Abstract
Presence of inclusions in Ti castings imparts detrimental effects on the mechanical performance of castings. However, actual inclusions do not occur very frequently and they are difficult to locate. As a result, acquirement of specimens for mechanical tests and thus in-depth research of the adverse influence of inclusions are challenging. To address this problem, artificial inclusion seeding methodology is developed to emulate actual inclusions in Ti investment castings. Firstly, to validate that this new methodology does not result in inherent mechanical property degradation, Ti specimens with machined, backfilled and HIPed holes are produced and compared to control (unaltered), cast Ti material. Fatigue test results indicate that this 'machine-and-HIP methodology without seeding' does not result in any fundamental mechanical property alteration, which would bias ensuing comparative results. Secondly, based on this result, validation of the artificially seeded inclusions being equivalent to 'as cast' inclusions is performed by comparing their fatigue behaviors. Test specimens created by the novel artificial inclusion seeding methodology are equivalent to Ti casting specimens containing actual cast-in inclusions, and an adverse effect of inclusions in investment castings is confirmed.