Stress-induced α″ phase in a beta Ti–19Nb–1.5Mo–4Zr–8Sn alloy

Highlights: • Morphologies/distributions of α″ produced by stretching/rolling are similar. • Under small deformation, α″ martensite consists of parallel lamellar structures. • Under larger deformations, martensite has ladder-like pattern and parallel ellipsoids. • With the increase of deformation hardness decreases firstly and then increases. - Abstract: The morphological evolution of the stress-induced α″ martensite with increases in the stretching and rolling deformation degrees as well as the related orientation relationship were investigated in a β titanium alloy (Ti–19Nb–1.5Mo–4Zr–8Sn)·For a stretching deformation of 1%, the α″ martensite exhibited a packet morphology consisting of parallel lamellar structures. On the other hand, in the 2%-rolled sample, the α″ martensite exhibited a long lath-like distribution, which was accompanied by a few small pieces. With an increase in the deformation degree, the α″ martensite gradually exhibited a ladder-like structure consisting of long and short α″ laths or ellipsoids. The existence of these self-accommodating martensitic variants decreased the elastic energy. The parallel α″ laths present within a single packet were found to have the same orientation. The interface between the α″ and β phases was coherent, and their lattice constant relationships were identified as $\sqrt{2}{a}_{\beta }\approx b_{\alpha ″}\approx c_{\alpha ″}$ and a_β ≈ a_α″. Further, with the increase in the deformation degree, the hardness of the alloy first decreased and then increased; this was the case both the stretched as well as the rolled samples.