Effect of annealing temperature on microstructure, texture and tensile properties of TA32 sheet

The aim of this paper was to study effect of annealing temperature on microstructure, texture and tensile properties of a high temperature titanium alloy sheet. The as-received sheet exhibited an equiaxed structure consisting of primary α phase and few retained β phase. The α phase texture showed a typical B-type texture with inclined to normal direction. The intracrystalline substructure played an important role on tensile strength when the annealing temperature below 900 °C. Duplex microstructure with B + R-type texture was obtained when annealing temperature increased to α＋β region (900–990 °C). The intensity of B-type texture and R-type texture was found to be determined by the volume fraction of primary α phase and transformed β phase. Significant increase of tensile strength after α＋β region annealing was thought to result from the secondary α-β interfaces strengthening, and the formation of R-type texture lead to the anisotropy of tensile strength. Widmanstatten structure was obtained when the sheet suffered a β phase region annealing (1000–1020 °C) and the tensile strength decreased instantly.