Ultrasonic wave propagation behavior regulation and attenuation mechanism decoupling in Ti6Al4V ELI alloy

Ti6Al4V extra-low interstitial (ELI) alloy is widely used in ultrasonic medical devices but is typically limited to single-application waveguides due to its low ultrasonic attenuation coefficient. This limitation stems from the complex, coupled influence of microstructural features on attenuation, hindering the controlled tuning of wave propagation. Through combined microstructural analysis and molecular dynamics simulations, this study decouples the effects of crystallographic orientation and dislocation dynamics. The results reveal that proliferation of prismatic -type dislocations dominates ultrasonic attenuation, while crystallographic orientation primarily facilitates alignment between prismatic planes and the propagation direction. Using a tailored drawing process, we introduced a strong (0 0 0 1) [1 0 -1 0] texture and prismatic -type dislocations, achieving over 300% increase in attenuation coefficient. These findings provide new design principles for developing tunable Ti6Al4V ELI waveguides for advanced medical ultrasonic applications.