Texture inheritance and variant selection through an hcp–bcc–hcp phase transformation Original Research Article

In situ phase transformation experiments have been carried out using neutron diffraction to monitor the texture evolution during the α → β → α phase transformation in a common zirconium alloy. In contrast to recently reported results by other authors, there is clear evidence of a strong variant selection occurring during the α → β transformation and a weaker variant selection during the β → α transformation. Modeling of the texture change associated with the phase transformation has been successful in describing the variant selection occurring during the α → β transformation, and gives insights into the selection occurring during the β → α transformation. The results are relevant to processing of both zirconium and titanium.