Effect of electroplastic rolling on deformability, mechanical property and microstructure evolution of Ti–6Al–4V alloy strip

This research represents an exploratory characterization of titanium alloy strips under electroplastic rolling process compared with cold-rolling process. The formability, mechanical property and microstructure evolution of the titanium alloy strips under these two rolling processes are conducted in the research. Results show that the shaping quality of electroplastic rolled samples is better than that of cold-rolled samples without obvious deformed defects accompanying by lower resistance of deformability (the reduction can reach 31.25%). The final electroplastic rolled products obtain better comprehensive mechanical property with at most 248.5% increment of ductility while sacrificing little strength. In the low-frequency process, dynamic recovery and dynamic recrystallization appear with decreasing average size of grains and increasing volume fraction of recrystallized grains. In the high-frequency process, grain coarsening and uneven growth are both present. The evolution of texture (including basal texture and 10 1 ¯ 0 crystal orientation) and misorientation angle distribution explain the materialsʹ ductility change. Fracture observation also demonstrates this change with transitional fracture modes. The mechanism of rapid dynamic recrystallization and abnormal grain growth under hybrid effects of high-energy electropulses effect and deformation energy is discussed.