Co-construction of microstructure evolution and wear resistance of in-situ TiBw/TA15 composites with network structure

To further improve the wear resistance of titanium alloy, titanium matrix composites with network distributed TiBw were fabricated. Microstructure evolution and wear mechanism of TA15 alloy and 5 vol% TiBw/TA15 composites were investigated at the temperature of 25 °C and 600 °C. The wear rate of TiBw/TA15 composites at 600 °C was only 7.2 × 10−5 mm3/(N·m). Compared to TA15 alloy, the wear rate of composites decreased by 17.2% at room temperature and 38.4% at high temperature. A novel approach was used to investigate the enhancement role of reinforcement on wear resistance of composites: co-construction of subsurface microstructure evolution and wear resistance through multi-angle observation. The results showed that the improvement of the wear resistance at room temperature was attributed to the TiBw, which enhanced work hardening and improved thermal conductivity. During high- temperature wear process, the TiBw effectively hindered dislocation movement and promoted the DRX, which decreased the stress concentration caused by severe plastic deformation.