Effect of High-Pressure Torsion on Structure and Microhardness of Ti/TiB Metal–Matrix Composite

Effect of high-pressure torsion (HPT) at 400 °C on microstructure and microhardness of a Ti/TiB metal–matrix composite was studied. The starting material was produced by spark plasma sintering of a mixture of a pure Ti and TiB2 (10 wt %) powders at 1000 °C. The microstructure evolution during HPT was associated with an increase in dislocation density and substructure development that resulted in a gradual microstructure refinement of the Ti matrix and shortening/redistribution of TiB whiskers. After five revolutions, a nanostructure with (sub) grain size of ~30 nm was produced in Ti matrix. The microhardness increased with strain attaining the value ~520 HV after five revolutions. The contribution of different hardening mechanisms into the hardness of the Ti/TiB metal–matrix composite was quantitatively analyzed