An investigation of the mechanical and microstructural evolution of a TiNbZr alloy with varied ageing time

Alloys comprised of the highly biocompatible elements titanium, niobium and zirconium have been a major focus in recent years in the field of metallic biomaterials. To contribute to the corpus of data in this field, the current paper presents results from a thorough microstructural and mechanical investigation of Ti-32Nb-6Zr subjected to a variety of ageing treatments. The presented alloy was stabilized to the higher temperature, body-centred cubic phase, showing only minimal precipitation on prolonged ageing, despite the presence of nanoscaled spinodal segregation arising from the Nb-Zr interaction. It further showed excellent mechanical properties, with tensile yield stresses as high as 820 MPa and Young’s moduli as low as 53 GPa. This leads to the ratio of strength to modulus, also known as the admissible strain, reaching a maximum of 1.3% after 6 hours ageing. These results are further supported by similar measurements from nanoindentation analysis.