Grain refinement of wire arc additively manufactured titanium by the addition of silicon

This study demonstrates that silicon additions are effective in refining the microstructure of additive layer manufactured (ALM) titanium components. The addition of up to 0.75 wt% silicon to commercially pure titanium manufactured by wire arc ALM results in a significant reduction of the prior-β grain size. It is observed that silicon also reduces the width of the columnar grains and allows for the nucleation of some equiaxed grains through the development of constitutional supercooling and growth restriction. The grain size of the ALM components is compared to a casting process and it is found that the as-deposited microstructure produced during ALM exhibits larger average grain sizes. Using the Interdependence model for predicting grain size, it was determined that the population of nucleant particles that naturally occur in titanium, has comparable potency (i.e. ability to activate at a similar undercooling) regardless of the processing method, however, the ALM process contains fewer, sufficiently potent, nucleant particles than for the casting process due to the effect of subsequent cycles of remelting and heating. •Silicon addition decreases prior-β grain size in wire arc Additive Layer Manufactured (ALM) titanium.•Cast alloys have smaller grains compared to the same alloys produced by ALM.•Cyclical remelting during ALM destroys some equiaxed grains and favours epitaxial columnar growth.