Effect of thermal processing parameters on static globularization kinetics of TC17 alloy

The isothermal compression of TC17 alloy at 820 and 860℃, and subsequently annealing for 10 min-8 h were conducted, and the effects of deformation degree, annealing temperature and annealing time on static globularization of TC17 titanium alloy were investigated. The results show that the deformation degree greatly influences the boundary splitting, so that the static globularization kinetics of α phase increases with increasing deformation degrees. As a thermally activated process, the diffusivity of solutes is determined by annealing temperature. Thus, the static globularization can be accelerated by increasing the temperature, especially when the strain is low. Meanwhile, globularization ratio increases while static globularization kinetics decrease to a constant with increasing the annealing time. The JMAK equation can be used to describe the static globularization kinetics.