A multi-scale algorithm for dislocation creep at elevated temperatures

Dislocation creep at elevated temperatures plays an important role for plastic deformation in crystalline metals.When using traditional discrete dislocation dynamics(DDD)to capture this process,we often need to update the forces on N dislocations involving~N 2 interactions.In this letter,we introduce a multi-scale algorithm to speed up the calculations by dividing a sample of interest into sub-domain grids:dislocations within a characteristic area interact following the conventional way,but their interaction with dislocations in other grids are simplified by lumping all dislocations in another grid as a super one.Such a multi-scale algorithm lowers the computational load to~N 1.5.We employed this algorithm to model dislocation creep in Al-Mg alloy.The simulation leads to a power-law creep rate in consistent with experimental observations.The stress exponent of the power-law creep is a resultant of dislocations climb for~5 and viscous dislocations glide for~3.

Atomic scale visualizations of low-angle grain boundary mediated plasticity by coupled dislocation climb and glide in nanoporous gold

Grain boundaries(GBs),as a prevalent structural characteristic,play a crucial role in the deformation of nanoporous metals with nanosized grains and ligaments.However,the fundamental understanding of GB-mediated deformation is still lacking because the plastic behavior of discrete ligaments involving GBs remains to be unknown.Here,we report atomic scale visualizations of coupled GB dislocation climb and glide in nanoporous gold ligaments with low-angle GBs via in situ tensile straining inside a Cs-corrected transmission electron microscope.The zig-zag motion paths of GB dislocations are precisely determined by real-time tracking of the movements of dislocation cores.The concurrent climb and glide of the dislocation arrays are confined to a narrow GB region,greatly enhancing GB diffusion in the bicrystal ligament.Our findings of coupled dislocation climb and glide shine a light on the room-temperature deformation of nanoporous metals and provide a time-dependent atomic-level physical image for GB engineering.

Dislocation-mediated migration of interphase boundaries

Faceted interphase boundaries(IPBs)are commonly observed in lath-shaped precipitates in alloys consisting of simple face-centred cubic(fcc),body centred-cubic(bcc)or hexagonal closed packed(hcp)phases,which normally contain one or two sets of parallel dislocations.The influence of these dislocations on interface migration and possible accompanying long-range strain field remain unclear.To elucidate this,we carried out atomistic simulations to investigate the dislocation-mediated migration processes of IPBs in a pure-iron system.Our results show that the migration of these IPBs is accompanied with the slip of interfacial dislocations,even in high-index slip planes,with two migration modes were observed:the first mode is the uniform migration mode that occurs only when all of the dislocations slip in a common slip plane.A shear-coupled interface migration was observed for this mode.The other interfaces propagate in the stick-slip migration mode that occurs when the dislocations glide on different slip planes,involving dislocation reaction or tangling.A quantitative relationship was established to link the atomic displacements with the dislocation structure,slip plane,and interface normal.The macroscopic shear deformation due to the effect of overall atomic displacement shows a good agreement with the results obtained based on the phenomenological theory of martensite crystallography.Our findings have general implications for the understanding of phase transformations and the surface relief effect at the atomic scale.

Deformation mechanism of commercially pure titanium under biaxial loading at ambient and elevated temperatures

Commercially pure(CP)titanium is thermally processed and subjected to biaxial stress.However,the evolution of the microstructural deformation mechanisms under such circumstances is not adequately understood.In this study,the mechanical responses and microstructural deformation mechanisms of TA2 CP titanium sheets under equi-biaxial loading at room temperature(RT),300℃,and 400℃were studied.The activated slip and twinning systems were investigated by transmission electron microscopy(TEM)after polished cruciform specimens were biaxially tensile-tested at RT and elevated temperatures.The results show that{11¯22}contraction twinning and{10¯12}extension twinning are the main deforma-tion mechanisms of RT biaxial deformation,while dislocation glide is predominant in biaxial deformation at 300℃and 400℃.This difference yields varied work-hardening behaviors at RT and elevated tem-peratures.In biaxial deformation at 400℃,the main slip trace type is multiple slip.The interaction of different slip systems in multiple slip created shear deformation concentration areas and further induced cross-slip.However,in biaxial deformation at 300℃,the amounts of simplex and multiple slip were significantly reduced compared to those at 400℃because the lower temperature increased the critical resolved shear stress and insufficient activated slip systems were available for grain deformation.There-fore,several stress-concentration areas were generated with the activation of cross-slip.

The dual effect of grain size on the strain hardening behaviors of Ni-Co-Cr-Fe high entropy alloys

It has been well documented that grain size plays a critical role in the strain hardening behaviors of metals and alloys.However,the influence of grain size on the strain hardening of high entropy alloys(HEAs)was not fully understood.Here,we report that the grain size not only affects the twinning-induced plasticity(TWIP)effect but also changes the dislocation-based deformation behaviors of face-centeredcubic(fcc)HEAs significantly.The strain hardening and deformation micro-mechanisms of NiCoCrFe and Ni_(2)CoCrFe were investigated using electron channeling contrast(ECCI)analysis.Our results showed that Ni_(2)CoCrFe exhibits a typical three-stage strain hardening behavior and NiCoCrFe shows the fourth stage at high strains due to the TWIP effect.For both NiCoCrFe and Ni_(2)CoCrFe,the increase of grain size leads to a transition of dislocation glide from wavy to planar mode,resulting in a low value and the recovery of strain hardening rate in stage II.The large-grain NiCoCrFe showed a higher strain hardening rate in stage IV due to the promoted deformation twinning.Combining the strain hardening behaviors of the TWIPNiCoCrFe and the mechanically stable Ni_(2)CoCrFe,we showed that the grain size influences the stage II hardening through tuning dislocation glide mode and the stage IV by tailoring deformation twinning activity of the Ni-Co-Cr-Fe HEAs.The grain size just affects stages I and III slightly in the current cases.These findings will also provide some insights into the understanding of strain hardening behaviors in other face-centered-cubic HEAs.