Materials Transactions, Vol. 46, No. 9 (2005) pp.

2020 to 2025
#2005 The Japan Institute of Metals

Mechanical Properties of Ti6Al4V Titanium Alloy with

Submicrocrystalline Structure Produced by Severe Plastic Deformation
Sergey Zherebtsov1;2 , Gennady Salishchev1 , Rafail Galeyev1 and Katsuhiro Maekawa3
1

Institute for Metals Superplasticity Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ufa, 450001, Russia
Satellite Venture Business Laboratory, Ibaraki University, Hitachi 316-8511, Japan
3
The Research Center for Superplasticity, Ibaraki University, Hitachi 316-8511, Japan
2

A comparative investigation of mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy with microcrystalline and submicrocrystalline
structures in the temperature range of 20600
C has been carried out. The grain sizes under the submicrocrystalline and microcrystalline
conditions are 0.4 and 10 mm, respectively. The alloy with the microcrystalline structure has been additionally subjected to a heat-strengthened
treatment. The structure renement of the alloy results in increase in both strength and fatigue limit at room temperature by about 20%. With
increasing deformation temperature, the strength of the submicrocrystalline alloy is higher than that of the microcrystalline alloy up to 400
C.
However, the creep strength of the submicrocrystalline alloy is slightly lower than that of the heat-strengthened microcrystalline alloy already at
250
C.
(Received May 16, 2005; Accepted July 21, 2005; Published September 15, 2005)
Keywords: submicrocrystalline structure, titanium alloy, mechanical properties, strength, fatigue, creep

1.

Introduction

Submicrocrystalline (SMC) materials having a grain size

of 0.10.5 mm range, that oer improved mechanical properties, have recently gained a great interest among researches in
the materials science.1) Microstructure renement of metals
and alloys into the SMC regime considerably increases
strength and decreases the temperature at which superplasticity occurs by hundreds degrees, compared to their largergrained counterparts.14)
Industrial applications of the SMC materials have not been
found yet, because the production of SMC billets with quite
large dimensions involves dicult scientic and engineering
problems. However, some severe plastic deformation (SPD)
techniques have been developed recently for the production
of SMC structure in samples with a size of tens to hundreds of
millimeters.1,5,6) The equal-channel angular extrusion
(ECAE)1) is a technique for producing SMC structure in
ductile and soft enough metals and alloys; for instance,
aluminum, aluminum alloys and pure titanium. Massive
samples of hard-to-deform alloys, including titanium alloys
and steel, with SMC structure can be produced by means of
subsequent work consisted of sequential deformation along
three orthogonal directions, which is dened as the abc
deformation method.57)
Another reason why SMC metals and alloys are not used as
engineering materials arises from the issue described above.
The limited dimension of specimens is an impediment to
extracting valid mechanical properties of SMC materials
produced by some other processing methods. Owing to a very
small size of samples, most mechanical properties of SMC
materials have been primarily derived from uniaxial tension/
compression tests and micro- or nano-indentation.2) This is
the reason why data for the mechanical properties of SMC
materials are rather incomplete. There are plenty of data
concerning microhardness, strength and superplasticity of
SMC materials, which shows that very ne-grained materials
possess outstanding properties. However, not enough infor-

mation is presently available in literature on the fatigue,

ductile, high-temperature strength and creep resistance of
SMC materials.2)
The development of the method for producing massive
samples with SMC structures allows us to study their
mechanical properties more systematically by using standard
samples along with standard procedures. The aim of the
present paper is to evaluate the mechanical properties of the
SMC Ti6Al4V alloy both at room and high temperatures in
comparison with those of the microcrystalline (MC, grain
dimension of some micrometers) heat-strengthened counterpart.
2.

Experimental

The material used in this investigation is
= titanium

alloy Ti6Al4V with the nominal chemical composition of
6.3 Al, 4.1 V, 0.18 Fe, 0.182 O, 0.03 Si in mass percent and
balance titanium. The alloy has a  transition temperature (at
which
 ! ) of 995
C. The material was received in
the form of a hot rolled cylindrical rod with diameter of
30 mm. Samples measuring 30 mm in diameter and 50 mm in
length were cut from the as-received bar for the next
processing.
Samples with SMC structure have been prepared by means
of subsequent work consisted of sequential deformation of a
sample along three orthogonal directions, dened as the
abc deformation method (Fig. 1).5,6) The grain size
produced by the method depends on temperature during the
deformation.3) Therefore, the deformation temperature
should be reduced as much as possible to have the smallest
grain size. On the other hand, ductility of the alloy at low
temperature is limited whereas a large deformation is
required to produce samples with the SMC structure.6)
Accordingly, the process should be started from a relatively
high temperature of about 700
C to avoid fracture of the
sample. As ductility of the sample is improved by the rst
deformation, the deformation temperature in the next stage

Mechanical Properties of Ti6Al4V Titanium Alloy with Submicrocrystalline Structure Produced by Severe Plastic Deformation

Rotation 90

Step a

Rotation 90

Step b

Step c

Fig. 1 Scheme of abc deformation.

can be decreased by 50100
C. The nal temperature of the

abc deformation was 550
C. To attain a homogeneous
ne-grained microstructure in a sample at least six or seven
sequential compressions (conducting steps a through c
in Fig. 1 two times, as a-b-c-a-b-c) at each temperature are
required.6)
The deformation at each temperature was carried out under
an isothermal condition at a strain rate of about 103 s1 .
After the abc deformation, the Ti6Al4V samples with
SMC structure were annealed at 650
C for an hour to reduce
internal stresses. Optimum annealing conditions to attain the
maximum structure improvement without grain growth were
determined from pilot experiments.
In this study mechanical properties of the SMC alloy are
compared with those of the MC alloy. A homogeneous MC
structure of the Ti6Al4V alloy was produced by means of
the abc deformation process conducted at a higher
temperature of about 930
C.8) In this case the temperature
of deformation was not changed during the processing. After
that, the MC alloy was subjected to a heat-strengthening
treatment through water quenching from 945
C and then
aging at 500
C for 3 h. According to8) the alloy has almost
maximum strength and fatigue limit after such treatment.
The samples for mechanical tests were cut out from billets
of 10  40  65 mm3 with SMC and MC structures. The
tensile tests using cylindrical samples with of 3 mm diameter
and 18 mm length were conducted at temperatures of 20
600
C at a speed of 1 mm/min. Tensile tests at room
temperature were carried out on a Schenk machine using
an extensometer for a precise strain measurement. Tests at
high temperatures were conducted on an Instron machine
in air. Mechanical properties including yield stress (YS),
ultimate tensile stress (UTS), area reduction (AR), total
elongation (TE), uniform elongation (UE) were determined
according to the Russian government standard GOST 149784. Specic work of deformation was calculated as an area

2021

under the corresponding true stresstrue area reduction

curve. Since plastic ow localizes very fast during the tensile
test (see section 3.2), use  curve, rather than ", seems to
be more suitable for determination specic work of deformation. Because, in this case, the  curves show real
ability of the alloys to plastic deformation. However specic
work of deformation has been estimated not for the whole
sample, but for a small sample portion, which was really
deformed during the tensile test.
A stress-controlled bending fatigue test was carried out to
evaluate a fatigue limit (FL) of the SMC and MC alloys.
Specimens with 8 mm gage width and 2 mm thick were tested
for 2  107 loading cycles. Ten specimens of each condition
were utilized for the fatigue test. The fatigue test was
conducted at room temperature in air. The stress was
prescribed as a sinusoidal pulse at the frequency of 500 Hz.
The load ratio, which is dened as the ratio of the minimum
load to the maximum load, was equal to 0.
A creep test of the alloy in SMC and MC conditions was
carried out using a creep machine of type 2147P30/1000 at
temperatures of 250 and 350
C in air. Cylindrical tensile
specimens with gage dimensions of 5 mm diameter and
18 mm length were used in accordance with the Russian
government standard GOST 3248-81. Creep strength was
evaluated as the stress required to attain 0.2% strain for 100 h
at those temperatures.
The microstructure was investigated using a JEM-840
SEM and a JEM-2000 EX TEM. X-ray investigations were
conducted on a DRON-3 diractometer with Cu-K
irradiation.
3.

Results

3.1 Microstructure
The structure of the Ti6Al4V alloy before the abs
deformation consists of primary -grains with Widmanstatten colonies of
-lamellae and thin -laths oriented in
dierent directions [Fig. 2(a)]. As a result of the abc
deformation, the lamellar structure transforms into globular
one, consisting of grains of
- and -phases6) with a mean
grain size of about 0.4 mm [Fig. 2(b)]. Non-homogeneous
diraction contrast and high dislocation density inside some
grains in the microstructure of alloys indicate a high level of
internal stresses and elastic distortions of the crystal lattice.
In the MC condition the Ti6Al4V alloy has a bi-modal
structure composed of primary
-grains with a mean size of
5 mm and colonies of very disperse
- and -lamellae within
transformed -grains [Fig. 2(c)]. X-ray analysis have shown
that the volume fractions of -phase for both SMC and MC
conditions were 810%.
The analysis of
-phase inverse pole gures has revealed a
quite weak texture intensity and similar texture distribution
for both SMC and MC conditions of the alloy (Fig. 3). When
the small percentage of -phase is taken into account, the
eect of texture on the mechanical properties can be
neglected in both conditions.
3.2 Mechanical behavior at room temperature
Mechanical properties of the SMC and MC alloys at room
temperature are presented in the Fig. 4 and Table 1. Grain

2022

S. Zherebtsov, G. Salishchev, R. Galeyev and K. Maekawa

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 2 Microstructure of Ti6Al4V alloy: (a) initial lamellar, (b) SMC and (c) MC conditions.

0.8

0.3

(a)

(b)
0.5

0.4
0.5

0.7

0.5

1.0

0.9

0.8

1.2

1.1

0.8

1.6

0.8

0.9

0.4

1.5

0.1

1.1
1.9

1.7
1.0

1.4
0.9

1.0

Fig. 3

Inverse pole gures of (a) SMC and (b) MC conditions of Ti6Al4V alloy.

(a)

SMC
MC

(b)

1800

True stress, / MPa

1200

Stress, / MPa

2000

1000

800

1600
1400
1200
1000

SMC
MC

800
0

Strain, (%)

9 10

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

True area reduction,

Fig. 4 Tensile test of SMC and MC conditions of Ti6Al4V alloy at room temperature; (a) stressstrain curves and (b) true stresstrue
area reduction curves.

Mechanical Properties of Ti6Al4V Titanium Alloy with Submicrocrystalline Structure Produced by Severe Plastic Deformation
Mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V alloy at room temperature.

Condition

YS
(MPa)

UTS
(MPa)

AR
(%)

TE
(%)

UE
(%)

FL
(MPa)

SMC

1180

1300

60

0.5

693

MC

960

1050

32

0.9

580

YS: yield stress; UTS: ultimate tensile strength; AR: area reduction; TE:
total elongation; UE: uniform elongation; FL: fatigue limit

1400
1200

YS, UTS, / MPa

Table 1

SMC

Stress, /MPa

1000
800
600
400

750

SMC, UTS
SMC, YS
MC, UTS
MC, YS

200

700
0
0

650

100

200

300

400

500

600

Deformation temperature, T/ C
MC
Fig. 6 Eect of temperature on yield stress (YS) and ultimate tensile stress
(UTS) of SMC and MC conditions of Ti6Al4V alloy.

600
550

Table 2 Eect of temperature on area reduction (AR), total elongation

(TE) and uniform elongation (UE) under dierent conditions of Ti6Al
4V alloy.

105

106

107

Number of cycles, N
Fig. 5

2023

Fatigue curves of SMC and MC conditions of Ti6Al4V alloy.

renement in the SMC regime results in a noticeable

enhancement of the tensile strength, compared with that of
the MC heat-strengthened alloy. Both yield stress and
ultimate tensile strength of the SMC alloy are around 22%
higher than those of the MC alloy. Total elongation is rather
similar between the SMC and MC alloys, whereas true area
reduction of the SMC alloy is a factor of two higher than that
of the MC alloy. As a result, the SMC alloy has a larger
specic work of deformation to failure, 1395 kJ/m3 , compared to 435 kJ/m3 of the MC alloy.
Early necking took place in both alloys; the values of the
uniform elongations are lower than 1% [Table 1, Fig. 4(a)].
At the same time uniform elongation of the MC alloy is
almost a factor of two higher than that of the SMC alloy
(Table 1). Therefore deformation in the neck portion prior to
failure was severer in the sample with SMC structure than
that of the MC alloy [Fig. 4(b)].
Fatigue strength of the SMC alloy is also higher than that
of the MC alloy (Fig. 5 and Table 1). The SMC alloy have
fatigue limit about 20% higher than that of the MC alloy (690
and 580 MPa respectively).
However it should be noted in this section, that fatigue
limit and total elongation of the heat-strengthened MC alloy
used in the present work are lower than they could be
expected.9,10) It is generally known that mechanical properties of alloys depend not only on their microstructure (or
applied processing) but also on chemical compositions.
Hence, the discrepancy of mechanical properties between the
present results and some reported data9,10) is most likely
associated with admissible variations in chemical composi-

Temp.
(
C)

SMC

MC

AR
(%)

TE
(%)

UE
(%)

AR
(%)

TE
(%)

UE
(%)

20

60

0.6

32

0.8

200

69

0.7

67

13

1.6

300

70

10

1.2

71

16

400

83

14

3.5

77

17

3.2

500

97

42

10.0

87

22

4.2

600

200

46

tions. However, as both SMC and MC alloys have the same

chemical composition, the data obtained allow us to evaluate
a relative eect of grain renement on mechanical properties
of the Ti6Al4V alloy.
3.3 Mechanical behaviors at high temperatures
The eect of temperature on tensile strength of the SMC
and MC alloys is shown in Fig. 6. With increasing temperature, both YS and UTS of the SMC alloy decrease faster
than those of the MC alloy. Yield stresses of the SMC and
MC alloys become nearly equal at 400
C, while the equalization of ultimate tensile stress occurs at about 300
C
(Fig. 6). The most drastic softening of the alloys takes place
above 400
C for SMC structure and above 500
C for MC
structure.
Table 2 demonstrates the eect of temperature on ductility
of the SMC and MC alloys. Total elongation at room
temperature is similar and linearly increases with temperature up to 400
C for both alloy conditions. The increase of
temperature to 600
C leads to a drastic increase by 200% in
total elongation of the SMC alloy, while the total elongation
of the MC alloy at this temperature is less than 50%.
Area reduction of the SMC and MC alloys is not the same
at room temperature but similar at 200
C and above.

2024

S. Zherebtsov, G. Salishchev, R. Galeyev and K. Maekawa

1000

Stress, / MPa

800

600

400

MC, 250C
SMC, 250C
MC, 350C
SMC,350C

200

100

200

300

Time to attain 0.2% strain, / h

Fig. 7 Eect of temperature on stress and time requirements for attaining
of 0.2% strain in SMC and MC conditions of Ti6Al4V alloy.

As a whole, uniform elongation of both alloys slowly

increases with increasing temperature, but it increases faster
at temperatures above 300
C. As a result, a uniform
elongation of the SMC alloy is a factor of two higher than
that of the MC alloy at 500
C.
Figure 7 shows creep resistance behaviors of the SMC and
MC alloys in terms of stress-time to attain a strain of 0.2% at
temperatures of 250 and 350
C. The creep resistance in the
MC condition is slightly higher than that in the SMC
condition at 250
C, but at 350
C the dierence between the
alloys increases signicantly: 830 and 870 MPa at 250
C in
the SMC and MC conditions, respectively (the dierence is
5%), whereas 250 and 655 MPa, respectively at 350
C (the
dierence is 60%). It should also be noted that a broad scatter
can be seen in the experimental data of the SMC alloy at
350
C while the other points are well approximated by
straight lines.
4.

Discussion

The results of mechanical tests at room temperature

indicate that strength, area reduction, specic work of
deformation to failure and fatigue limit are increased by the
structure renement. Strengthening with grain renement has
been traditionally rationalized on the basis of the so-called
Hall-Petch mechanism.11) In the present case, the SMC and
MC conditions of the alloy dier from each other in terms of
size and morphology of phase constituents as well as
dislocation density within the phases. In fact, the thickness
of
- and -laths in the MC alloy is comparable to the grain
size in the SMC alloy. However, due to the Burgers
orientation relationship between
- and -phases in a lath
colony in the MC alloy behaves as a single grain even at large
strains.12) Hence, the SMC alloy having both smaller grain
size and higher dislocation density within the grain volume
indicates higher strength compared to the MC alloy (Fig. 4).
Relationship between grain size and fatigue limit for
titanium alloys can also be described by an equation similar

to the Hall-Patch law.13) Therefore, the structure renement

leads to the improvement of fatigue property, as well. This is
conrmed by the results obtained in the present work as well
as in other papers.1,2,14) Commonly, fracture energy is a sum
of crack initiation and crack propagation. Structure renement usually leads to the decrease in crack propagation
energy because of generating smoother crack paths2) Accordingly, increases in fatigue strength of SMC materials
take place owing to a considerable increase in the energy for
crack initiation by itself.13) This means that improvements in
the total fatigue life may simultaneously have a detrimental
eect, in the sense that they can deteriorate the resistance to
subcritical crack growth under constant-amplitude fatigue
conditions. However, further experimental data are needed to
verify this hypothesis.2)
Meanwhile, increments in strength and fatigue limit of the
alloy due to the structure renement are appreciably lower
than those reported earlier for pure metals.1,2) These
phenomena are attributed to much higher initial (in the
well-annealed condition) strength of the alloy as compared
with the pure titanium, owing to solid solution and hardening
by lamellar precipitations of
-phase in -matrix. In the alloy
the eect of grain boundary and dislocation strengthening
resulted from the abc deformation is stronger than that of
hardening by thin
 lamellae resulted from the heat
treatment. However, dierence in strength and fatigue limit
between the SMC and the MC heat-strengthened conditions
of the alloy is 2025%. While the strength and fatigue limit of
the SMC pure titanium are more than a factor of two higher
than those of the MC condition.4,15) These results are closely
related to the discussion initiated elsewhere16) concerning the
role of grain renement by severe plastic deformation in the
strengthening of aluminium alloys. It has been concluded that
severe plastic deformation can be more helpful to obtain a
unique combination of strength and ductility in non-heat
treatable alloys.16)
The results of tensile tests reveal several unusual features
in ductility of the SMC alloy. For instance, the tensile
elongation at fracture of the SMC alloy is lower than that of
the heat-strengthened MC counterpart. According to the
published literature,2,14) this behavior is usually attributed to
plastic instability originating from the lack of an eective
hardening mechanism; this instability appears as either shear
bands or through early necking. At the same time, the area
reduction and the specic work of deformation to failure of
the SMC alloy are higher than those of the MC alloy by a
factor of 2 and 3.4, respectively. Consequently, formation of
the SMC structure increases both strength and ductility.
Higher ductility of the SMC alloy during deformation
treatment can be achieved at other strain paths where tensile
stress is not the main component; e.g. rolling or compression.
The tensile test at elevated temperatures indicates that the
grain size renement noticeably degrades high-temperature
strength of the alloy. The strength of the SMC alloy is lower
than that of the MC alloy at temperatures above 300
C. The
creep resistance of the SMC alloy is slightly lower than that
of the MC alloy already at 250
C. Such behavior of the SMC
alloy is not fully unpredictable.17) The decrease of grain size
leads to a signicant increase in grain boundary volume,
which means that grain boundaries play an important role in

Mechanical Properties of Ti6Al4V Titanium Alloy with Submicrocrystalline Structure Produced by Severe Plastic Deformation

the deformation especially at elevated temperatures. These

boundaries act as sources and sinks for dislocations, and
facilitate such mechanisms by the sliding of grain boundary.
A drastic increase in total elongation as well as intense
softening observed in the SMC alloy at the short-term test
above 400
C indicates that superplastic deformation is likely
to occur.4,18)
The increase in volume fraction of grain boundary also
leads to the predominance of the Coble creep, which is
controlled by diusion of vacancies along grain boundaries,
over the Nabarro-Herring creep, which is controlled by
diusion of vacancies through the grain volume.17) Obviously, grain boundary diusion is much faster compared to
that through grain volume. Obviously, that is why the creep
rate of the SMC alloy is higher than that of the MC alloy
above 250
C. Further increase in temperature to 350
C leads
to a drastic softening of the SMC alloy, which is most
probably associated with the operation of grain boundary
sliding.
5.

Conclusions

The present paper has investigated mechanical properties

of the Ti6Al4V alloy with SMC structure produced by
severe plastic deformation where the grain size is as small as
about 0.4 mm. The properties have been compared with those
of a heat-strengthened MC alloy with the grain size of about
10 mm. The major results can be summarized as follows:
(1) In comparison with the MC alloy, the alloy with SMC
structure has shown increases in yield stress from 960 to
1180 MPa, ultimate tensile stress from 1050 to
1300 MPa, area reduction from 32 to 60% and fatigue
limit from 580 to 690 MPa at room temperature.
(2) In short-time tests at high-temperatures the higher
strength of the SMC condition continues up to 300
400
C. However, the creep resistance of the SMC alloy
is ve percent lower than that of the MC alloy at 250
C.
At 350
C the dierence in creep resistance between the
SMC and MC conditions increases to by a factor of 1.6.
(3) An upper working temperature at which the benet of
the SMC condition of the Ti6Al4V alloy appears is

2025

150200
C with a possibility of short-time heating to

400
C.
REFERENCES
1) R. Z. Valiev, R. K. Islamgaliev and I. V. Alexandrov: Prog. Mater. Sci.
45 (2000) 103189.
2) K. S. Kumar, H. Van Swygenhoven and S. Suresh: Acta Mater. 51
(2003) 57435774.
3) G. A. Salishchev, O. R. Valiakhmetov and R. M. Galeev: J. Mater. Sci.
28 (1993) 28982903.
4) G. A. Salishchev, R. M. Galeyev, S. P. Malysheva and O. R.
Valiakhmetov: Superplast. Adv. Mater. ICSAM97, Mater. Sci. Forum
243245 (1997) 585591.
5) Patent PCT/US97/18642, 1998, Method of Processing Titanium
Alloys and the Article
6) S. V. Zherebtsov, G. A. Salishchev, R. M. Galeyev, O. R. Valiakhmetov, S. Yu. Mironov and S. L. Semiatin: Scr. Mater. 51 (2004) 1147
1151.
7) G. A. Salishchev, R. G. Zaripova, A. A. Zakirova and H. J. McQueen:
In Hot workability of steels and light alloys-composites ed. by H. J.
McQueen, E. V. Konopleva and N. D. Ryan, (TMS-CIM, Montreal,
1996) pp. 217226.
8) V. K. Aleksandrov, N. F. Anoshkin, G. A. Bochvar et al.: Semiproducts out of titanium alloys, (Metallurgy, Moscow, 1979) p. 512 (in
Russia).
9) F. H. Froes, T. L. Yau and H. G. Weidinger: Materials Science and
Technology, ed. by R. W. Cahn, P. Haasen, E. J. Kramer ed., (VCR
Verlagsgesellsghaft mbH, Weinheim, Germany, 1996) p. 399469.
10) R. Boyer, G. Welsch and E. W. Colling: Materials Properties
Handbook: Titanium Alloys, (ASM International, Materials Park,
OH, 1994) p. 516.
11) R. W. Armsrong: Metall. Trans. 1A (1970) 11691176.
12) A. Ambard, L. Guetaz, F. Louchet and D. Guichard: Mater. Sci. Eng. A
319321 (2001) 404408.
13) A. Lasalmonie and J. L. Strudel: J. Mater. Sci. 21 (1986) 18371852.
14) A. Vinogradov, S. Hashimoto and V. I. Kopylov: Mater. Sci. Eng. A
355 (2003) 277285.
15) V. V. Stolyarov, V. V. Latysh, R. Z. Valiev, Y. T. Zhu and T. C. Lowe:
Investigations and Applications of Severe Plastic Deformation, ed. by
T. C. Lowe and R. Z. Valiev (Kluwer Publishers, NATO Science
Series, 3, 2000), 8091.
16) M. V. Markushev, C. C. Bampton, M. Y. Murshkin and D. A.
Hardwick: Mater. Sci. Eng. A 234236 (1997) 927931.
17) F. A. Mohamed and Y. Li: Mater. Sci. Eng. A 298 (2001) 115.
18) O. A. Kaibyshev: Superplastisity of Alloys, Intermetallides and
Ceramics, (Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1992) p. 317.