Substitutional-interstitial interactions in niobium-titanium alloys: An internal friction study

The influence of additions of interstitial oxygen and nitrogen on the internal friction spetrum of the niobium-1 at-% titanium alloy was studied. The nature of the various observed relaxation processes introduced by the presence of substitutional titanium is discussed. A thermodynamic analysis was carried out for two pronounced interaction peaks attributed to the stress-induced reorientation of single oxygen or nitrogen atoms around single titanium atoms and the respective binding energies were estimated. It was also found that, over the range of oxygen concentration studied, interstitial oxygen is completely removed from random migration by substitutional titanium atoms acting as trapping centres, whilst nitrogen population is always partitioned between mobile and trapped atoms even at very low relative nitrogen concentrationsC _N/C _Ti. A possible reason for the different behavior of oxygen and nitrogen is suggested.