Abstract
The thermal parameter boundary conditions of the unstable deformation microstructure and dynamic recrystallized microstructure of BT25 titanium alloy were determined by the instability maps and power dissipation maps, respectively. The results were used in the Deform-3D finite element (FE) software to effectively combine the processing map technique with FE technique. The FE codes after secondary development were used to simulate and predict the unstable deformation zones and dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behavior of BT25 titanium alloy at the deformation temperature of 950~1100 °C and the strain rate of 0.001~1
Science Press
Because of the high specific strength and corrosion resistance at high temperature, titanium alloys have attracted extensive attentio
The unstable deformation and dynamic recrystallization (DRX) microstructures are the most common forged deformed microstructures in the process of hot machining, which play a decisive role in the mechanical properties of forging
With the rapid development of computer technology, finite element (FE) method and processing map technique are more and more widely used. The FE method can simulate the microstructure evolution of metal materials in time and space dimensions. More and more scholars have combined the processing map technique with FE method. In the early stage, Sivaprasad et a
At present, the researches on BT25 titanium alloy are mainly focused on mechanical properties and process optimization. Ma et a
The experiment material is BT25 forged bar with a diameter of 200 mm and a height of 20 mm, and its main chemical composition is 7wt% AI, 2.2wt% Mo,1.1wt% W, 1wt% Zr, and balanced Ti. The phase transus temperature of (α+β)/β is about 1026 °C, and the initial microstructure is duplex, as shown in

Fig.1 Original microstructure of BT25 titanium alloy
The specimens with dimension of Φ8 mm×12 mm were cut from the radial middle region of the forged bar by wire-electrode. The isothermal compression experiment of BT25 alloy was conducted by Gleeble-3500 thermomechanical simulator at the temperatures of 950, 980, 1010, 1040, 1070, and 1100 °C and the strain rates of 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and 1
Fig.2 shows the true stress-true strain curves of BT25 titanium alloy at different deformation temperatures and strain rates. At the beginning of deformation, the flow stress is increased rapidly to the peak stress with increasing the true strain, and then it is decreased slowly and remains stable after reaching a certain true strain. This is mainly because in the early stage of thermal compression, work hardening takes the dominant position. With increasing the deformation tempe-rature and true strain, the dislocation density is increased continuously, and the phenomenon of process softening effect begins to appear. Subsequently, the softening effect of processing takes the dominant position, and the flow stress decreases until the two effects are balanced and stabl
As shown in Fig.2a and 2b, the flow stress is decreased with increasing the deformation temperature or decreasing the strain rate. On the one hand, the mobility at boundaries is higher and dislocation annihilation occurs more easily at the higher temperature, which promotes the phenomenon of dynamic softening effect. On the other hand, the lower strain rate provides more time for dynamic recovery and recrystallization, resulting in the lower work hardenin

According to the extremum principle of irreversible thermodynamics of plastic rheolog
(1) |
where is equivalent strain rate; J is the dissipative covariance, representing the power consumption related to the microstructure change during the deformation process. J can be expressed by
(2) |
where m is the strain rate sensitivity index, is equivalent stress, and is strain rate. Take logarithm on both sides of
(3) |
The instability maps satisfy the variation of instability parameterswith strain rate and deformation temperature. According to the data of flow stress at different deformation temperatures and strain rates obtained from the isothermal strain rate compression experiment, the instability maps of BT25 titanium alloy under different strains were obtained based on the Prasad instability criterion. The areas of <0 are marked in gray, as shown in

Fig.3 Instability maps at different strains: (a) ε=0.3 and (b) ε=0.9
The instability superposition maps of the material were obtained by superposing the instability maps of all strains, as shown in Fig.4. Because the deformed microstructure in the instability region is obtained from the instability deformed microstructure, the range of the instability region in the un-stable superposition maps can be used as the boundary condi-tion of the thermal parameters of the unstable deformation.
Fig.4 Superposition map of instability maps
The FE software of Deform-3D was programmed and the boundary conditions of thermodynamic parameters of the deformed microstructure obtained from the instability maps were imported into the software. In the simulation, when the calculation result of a certain load deformation step con-verges, the thermal parameter field variables (temperature field, strain rate field, and strain field) in the deformation body are compared with the boundary conditions of the thermal parameters of the unstable deformed microstructure. If the thermal parameter field variables of a region in the deformation body is within the boundary condition of the thermal parameter of the unstable deformed microstructure, the region is determined as a unstable deformed microstruc-ture, and its range is shown in the form of cloud graph. By analogy, the formation and evolution of unstable deformed microstructure in the process of thermal compression can also be simulated.

Fig.5 shows the simulation results of the unstable deformed microstructure in the constant strain rate compression process under different deformation parameters. In Fig.5, the orange, yellow, and blue areas represent the stable deformed, unstable deformed, and undeformed microstructures, respectively. The simulated figures are ranged orderly according to the height reduction of specimens: 0%, 15%, 30%, 45%, and 60%. P1, P2, and P3 are the marking points of free deformation zone, difficult deformation zone, and large deformation zone in specimens, respectively. As shown in Fig.5, when the deformation temperature is stable, the higher the strain rate, the larger the unstable microstructure area. In the early stage of thermal compression with the height reduction of 15%, a small amount of unstable deformed microstructure appears in the difficult deformation zone. With the development of deformation, the stable deformed microstructure area gradually shrinks and the unstable deformed microstructure area gradually expands.


Fig.6 shows the equivalent strain rate variation curves of the material in different deformation zones under different deformation conditions. With increasing the height reduction, the equivalent strain rate in difficult deformation zone (P2) rises slowly, while that in other areas increases firstly and then slowly decreases. Fig.6a indicates the decrement of strain rate in the large deformation zone is only 0.06

According to dynamic material model (DMM) theor
(4) |
where G is energy dissipation, representing the power consumed by plastic deformation; is the equivalent stress. The power dissipation efficiency
(5) |
Fig.7 Power dissipation efficiency maps under different strains:
(a) ε=0.3; (b) ε=0.9
where Jmax is the maximum value of ideal linear energy dissipation (m=1) with Jmax=P/
According to Ref.[

Fig.8 Thermomechanical parameters of DRX structure region of BT25 titanium alloy
The critical strain of DRX refers to the true strain corresponding to the time when DRX occurs. It is important to determine the critical conditions for DRX to study the thermal processing of materials. In order to establish the critical strain model of BT25 titanium alloy, Najafizade
To determine the working hardening rate θ=dσ/dε of BT25 titanium alloy, the slope of each strain point on the true stress-strain curves needs to be calculated. Since the curves are not smooth, the fitting software was used with the strain difference ∆ε=0.005 as the interval point. The deformation temperature of BT25 titanium alloy is 1070 °C, the strain rate is 0.01
(6) |
(7) |
Using the negative derivative of

The DRX critical strain model can be directly imported into the FE software as one of the thermodynamic parameter boundary conditions to judge DRX structure which only occurs atε>εc.
The program was developed again in Deform-3D software. The obtained power dissipation maps and DRX critical strain as boundary conditions of thermal parameters of DRX deformed microstructure were imported into the software. In the FE simulation, when the calculation result of a certain loading deformation step converges, the thermal parameter field variables (temperature field, strain rate field, and strain field) in the deformation body are compared with the thermal parameter boundary conditions of DRX deformed microstruc-ture. If the thermal parameter field variable of a region in the deformation body is within the boundary condition of the thermal parameter of DRX microstructure, and the true strain is greater than the critical strain (ε>εc), the region can be determined as DRX deformed zone and shown in the form of cloud graph. By analogy, the formation and evolution of DRX deformed microstructure in the whole forging process can be simulated and predicted.

Fig.10 Simulation results of DRX microstructure evolution during thermal compression of BT25 titanium alloy under different deformation conditions: (a) T=1040 °C, =1
In order to verify the accuracy of the simulation and prediction results about the unstable deformed microstructure, the specimen compressed with the deformation temperature of 950 °C, strain of 0.92, and strain rate of 1

Fig.11 Simulation result (a) and OM images of P1 (b), P2 (c), and P3 (d) in Fig.11a of specimen deformed at 950 °C with strain of 0.92 and strain rate of 1
In conclusion, when the deformation temperature is constant, the higher the strain rate, the larger the instability area. The conclusion is consistent with the simulation results, which verifies the reliability of the simulation method.
In order to verify the accuracy of DRX deformation simulation and prediction results, the specimens compressed with the deformation temperature of 1070 °C, strain of 0.92, and strain rate of 0.01

Fig.12 Simulation result (a) and OM images of P1 (b), P2 (c), and P3 (d) in Fig.12a of specimen deformed at 1070 °C with strain of 0.92 and strain rate of 0.01
Microstructure observations further suggest that this method combining the boundary conditions of the defor-mation determined by power dissipation maps and boundary conditions of DRX is feasible for predicting the DRX zones during the metal forging.
1) The flow stress of BT25 titanium alloy is decreased with increasing the deformation temperature or decreasing the strain rate. The unstable deformed microstructures are concentrated in the areas of low temperature and high strain rate. Both high temperature and low strain rate are conducive to dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behavior.
2) The finite element (FE) software program was developed to simulate and predict the unstable deformed microstructure and DRX behavior of BT25 titanium alloy during the thermal compression process, which is verified to be feasible.
3) This method can also be used to simulate and predict the microstructure of other metals in the process of thermal processing, which provides guidance for industrial production and optimization of process parameters.
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