Environmental Effects on Titanium Alloys^⋆

The detrimental effects of certain environments on titanium alloys have been known for many years and have been well documented. Other significant effects have been determined only recently, and can, in fact, be detected only under specific conditions. A summary of these more recent observations of environmental effects is given and an attempt is made to relate them to known and understood properties of titanium alloys. It is shown that most of the available evidence points to a particular mechanism for crack propagation in titanium alloys, which may not be identical to that of other metal systems but which may aid in the study of other systems in that it can be isolated readily.