The formation of micro- and nanostructures in titanium alloys subjected to combined processing, which includes exposure to heterogeneous plasma flows and subsequent surface modification by a low-energy high-current electron beam has been studied. The main mechanism of the formation of micro- and nanoscale structural-phase states under the action of plasma flows created by an electrical explosion of conductors is found to be a joint effect of the Kelvin–Helmholtz and Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities at the interface. The perturbation growth rate at an acceleration g = 5 × 109 m/s2 of the second layer and a transverse velocity of 0 m/s is shown to be maximal at a wavelength λm = 6.76 μm. If the second-layer velocity is u0 = 10 m/s, we have λm = 6.23 μm; at u0 = 50 m/s, λm = 1.24 μm. The mechanism of micro- and nanostructure formation during subsequent electron-beam treatment is a combined thermo-, evaporation, concentration-capillary, and thermoelectric instability. If the influence of the concentration gradient and thermoelectric and evaporation effects is not taken into account, the growth rate is shown to be maximal at a wavelength of 113 μm. When thermoelectric phenomena are taken into account, λm decreases to 48 μm. At a thermoelectric coefficient γ = 0.1 V/K, the growth rate is found to be maximal at λm = 0.3 μm.
Nevskii et al. (Thu,) studied this question.