Quasi-static tensile behavior of large-diameter thin-walled Ti–6Al–4V tubes at elevated temperature

As promising light-weight and high-performance structure components, large-diameter thin-walled (LDTW) Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy (TC4) bent tubes are needed most urgently in many industries such as aviation and aerospace. Warm bending may be a feasible way for manufacturing these components. Understanding their temperature and strain rate dependent tensile behavior is the foundation for formability improvement and warm bending design. In this paper, uniaxial tensile tests were conducted at elevated temperatures ranging from 298 K to 873 K at tensile velocities of 2, 10, 15 mm/min. The main results show that the tensile behavior of LDTW TC4 tubes is different from that of TC4 sheets. The typical elongation of TC4 tubes at room temperature is 10% lower than that of TC4 sheets. The flow stress of TC4 tubes decreases greatly by about 50% with the temperature rising to 873 K. At temperatures of 573–673 K, the hardening exponent is at its highest value, which means the deformation mechanism changes from twining to more dislocation movement by slipping. The fracture elongation of TC4 tubes fluctuates with increasing temperature, which is associated with changes in the deformation mechanism and with the blue brittleness. The fractography of TC4 tubes at various temperatures, especially at 673 K, shows that second phases and impurities significantly influence fracture elongation. By considering the characteristics of the tensile behavior and by properly choosing the die material, the warm bending for TC4 tubes can be achieved at temperatures of 723–823 K.