Phase Transformation in a β-Ti Alloy with Good Balance Between High Strength and High Fracture Toughness

This article studies the phase transformation of the metastable β-Ti-Al-Mo-V-Cr-Zr alloy (Ti-1300) to disclose the morphological reason for its high strength and high fracture toughness. It has been found that its ultrahigh strength (ultimate tensile strength exceeds 1 400 MPa) owes mainly to the spheroidization of the α-phase, while the high fracture toughness (exceeds 81 MPa·m½) to the special lath-shaped α-particles. Compared to the needle-shaped second α-articles, the coarser lath-shaped ones remove the stress concentration at the lath tips and consequently benefit improvement of fracture toughness. The article also describes shape evolution of the α-particles during aging thermodynamically and kinetically, and suggests an optimized aging processing to achieve an ideal balance between high strength and high toughness for this alloy.