Microstructure study and constitutive modeling of Ti–6Al–4V alloy at elevated temperatures

• Isothermal uniaxial tensile testing of Ti–6Al–4V alloy from 323 K to 673 K.
• Microstructure study showing the α + β phases of Ti-alloy.
• Fractography using scanning electron microscope.
• Constitutive modeling to predict the flow stress at elevated temperatures.

A reliable and accurate prediction of flow behavior of metals in industrial forming process considering the coupled effects of strain, strain rate and temperature is crucial in understanding the workability of the metal and optimizing parameters for hot forming process. In this study, the tensile fracture behavior of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy is examined with scanning electron microscope (SEM) over the range of magnifications. SEM study revealed that microvoids and shallow dimples are observed at the fracture surface which indicates the fracture is predominately ductile in nature. Also, an investigation on flow behavior of Ti–6Al–4V alloy is done using constitutive models. Four constitutive models; modified Johnson-Cook (m-JC), modified Arrhenius type equations (m-Arr), modified Zerilli–Armstrong (m-ZA) and Rusinek–Klepaczko (RK) models are developed to predict the flow stress. The predictions of these constitutive models are compared with each other using statistical measures like correlation coefficient, average absolute error and its standard deviation. Comparing the statistical measures, m-Arr model is a better model for predicting the flow stress, but considering the fact that m-ZA model is a physical based model, m-ZA model is preferred over the m-Arr model.