The influence of texture on superplasticity of the titanium alloy VT 6

This paper describes a specific influence of crystailographic texture on tensile properties of the titanium alloy VT6 under superplastic flow conditions. The texture effect has been examined on alloy states with identical microstructures but with different preferred grain orientations. Tests over wide temperature and strain-rate intervals have shown that the formation of a strong texture as a result of pretreatment of a titanium alloy leads to a decrease in flow stress, an increase in plasticity and a shift of the optimum strain-rate region to higher rates. Data on the effect of texture on the anisotropy of properties of the VT6 alloy are also presented. The present results suggest that the influence of preferred orientation on the characteristics of superplastic flow is a general phenomenon for finegrained superplastic materials.