The Strain-Hardening Behavior of TZAV-30 Alloy After Various Heat Treatments

The Ti-Zr-Al-V series titanium alloys with excellent mechanical properties and low density exhibit tremendous application potential as structural materials in aviation, automotive, and navigation industries. The strain-hardening behavior of Ti-30Zr-5Al-3V (wt.%, TZAV-30) alloy with various heat treatments is investigated in this study. Experimental results show that strain-hardening behavior of the examined alloy depends on the heat treatment process. The average strain-hardening exponent, n, is approximately 0.061 for WA specimen (825 °C/0.5 h/water quenching + 600 °C/4 h/air cooling), 0.068 for FC (850 °C/0.5 h/furnace cooling), 0.121 for AC (850 °C/0.5 h/air cooling), and 0.412 for WQ (850 °C/0.5 h/water quenching). Analysis of strain-hardening rate versus true strain curves indicates that higher n of AC specimen results from the lower degradation rate of strain-hardening rate with strain, and the ultrahigh n of WQ specimen is attributed to the evident increase in strain-hardening rate at the true strain from 0.04 to 0.06. Phase constitution and microstructural analyses reveal that the n of the examined alloy with α + β phases increases with the increase in the relative content of the retained β phase but is independent of average thickness of α plates. The increase in strain-hardening rate in WQ specimen depends on metastable α″ martensite and martensitic transition induced by tensile stress.