Tensile behavior of dual-phase titanium alloys under high-intensity proton beam exposure: radiation-induced omega phase transformation in Ti-6Al-4V

A high-intensity proton beam exposure with 181 MeV energy has been conducted at Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer facility on various material specimens for accelerator targetry applications, including titanium alloys as a beam window material. The radiation damage level of the analyzed capsule was 0.25 dpa at beam center region with an irradiation temperature around 120 degree C. Tensile tests showed increased hardness and a large decrease in ductility for the dual alpha+beta-phase Ti-6Al-4V Grade-5 and Grade-23 extra low interstitial alloys, with the near alpha-phase Ti-3Al-2.5V Grade-9 alloy still exhibiting uniform elongation of a few % after irradiation. Transmission Electron Microscope analyses on Ti-6Al-4V indicated clear evidence of a high-density of defect clusters with size less than 2 nm in each alpha-phase grain. The beta-phase grains did not contain any visible defects such as loops or black dots, while the diffraction patterns clearly indicated omega-phase precipitation in an advanced formation stage. The radiation-induced omega-phase transformation in the beta-phase could lead to greater loss of ductility in Ti-6Al-4V alloys in comparison with Ti-3Al-2.5V alloy with less beta-phase.