# Development of Viscoplastic Constitutive Model Considering Heating Rate Effect on Grain Size and Phase Evolution in Hot Deformation

## TL;DR

This study develops a new model to predict how heating rates affect the microstructure and performance of titanium alloys during hot forming.

## Contribution

The heating rate is introduced into a viscoplastic constitutive model for the first time to predict microstructure and flow behavior.

## Key findings

- Higher heating rates reduce β-phase transformation and grain coarsening, improving formability.
- The model achieves 92.93% accuracy in predicting hot flow behavior and 94.97% for phase volume fraction.
- Components formed at higher heating rates show better thickness uniformity and yield strength.

## Abstract

The heating rates and forming temperatures during the hot forming process of titanium alloys cause significant differences in phase transformation, grain size, and dislocation evolution. The formability and service performance of titanium alloy formed components are affected by these factors. This study investigated the hot flow behaviors of Ti-6Al-4V at temperatures ranging from 800 to 900 °C and heating rates ranging from 0.1 to 10 °C/s. These were tested via Gleeble hot tensile experiments, and the grain size and phase evolution were quantitatively characterized via EBSD and XRD. The results suggest that a higher heating rate decreases the β-phase transformation and dislocation density and inhibits grain coarsening, leading to better formability. The heating rate was introduced into the viscoplastic constitutive model for the first time to achieve accurate predictions of the microstructure and hot flow behavior under different heating rates. The prediction accuracy of the hot flow behavior and phase volume fraction reaches 92.93% and 94.97%. The current-assisted hot stamping experiments and finite element (FE) simulations of Ti-6Al-4V irregular cross-section components were carried out at temperatures of 800 and 900 °C and at heating rates of 1 and 3 °C/s. The results show that the rapidly heated formed components exhibit better thickness uniformity and yield strength. The FE simulation guided by the optimized constitutive model has achieved a 96.96% and 92.76% prediction accuracy for the thickness distribution and β-phase volume fraction, respectively.