Processing maps for hot working of titanium alloys

In recent years, processing maps are being used to design hot working schedules for making near-net shapes in a wide variety of materials. In this paper, the results obtained on the characterization of hot working behavior of titanium and its alloys using the approach of processing maps are described. In commercial purity α titanium, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) domain occurs at 775°C and 0.001 s−1 with an efficiency of power dissipation [2m/(m+1) where m is the strain rate sensitivity of flow stress] of 43%. The DRX domain shifts to higher strain rates when the interstitial impurity content is lowered. In the near-α and α-β alloys like IMI 685, Ti–6Al–4V, the preform microstructure has a significant influence on the processing maps. For example, in the transformed β (Widmanstatten) preform microstructures, these alloys exhibit a domain of spheroidization at lower temperature and a domain of β superplasticity at higher temperatures, both occurring at slow strain rates. These domains merge at the β transus because of the occurrence of damage processes which lower the tensile ductility. On the other hand, processing maps on alloys with equiaxed preform microstructure exhibit a clear superplasticity domain in the α-β range and the β phase undergoes DRX with a power dissipation efficiency of ≈45–55%. Titanium materials in general, exhibit wide flow instability regimes due to adiabatic shear bands formation at higher strain rates and hence careful process design has to be adopted for successful forging and microstructural control.