Near β-titanium alloys like Ti-5553 or Ti-1023 often exhibit bimodal phase constituents embedded in a retained β-phase matrix, which represents up to 40% of the volume. The highly elastic anisotropic β-phase may strongly influence the mechanical behavior of these alloys. The present work models the effect of the coupled role of β-phase elastic and plastic anisotropies on the local and overall responses of a fully β-phase polycrystalline aggregate like the Ti-17 alloy. The model is based on an advanced elasto-viscoplastic self-consistent (EVPSC) homogenization scheme solved by the "translated field" method together with an affine linearization of the viscoplastic flow rule. The effects of elastic anisotropy, crystallographic texture and grain morphology are theoretically studied during uniaxial tensile tests, tension-compression tests as well as multiaxial plastic yielding. First, it is shown that different sets of elastic constants taken from literature give rise to similar effective responses but to widely scattered incompatibility stresses. During uniaxial tensile loading, the highest local incompatibility stresses are achieved in <111> oriented grains at the end of the elastic regime. Likewise, the effect of the β-grain morphology for realistic grain aspect ratios is seen to be weak on the overall behavior but strong on incompatibility stresses. In addition, the elastic anisotropy can have a significant influence on yield surfaces for β-forged textured polycrystals. Finally, the simulated Bauschinger stress monotonically increases with the elastic anisotropy coefficient for a random texture while it may be reduced in case of β-forged texture due to a competition between elastic and plastic sources of incompatibility stresses.

Near β titanium alloys can now compete with quasi-α or α/β titanium alloys for airframe forging applications. The body-centered cubic β-phase can represent up to 40% of the volume. However, the way that its elastic anisotropy impacts the mechanical behavior remains an open question. In the present work, an advanced elasto-viscoplastic self-consistent model is used to investigate the tensile behavior at different applied strain rates of a fully β-phase Ti alloy taken as a model material. The model considers crystalline anisotropic elasticity and plasticity. It is first shown that two sets of elastic constants taken from the literature can be used to well reproduce the experimental elasto-viscoplastic transition, but lead to scattered mechanical behaviors at the grain scale. Incompatibility stresses and strains are found to increase in magnitude with the elastic anisotropy factor. The highest local stresses are obtained toward the end of the elastic regime for grains oriented with their <111> direction parallel to the tensile axis. Finally, as a major result, it is shown that the elastic anisotropy of the β-phase can affect the distribution of slip activities. In contrast with the isotropic elastic case, it is predicted that {112} <111> slip systems become predominant at the onset of plastic deformation when elastic anisotropy is considered in the micromechanical model.