Effect of annealing temperatures on microstructural stability and mechanical properties of Ti-Zr-Nb alloy

Due to its excellent deformability and high tensile strength, Ti-Zr-Nb alloy is promising in the field of aerospace and national defense. However, the relatively low stability of microstructure with temperature variation restricts its further application in navigation system. In this work, the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of Ti-Zr-Nb alloy is investigated after an annealing treatment. When the annealing temperature in-creases, we observe the microstructure experiences recovery, recrystallization, reduction of dislocation density, refinement of a0-prime martensite phases and dissolution of u-phases. These behaviors lead to the release of distortion energy, and thus the improvement of microstructural stability of Ti-Zr-Nb alloy. In the meantime, mechanical properties maintain after the enhancement of microstructural stability. Therefore, the propose annealing process can improve the microstructural stability and keep the good mechanical properties of Ti-Zr-Nb alloy in further aerospace application. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).