Microstructure characterization and mechanical properties of TC4-DT titanium alloy after thermomechanical treatment

Influence of thermomechanical treatments (mill annealing, duplex annealing, solution treatment plus aging and triple annealing) on microstructures and mechanical properties of TC4-DT titanium alloy was investigated. Results showed that thermomechanical treatments had a significant influence on the microstructure parameters and higher annealing and aging temperature and lower cooling rate led to the decrease of the volume fraction of primary α and the size of prior-β and the increase of the width of grain boundary α and secondary α. The highest strength was obtained by solution treatment and aging due to a large amount of transformed β and finer grain boundary α and secondary α at the expense of slight decrease of elongation and the ultimate strength, yield strength, elongation, reduction of area were 1100 MPa, 1030 MPa, 13% and 53% separately. A good combination of strength and ductility has been obtained by duplex annealing with the above values 940 MPa, 887.5 MPa, 15% and 51% respectively. Analysis between microstructure parameters and tensile properties showed that with the volume fraction of transformed β phase and the prior-β grain size increasing, the ultimate strength, yield strength and reduction of area increased, but the elongation decreased. While the width of grain boundary α and secondary α showed a contrary effect on the tensile properties. Elimination of grain boundary α as well as small prior-β grain size can also improve ductility.