On mechanism of flow softening in Ti–5Al–5Mo–5V–3Cr

Abstract

The flow behaviour of Ti–5Al–5Mo–5V–3Cr with an initial microstructure containing acicular α platelets has been characterised during isothermal subtransus forging. Flow softening was observed, following yielding and limited hardening, for all investigated temperatures and strain rates, before a steady state flow regime being reached at a strain of ∼0·5. The acicular α plates were found to have been fragmented by the forging process, which is concurrent with previous findings. The flow behaviour of the fully retained β phase below the β transus temperature has been established and found to be similar to that of the steady state flow of platelet α in a β matrix. Forging the acicular α microstructure to low strains resulted in higher dislocation concentrations in the β matrix than could be observed in the α precipitates, supporting the hypothesis of hardening through dislocation impedance. Evidence of fragmentation via a pinch-off mechanism was found where slip was observed to have been transmitted across an α plate. Thus following yield the flow behaviour is dominated by the pile-up of dislocations at the α/β interface before the transmission of slip leads to plate fragmentation resulting in flow softening to a steady state regime governed entirely by the β matrix.