Beta Microtexture Analysis in Correlation with HCP Textured Regions observed in a Forged Near Alpha Titanium Alloy

The presence of hcp regions with grains having relatively close orientations has been reported in commercial near alpha titanium billets (IMI 834, Ti 6246, etc). The size of these textured regions (called macrozones) is significantly larger than the average grain size of the microstructure observed after thermomechanical processing. The elongated shape of these large hcp regions suggests that they are eventually related to large prior b grains that pancaked during the ingot break down process. In this contribution, Orientation Image Microscopy was used to study the relationship between the hcp local microtexture heterogeneities and the prior b orientations. Specifically, the orientations of the primary (equiaxed) ap grains and the secondary (lamellar) as colonies produced after the transformation of the b phase were discriminated from OIM maps. Furthermore, from the as inherited OIM map, it was possible to reconstruct the corresponding b OIM map over large regions. The analysis showed that the large hcp macrozones observed in the as received material are not related to corresponding bcc macrozones. However, within an hcp macrozone, various clusters of b grains with similar orientations can be found. In such coherent regions, randomly orientated b grains were also observed, which could be related to microstructural changes during deformation (continuous dynamic recrystallization) as suggested by hot deformation results.NRC publication: Ye