Evolution of microstructural characteristic and tensile properties during preparation of TiB/Ti composite sheet

In this work, 7.5 vol.% TiB/Ti composite sheet was prepared by casting route then 1-D forging followed by multi-step rolling. Evolution of microstructural characteristic and tensile properties during preparation of TiB/Ti composite sheet was experimentally investigated. The results indicate that as-cast microstructure of TiB/Ti composite can be significantly modified by thermomechanical processing. The initially randomly distributed TiB whiskers within the as cast composite fracture and align during preparing TiB/Ti composite sheet. Reduction in aspect ratio of TiB and a lath width is observed as well. Evolution of tensile properties reveals that the limited strength and low elongation of as cast TiB/Ti composite increase significantly during preparing TiB/Ti composite sheet. The TiB/Ti composite sheet exhibits an excellent balance of strength and elongation to failure. Additionally, the brittle cleavage fracture mode of as-cast TiB/Ti composite changes to a combination of brittle and plastic fracture mode during the preparation of TiB/Ti composite sheet. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.