Titanium alloys and processing for high speed aircraft

Commercially available titanium alloys and emerging Ti alloys with limited or no production experience are being considered for a variety of applications to high speed commercial aircraft structures. A number of government and industry programs are underway to improve the performance of promising alloys by chemistry and/or processing modifications and to identify appropriate alloys and processes for specific aircraft structural applications. This paper discusses some results to date of NASA sponsored research on the effects of heat treatment, service temperatures from -54 to +177 deg C, and selected processing on the mechanical properties of several candidate beta and alpha - beta Ti alloys. Included are beta alloys Timetal 21S, LCB, Beta-C, Beta-CEZ and Ti-10-2-3 and alpha - beta alloys Ti-62222, Ti-6242S, Timetal 550, Ti-62S, SP-700 and Corona-X. The emphasis is on strength and toughness properties of rolled sheet product and on the superplastic properties and processing of the materials.