Texture inhomogeneity in a Ti-Nb-based β-titanium alloy after warm rolling and recrystallization

The crystallographic microtexture and microstructure of a β-titanium alloy (Ti-35 wt.% Nb-7 wt.% Zr-5 wt.% Ta) is studied after warm rolling and recrystallization. The main observations are the evolution of partially recrystallized microstructures during warm rolling and the formation of strong through-thickness texture and microstructure gradients at larger strains. Both, the recrystallized volume fraction and the texture depend on the thickness reduction. At small reductions (≤50%) texture gradients are also small showing some αbcc-fiber (crystallographic axis 〈1 1 0〉 parallel to the rolling direction) and γ-fiber (crystallographic axis 〈1 1 1〉 parallel to the normal direction) texture components. At larger strains (70-90%) the texture and microstructure gradients are characterized by shear texture components and dynamic recrystallization particularly close to the surface layers and plane strain texture components which are typical of recovered grains in the center layer.