A Study of Welded Built-Up Beams Made from Titanium and A
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A STUDY OF WELDED BUILT-UP BEAMS MADE FROM TITANIUM AND A TITANIUM ALLOY A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science Narendra Babu Poondla May, 2010 A STUDY OF WELDED BUILT-UP BEAMS MADE FROM TITANIUM AND A TITANIUM ALLOY Narendra Babu Poondla Thesis Approved: Accepted: ____________________________ ___________________________ Advisor Department Chair Dr. Anil Patnaik Dr. Wieslaw K. Binienda ____________________________ ____________________________ Co-Advisor Dean of the College Dr. T.S. Srivatsan Dr. George K. Haritos ____________________________ ____________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Craig Menzemer Dr. George R. Newkome ____________________________ Date ii ABSTRACT Titanium is well recognized as a modern and high performance metal that is much stronger and lighter than the most widely used steels in the industry. There is a growing need to reduce the part weight, cost and lead time, while concurrently facilitating enhanced performance of structural parts made from titanium and titanium alloys. Structural components made from titanium have the advantage of high strength-to-weight ratio, and high stiffness-to-weight ratio. Owing to good resistance to corrosion and superior ballistic properties, titanium is used in several defense applications. This thesis presents a summary of the research conducted on welded built-up titanium beams so as to eventually facilitate the design, fabrication, and implementation of titanium in large structural members. An alternative to machining a structural component from thick plates or billets is to fabricate beams using the built-up concept. Rolled plates and sheets of titanium alloys can be cut to size and welded together to fabricate a built-up structural component. The primary objective of this project is to investigate structural performance of built-up welded beams fabricated from commercially pure (Grade 2) titanium and a common alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) under both static and fatigue loading conditions. Six welded built-up titanium beams were fabricated and tested to experimentally and theoretically evaluate iii structural performance. Analysis and design approaches for static and fatigue performance of built-up beams were also studied and it is clearly demonstrated that it is feasible to fabricate large built-up titanium beams by welding parts together using GMAW-P welding process. The welds produced by this method were found to be sound and without any visible cracks. The study also revealed that there is no deleterious influence of welding on structural performance of the built-up welded beams of commercially pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy. With suitable modifications to the current AISC steel design specifications a preliminary design methodology was developed for the titanium beams. The failure loads, deflections and strains of welded built-up titanium beams are predictable to a reasonably good level of accuracy. The test beams also demonstrated significant reserve strength and ductility following yielding. The deflection curves and the load versus strain relationships obtained from the test results demonstrate a reasonably close match between the theoretical predictions and experimental test results up until the elastic limit of the material. The fatigue tests conducted for this research revealed that the welded built-up beams made from the commercially pure titanium have better life than those made from the Ti-6Al-4V. However additional work is required to develop further insight into the fatigue behavior of welded built-up titanium beams. Finally the proposed welded built-up beam approach is anticipated to be a cost effective alternative to fabricating large structural elements and members by machining of the parts from thick plates or billets. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am heartily thankful to my advisor, Dr. Anil Patnaik, whose encouragement and guidance has helped me to accomplish an in depth understanding in every step of my research. He has been a constant source of great inspiration for me to do my research in the field of Welded built-up titanium beams. I am also very thankful to my committee members, Dr. T.S Srivatsan and Dr. Craig Menzemer for their invaluable suggestions and corrections and also for being on my committee. Also, I would like to thank my family and friends for their continued love and support. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................1 1.2 Research Motivation and Significance ......................................................................3 1.3 Concept of Built-Up Welded Beams .........................................................................4 1.4 GMAW-P: A New Welding Technology Developed at Picatinny Arsenal (NJ).......5 1.5 Objectives ..................................................................................................................6 1.6 Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................7 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................9 2.1 Titanium Alloys .......................................................................................................12 2.2 Structural Applications of Titanium and Its Alloys .................................................18 2.3 Titanium Applications for Architectural and Other Engineering Structures ...........23 2.4 Summary of Commercial Available Titanium and its Alloys .................................26 vi III. PROCUREMENT AND TESTING OF MATERIALS ..............................................28 3.1 Commercially Pure Titanium ...................................................................................28 3.2 Ti-6Al-4V .................................................................................................................30 3.3 Experimental Procedures..........................................................................................31 3.4 Results and Discussion .............................................................................................34 3.5 Hardness Tests..........................................................................................................38 3.6 Concluding Comments .............................................................................................43 3.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................45 IV. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF BEAMS USING THE MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF Ti ALLOYS………………………………………………………………………...46 4.1 Design Specifications...............................................................................................46 4.2 Review of Steel Design Specifications for Potential Application in the Design of Titanium Built-Up Beams………………………………………………………….49 4.3 Discussion ................................................................................................................74 V. DESIGN OF TEST BEAMS USING COMMERCIALLY PURE TITANIUM AND Ti ALLOYS……………………………………………………………………………..76 5.1 The Design Basis .....................................................................................................77 5.2 Material Properties ...................................................................................................77 5.3 Section Properties ....................................................................................................78 5.4 Design Procedure .....................................................................................................81 5.5 Summary ..................................................................................................................84 VI FABRICATION OF TEST BEAMS ............................................................................85 6.1 Preparation of Parts for the Test Beams ..................................................................86 6.2 Machining of Parts for the Test Beams....................................................................87 6.3 Fixture for Welding the Test Beams ........................................................................89 vii 6.4 Welding of Test Beams ............................................................................................90 6.5 Test Beams ...............................................................................................................94 6.6 Summary ..................................................................................................................95 VII STATIC BEND TESTS OF TITANIUM ALLOY BEAMS ......................................96 7.1 Test Set-Up ..............................................................................................................96 7.2 Instrumentation ........................................................................................................99 7.3 Test procedure ........................................................................................................102