Integrated surface acoustic wave and microstructure informatics techniques for rapid identification and quantification of microtextured regions in met

ABSTRACT: Microstructure heterogeneities occur commonly in metallic aerospace materials. These are sometimes desired and exploited in tailoring location specific properties (e.g., turbine disks with gradient microstructures). In other instances, they might be undesirable because they lead to detrimental effects on properties (e.g., Macrozones in turbine titanium disks). In either situation, a rapid identification and quantification of location specific morphology and crystallography of various phases is necessary for reliably predicting properties and quality control of parts. MRL is proposing to combine spatially resolved acoustic spectroscopy (SRAS) with microstructure informatics techniques to measure and analyze components made of metallic aerospace materials such as alpha/beta titanium alloys and Ni-based superalloys. Combining SRAS and Microstructure informations will enable non-contact measurements and rapid quantification of both morphology and crystallography of metallic surfaces. To assure the integration of the proposed technique into current design and quality control tools, comparisons with current measurements techniques will be carried out (e.g., Electron Backscatter diffraction). Furthermore, protocols for correlating with current common ASTM and ISO standards for grain size and texture quantification will be established for Ti and Ni-based superalloys. BENEFIT: Reduce the cost of microstructure characterization via fast and efficient integration of microstructure analytics and material characterization of large samples.