Microstructure and mechanical properties of a new high-strength and high-toughness titanium alloy

In order to develop a new titanium alloy with a good combination of strength–ductility–toughness, a near-beta titanium alloy was designed based on the already widely used Ti-1023 alloy. To avoid beta fleck occurring in the microstructure, the new Ti–Al–Fe–V (Cr, Zr) alloy has been made through decreasing the content of Fe, based on molybdenum equivalency and Bo–Md molecular orbital method (a method for new alloy designing based on the molecular orbital calculating). After primary design computation, Ti–Al–Fe–V (Cr, Zr) alloy was optimized as Ti–3Al–4.5Cr–1Fe–4V–1Zr finally. The microstructure and tensile properties of this alloy subjected to several commonly used heat treatments were investigated. The results show that the tensile strength of the alloy after solution treated below the β-transus temperature comes between 850 and 1100 MPa, with elongation in the range of 12.5 %–17.0 %. In solution-treated and solution-aged samples, a low-temperature aging at 500 °C results in the precipitation of finer α phase. With the increase in aging temperature, the secondary α phase becomes coarser and decreases in amount. Thus, it will lead to the increase in tensile ductility, but reduction in strength. Eventually, after modulated aging treatment, the alloy can obtain high-strength level with acceptable ductility. The tensile strength of the alloy can achieve 1273 MPa, with an elongation of 11.0 %. At the same time, the fracture toughness (K _IC) of the alloy achieves 83.8 MPa·m^1/2. It is obvious that the newly designed alloy has achieved a good blend of strength–ductility–toughness.