Superplastic Behaviour and Microstructural Evolution in Stepped Tensile Deformation of Titanium Alloy

The effect of stepped tensile deformation at 850, 900, 950 °C on the elongation, microstructure, and mechanical characteristics of titanium alloy has been investigated. The stepped uniaxial tension (stepped-UT) was composed of the following three steps in sequence: constant speed tension, clearance stage, and maximum m superplasticity tension (MaxmSPT). Results showed that the maximum elongation of TC6 alloy between 850 and 950 °C through the Stepped-UT was 2053%, in which the first engineering strain of constant speed tension was 2.0, the following clearance time was 15 min, and the MaxmSPT was finally carried on until failure. And the optimal elongations obtained by the MaxmSPT and constant speed tensile method were 1347 and 753.9% at 850 °C, respectively. The true stress-strain curves showed the strain rate sensitivity index m of the alloy in the stepped-UT was higher than the one in the single step of the MaxmSPT. Moreover, the microstructure of TC6 alloys in the stepped superplastic deformation was observed and the grain refinement was found. The grain refinement and true stress-strain curves of TC6 alloys were all affected by preplanned engineering strain and temperatures. The results also showed the joint action of the dynamic recrystallization and static or meta-dynamic recrystallization refined the grains, improved the structure property, and induced the plasticity enhancement.