Deformation behaviors and microstructure evolution of Ti6321 alloy under air blast loadings

The response of the Ti–6Al–3Nb–2Zr–1Mo alloy plate under air blast loading was studied. The deformation of the target plate under explosion increased with the increase of charge. The failure features included inelastic deformation, partial tearing, and tensile tearing under different degrees of loadings. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to characterize the evolution of microstructure. The result showed that the density of dislocations has a positive correlation with the blast loadings, meaning the major role of the slip. The twinning would help the slip of dislocations in the deformation. The first type of twins generated under blast loadings were {10–12} extension twins. A high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) was employed to study the special boundaries of the {11–24} contraction twins and {11–22} contraction twins. Due to the blast loadings, they were not exactly parallel to the theoretical twinning plane. The twin boundary was parallel to the base plane of the matrix.