Microstructure and texture evolution near the adiabatic shear band (ASB) in TC17 Titanium alloy with starting equiaxed microstructure studied by EBSD

Abstract The microstructure and texture evolution near the adiabatic shear band (ASB) in TC17 Titanium alloy, during hot compression, were studied by electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD). The ASB was induced in the bulk cylindrical TC17 Titanium alloy with an initially equiaxed microstructure, by hot compression with a relatively low strain rate. When the equiaxed-microstructure TC17 Titanium alloy was compressed at 600 °C, 700 °C, and 850 °C, two kinds of ASB were observed: D-ASB, which is almost parallel to the diagonal of the longitudinal section, and H-ASB, which is almost parallel to the horizontal of the longitudinal section. Dynamic recrystallization took place in β phase grains at the ASB center, while dynamic recovery dominated at the transition region. The large angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) were mainly concentrated in β phase, while the small angle grain boundaries (SAGBs) were mainly concentrated in α phase distributed along the ASB direction. Meanwhile, both α and β phase grain sizes slightly increased with increasing hot compression temperature and deformation, except for the alloy compressed at 850 °C with 70% deformation due to the phase transformation. At the ASB center, prismatic textures existed in α phase grains except for the basal textures in the alloy deformed at 600 °C. In β phase grains, the {001} planes were always normal to CD, while the {111} planes were normal to CD in the initial microstructure of the TC17 alloy. Furthermore, in β phase grains, the cubic texture {100} 〈001〉 dominated in the TC17 alloy deformed at 600 °C, 700 °C, and 850 °C. With increasing compression temperature, the crystal plane parallel to the ASB direction in α phase grains changed from {0001} to {11 2 ¯ 0} while it was stable in β phase grains, which is not beneficial to the mechanical performance of this alloy.