4V alloy by rapid heat treatment (RHT) into a single β phase region followed by water
quenching. Ultrafine-grained equiaxed α+ β microstructure obtained by hot compression of
martensite was used as the starting microstructure for subsequent RHT. By increasing the
heating rate from 10° C/s to 50° C/s, the resulting β grain size was refined from 40 μm to 8
μm, which was the smallest size of β reported so far. Both strength and ductility increased …