Microstructure and mechanical properties of TC21 titanium alloy by near-isothermal forging

Microstructure and tensile properties of TC21 titanium alloy after near-isothermal forging with different parameters plus solution treatment and aging were investigated. It is found that the residual β matrix, which was strengthened by fine secondary α platelets forming during aging, exists in all the samples; while primary equiaxed α phase, bent lamellar α phase and α plates are simultaneously or individually present in one sample. The strength of alloy increases proportionally with increasing the content of residual β matrix, which is the result of increasing α/β interphase boundary. The plasticity of alloy has a downward trend as the content of residual β matrix increases. This attributes to the increase of fine secondary α platelets, which are cut by dislocations during the deformation. Additionally, coarse α plates with long axis parallel to the maximum resolved shear stress（MRSS） also reduce the plasticity of TC21 alloy.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of TC21 titanium alloy after heat treatment

Microstructure evolutions during different heat treatments and influence of microstmcture on mechanical properties of TC21 titanium alloy were investigated. The results indicate that the excellent mechanical properties can be obtained by adopting air cooling after forging followed by heat treatment of （900℃, 1 h, AC）＋（590 ℃, 4 h, AC）. Deformation in single β field produces pan-like prior fl grains, while annealing in single fl field produces equiaxed prior fl grains. Cooling rate after forging or annealing in single fl field and the subsequent annealing on the top of α＋β field determine the content and morphology of coarse a plates. During aging or the third annealing, fine secondary a plates precipitate. Both ultimate strength and yield strength decrease with the content increase of coarse a plates. Decreasing effective slip length and high crack propagation resistance increase the plasticity. The crisscross coarse a plates with large thickness are helpful to enhance the fracture toughness.

Microstructures and interfacial quality of diffusion bonded TC21 titanium alloy joints

Diffusion bonding of TC21 titanium alloy was carried out at temperature ranging from 780 ℃ to 980 ℃ for 5-90 min.The interfacial bonding ratio,deformation ratio,microstructures and microhardness of the diffusion bonded joints were investigated.Results show that joints with high bonding quality can be obtained when bonded at 880 ℃ for 15？30 min.The microhardness increases with increasing the bonding temperature,while it has a peak value（HV367） when bonding time is prolonged up to 90 min.Fully equiaxed microstructures,bi-modal microstructures and fully lamellar microstructures were observed when bonded in temperature range of 780-880 ℃,at 930 ℃ or 980 ℃,respectively.The volume fraction of α phase first increases and achieves the maximum when bonded at 880 ℃ for 60 min,and then descended.

Hydrogen absorption characteristics and microstructural evolution of TC21 titanium alloy

The hydrogen absorption characteristics and microstructural evolution of TC21 titanium alloy were investigated by kinetic model analysis, optical microscopy （OM） and X-ray diffraction （XRD）. The results show that the hydrogen absorption reaction occurred during the hydrogen absorption process of TC21 titanium alloy can be divided into two different stages according to the hydrogen absorption kinetics. After hydrogenation, the microstructure of TC21 titanium alloy changes obviously. Just a little hydrogen will change the contrast of transformedβphase. The contrast ofα phase darkens when the hydrogen content in TC21 titanium alloy exceeds 0.5% （mass fraction）. The phase/grain boundaries become ambiguous or even vanished, andβ phase becomes the main phase instead ofα phase when the hydrogen content reaches 0.625%. Moreover,α phase disappears when the hydrogen content reaches 1.065%. Additionally, the XRD analysis shows that α＇ martensite and FCCδ hydride appear in the hydrogenated alloy. According to the microstructures and XRD analysis, the schematic diagrams of hydrogen diffusion process in TC21 titanium alloy were established.

Static globularization and grain morphology evolution ofαandβphases during annealing of hot-rolled TC21 titanium alloy

A lamellar-structure TC21 titanium alloy was hot-rolled and subsequently annealed at 820,880 and 940℃ for 1 and 6 h,and the effects of annealing parameters on static globularization and morphology evolution of bothαandβphases were studied.The results show thatαglobularization process is sluggish due to the limited boundary splitting at 820℃.With increasing temperature to 880℃,the accelerated boundary splitting and termination migration promote theαglobularization.At 820 and 880℃,the static recovery(SRV)and recrystallization(SRX)induce the grain refinement of interlamellarβphase.However,the excessively high temperature of 940℃ results in the coarsening ofαgrains due to the assistance of Ostwald ripening,and produces coarseβgrains mainly due to the absence of SRX in interlamellarβphases.Conclusively,880℃ is an appropriate annealing temperature to produce a homogeneous microstructure in which globularizedαand refinedβgrains distribute homogeneously.

Effect of Initial Microstructure on Phase Precipitation and Mechanical Properties during Heat Treatment of TC21 Titanium Alloy

Phase precipitation and mechanical properties of TC21 titanium alloy with two different initial microstructures during heat treatment were determined. Result indicated that compared with coarse microstructure alloy, fine microstructure alloy developed finer microstructure, more unstable ω and α2 precipitates with much smaller size and lower volume fraction, and obtained better mechanical properties during heat treatment.

Effects of pretreatment and HVOF sprayed cermet coating on fatigue properties of TC21 titanium alloy

The effects of grit blasting (GB),shot peening (SP) pretreatment and high velocity oxygen fuel(HVOF) sprayed WC-17Co cermet coating on the fatigue properties of the novel ultra-high strength TC21 titanium alloy were investigated with a rotating bending fatigue test machine.The basic properties and surface integrity of the coating were investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD),surface roughness meter,microscopic hardness tester,scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray stress test instruments.The results showed that the residual compressive stress could be introduced into the surface of TC21 alloy by GB and SP pretreatment,and that HVOF sprayed WC-17Co coating was compactly bonded with TC21 alloy substrate and it significantly improved the surface hardness of the substrate.However,there was a certain residual tensile stress in the sublayer of the coating.SP could significantly increase fatigue resistance of TC21 alloy due to the surface residual compressive stress.There was no significant effect on fatigue resistance by GB treatment due to the offset between the influence of surface residual compressive stress and the surface notch effect.The fatigue resistance of TC21 alloy was significantly reduced by HVOF WC-17Co coating prepared with GB pretreatment.This could be attributed to the relaxation of surface residual compressive stress during the HVOF heating process,pore defects and residual tensile stress distribution in the WC-17Co coating with low toughness,and the surface notch induced by GB.The fatigue resistance of TC21 alloy was slightly reduced by HVOF WC-17Co coating prepared with SP pretreatment.This was attributed to the offset between the advantage effect by SP and disadvantageous effect of WC-17Co coating and high temperature factor during the HVOF process.

Effect of cold deformation and heat treatment on microstructure and mechanical properties of TC21 Ti alloy

In the present research work on TC21 titanium alloy(6.5 Al-3 Mo-1.9 Nb-2.2 Sn-2.2 Zr-1.5 Cr), the effects of cold deformation, solution treatment with different cooling rates and then aging on microstructure, hardness and wear property were investigated. A cold deformation at room temperature with 15% reduction in height was applied on annealed samples. The samples were solution-treated at 920 ℃ for 15 min followed by different cooling rates of water quenching(WQ), air cooling(AC) and furnace cooling(FC) to room temperature. Finally, the samples were aged at 590 ℃ for 4 h. Secondary α-platelets precipitated in residual β-phase in the case of solution-treated samples with AC condition and aged ones. The maximum hardness of HV 470 was obtained for WQ + aging condition due to the presence of high amount of residual β-matrix(69%), while the minimum hardness of HV 328 was reported for FC condition. Aging process after solution treatment can considerably enhance the wear property and this enhancement can reach up to about 122% by applying aging after WQ compared with the annealed samples.