Abstract
Anisotropy is one of the concerns of titanium matrix composites (TMCs) due to its impact on subsequent processing and safe serving. In this work, we demonstrate that simply by using cross-rolling (CR) rather than unidirectional rolling (UDR), significant plastic anisotropy can be removed and an excellent strength-ductility combination can be achieved in a new TiB-reinforced TMC (TiB-TMC). We attribute the occurrence of plastic anisotropy after UDR to be the strong rolling-induced orientation distribution of TiB whiskers parallel to the rolling direction (RD), while the elimination of anisotropy is therefore confirmed to be caused by the loss of such an orientation relationship. The underlying mechanism is revealed as the lower stress concentration along the lateral surface of the randomly distributed whiskers and the longer paths when cracks propagate in between each whisker, in the CR-processed TiB-TMC.