Instability of plastic deformation of nanocrystalline titanium at low temperatures

A study of how changes to the grain size from micrometer to nanoscale values impact the titanium plastic deformation localization under quasi-static tension, at low temperatures. The impact the strain hardening rate, true stress and its strain rate sensitivity have on the sharp decrease in uniform deformation when nanocrystalline titanium is subjected to tension is determined. It is found that the appearance of submicron-sized grains in the nanomatrix (the creation of a bimodal structure) leads to an increase in the plasticity of titanium. This effect is enhanced at low temperatures as a result of the activation of twinning in larger grains.