing trend of hardness in (110) grains of BCC TiAlV is different from that in (111) grains of face-centered-cubic (FCC) Cantor alloy due to the different temperature-dependence of Peierls stress in these two lattice structures. The activation energy value of (110) grains was lower than that of (111) grains in FCC Cantor alloy because of the denser atomic stacking in FCC alloys. Compared with conventional Ti-6Al-4V alloy, TiAlV possesses considerably higher hardness and specific strength (63% higher), 83% lower creep displacement at room temperature, and 50% lower creep strain rate over the temperature range from 500 to 600 °C under the similar 1150 MPa stress, indicating a promising substitution for Ti-6Al-4V alloy as structural materials.