Effects of extrusion and heat treatment on the microstructure and tensile properties of in situ TiBw/Ti6Al4V composite with a network architecture

In situ TiB whisker reinforced Ti6Al4V (TiBw/Ti64) composites with a network architecture were extruded and heat treated in order to further improve their mechanical properties. The microstructure results show that the equiaxed network architecture was extruded to column network architecture and TiB whisker to alignment distribution. The transformed β phase is formed and the residual stress generated during extrusion obviously decreases after water quenching and aging processes. The tensile test results show that the strength, elastic modulus and ductility of the composites can be significantly improved by the subsequent extrusion, and then, the strength can be further improved by water quenching and aging processes after hot extrusion deformation. The elastic modulus of the as-sintered composites with a novel network microstructure follows the upper bound of Hashin–Shtrikman (H–S) theory before extrusion, while that of the as-extruded composites with a column network microstructure agrees well with the prediction from Halpin–Tsai equation.