Mechanical behavior and hardening characteristics of a superplastic Ti-6AI-4V alloy

Abstract

The deformation behavior of a superplastic Ti-6A1-4V alloy at 927°C has been characterized by means of constant strain-rate tensile tests up to large plastic strain. Significant hardening has been recorded in the course of deformation. Microstructural studies on deformed samples indicate the occurrence of simultaneous strain-rate induced grain growth, which explains nearly all of the hardening. A small amount of hardening may also be expected from grain elongation or grain clustering effects. As a result of concurrent grain growth, the strain-rate sensitivity is found to decrease with strain, thus indicating that stress-strain rate behavior determined initially may not be applicable after large amounts of plastic strain. The stressJstrain-rate data obtained from step strain-rate test for a variety of grain sizes, together with the grain growth kinetics plots, provide a means for developing a constitutive description for this material at large strains.