Shock response of a gamma titanium aluminide

Potential use of -TiAl alloys in aerospace and other structural applications require knowledge of their impact behavior for better evaluation and modeling. In the present study plate impact experiments are conducted using a single-stage gas gun to better understand the shock behavior of the recently developed class of gamma titanium aluminide alloys—the Gamma-Met PX. The Gamma-Met PX showed superior shock properties when compared to the conventional titanium aluminide alloys. The spall strength of Gamma-Met PX is 1.8 0.09 GPa, which is four to six times higher than those reported for other gamma titanium aluminide alloys. Moreover, it has a Hugoniot elastic limit of 1.88 GPa at a target thickness of 3.86 mm, which drops to 1.15 GPa at target thickness of 15.8 mm. The decay in the elastic precursor is continuous without showing an asymptote to a constant level within the range of target thicknesses studied. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.3000465