Determination of the mechanism of restoration in subtransus hot deformation of Ti-6Al-4V

Titanium alloys are attractive for structural applications in the aerospace industry due to their high specific strength in comparison with other engineering materials. These properties are strongly related to the microstructure obtained during thermo-mechanical processes. The influence of the processing parameters on the microstructure is investigated to determine criteria for the control of the forming processes. Pre-forged specimens of alpha-beta Ti-6Al-4V alloy with elongated primary alpha grains are deformed below the beta transus temperature between 0.1 and 10/s of strain rate. Compression is carried out parallel and perpendicular to the preferential orientations of the primary alpha grains. The local strain within the compressed samples is determined by finite element methods and correlated to the microstructure observed there. The alpha content is affected by the temperature of deformation and the morphology of the alpha grains is influenced by the strain and strain rate. Specimens with previous primary alpha grains parallel to the compression axis show a rotation of the alpha grains which were oriented almost perpendicular to the load axis. EBSD measurements are used to determine the restoration mechanism involved during hot deformation. Continuous dynamic recrystallization in the alpha grains is revealed by increasing the cumulative crystallographic misorientation towards the grain boundary and the formation of new grains. This misorientation increases with increasing values of the Zener Hollomon parameter (Z). For lower values of Z restoration occurs mainly in the beta phase.