Twin-twin geometric structure effect on the twinning behavior of an Mg-4Y-3Nd-2Sm-0.5Zr alloy traced by quasi-in-situ EBSD

We studied the microstructure evolution of Mg-4Y-3Nd-2Sm-0.5Zr alloy by quasi-in-situ electron backscatter diffraction(EBSD)along with several strains under compression tests,which provided direct evidence for the influence of different twin-twin geometric structure on the twinning behavior.The results showed that the mechanical properties of the alloy were higher than traditional magnesium alloys(the maximum compressive strength reaches 402.5 MPa)due to the strengthening effect of Sm and Nd elements addition on solution strengthening,precipitation strengthening,and grain refinement.Combined with the quasi-in-situ EBSD technique,two different twin-twin geometric structures,‘parallel structure’and‘cross structure’,were observed directly in the alloy.In the later stage of deformation,for‘parallel structure’,residual stress and a large number of dislocations mainly existed in the twin boundary and tip position.For the‘cross structure’,there was a lot of dislocation density in the interior of twins after fusion.The twin growth rate of‘parallel structure’was much faster than that of‘cross structure’because the stress of twins was mainly concentrated on the tip of twin.When the movement for the tip of twin was blocked,the growth rate of twin would be obviously decreased.Moreover,the‘cross structure’was easy to produce closed space.Due to the constraints of surrounding twins,the confined space was easy to stress concentration,thus inhibiting the growth of twins.At the same time,the‘cross structure’of twins needed a more external force to continue to deform,which also served as a strengthening structure.

Quasi-in-situ study on{10-12}twinning-detwinning behavior of rolled Mg-Li alloy in two-step compression(RD)-compression(ND)process

Twinning-detwinning(TDT)behavior in a strongly basal-textured Mg-Li alloy during two-step compression(RD)-compression(ND)process was investigated using quasi-in-situ EBSD.TDT behavior and TDT variants selection were statistically discussed with the loading path for the first time.Non-Schmid twinning behavior was observed in the first step compression,owing to the local stress fluctuations by neighboring twins;in contrast,Schmid’s law well predicted the detwinning variants selection.This asymmetrical TDT behavior was first investigated to date related with the strong basal texture and loading path.Besides,with the progress of compression,Schmid factors for twinning demonstrated a decreasing tendency;however,those for detwinning during the second step displayed an abnormally increasing trend,fundamentally stemming from prior twinning behavior.

Strategy for suppressing abnormal grain growth of ZK60 Mg alloy during solution by pre-compression:A quasi-in-situ study

Abnormal grain growth(AGG)easily takes place in Mg alloys during high-temperature solutions,result-ing in deterioration of mechanical properties.Hence,the compression prior to solution(pre-compression)was conducted to suppress AGG,and the microstructure evolution as well as suppressing mechanisms was investigated based on quasi-in-situ analysis.After compression along the transverse direction,<11-20>//ED grains preferentially nucleated and rapidly grew up,and the initial<10-10>//ED texture was weakened.Two grain growth modes of heat-induced and strain-induced grain boundary migrations were found.The former was attributed to the high interfacial energy of grain boundaries with large curvature.The latter consumed the adjacent grains with high storage energy,forming abnormal grains with irregular shapes.The compression with a reduction>6%could obviously suppress AGG.The suppressing effects were mainly attributed to weakening the size advantage of<11-20>//ED grains,increasing nucleation,reducing grain boundary character distribution,and redistributing storage energy distribution.After 12%compression along the transverse direction,30°misorientation of<11-20>//ED grains and high energy grain boundaries were reduced.The{10-12}tensile twins and{10-15}high index twins induced by com-pression increased the nucleation of static recrystallization.Beside,compression introduces high-density dislocations,which also contributed to suppressing AGG behavior during solution.

Quasi-in-situ Observation and SKPFM Studies on Phosphate Protective Film and Surface Micro-Galvanic Corrosion in Biological Mg-3Zn-xNd Alloys

The phosphate protective film and micro-galvanic corrosion of biological Mg-3Zn-xNd (x = 0, 0.6, 1.2) alloys were investigated by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, quasi-in-situ observation, scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPFM) and electrochemical tests. The results revealed the Mg-Zn-Nd phases formed in Mg-3Zn alloy contained with Nd. Adding Nd resulted in a significant decline in the cracks of the phosphate protective film and micro-galvanic corrosion of alloys, which were recorded by quasi-in-situ observation. In addition, the Volta potential difference of Mg-Zn-Nd/α-Mg (~ 188 mV) was lower than MgZn/α-Mg (~ 419 mV) and Zn-rich/α-Mg (~ 260 mV), and the corrosion rates of alloys markedly decreased after the addition of 0.6 wt% Nd. The improvement in corrosion resistance of Nd-containing alloys was mainly attributed to the following: (i) the addition of Nd reduced the Volta potential difference (second phases/α-Mg);(ii) the phosphate protective film containing Nd_(2)O_(3) deposited on the surface of the alloys, effectively preventing the penetration of harmful anions.

Quasi-In-Situ EBSD Observation of the Orientation Evolution in Polycrystalline Tantalum During Rolling Deformation

The evolution of crystallographic orientation of polycrystalline tantalum(Ta)during rolling was characterized by electron backscatter diffraction technique in a quasi-in-situ way,and the microstructure and microtexture before and after the deformation were characterized and analyzed,respectively.In the specimen,164 individual grains were exacted singly from the testing region and their corresponding orientations were reconstructed and analyzed,respectively.Results show that the heterogeneous deformation in a grain can be reflected by the accidented surface microstructure.Moreover,the orientations close to{111}orientations came closer to the{111}corner,while the orientation evolution is more complicated for the orientations close{100}corner,indicating that the evolution of these orientations close to{100}corner seemed to be irregular.

Orientations of nuclei during static recrystallization in a cold-rolled Mg-Zn-Gd alloy

The static recrystallization process of a cold-rolled Mg-Zn-Gd alloy was tracked by a quasi-in-situ electron backscatter diffraction method to investigate the orientations of nuclei.The results show that orientation distribution of nuclei is associated with nucleation mechanism.The continuous static recrystallization nuclei display similar orientations to the parent grains with TD orientation.Differently,discontinuous static recrystallization nuclei formed within the parent grains(TD-45~0 orientation) show random orientations and a variety of misorientation angles but preferred axes <5273> or <5270>.Interestingly,a special oriented nucleation is found.Discontinuous static recrystallization nuclei originated from boundaries of the parent grain(TD-70° orientation) show concentrated TD orientations in another side due to the preferred misorientation relationship 70°<1120>(∑18 b).It is speculated that these two special misorientation relationships are related to the dislocation type.

Microstructure and texture optimization by static recrystallization originating from {10-12} extension twins in a Mg-Gd-Y alloy

During the deformation of Mg alloys,{10-12} extension twin often contributes to the formation of basal texture but rarely assists the nucleation of recrystallization,i.e.,effective grain refinement,therefore it seems to make against the improvement of formability and mechanical properties.In this work,{10-12} extension twin has been creatively utilized as a preference nucleation site for static recrystallization(SRX),achieving grain refinement and orientation randomization in a Mg-Gd-Y alloy using multi-directional impact forging(MDIF)and subsequent annealing treatment.Effect of {10-12} extension twin on SRX behavior has been investigated by annealing treatment at 450℃ using quasi-in-situ optical microscopy(OM)and quasi-in-situ electron back-scattering diffraction(EBSD).The microstructural evolution during annealing shows that several SRX gains can nucleate from the grain boundary of untwinned grains,but they only have few influences on the final microstructure due to their limited volume faction and sluggish growth.In contrast,a large number of SRX gains can initiate from {10-12} extension twin and grow up without the confine of twin boundaries.Finally,they consume their parent grains and make the main contribution to grain refinement.This should be attributed to those pinned {10-12} twin boundary,by interacting with various dislocation slips during the MDIF process,which can operate like grain boundary,store enough strain energy,and promote the nucleation of SRX during annealing.On the other hand,SRX grains usually keep initial random orientation and further randomize the forging texture during annealing treatment.

Toward an understanding of dwell fatigue damage mechanism of bimodal Ti-6Al-4V alloys

Dwell fatigue effect is a long-standing problem threatening the long-term service reliability for fan blades and fan disks of an aircraft engine.To understand the basic mechanism of dwell fatigue damage,pure fatigue and 60 s dwell fatigue properties of bimodal Ti-6Al-4V alloys with different volume fractions of the primaryα(α_(p))phase were examined comparatively.The results showed that both pure fatigue and dwell fatigue life decreased with increasing the volume fraction of theα_(p)phase and the dwell fatigue life was lower than the pure fatigue one.The quasi-in-situ test results and the quantitative characterization of damage behaviors of the local microstructure units defined by theα_(p)-secondaryα(α_(s))combination reveal that theα_(s)phase close to theα_(p)phase with extensively slip activities was gradually damaged under dwell fatigue loading,while that under pure fatigue loading was undamaged,demonstrating that the dwell loading induced the damage of theα_(s)phase,and further reduced the fatigue life.A stress relaxation-based model is proposed to describe the physical mechanism on dwell fatigue damage of the bimodal Ti-6Al-4V alloy,i.e.the elastic deformation of theα_(s)phase caused by the strain incompatibility would be gradually transformed into plastic deformation during the dwell stage,and thus promotes fatigue damage.The model provides new insights into the microscopic process of stress/strain transfer between the soft and hard microstructure units under dwell fatigue loading.