Effect of Powder Particle Size on Forming Titanium Alloy Shrouded Impeller

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2022.00533

Acta Metall Sin

2025, Vol. 61

Issue (2): 253-264 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2022.00533

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Effect of Powder Particle Size on Forming Titanium Alloy Shrouded Impeller

SHANG Xuewen¹^,², CUI Xiaoxiao², XU Lei², LU Zhengguan²(

)

1 School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang 110016, China
2 Shi -changxu Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

Cite this article:

SHANG Xuewen, CUI Xiaoxiao, XU Lei, LU Zhengguan. Effect of Powder Particle Size on Forming Titanium Alloy Shrouded Impeller. Acta Metall Sin, 2025, 61(2): 253-264.

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Abstract

A shrouded impeller is an essential component of a liquid rocket, mainly responsible for transporting and pressurizing liquid fuel or oxidant. Owing to the low temperature and high-rotation speed of the working environment, materials with high performance are required for fabricating the impeller. With its excellent low temperature mechanical properties and high specific strength, Ti-5Al-2.5Sn extra-low interstitial (ELI) alloy has been widely applied in fabricating liquid rocket components, including the shrouded impeller. Considering the geometric complexity of the impeller, the powder metallurgy-hot isostatic pressing (PM-HIP) route is a suitable method for impeller formation. PM-HIP technology has a similar forming capability as precision casting but avoids casting defects, realizing the parts with reliable service performance. However, the mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy of the impeller may be influenced by the variation of powder particle sizes. Herein, three kinds of Ti-5Al-2.5Sn ELI prealloyed powders with different particle size distributions (average particle size D₅₀ = 125, 94, and 73 μm) were prepared by adjusting the process parameters of gas atomization and screen meshes. Then, their corresponding shrouded impellers were manufactured via the PM-HIP route at 940 ^oC, 120 MPa for 3 h. Subsequently, the impellers were annealed at 815 ^oC for 1.5 h, followed by air cooling. The effect of powder particle sizes on the mechanical properties of shrouded impellers was analyzed using cryogenic-temperature tensile tests. The porosity defect of impeller slices was detected using industrial computed tomography. The microstructure of the impellers was characterized using SEM and TEM. Meanwhile, the mechanism of low temperature deformation was also discussed. All three impellers exhibited homogeneous microstructure with fine grains, and their mechanical properties were comparable to the level of wrought alloys; specifically, the tensile strength was about 1300 MPa, and the elongation was 20% at 77 K. In addition, many twins were found in the deformation zones, including the types of { $10 1 ¯ 2$ }, { $10 1 ¯ 1$ }, and { $11 2 ¯ 2$ }. PM-HIP impeller size was calculated using the finite element method in the modified Gurson model and compared with the size of the actual impeller. Dimensional shrinkage was consistent between the finite element simulation result and the actual part, and the deviation in the flow channel was < 0.3 mm.

Key words: shrouded impeller powder particle size Ti-5Al-2.5Sn ELI hot isostatic pressing finite element method

Received: 21 October 2022

ZTFLH:

TG146.23

Fund: National Science and Technology Major Project of China(J2019-VII-0005-0145);Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDA22010102)

Corresponding Authors: LU Zhengguan, Tel: (024)83978843, E-mail: zglu@imr.ac.cn

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2022.00533 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2025/V61/I2/253

Fig.1 Particle size distributions of three pre-alloyed powders (D₅₀—the particle diameter at 50% in the cumulative distribution)
(a) powder 1# (b) powder 2# (c) powder 3#

Table 1 Chemical compositions and impurity contents of three pre-alloyed powders

Fig.2 Assembly relationship of shrouded impeller toolings
(a) section view of drawings (b) tooling picture

Fig.3 Schematics of near-net-shape forming process of shrouded impeller (a-d) and sampling positions for mechanical property tests (e)

Forming method	Temperature	$σ U T S$ / MPa	$σ Y S$ / MPa	EL / %
PM-HIP	RT	885	0836	17.5
(powder 1#)		886	0834	18.5
	77 K	1290	1180	19.5
		1277	1188	20.0
	20 K	1553	1461	18.5
		1559	1430	20.0
		1278	1215	15.5
Wrought^[16]	RT	848	-	18.0
	77 K	1290	-	13.5
	20 K	1587	-	15.0
Cast^[17]	RT	741	0685	13.0
		744	0690	7.0
	20 K	1288	-	10.0
		1294	-	7.5

Table 2 Comparisons of mechanical properties of Ti-5Al-2.5Sn extra-low interstitial (ELI) alloys with different forming methods^[16,17]

Fig.4 Pores determinations of shrouded impellers formed by 1# (a1-c1), 2# (a2-c2), and 3# (a3-c3) powders, respectively
(a1-a3) X-ray inspection (b1-b3) CT detection (c1-c3) SEM images

Table 3 Oxygen contents sampled from three impellers

Fig.5 Tensile properties of impellers at 77 K (RA—reduction of area)
(a) different positions of the same impeller (2#) (b) comprehensive comparison of different impellers

Fig.6 Low (a) and high (b) magnified fracture SEM images of sampling from shrouded impeller at 77 K

Fig.7 Mechanical property distributions (a) and stress-strain curves (b) of the Ti-5Al-2.5Sn ELI alloy at different temperatures

Fig.8 Bright-field TEM image of Ti-5Al-2.5Sn ELI alloy (a) and electron diffraction pattern (b) at 77 K

Fig.9 Twin distributions in cryogenic deformed microstructures of Ti-5Al-2.5Sn ELI alloy at 77 K (a) and 20 K (b)

Fig.10 Finite element method (FEM) simulation of impeller sizes before (a) and after (b) shrinkage

Fig.11 Overall (a) and local (b) observations of shrouded impeller relative position relationships between simulation and actual measurement

Table 4 Comparisons of the measured and simulated dimensions of shrouded impellers at some positions in Fig.11a

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