Compressive creep behavior of high Nb containing TiAl alloy: Dynamic recrystallization and phase transformation

In this work, compressive creep behavior of Ti-43Al-6Nb-1Cr-1.5V alloy fabricated by vacuum induction skull melting technology was investigated at 800-950 °C. The results show that compressive creep behavior of this alloy strongly depends on temperature. At 800 °C and 850 °C, this alloy exhibits conventional three-stage creep characteristics with a well-defined steady-state creep stage, and creep strain is small. However, at 900 °C and 950 °C, this alloy exhibits unconventional creep characteristics, and creep strain increases sharply. Microstructure observation proves that this is mainly due to the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization (DRX). During creep, continuous dynamic recrystallization and discontinuous dynamic recrystallization appear simultaneously, but the latter is more significant. At 800 °C and 850 °C, creep deformation mainly depends on dislocation motion, while at 900 °C and 950 °C, DRX also greatly contributes to creep deformation. During creep, recrystallized grains preferentially form at β-segregation and α-segregation, and rising temperature from 850 °C to 900 °C facilitates the sharp increase of DRX fraction. The occurrence of DRX reduces dislocation density, which greatly softens the alloy. Besides, more α ₂ grains generate at γ grain boundary and grain boundary/twin intersection during creep, and maintain Blackburn orientation relationship with γ grains. This is the result of stress-induced γ→α ₂ phase transformation.