Titanium Aluminide - Thermal Diffusivity, Heat Capacitance, and...

Titanium aluminide (TiAl) is an intermetallic compound that has received a lot of attention as a potential candidate for the aerospace and automotive industries. While grinding is typically used as a finish machining operation, it is a high-energy process that can cause detrimental effects, such as subsurface damage. Since TiAl is brittle at temperatures that are typical of machining, research has addressed this subsurface damage, but has not accounted for the variation in material properties as the material experiences large temperature gradients. This paper presents the evaluation of several of TiAl's thermophysical material properties as a function of temperature, namely thermal diffusivity (alpha), coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), heat capacitance (Cp), and thermal conductivity (k). These properties will enable the further development of damage models for surface grinding of TiAl. Authors: Wesley L. Stone, Thomas R. Kurfess, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.