Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction Dataset - Measuring Bulk Crystallographic Texture from Differently-Orientated Ti-6Al-4V Samples

A dataset of raw synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD) images, recording crystallographic texture from two different pre-processed Ti-6Al-4V (Ti-64) materials, analysing six differently orientated samples from each material. The aim of the work was to provide a large dataset for testing and improving crystallographic texture refinement software from SXRD patterns.

Prior to the experiment, the Ti-64 materials had been pre-rolled and then air-cooled to develop the microstructure, rolling to 50% and 87.5% reduction at 915ºC using a rolling mill at The University of Manchester. Rectangular samples (2 mm thick) were then machined from these rolled blocks. The samples were cut along different directions, three samples along different orthogonal rolling directions, and three at different angles to the rolling directions. The samples are referenced according to alignment of the rolling directions (RD – rolling direction, TD – transverse direction, ND – normal direction) with the long horizontal (X) axis and short vertical (Y) axis of the rectangular specimens. 

Data was recorded using a high energy 99.8 keV synchrotron X-ray beam and a 5 second exposure at the detector. The slits were adjusted to give a 0.5 x 0.5 mm beam area, chosen to optimally resolve both the α (hexagonal close packed, hcp) and β (body-centred cubic, bcc) phase peaks. The SXRD data was recorded across each of the specimens by stage-scanning the beam in sequential X-Y positions at 0.5 mm increments, forming a rectangular grid of measurement points across each sample. A powder Ti-64 sample was also measured as a random texture standard.

As well as the main experiment, 3 samples (sample 1, 2 and 3) were held together in different orders (1, 2, 3 ; 2, 1, 3 ; 2, 3, 1) and analysed through-thickness, to measure how beam attenuation might affect the bulk texture measurement. In addition, different detector exposure times (1 to 0.04 seconds) were also tested to analyse the impact of exposure time on overall intensity, to see how well the α and β peaks could be resolved from background noise at very fast acquisition frequencies.

The raw data is in the form of synchrotron diffraction pattern images which has been separated according to experiment type. An accompanying YAML text file contains associated beamline metadata for each measurement. Further details of the experimental setup can be found in a pdf document.

The material data folder contains further details about the material and sample orientations, including an electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) map that can be used to verify the crystallographic texture.