GOALI: Scalable Single-Step Manufacturing of High-Performance Titanium Sheet Metal Alloys by Shear-Based Deformation Processing

This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award supports research leading to new knowledge related to the manufacturing of metals, that will advance the science base of manufacturing and provide competitive technological benefits for the national economy. The process is directed at the formation of specialty metal sheet and foil that is needed in applications within the aerospace, energy systems, ground transportation and biomedical sectors.

Currently, the majority of metal sheet is produced by rolling processes which, despite having attractive benefits, also have important limitations pertaining to control of properties, cost, infrastructure and energy. The shear-based deformation processing approach utilizes variants of machining-based processes to create metal sheet and foil in a single step from bulk ingot, while employing a compact manufacturing systems infrastructure.

The metal sheet will have superior mechanical properties, because of unique process capability to control deformation parameters. Furthermore, the machining-based processing offers important economic benefits compared to current sheet-production technology in terms of cost and energy usage. The process will be particularly suited for production of sheet from specialty alloys like titanium, magnesium and aluminum, which are of interest for high-performance and/or lightweighting applications in critical industry and defense sectors.

This interdisciplinary research requires participation of manufacturing, materials engineering and systems science. The multi-disciplinary approach will also contribute to broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in research, and positively impact engineering education.

To establish the capability of the machining-based processing for commercial sheet production, the university-industry team is addressing three closely related technical objectives using titanium alloys as a model material system. Firstly, process deformation fields will be analyzed using in situ high-speed imaging, complemented by force/energy analysis.

Secondly, sheet metal properties will be characterized through quantitative microstructure and crystallographic texture analyses; and strength and formability measurements. New shear-based textures, combined with fine-grained microstructures, are of particular interest. Correlations will be established between deformation fields, microstructure and properties in the form of a process map.

Thirdly, building on the process mapping, process scaling and systems analysis (quality, cost, energy, equipment design) will be used to produce sheet with enhanced mechanical properties and commercial quality. The envisaged outcome is new process capability for producing commercial titanium alloy sheet at less than 1/10 the cost of current state-of-the-art processing, with future extension to other advanced material systems.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.