| dc.description.abstract | The properties of titanium alloys are based on alloy compositions and microstructures that consist of mixtures of the two allotropic modifications of titanium, the low temperature α (hcp) and the high temperature β (bcc) phases. This thesis deals with the hot working behaviour of three commercial titanium alloy compositions designated IMI834, Ti17 and Ti5553 with a focus and detailed analysis of the Ti5553 alloy. These alloys represent the differing uses of titanium alloys in the aerospace industry. IMI834 is a near α alloy used in high temperature creep resistant applications as compressor discs and blades in aeroengines. Ti17 is a high strength alloy α+β used at intermediate temperatures in fan and compressor discs of aeroengines, while Ti5553 is a high strength-high toughness metastable β alloy used in the undercarriages of aircraft. The three alloys have widely differing β transus temperatures (related to α phase stability) and compositions. Titanium alloys are vacuum arc melted and thermomechanically processed. This process involves ingot breakdown in β (bcc) phase, and subsequent thermomechanical processing in two-phase α+β (hcp+bcc) region at temperatures that typically involve volume fractions of α in lath or plate form ranging from 15% to about 30%. The thermomechanical processing breaks down lath α to spheroidal particles, a process known as globularisation. Chapter I of this thesis reviews the current understanding of the hot working of titanium alloys and microstructure evolution during the hot working process. Chapter II summarises the main experimental techniques used: the hot compression test, and subsequent microstructure and microtexture analysis by scanning electron microscopy and related electron back scattered diffraction techniques (EBSD), transmission electron microscopy and related precession electron diffraction techniques (PED) for orientation imaging.
The starting structure in the α+β domain of hot work is generally not a random distribution of the 12 variant Burgers Orientation Relationship (BOR) between the α and β phases, (11̅0)β || (0001)α and <111>β || <112̅0>α . A variety of morphologies and distributions ranging from the typical colony structures of near α and α+β alloys to the fine distributions of variants arranged in a triangular fashion are observed with specific growth directions and habit planes. Chapter III describes a quantitative evaluation of α distribution that are typical of some of the starting structures for the hot working conditions used in this thesis, specifically in the Ti5553 alloy. For this purpose, a Matlab based script has been developed to measure the spatially correlated misorientation distribution. It was found that experimental spatially correlated misorientation distribution varies significantly from a random frequency for both pair and triplet wise distribution of α laths. The analysis of these structures by established techniques of analysis of self-accommodated structures based on strain energy minimisation shows that the observed variant distribution arise from the residual strain energy accommodation of the semi-coherent α plates.
The hot working process has been examined through hot compression tests of the 3 alloys at strain rates ranging from 10-3 s-1 to 10 s-1 over a temperature range designed to maintain constant volume fractions of the α and β phases during deformation ranging from about 30% α to a fully β structure. Since extensive prior work has been carried on the processing of titanium alloys, Chapter IV focuses on a comparative study of hot deformation behaviour of the three alloys with an emphasis on isolating microstructural and other effects. The macroscopic flow behaviour has been analysed in terms of conventional rate equations relating stress, strain, strain rate and temperature. The three alloys show very similar features in their stress-strain behaviour. β phase deformation exhibits yield points whose magnitude varies with strain rate and temperature. The flow stress curves are typical of materials undergoing dynamic recovery and recrystallization processes. The stress-strain behaviour in the α+β domain of hot work exhibits significant flow softening in the early stages of deformation with a subsequent approach to steady-state behaviour at true strain of about 0.5. Activation energy analysis of the steady state condition suggests that the rate controlling mechanism is related to recovery in the β phase in both α+β and β processing. Zener-Hollomon plots of the flow stress in the three alloys indicate that their flow stress can be normalized to a temperature-compensated strain rate and they differ only in the slopes of the plots that are related to the stress exponent. Empirical constitutive models were developed for a predictive understanding of the flow stress as a function of strain, strain rate and temperature using conventional rate equations for the flow stress
Chapter V and VI examine the evolution of microstructure and microtexture in detail during hot deformation and subsequent heat treatment in Ti5553. A combination of EBSD (micron and submicron scale) and PED (nano meter scale) is used in orientation imaging to examine the globularisation process of the α phase and the recovery and recrystallization in the β phase in both supertransus and subtransus hot compression. The understanding of these processes is enhanced by tracking the same starting β grain through the deformation process. The effect of strain, strain rate and temperature on the evolution of subgrains in α and its fragmentation into spheroidal α is quantified. In the absence of shear bands, the globularisation process is seen to evolve from a strain driven Raleigh instability of the plate α, by subgrain formation in α and β phases. The related microtexture evolution is analysed. The analysis of recovery and microtexture evolution in the β phase described here has not been attempted earlier in the literature. The overall evolution of structure and texture is seen to result from the complex interplay between recovery and recrystallisation in the α and β phases in substranus deformation.
While the Burgers orientation relationship between α and β is lost in the early stages of deformation, it appears to be restored at large strains as a consequence of ‘epitaxial’ recrystallisation processes that seem to result from the discontinuous nucleation of recrystallization of either phase at interphase interfaces in the Burgers orientation. The effect of substranus deformation on β texture following supertransus post deformation heat treatment is also examined and compared with β textures resulting from alternative strain paths such as friction stir processing.
Finally Chapter VII summarises these results and the new insights into the evolution of structure and microtexture during hot deformation of titanium alloys and suggests directions for future work. | en_US |
