EBSD data file from Representative microstructures for two-dimensional computational studies of ultrasonic wave propagation in titanium alloys

Macrozones in Ti–6Al–4V are a likely cause of reduced fatigue lives of aero-engine components. Whilst past research has demonstrated great potential for ultrasonic testing to characterize macrozones via attenuation, backscatter and velocity, the fundamental physical understanding of the ultrasound-material interactions is hindered by the complexity of the microstructures and the difficulties to manufacture and fully characterize samples with varying degrees of macrozones. In this study, we present important developments towards generating realistic synthetic macrozone models in finite element (FE) simulations which incorporate the complete hierarchical microstructures as revealed by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) scans. This involves first the extraction of grain statistics from a two-dimensional (2D) EBSD micrograph, based on which representative hierarchical microstructures of both morphologies and crystallographic texture are then synthesized in 2D. The synthetic models are calibrated against the original statistics and validated using FE wave propagation models to study the wave behaviours, where potential causes of loss of fidelity are analysed and discussed. Our hope is that with continued development and expansion to 3D, this synthetic EBSD approach, where every detail of the representative microstructures is accessible, will lay the foundation for systematic investigation of the complex wave-macrozone interactions and better detection and characterization of macrozones.