Quantitative analysis of the microstructure of transitional region under multi-heat isothermal local loading forming of TA15 titanium alloy

In this paper, an analogue experiment was carried out to study the effect of processing parameters including deformation temperature, deformation degree, cooling mode and loading pass on the microstructure of transitional region under isothermal local loading forming of TA15 titanium alloy. The volume fraction, grain size and aspect ratio of primary alpha phase of transitional region were quantitatively characterized. It is found that deformation temperature and deformation degree also have interaction on the microstructure evolution of transitional region under isothermal local loading forming. At a certain deformation degree, primary alpha grain size increases first and then decreases with increasing temperature. However, primary a grain size varies little with deformation degree at higher temperature (in upper two phase region) but increases firstly and then decreases with deformation degree at lower temperature (in lower two phase region). Primary alpha aspect ratio increases with deformation degree at lower temperature but varies little at higher temperature. The morphology of transformed structure in p matrix is greatly influenced by deformation temperature and less influenced by deformation degree under air-cooling. The precipitated Widmanstatten alpha phase in beta matrix is in lamellar form and arranges in colonies under air-cooling, but it is in thinner acicular form and distributes disorderly under water quenching. Loading pass has little influence on the morphology of microstructure. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.