Deformation behaviour of beta phase with similar chemical composition in beta and alpha+beta titanium alloys

Twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) and transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) in β titanium alloys have been attracting significant interest, since they offer the possibility to provide work hardening and thus, ductility. Here a quaternary Ti-Al-Cr-Mo metastable β alloy has been designed with an excellent combination of strength ductility that exploits the TWIP and TRIP effects. Its engineering yield strength, tensile strength and total elongation are 737 MPa, 999 MPa and 24%, respectively. In order to increase the yield strength but retain ductility, an attempt has been carried to design an α+β alloy with a bimodal microstructure. The composition of the β phase in the α+β alloy was tuned to provide deformation twinning of the β phase. The content of the major α and β stabilising elements, i.e. Al, Cr and Mo, in the β phase of the α+β alloy was similar to the β alloy, but the deformation twinning was not observed in the β phase. It is suggested that this may be due to over-stabilisation of the β phase and/or to the different stress/strain and dislocation distributions in the α+β alloy caused by the presence of β phase.