Study of the variant selection in sharp textured regions of bimodal IMI 834 billet

The bimodal microstructure of a IMI 834 billet was studied. It presents sharp textured regions called macrozones in which the main texture component of αs colonies of hcp symmetry, inherited from β grains of bcc structure is such as the c axes coincide with those of the αp grains characterised by one single texture component. This feature is the result of a variant selection. Analysis and simulations suggest that elastic anisotropy could be decisive for the selection.