The influence of microstructure and strain rate on the compressive deformation behavior of Ti-6Al-4V

This article reports on a study of deformation of Ti-6Al-4V in compression. In particular, two different microstructures, the equiaxed microstructure and the Widmanstätten microstructure, were generated from the same parent material and their properties were measured. The results show that at small strains, the mechanical response of samples with these microstructures in similar. The yield strength and the flow stress at a 0.05 true strain have similar values; these increase with increasing strain rate over the range of 0.1 to 1000 s^-1. However, samples with the Widmanstätten microstructure failed at a smaller strain than their counterparts with the equiaxed microstructure, and this difference increased with increasing strain rate. Examination of cross sections of samples deformed to different levels of strain showed that the deformation was inhomogeneous. As the sample barreled, the deformation built up on the surfaces of two cones of material whose apices met in the center of the sample. Cracks formed in the corners of the samples and propagated in toward the center. In samples with the equiaxed microstructure, short cracks and voids formed, but they were usually blunted at the grain boundaries. Long cracks were only observed immediately before failure. In samples with the Widmanstätten microstructure, cracks could grow within the laths more easily, and, as a result, longer cracks formed at lower strains. We propose that this difference leads to the differences in the failure strains for these two microstructures. Finally, examination of data in the literature, along with our own results, indicates that the interstitial content plays an important role in determining the yield stress of the material.