Flow behavior and microstructure evolution of TB8 alloy during hot deformation process

Hot compression tests of metastable β titanium alloy TB8 were carried out using a Gleeble-1500 thermal simulation testing machine in the temperature range of 750–1 100 °C, at constant strain rate from 0.01 s−1 to 1 s−1 and with height direction reduction of 60%. Flow stress behavior and microstructure evolution during hot compression of TB8 alloy were investigated. The hyperbolic-sine-type constitutive model of TB8 alloy was obtained to provide basic data for determining reasonable forming process. The results indicate that hot deformation behavior of TB8 alloy is highly sensitive to the temperature and strain rate. An analysis of the flow stress dependence on strain rate and temperature gives a stress exponent of n≈3.416 19 and a deformation activation energy of Q≈227.074 4 kJ/mol. According to the deformation microstructure, no dynamic recrystallization happens below β-phase transus temperature and as a result dynamic recovery is the predominant softening mechanism. On the other hand, the main softening mechanism is characterized as dynamic recrystallization at a slow strain rate above β-phase transus temperature.