Dissolution of the Alpha Phase in Ti-6Al-4V During Isothermal and Continuous Heat Treatment

The kinetics of the dissolution of the equiaxed alpha phase into the beta matrix in Ti-6Al-4V were established and modeled for both isothermal (constant temperature) and transient/continuous heating conditions. For the isothermal experiments, samples were solution treated at a subtransus temperature to equilibrate the microstructure followed by rapid, direct-resistance heating to a temperature either 25 K or 78 K (25 °C or 78 °C) above the equilibrium beta transus and held for times ranging from 1 to 32 seconds. Dissolution behavior under transient conditions was determined in-situ using an indirect-resistance furnace and X-ray (synchrotron) source; these trials comprised a similar initial subtransus solution heat treatment followed by continuous heating at a constant rate in the range between 15 and 135 K/min (15 and 135 °C/min) to a temperature lying 25 K (25 °C) above the transus. Measurements of the temporal evolution of the volume fraction of alpha were interpreted using numerical simulations based on the Whelan dissolution model modified to treat a distribution of particle sizes and the possible interaction of the concentration gradients developed around adjacent particles; i.e., soft impingement. The isothermal dissolution measurements were bounded by predictions from simulations with and without the soft-impingement assumption. Similar trends were found for continuous-heating behavior. In particular, slow or fast heating-rate observations were replicated by simulation predictions with or without the soft-impingement constraint, respectively.