Institute of Metals Division - Texture Strengthening of Titanium Alloys

Recent disclosures concerning strengthening of anisotropic sheet materials under biaxial stresses are reviewed. This biaxial strengthening has been termed "texture hardening" by Backofen and is related to the normal anisotropy parameter, R. Measurements of R made on three annealed titanium alloys indicate a Ti-4Al alloy will have the greatest potential for texture hardening, followed in order by Ti-5Al-2.5Sn and Ti-6Al-4V. Relative to sheet texture, a review of the deformation mechanisms in titanium alloys would indicate that a preferred orientation for "texture hardening" is where the (0001) pole is normal to the sheet plane. This was confirmed by determination oj (0001) pole figures for the above three alloys. High R values are related to pole figures with (0001) normal to the sheet plane, whereas low R values are related to pole figures with (0001) split in the transverse direction from the sheet normal. PUBLISHED work by Backofen et al. 1 and Hosford and Backofen2 based on hill's' mathematical theory of yielding in anisotropic metals has indicated that significant strength advantages under biaxial stresses are possible in hcp alloys, provided an ideal (0001) [1010] sheet texture exists. This tendency to strengthen under biaxial stresses has been termed "texture hardening".1 It can be quantita- tively characterized by a strain-ratio parameter, R, where R may be determined from the ratio of natural width strain to natural thickness strain as measured on a uniaxial test specimen cut parallel to the rolling direction. If R is greater than 1.0, then strengthening under biaxial tension would be predicted. Considering the a titanium alloys which have an hcp crystal structure, Williams and Eppelsheimer4 have reported that commercial-purity grades deviate from the ideal (0001) sheet texture mainly in an approximate 30-deg rotation of the basal plane, toward the transverse sheet direction. However, McHargue et a1.5 have shown that the angle of rotation of the basal plane is sensitive to alloy content. In particular, a titanium alloy with 3.8 pct Al was reported to have the ideal (0001) [1010] texture after cold rolling. Additionally, Backofen et a1.1 using plane-strain compression tests have reported R values greater than 5.0 for the commercial 0 alloy Ti-5A1-2.Sn (110-AT). In view of these findings, a program was initiated to further determine the potential of commercial Ti-5A1-2.5Sn and an experimental Ti-4A1 alloy with respect to "texture hardening". Also, because of its wide commercial use, Ti-6A1-4V was included in the investigation. BIAXIAL-STRESS THEORY FOR ANISOTROPIC MATERIALS Backofen ef al.,1 based on the mathematical theory of Hi11,3 has introduced the concept of "texture hardening". In this work, it was shown that possi-