The influence of plastic deformation on polytypic phase transformations in TiCr2 Laves phases

The kinetics of the polymorphic C36 ⇄ C14 Laves phase transformation of TiCr2 close to the equilibrium transformation temperature of about 1550 K was investigated by differential thermal analysis. Plastic deformation-induced by compression has a considerable affect on the transformation kinetics. This is ascribed to the presence of synchro(-Shockley partial) dislocations introduced during compression. The transformation kinetics are shown to vary with the degree of plastic deformation, i.e. with the dislocation density as characterised by the extent of (X-ray) diffraction line broadening.