Nanostructuring of Ti-alloys by SPD processing to achieve superior fatigue properties

This work is related to the enhancement of the fatigue properties in ultrafine-grained Ti alloys produced by severe plastic deformation techniques. To process commercially pure Ti Grade 4 and Ti-6Al-4V alloys, combined severe plastic deformation techniques that include equal channel angular pressing and additional thermal and deformation treatments were used. As a result we could produce ultrafine-grained Ti materials with a similar grain size of less than 300–400 nm but different in their shape and grain boundary structure (both low- and high-angle, equilibrium and non-equilibrium grain boundaries). It is shown that tailoring grain boundaries by severe plastic deformation techniques makes it possible to considerably enhance the strength of Ti materials while preserving high ductility. In turn, ultrafine-grained materials with enhanced strength and ductility demonstrate superior fatigue endurance and life.