Room and cryogenic deformation behavior of AZ61 and AZ61-xCaO(x=0.5,1 wt.%)alloy

This study investigates the influence of CaO(0.5,1(wt.%))alloying on the microstructural evolution,texture development and deformation behavior of AZ61 magnesium alloy.The uniaxial tension tests at room(RT)and cryogenic(CT,-150℃)temperature were performed to investigate the twinability and dislocation behavior and its consequent effect on flow stress,ductility and strain hardening rate.The results showed that the AZ61-1CaO exhibited superior strength/ductility synergy at RT with a yield strength(YS)of 223 MPa and a ductility of 23% as compared to AZ61(178 MPa,18.5%)and AZ61-0.5CaO(198 MPa,21%).Similar trend was witnessed for all the samples during CT deformation,where increase in the YS and decrease in ductility were observed.The Mtex tools based in-grain misorientation axis(IGMA)analysis of RT deformed samples revealed the higher activities of prismatic slip in AZ61-CaO,which led to superior ductility.Moreover,subsequent EBSD analysis of CT deformed samples showed the increased fraction of fine{10-12}tension twins and nucleation of multiple{10-12}twin variants caused by higher local stress concentration at the grain boundaries,which imposed the strengthening by twin-twin interaction.Lastly,the detailed investigations on strengthening contributors showed that the dislocation strengthening has the highest contribution towards strength in all samples.

Grade-4 commercially pure titanium with ultrahigh strength achieved by twinning-induced grain refinement through cryogenic deformation

The yield strength of commercially pure(CP) Ti of ASTM grade 4, the strongest among all the CP-Ti grades, is too low for structural applications that require high-strength materials. Here, we demonstrate the strengthening of grade-4 CP Ti by cryogenic-temperature rolling(CTR), which enables deformation twinning in grade-4 CP Ti to achieve twinning-induced grain refinement. CTR activated {11.22} twinning and {10.12} twinning, which are the most common twinning systems in pure Ti, whereas room-temperature rolling(RTR) did not activate any twinning system. CTR with imposing an area reduction of just 30% significantly increased the yield strength of the CP Ti to 946 MPa, which is not achievable through typical processes performed at or above room temperature and is comparable to that of commercial Ti-6 Al-4 V. The significant increase in strength was due to microstructural strengthening caused by twinning-induced grain refinement, combined with dislocation accumulation. In contrast to RTR, CTR greatly increased the stress concentration at grain boundaries(GBs), which caused the unusual activation of twinning in the grade-4 CP Ti by facilitating twin nucleation at GBs. The stress concentration increased because CTR activated the slip to a lesser extent compared to RTR, thereby reducing the strain compatibility between neighboring grains. These results will contribute to development of ultrahigh-strength CP Ti and may thereby extend its use to structural applications that require high-strength materials.

Achieving high ductility and strength in magnesium alloy through cryogenic-hot forming

Magnesium alloys are the lightest structural alloys and have attracted substantial research attention in the past two decades. However, their mechanical properties, including ductility and strength, are limited after forming due to the formation of coarse grains and strong texture. This study proposes and proves a new cryogenic-hot forming process concept. Cryogenic deformation is imposed before the hot deformation. The effect of the cryogenic step has been compared with a conventional direct hot deformation process. The mechanical properties, microstructure,and texture of both the novel and conventional process routes have been compared. The cryogenic-hot deformed sample exhibits the highest ductility and fracture strength(ultimate tensile strength: 321 MPa, ductility: 21%) due to effective grain refinement and texture weakening by cryogenically formed twin-twin interaction induced recrystallisation. The proposed cryogenic-hot forming process can be a potential innovative manufacturing method for producing high-performance magnesium components.

Microstructure evolution of alumina dispersion strengthened copper alloy deformed under different conditions

Microstructure and texture evolution of Cu-0.23%Al2O3 dispersion strengthened copper alloy, deformed at room temperature or cryogenic temperature, were investigated. The main textures in hot-extruded specimen were Brass {011} 〈211〉 and Cube {100} 〈100〉. Textures of Brass {011} 〈211〉 and Goss {011} 〈100〉 were observed in specimen after deformation at room temperature; while textures of Brass {011} 〈211〉, Goss {011} 〈100〉 and S {123} 〈634〉 were detected after deformation at cryogenic temperature. It is believed that the additional Al2O3 nanoparticles can result in dislocation pinning effect, which can further lead to the suppression of dislocations cross-slip. While in the specimen deformed at cryogenic temperature, both pinning effect and cryogenic temperature are responsible for the formation of Brass, Goss and S textures.

Temperature dependence of microstructure and texture in cold drawn aluminum wire

The effect of strain and drawing temperature on the evolution of microstructure and fiber textures of aluminum wiresdrawn at room temperature and cryogenic temperature was investigated by TEM and EBSD observations.The results show that lowangle boundaries frequency increases and high angle boundaries frequency decreases with strain increasing when the strain is low.Athigh strain,most of grain and dislocation boundaries are parallel to the drawn direction and low angle boundaries frequencydecreases and high angle boundaries frequency increases with strain increasing.The decrease of deformation temperature leads tomicrostructure finer and low angle boundaries frequency increasing.Texture analysis indicates that volume fraction of complextexture component decreases with strain increasing and a mixture of?111?and?100?fiber texture forms at high strain.?111?is stableat low strains but?100?becomes stable at high strain.The decrease of temperature can enhance the stability of?111?orientation athigh strain.

Deformation Behavior of Fe-36Ni Steel during Cryogenic( 123-173 K) Rolling

Microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of cryogenic rolled Fe-36Ni steel were investigated. The annealed Fe-36Ni steel was rolled at cryogenic temperature（ 123-173 K） with 20%- 90% rolling reduction in thickness.The deformation process was accompanied by twinning at cryogenic temperature,and the mean thickness of deformation twins was about 200 nm with 20% rolling reduction. When the rolling reduction was above 40%,twinning was suppressed due to the stress concentration in the tested steel. Deformation microstructure of Fe-36Ni steel consisted of both twin boundaries and dislocations by cryogenic rolling（ CR）,while it only contained dislocations after rolling at room temperature（ RT）. The tensile strength of Fe-36Ni steel was improved to 930 MPa after 90% reduction at cryogenic temperature,while the tensile strength after 90% reduction at RT was only 760 MPa. More dislocations could be produced as the nucleation sites of recrystallization during CR process.

Synergy effect of multi-strengthening mechanisms in FeMnCoCrN HEA at cryogenic temperature

High-entropy alloys(HEAs)have attracted great research interest owing to their good combination of high strength and ductility at both room and cryogenic temperatures.However,expensive raw materials are always added to overcome the strength-ductility trade-off at low temperatures,leading to an increased production cost for the cryogenically used alloys.In this work,a series of nitrogen-doped Fe Mn Co Cr HEAs have been processed by homogenization annealing,cold rolling and recrystallization annealing followed by water quenching.The microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of the alloys are studied systematically.The Fe_(49)Mn_(30)Co_(10)Cr_(10)N1alloy shows excellent mechanical properties at both 293 K and 77 K.Particularly,the yield and ultimate tensile strength of 1078 and 1630 MPa are achieved at the cryogenic temperature,respectively,while a satisfactory uniform elongation of 33.5%is maintained.The ultrahigh yield strength results from the microstructure refinement caused by the activation of athermal martensitic transformation and mechanical twinning that occur in the elastic regime together with the increased lattice friction due to the cryogenic environment.In the plastic regime,the dynamic Hall-Petch effect caused by twinning,martensitic transformation,and reverse transformation together with the high barrier to dislocation motion jointly contribute to the ultrahigh tensile strength.Simultaneously,the transformation induced plasticity(TRIP)and the twinning induced plasticity(TWIP)effects jointly contribute to the ductility.The design strategy for attaining superior mechanical properties at low temperatures,i.e.by adjusting stacking fault energy in the interstitial metastable HEAs,guides the development of high-performance and low-cost alloys for cryogenic applications.

High strength-ductility nano-structured high manganese steel produced by cryogenic asymmetry-rolling

A bulk nanostructured twinning-induced plasticity （TWIP） steel with high ductility and high strength was fabricated by cryogenic asymmetry-rolling （cryo-ASR） and subsequent recovery treatment. It was found that the cryo-ASRed TWIP steels exhibit simultaneous improvements in the ductility, strength and work hardening. Typical microstructures of the cryo-ASR TWIP steel were characterized by shear bands and intensive mechanical nano-sized twins induced by cryogenic deformation. These mechanical nano-scale twins remain thermally stable during the subsequent recovery treatment. It is believed that the ductility enhancement and high work-hardening ability for the cryo-ASR TWIP steels should be mainly attributed to the high-densitv pre-existing nano-scale twins.