Hot deformation behaviour of Cu-1.5Ti (wt-%) alloy

Abstract

A Cu-1.5Ti (wt-%) alloy was subjected to hot compression tests at temperatures ranging from 750 to 900°C and strain rates from 10⁰ s^-1 to 10^-3 s^-1. Flow softening was found to occur at all temperatures and strain rates studied. Deformation at 750°C and a relatively high strain rate (100 s^-1) resulted in grain refinement of the alloy with a grain size of ~25 μm. Room temperature hardness decreased with increasing deformation temperature, i.e. 145 HV10 after deforming at 750°C and 90 HV10 at 900°C. The higher values of hardness observed after deformation at 750°C are attributed to the fine grain size. A maximum value of 0.21 obtained for the strain rate sensitivity index m is not indicative of superplasticity in this alloy. Activation energy Q for the hot deformation process at 1173 K and strain rate 10^-3 s^-1 was determined to be 76 kJ mol^-1.