Mechanical Response and Microstructure Evolution of TA1 Titanium Under Normal Ultrasonic Vibration Processing

Ultrasonic vibration (UV) has been employed in various plastic forming processes due to its special effect known as acoustoplasticity. Mostly, UV is applied along the longitudinal direction in experimental investigations. However, very few studies have focused on normal UV-assisted uniaxial tension, which is more similar to the loading state of sheet metal in actual forming processes. Herein, normal UV-assisted tension tests on a TA1 thin sheet are performed to study its mechanical properties and microstructure evolution. The macro-mechanical behavior is demonstrated by stress–strain curves under different ultrasonic amplitudes and strain rates. Fracture morphology and microstructure evolution are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to reveal the UV softening mechanism at the micro level. The results show that the stress reduction induced by UV reaches 20% when the ultrasonic amplitude is 13.9 μm. Fracture mode changes from ductile fracture to brittle fracture with increasing amplitude. Microstructure examinations show that low-angle grain boundary (LAGB) fraction, kernel average misorientation (KAM), and geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) density in the samples experiencing normal UV-assisted tension are all decreased, leading to a reduction in deformation resistance. The inverse pole figures (IPFs) further reveal that the plastic deformation mechanism of the TA1 thin sheet is diversified with the superposition of normal UV.