Development of ultra-high strength titanium alloy

With the rapid development of new generation aerospace craft towards high-speed, large-scale, and complex structure, high fuel efficiency by leaps and bounds, the titanium alloy structural materials with high specific strength, high specific modulus, high toughness, high damage tolerance, low cost and weld-able were required. In addition, explicit requirement for high strength titanium alloy and ultra-high titanium alloy in the aspects of aerospace, weapon and ship weapon equipment, such as force-bearing component, force-bearing bolt, high strength spring, catapult and armored used in aircraft carrier, etc, was put forward. Therefore, as one of the key supporting materials in new generation weapon development, ultra-high strength titanium alloy was the major purpose of titanium alloy development and application study, and was also given much attention and stressed by the developed countries. The development and applications of the main ultra-high strength titanium alloys at home and abroad, such as TB8, TB-13, Ti-B19, Ti-B20, GUM, β21S and Timetal-LCB were introduced, it was found that with the strength increase of ultra-high strength titanium alloy, plastic, ductility, modulus, fatigue property and damage tolerance property were decreased in different degrees, meanwhile, the further system research on the fundamental problem of alloying mechanism, strengthening and toughening theory and method were lacked. Finally the future development trends of ultra-high strength titanium alloys were proposed.