Comparison of thermal and mechanical properties of γ'-Pt_(3)Al and γ'-Ni_(3)Al phases:A first principles study

High-temperature Ni-based alloys are widely used in the aerospace field due to their excellent properties,but the shortcomings of brittle fracture at the grain boundaries and poor plasticity at room temperature also limit their development to a certain extent.Researchers found that there areγ′precipitation phases similar to Ni_(3)Al in Pt-Al based alloys.In this paper,the CASTEP code of Materials Studio software package is used to simulate the thermal and mechanical properties ofγ′-Pt_(3)Al phase andγ′-Ni_(3)Al phase.By comparing the performance characteristics of the electronic structure,mechanical properties and point defect structure of the two,it is found that the stability,elastic deformation resistance and high temperature creep resistance of theγ′-Pt_(3)Al phase are better than those of theγ′-Ni_(3)Al phase.This will provide theoretical guidance for promoting the development of Pt-Al-based high-temperature materials.

Elastic Modulus and Hardness of Cr-Nb Nano-Multilayers

Cr-Nb nano-multilayered films with various modulation wavelengths A are prepared by e-gun evaporation and their mechanical properties are investigated. Cr and Nb both have bcc structures with large differences in lattice constants and Young＇s modulus, which are supposed to favour modulus enhancement. Nevertheless, nano-indention measurements show no enhancement for the modulus and a slight decrease for the hardness with decreasing A down to 5 nm. This is mainly due to counter-contribution to modulus from adjacent layers subjected to reverse strains, in agreement with recent theoretical study, while the decrease of hardness arises from grain boundary sliding. Interestingly, at A = 3 nm, the hardness of the film has an increase of 44% relative to the value of a rule of mixture, owing to the emergence of a new phase for reconciling the structure difference at the interfaces.

Deformation Twinning in Nanocrystalline Ni during Cryogenic Rolling

Deformation twinning is evidenced by transmission electron microscopy examinations in electrodeposited nanocrystalline （nc） Ni with mean grain size 25nm upon cryogenic rolling. Two twinning mechanisms are confirmed to operate in nc grains, i.e. heterogeneous formation via emission of partial dislocations from the grain boundary and homogeneous nucleation through dynamic overlapping of stacking faults, with the former being determined as the most proficient. Deformation twinning in nc Ni may be well interpreted in terms of molecular dynamics simulation based on generalized planar fault energy curves.

Calculation of Elastic Constants of Ag/Pd Superlattice Thin Films by Molecular Dynamics with Many-Body Potentials

The calculation of elastic constants of Ag/Pd superlattice thin films by molecular dynamics simulations with many-body potentials is presented. It reveals that the elastic constants C11 and C55 increase with decreasing modulation wavelength A of the films, which is consistent with experiments. However, the change of C11 and C55 with A is found to be around the values determined by a rule of mixture using bulk elastic constants of metals. No supermodulus effect is observed and it is due to cancellation between enhanced and reduced contributions to elastic constants from Ag and Pd layers subjected to compressive and tensile strains, respectively.

Optimization of Energy Scope for Titanium Nitride Films Grown by Ion Beam-Assisted Deposition

The deposited energy during film growth with ion bombardment, correlated to the atomic displacement on the surface monolayer and the underlying bulk, has been calculated by a simplified ion-solid interaction model under binary collision approximation. The separated damage energies caused by Ar ion, different for the surface and the bulk, have been determined under the standard collision cross section and a well-defined surface and bulk atom displacement threshold energy of titanium nitride （TIN）. The optimum energy scope shows that the incident energy of At＋ around 110eV for TiN （111） and 80eV for TiN （200） effectively enhances the mobility of adatom on surface but excludes the damage in underlying bulk. The theoretical prediction and the experimental result are in good agreement in low energy ion beam-assisted deposition.

Effects of Processing Parameters on Microstructure and Properties of Nanoscale ZrC/ZrB2 Multilayered Coatings

ZrC/ZrB2 multilayered coatings with bilayer periods of 3.5-40nm are synthesized by rf magnetron sputtering. Analyses of x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and nanoindentation indicate that multilayered coatings possess much higher hardness and greater fracture resistance than monolithic ZrC and ZrB2 coatings. A maximum hardness （41.TCPa） and a critical fracture load （73.7mN） are observed in the multilayer with A = 32 nm deposited at the substrate bias -40 V. Higher residual stress built in the ZrC layer can be released by periodic insertion of ZrB2 into the ZrC layer. A clear multilayered structure with mixed ZrB2（001）, ZrB2 （002） and ZrC （111） orientations should be responsible for the enhanced mechanical properties.

Anomalous crystal structure of γ" phase in the Mg-RE-Zn(Ag) series alloys:Causality clarified by ab initio study

The crystal structure of the single-unit-cell thickness γ " phase,as a key strengthening phase in Mg-REZn(Ag) series alloys,has been extensively studied,and several structural models have been proposed in the past two decades.However,these reported models,and even the lattice constants at the same proposed structure,are scattered severely,which has led to considerable confusion and not available for further mechanical property simulation and prediction of Mg alloys containing this phase.In this study,by using first-principles calculations,the crystal structure of y" phase is clarified,resolving the discrepancies among different experiments,and its intrinsic mechanical properties have also been studied for the first time.It is verified that the γ " phase contains quasi-five atomic layers,instead of the previously reported tri-layer,and surprisingly,its crystal structure has many variants,which would change with the alloy composition.Besides,with the help of the simulated selected area electron diffraction(SAED) patterns,it is found that the atoms in the central layer remain partially ordered distribution,and this ordered extent primarily depends on the atomic ratio of RE:Zn(Ag) and the solute content in an alloy.That is,the ordered extent increases with decreasing the atomic ratio of RE:Zn(Ag) and/or increasing solute content of alloy,and vice versa.Ag and Zn dissolved in the γ" phase would produce almost opposed mechanical anisotropy for the γ " phase under the identical crystal structure,and the addition of Ag shows more efficient on increasing the shear modulus of γ" phase.