Effect of heat treatment on the microstructure, texture and mechanical properties of zircaloy-4

The effect of (α+β) heat treatment on the microstructure, texture and mechanical properties of Zircaloy-4 was investigated. After (α+β) heat treatment the transformed microstructure was a mixture of the hard primary α and the soft transformed α. The observed texture was mostly inherited from the prior α phase texture, but it was altered by grain growth. The location of maximum basal pole intensity was distributed between the rolling direction and the transverse direction when the (α+β) heat treatment was done in long periods of time. The mechanical properties of the heat treated Zircaloy-4 were discussed in relation to the microstructure development and texture transformations