Effect of Alloying Elements in Hot-Rolled Metastable β-Titanium Alloys: Part I. Evolution of Microstructure and Texture

Abstract

The present work describes the evolution of microstructures and textures in alloys Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr (A1), Ti-5Al-3.5Mo-7.2V-3Cr (A2), Ti-5Al-5Mo-8.6V-1.5Cr (A3), and Ti-5Al-3.5Mo-5V-3.94Cr (A4) during unidirectional hot rolling. The hot-rolled microstructures of the alloy A1 exhibit large fraction of recovered/recrystallized grains, while the alloy A3 shows small fraction of recovered/recrystallized grains. The alloy A2 displays subgrains and recrystallized grains, while the alloy A4 exhibits the microstructure consisting of the features of both the alloys A1 and A2. The alloys A1, A3, and A4 show the presence of shear bands within the β grains and also small volume fraction of the α phase. The dominance of deformation and/or recrystallization components in respective α and γ fibers varies with alloy compositions and hot rolling reductions. In alloys A1 and A2, deformation components dominate from 30 to 50 pct rolling reductions, while recrystallization components govern in 70 pct rolled samples. The deformation components prevail from 30 to 70 pct rolling reductions in alloy A3. The alloy A4 exhibits softening of texture due to recovery or early stage of recrystallization from 30 to 50 pct reductions, while texture present in 70 pct rolled sample consists of mainly the deformation components. The role of molybdenum appears to be quite critical in the evolution of microstructures and textures of these alloys. The alloys with low and high Mo contents display high and low amount of the α phase, respectively.