Characterization of the β Phase Decomposition in Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr at Slow Heating Rates

The influence of slow heating rates: 2, 5, 10 and 30°C/min (0.033, 0.083, 0.166 and 0.50°C/s) on the β phase decomposition of Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr (Ti-5553) during continuous heating were characterized by differen-tial scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and hardness testing. Starting microstructure was the β phase obtained by heating the Ti-5553 above the Tβ temperature and a water quench. Results show that heating rate has a significant impact on the precipitation mechanisms and on the β→α transformation in this range of heating rates. The main formation of α precipi-tates occurs between 500 and 600°Cat all heating rates tested. A heating at 2°C/min produces very fine and homogeneously distributed α plate precipitates which have nucleated on the nanometer size ωiso precipitates. The ωiso precipitates between 350 and 400°C. At higher heating rates 10, 15 or 30°C/min, the amount of pre-cipitation of ωiso is lower so an additional formation of nanometer size precipitates occurs between 450 and 500°C. It is supposed that both precipitates act as nucleation sites for α phase precipitation. The resultant mi-crostructure consists in a fine intragranular distribution of α precipitates and a coarser precipitation of α at the grain boundaries. It is shown that the precipitation of ωiso phase retards or prevents the precipitation of nanometer size precipitates occurring between 450 and 500°C. This cannot be generalized to all the β-metastable titanium alloys since Ti-LCB does not exhibit the same heating rate dependence on DSC curves.