Microstructural morphology effects on fracture resistance and crack tip strain distribution in Ti-6Al-4V alloy for orthopedic implants

The effects of microstructural morphology on the fracture behavior of Ti-6Al-4V ELI (extra-low impurity) alloy in two different heat treatment conditions were examined. Alloy was solution treated above (beta ST) and below (alpha + beta ST) beta transus temperature followed by furnace cooling (FC) in order to obtain the fully lamellar and equiaxed microstructures. Tensile and fracture toughness tests were conducted. The crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) and strain distribution near the crack tip were measured on the compact tension (CT) specimen surface by digital stereometric method. The crack propagation resistance (CTOD-R) curves were developed by applying the modified normalization method and critical CTOD values were determined. To identify the microstructural length scale controlling the fracture resistance of this alloy, the crack propagation path and fracture surface morphology were evaluated. It was found that the reduction in the characteristic microstructural dimension of an order of magnitude and significant change in the alpha phase aspect ratio contribute to drastic increase in the tensile properties and decrease in the crack initiation and propagation resistance. The fully lamellar microstructure displays slightly better biocompatibility because of the lower elastic modulus and superior fracture resistance. The enhanced crack propagation resistance of this microstructure is associated with the larger propensity for crack tip tortuousity, due to the coarser microstructural dimensions (lamellar colony size vs. primary alpha grain size). The difference in the crack propagation modes affects the shape and size of the actual crack tip strain distribution. These results were discussed correlating the complex multiple fracture mechanisms with the stress state in two microstructures. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.