Up-Hill Diffusion of Phase-Separated FeCu Melt by Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Molecular dynamics simulation is performed to characterize the concentration fluctuation of FeCu melts during the liquid-liquid phase separation process, which undergoes the following stages： the formation of interconnected structure and its coarsening, migration and coagulation of droplets driven by the decreasing of potential energy. The up-hill diffusion happens at the early relaxation period in which Cu atoms in Fe-rich region are forced to move toward Cu-rich region by spinodal decomposition with 90~ Cu content in Cu-rich region and 95~o Fe content in Fe-rich region at temperature of 1500K. The higher diffusion rate of homogeneous atom can be observed at lower temperature, which is attributed to the larger potential energy difference between Cu-rich region and Fe-rich region. It also exhibits energy heterogeneity in the separated liquid. The domain size decreases sharply during the aggregation and coarsening of droplets, after that it keeps unchanged until the coagulation of droplets begins. The studies characterize concentration and energy heterogeneity of phase-separated liquid on the atomic scale.

Enhanced mechanical performance of gradient-structured CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys induced by industrial shot-blasting

In this study,CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys(HEAs)with a surface gradient nanostructure were produced using industrial shot blasting,which improved their mechanical properties compared to the untreated alloy.The severely plastically deformed(SPD)surface layer had a multi-scale hierarchical structure with a high density of stacking faults,deformation nanotwins,and amorphous domains.The depth of the SPD layer steadily increased as the shot-blasting time increased.The differences in the microhardness and tensile strength before and after shotblasting demonstrated the significant effect of the SPD layer on the mechanical performance.The microhardness of the homogenized HEA was~5 GPa.In comparison,the maximum microhardness of the specimens after 20 min of shot blasting was~8.0 GPa at the surface.The yield strength also improved by 178%,and a large ductility of~36%was retained.Additional nanograin boundary,stacking fault,and twin strengthening within the gradientnanostructured surface layer caused the strength to increase.During tensile deformation,strain concentration began at the surface of the specimen and gradually spread to the interior.Thus,the gradient-nanostructured surface layer with improved strain hardening can prevent early necking and ensure steady plastic deformation so that high toughness is achieved.

Microstructural Features and Mechanical Behaviors of Al_(0.5)Cr_(0.8)CoFeNi_(2.5)V_(0.2) High-Entropy Alloys Fabricated by Selective Laser Melting Technique

In this work,high strength and ductile Al_(0.5)Cr_(0.8)CoFeNi_(2.5)V_(0.2) high-entropy alloys(HEAs)were fabricated by the selective laser melting(SLM)technique.After orthogonal experiments,it was verified that a wide SLM processing parameter window can be used to produce crack-free samples for the investigated HEAs.All the printed HEA samples exhibit good densification higher than 98.3%.It was found that obvious epitaxial growth leads to the formation of the cylindrical and equiaxed ordered face-centered cubic(FCC)crystals,displaying the characteristics of sub-cylindrical and sub-cellular microstructures.The low-angle grain boundaries(LAGBs)prefer appearing around subgrain structures,while the high-angle grain boundaries(HAGBs)tend to form around coarse grains.Two HEA samples with high and low apparent densities were selected to observe their mechanical properties,which exhibit Vickers hardness higher than 263 HV and do not fail during compression.With increasing densification,the strength gradually rises.According to the engineering stress–strain curves during compression,the yield strength is higher than 530 MPa,while the strength near 40%engineering strain is larger than 1840 MPa.During deformation,a large density of dislocations becomes popular within subgrain structures together with the pre-existing dislocations from rapid solidification,leading to the formation of planar and cross slip bands.Within coarse cylindrical crystals,some deformation twins are also induced together with the appearance of a distinct copper-type texture during deformation.As a result,the as-printed samples display better mechanical properties than the as-cast counterpart.The present studies provide a very good HEA candidate for the SLM process,but more work should be conducted to achieve excellent comprehensive properties.

Effect of pre-existing shear bands on mechanical properties and serration behaviors in bulk metallic glasses

Pre-existing（multiple）shear bands were introduced into the ductile Zr56Co28Al16 and Zr65Ni10Cu15Al10bulk metallic glasses（BMGs）through the lateral-deformation,respectively.It was found that the pre-exiting shear bands can further enhance the compressive plasticity of ductile BMGs.According to the serration analysis on the plastic deformation of the as-cast and the pre-deformed samples,the serration events in the stress-strain curves during deformation display a self-organized critical（SOC）behavior.Compared with the as-cast BMGs,a larger power-law scaling exponent calculated based on serrated flow behaviors becomes larger for the pre-deformed BMGs,implying that the shear banding stability of BMGs is effectively enhanced.This should be caused by the pronounced interactions of shear bands during plastic deformation for the pre-deformed BMGs.However,by introducing a large amount of multiple shear bands into the glassy matrix,it also becomes easier for shear bands to propagate along the pre-existing shear bands,leading to a lower cut-off elastic energy density for the pre-deformed BMGs.More multiple shear bands with stronger interactions for the pre-deformed BMGs could provide a larger chance to activate the shear-band cracking but less local elastic energies are remained for the subsequent crack-linking.

Influence of Zn Addition on Microstructures and Martensitic Transformation in CuZr-based Alloys

Compositional dependences on microstructures and martensitic transformation behaviors in（Cu_（0.5）Zr_（0.5））_（100-x）Zn_x（x=1.5,2.5,4.5,7.0,10.0,and 14.0at.%）alloys were investigated.It was found that CuZr martensites were present in the present alloys.With increasing Zn content,the volume fractions of CuZr martensitic crystals and B2 CuZr phase gradually decrease and increase,respectively.With the addition of high Zn contents（i.e.,7.0,10.0,and 14.0at.%）,the matrix proves to be eutectic.Thermal analysis results show that the initial martensitic transformation temperature（M_s）decreases from（412±5）K to（329±5）K as the Zn content increases from 1.5at.% to14.0at.%.The values of Msof Cu-Zr-Zn shape memory alloys are inversely proportional to the number and concentrations of valence electrons（i.e.,e_v/a and c_v）,respectively,implying that the martensitic transformation in CuZrZn alloys could be of electronic nature.