Morphology characteristics of α precipitates related to the crystal defects and the strain accommodation of variant selection in a metastableβtitanium alloy

Profound and comprehensive investigations on the morphology characteristics ofαprecipitates are essential for the microstructural control of metastableβtitanium alloys.At the very beginning of aging treatment,intragranularαprecipitates with a dot-like morphology begin to generate nearby the dislocations,then those dot-likeαprecipitates with the same crystallographic orientation tend to connect with each other to develop a lath-like morphology.With the progress of aging treatment,the orientated lath-likeαprecipitates gradually combine with each other to form the V-shaped clusters or the triangular ones.The dislocations of{110}_(β)<111>βedge type are evidenced within theβgrains,and it is found that variant selection ofαprecipitates induced by the transformation strain and the interplay betweenαvariants and the dislocations are confirmed as the key factors for the formation of the V-shaped or triangular clusters.The results of this work could provide underlying knowledge on the morphology characteristics of intraguranularαprecipitates related to the crystal defects and the strain accommodation ofαvariants in metastableβtitanium alloys.