Electron Beam Welding Application on Titanium Alloy Bulkhead Frame

Abstract

The titanium alloy bulkhead frame is one kind of the important components in the aircraft structure. It could be fabricated by using the new method of electron beam welding(EBW) for parts assembly. An introduction is taken on the disadvantages of mechanical joints and submerged arc welding for titanium bulkhead frame parts assembly, and the advantage of EBW is distinct compared to the other two methods above. The building block approach is adopted in the research of series tests. Firstly, based on the welding specimen tension tests, the heat treat procedure of TC4-DT after welding is obtained according to specific parameter comparison. Secondly, the data base is built by doing series of experiments of standard specimen in tension, also for fracture toughness and crack growth rate. Finally, the EBW of TC4-DT titanium alloy bulkhead frame is successfully applied on the specific aircraft after doing short beam experiments and component experiments. Results show that good mechanical properties of the welding joints is verified, and the weight reduction is distinct compared to the mechanical joints.

Keywords

• bulkhead frame
• tc4-dt titanium alloy
• electron beam welding
• mechanical properties
• test