Phase transformation kinetics in a coarse-grain Ti17 alloy determined by laser ultrasonics and dilatometry

Different methods are used to determine the phase transformation titanium alloys. While ex-situ methods require a large number of samples and accurate quantification of the phases, in-situ methods can provide the kinetics of transformation continuously and with less samples. However, the results are based on the changes of physical properties, and the interpretation of the results in terms of phase transformation are not direct. This study compares two in-situ methods to measure the kinetics of phase transformation for a Ti17 alloy, namely: laser ultrasonics for metallurgy (LUMet) and dilatometry. While LUMet is coupled to a Gleeble® 3500 thermo-mechanical simulator with ohmic resistance heating, the dilatometer device uses induction heating. We performed two types of experiments by heating the specimens above the β-transus temperature (∼ 865 °C) and 1) and then fast cooled below the β-transus temperature and held at different temperatures, or 2) continuously cooled at different rates. The β→α + β phase transformation is inferred by the evolution of the longitudinal wave speed with the LUMet method and by the change in the length of the specimen by dilatometry. We obtained the information about the isothermal phase transformation using the normalized changes in length for the dilatometric data and in longitudinal ultrasonic velocity. In the investigated isothermal temperature range (580 – 700 °C), the β →α + β transformation is completed within one hour of holding with the fastest transformation rates at 580 °C. For the continuous cooling treatments, the small change in length measured by dilatometry makes it impractical to use the lever rule to accurately determine the relative transformation fraction. However, we could successfully apply the lever rule to the LUMet data. Furthermore, the derivatives of the change in length and ultrasonic velocity are used to estimate the transformation temperatures as a function of the cooling rates. Further, the in-situ measurements are supplemented with ex-situ characterization of the microconstituents after heat treatments using scanning electron microscopy.