Microstructures,tensile properties and serrated flow of Al_xCrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloys

Microstructures and mechanical properties of dual-phase AlxCrMnFeCoNi (x=0.4, 0.5, 0.6, at.%) alloys were investigated. Thermomechanical processing leads to a microstructural evolution from cast dendritic structures to equiaxed ones, consisting of face-centered cubic (fcc) and body-centered cubic (bcc) phases in the two states. The volume fraction of bcc phase increases and the size of fcc grain decreases with increasing Al content, resulting in remarkably improved tensile strength. Specifically, the serrated flow occurring at the medium temperatures varies from type A+B to B+C or C as the testing temperature increases. The average serration amplitude of these Al-containing alloys is larger than that of CoCrFeNiMn alloy due to the enhanced pinning effect. The early small strain produces low-density of dislocation arrays and bowed dislocations in fcc grains while the dislocation climb and shearing mechanism dominate inside bcc grains. The cross-slip and kinks of dislocations are frequently observed and high-density-tangled dislocations lead to dislocation cells after plastic deformation with a high strain.

Mechanisms and anisotropy of serrated flow in Mg-Gd single crystals

Serrated flow has been primarily studied at the macron scale,yet the length and times scales at which the solute-meditated dislocation pinning and de-pinning processes that underlie the phenomenon occur are largely inaccessible by macroscopic tests.Moreover,direct insights into the dominant slip systems in the serrated flow regime,which is particularly critical in Mg alloys given their high plastic anisotropy,requires the use of small-scale testing methods such as microcompression.Thus,in this work,a combination of microcompression and TEM based EDS/STEM measurements have used to critically study the temperature and strain rate dependences in single crystals of pure Mg and a Mg-Gd alloy oriented for twinning,basal-,prismatic-,and pyramidal-slip.The results provide compelling evidence that the solute drag mechanism underlie serrated flow in the alloy;they also show that serrated flow in Mg alloys is markedly anisotropic.This anisotropy is caused by differences between the Burgers vector for slip/twinning,and between the impurity diffusivity along/perpendicular to the basal plane.

Serrated Flow Behavior during Compression at Elevated Temperatures in Mg-3Al-1Zn-0.1RE Alloy

The deformation behaviour of an AZE （Mg-3Al-1Zn-0.1RE） alloy at temperature between 393 and 453 K was investigated by uniaxial compression tests carried out at initial strain rate values of 1×10-4, 5×10-4 and 1×10-3 s-1 in air. The results show that serrated flow occurs at the strain rate of 10-4 s-1 under all test temperatures and 5×10-4 s-1 at 453 K. The mechanism of serrated flow was proposed, which is mainly attributed to the interaction of dislocations to the precipitates.

Critical serrated flow features during nanoindentation in La-based bulk metallic glasses

La57.6Al17.5(Cu,Ni)24.9 and La64Al14(Cu,Ni)22 bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) were prepared by copper-mould casting method. Plastic deformation behavior of the two BMGs at various loading rates was studied by nanoindentation. The results showed that the La57.6Al17.5(Cu,Ni)24.9 BMG with a glass transition temperature of 423 K exhibited prominent serrated flow at low loading rates, whereas less pronounced serrated flow at high rates during nanoindentation. In contrast, the La64Al14(Cu,Ni)22 BMG with a glass transition temperature of 401 K exhibited prominent serrated flow at high loading rates. The different rate dependency of serrated flow in the two La-based BMGs is related to the different glass transition temperature, and consequently the degree of viscous flow during indentation at room temperature. A smoother flow occurs in the alloy with relatively lower glass transition temperature, due to the relaxation of stress concentration.

CONDITIONS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF SERRATED FLOW IN Al-Li SINGLE CRYSTALS

Serrated flow of Al-Li single crystals was investigated under different aging conditions,temperatures(T)and strain rates(ε).The results show that dynamic strain aging(DSA)of solute Li atoms alone is not strong enough to make the serrated flow at solid solution state.The occurrence of the serrated flow is related to the shearing ofδ'particles.Critical strain of serration can change normally or inversely with T and e,which indicates the serration in Al-Li alloys is a thermally activated process.A proposed mechanism for the occurrence of the serration is that mobile dislocations are pinned when they cross the shearedδ'particles that might be dissolved during deformation,thus induce the serrated flow in the Al-Li single crystal.

Effect of thermomechanical processing on microstructure and mechanical properties of CoCrFeNiMn high entropy alloy

The CoCrFeNiMn high entropy alloy was produced by homogenization, cold rolling and recrystallization. The effects of thermomechanical processing on microstructures and tensile properties at different temperatures were investigated using X-ray diffractometry（XRD）, optical microscopy（OM）, scanning electron microscopy（SEM） and multi-functional testing machine. The results show that dendritic structures in cast alloy evolve into equiaxed grains after being recrystallized, with single face-centered cubic（FCC） phase detected. The most refined alloys, stemming from the highest rolling ratio（40%）, exhibit the highest strength due to the grain boundary strengthening, while the variation of elongation with temperature shows a concave feature. For the coarse-grained alloys, both the ductility and work hardening ability decrease monotonically with increasing temperature. Serrated flow observed at intermediate temperatures is attributed to the effective pinning of dislocations, which manifests the occurrence of dynamic strain hardening and results in the deterioration in ductility. Besides, dimples on the fracture surfaces indicate the typical ductile rupture mode.

Influence of temperature and strain rate on serration type transition in NZ31 Mg alloy

The process of tensile test at different temperatures and strain rates was used to study the characteristics of serrated flow, i.e., Portevin-Le Chatelier effect (PLC), in NZ31 Mg alloy. The PLC effect in the tensile stress?strain curves was observed at the temperature range of 150?250 °C. Serrated flow during the deformation at 250 °C is prominent, and a lot of slip bands with a specific direction in each grain can be observed in the microstructure. The serration changes from type A to type C with the increase of temperature and the decrease of strain rate. One single serration of type A was described specifically by the processes of partial pinning, absolute pinning and unpinning. The enhancement of pinning ability at high temperature and low strain rate can promote the absolute pinning process and restrain the unpinning process, which explains the serration type transition.

Improved Soft Abrasive Flow Finishing Method Based on Turbulent Kinetic Energy Enhancing

Soft abrasive flow（SAF） finishing can process the irregular geometric surfaces, but with the matter of low processing efficiency. To address the issue, an improved SAF finishing method based on turbulent kinetic energy enhancing is proposed. A constrained flow passage with serration cross-section is constructed to increase the turbulence intensity. Taking the constrained flow passage as the objective, a two-phase fluid dynamic model is set up by using particle trajectory model and standard k-ε turbulence model, and the flow field characteristics of the flow passage are acquired. The numerical results show that the serration flow passage can enhance the turbulence intensity, uniform the particles distribution, and increase the particle concentration near the bottom wall. The observation results by particle image velocimetry（PIV） show that the internal vortex structures are formed in flow passage, and the abrasive flow takes on turbulence concentrating phenomenon in near-wall region. The finishing experiments prove that the proposed method can obtain better surface uniformity, and the processing efficiency can be improved more 35%. This research provides an abrasive flow modeling method to reveal the particle motion regulars, and canoffer references to the technical optimization of fluid-based precision processing.

Study on the Deformation Behavior of Mg-3.6%Er Magnesium Alloy

The deformation behaviour of a casting Mg-3.6% Er magnesium alloy after T6 treatment was studied in tensile tests from room temperature to 450 ℃ under different strain rates ranging from 1.0 ×10^-4 to 6.0 × 10^-3 S^-1 Obtained local plateau in the temperature dependence of the ultimate strength （σb） and yield strength （σ0.2） under constant strain rate indicated the presence of dynamic strain ageing （DSA）. Serrated flow was observed at the temperature of 200, 250, and 300 ℃. The observed negative strain rate sensitivity suggested that the serrated flow behavior arose from DSA. The temperature and strain rate dependence of the critical strain for the onset of serrated flow was analyzed using a phenomenological DSA equation, and the apparent activation energy Q for the serrated flow was obtained by calculation.

DYNAMIC STRAIN AGING BEHAVIOR OF K40S ALLOY

The dynamic strain aging behavior during tensile tests of K40S alloy has been investigated in the temperature range of 25-1100℃ with the strain rate range from 10-4 to 10-3s-1. The results show that four different types of serration, identified as A, B, C and E type serration were observed in the temperature range of 300-600℃. The strain exponents for onset of the serrated flow were calculated as 1.21, 2.19 and 1.61, and the activation energies as 121, 40 and 67kJ/mol for E, B and C type serration respectively. The main mechanism for dynamic strain aging discussed in light of the strain exponent and the activation energy.

On some aspects of compressive properties and serrated flow in Mg-Y-Nd-Zr alloy

The deformation behavior of the Mg-Y-Nd-Zr （WE54） alloy at temperatures between 25 and 400 ℃ was investigated by uniaxial and plans strain compression tests at strain rate values of 10-2 and 10^-4 s^-1. The results showed that the flow stress had a strong dependency on the loading condition. Yield stress and peak stress decreased with increasing deformation temperature and with decrease in the strain rate for both deformation types. The serration flow behavior was observed markedly at high temperatures and under a strain rate of 10^-4S^-1. The serration amplitude for samples deformed by plans strain compression was larger than that by uni- axial compression. Serrated flow was attributed to the interaction of dislocations with precipitates at 300 ℃ and to dynamic discon- tinuous recrystallization effects at 400 ℃.

Effect of solute atom concentration and precipitates on serrated flow in Mg-3Nd-Zn alloy

Influence of solute atom concentration and precipitates on serrated flow, i.e., Portevin-Le Chatelier effect, was studied in Mg-3Nd-Zn alloy by tensile test at 250℃ with a strain rate of l x 10^-3 s^-1 Microstructure and tensile property of the Mg-3Nd-Zn alloy in solution and aging conditions were also investigated. Results indicate that the serrated flow was weakened with aging time, and geometry of the serrations changed from sharp to rounded corner. Through analyzing the mechanism of the interactions between dislocations and solute atoms, it was identified that the precipitates did not only weaken the serrated flow due to the decrease in the concentration of solute atom, but also regulate the serration type by restraining the movement of dislocations during high temperature deformation.2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science ＆ Technology.

Multistage serrated flow behavior of a medium-manganese high-carbon steel

The deformation mechanisms and the flow stress behavior of a medium-manganese high-carbon steel during cold deformation at a strain rate of 10×5 s^-1 were explored using a universal testing machine,an X-ray diffractometer,a field emission scanning electron microscope and a high-resolution transmission electron microscope.The results show that continuous step-up serrated flow behavior appears after the yielding point,and the true stress-strain curve is roughly divided into five stages based on distinctive densities and amplitudes of serration.The strengthening mechanisms of the experimental steel involve Cottrell atmosphere,twinning-induced plasticity(TWIP)efect and transformation-induced plasticity(TRIP)effect.TWIP effect is the dominant deformation mechanism,and deformation twins formed by TWIP effect comprise primary,secondary and nanotwins.Furthermore,TRIP effect arises in the local high-strain region.Carbon element plays a key role in the transformation of the deformation mechanism.A small amount of carbide precipitates around twin boundaries lead to the formation of local carbon-poor regions,and Md temperature and stacking fault energy of medium-manganese high-carbon steel are propitious to the occurrence of TRIP effect.In addition,the contributions of various deformation mechanisms to plasticity are calculated,and that of TWIP effect is the greatest.

Serrated plastic flow behavior and microstructure in a Zr-based bulk metallic glass processed by surface mechanical attrition treatment

The serrated plastic flow,microstructure and residual stress of a Zr_（55）Cu_（30）Ni_5Al_（10） bulk metallic glass（BMG）undergone surface mechanical attrition treatment（SMAT）have been investigated by a combination of compression tests with scanning electron microscopy（SEM）,high resolution transmission electron microscopy（HRTEM）and the incremental hole-drilling strain-gage method.It is found that SMAT leads to various microstructural modifications and residual stress distribution in the surface layers of the Zrbased BMG due to the mechanically-induced nanocrystallization and generation of shear bands.As a result,the BMG alloy exhibits a remarkable work-hardening like behavior and significant increase of plastic strain from less than 1%to 15%,and its plastic deformation dynamics yields a power-law distribution of shear avalanches.Based upon the analysis of the experimental results,it is indicated that this can be connected to the SMAT-induced microstructural modifications and the resulting residual compressive stress in the Zr-based BMG.

Serrated Flow Model for Metallic Glasses under Compressive Loading

A rheological model is proposed that incorporates the serrated flow nature of metallic glasses. It involves the process of the nucleation, propagation and the arrest of a shear bands in the samples subjected to compressive deformation at room temperature. Numerical resolution of the constitutive equations resulting from the model is compared with the stress-strain curve obtained from in-situ nano-compression test in SEM of Zrbased metallic glass. Parametric identification method was applied and enabled us to release the physical parameters of the model. The obtained results showed that the model is adequately valid to describe the experimental data and the almost adjustable model parameters are physically meaningful and comparable to literature.

Rate Dependence of Serrated Flow and Its Effect on Shear Stability of Bulk Metallic Glasses

The rate dependence of serrated flow and its effects on the stability of shear banding were systematically investigated in a prototypic bulk metallic glass.It was found that with the increase of external strain rate,the serrated flow is gradually suppressed and could completely disappear at a critical strain rate.The serration size,characterized by the mean stress drop amplitude,decreases inversely with the strain rate,while the waiting time for serration decreases with the strain rate in a power-law manner.The rate dependence of the serrated flow has important effects on the dynamics and stability of shear banding process,and leads to an optimal plasticity achieved around the critical strain rate for the disappearance of serrated flow.These results are discussed and interpreted in terms of the microscopic deformation theory and the stick-slip dynamics of shear banding for bulk metallic glasses.

Plastic deformation of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass fabricated by selective laser melting

Fully amorphous Zr_(52.5)Cu_(17.9)Ni_(14.6)Al_(10)Ti_(5) bulk metallic glass(BMG) samples with a relative density exceeding 98% were fabricated via selective laser melting(SLM).High fracture stresses of around1700 MPa and a reproducible plastic strain of about 0.5% were obtained for cylindrical SLM samples.The analysis of the observed serrations during compressive loading implies that the shear-band dynamics in the additively manufactured samples distinctly differ from those of the as-cast glass.This phenomenon appears to originate from the presence of uniformly dispersed spherical pores as well as from the more pronounced heterogeneity of the glass itself as revealed by instrumented indentation.Despite these heterogeneities,the shear bands are straight and form in the plane of maximum shear stress.Additive manufacturing,hence,might not only allow for producing large BMG samples with complex geometries but also for manipulating their deformation behaviour through tailoring porosity and structural heterogeneity.

Correlation between deformation behavior and atomic-scale heterogeneity in Fe-based bulk metallic glasses

The correlation betweent deformation behavior and atomic-scale heterogeneity of bulk metallic glasses(BMGs)is critical to understand the BMGs'deformation mechanism.In this work,three typical[(Fe_(0.5)Co_(0.5))_(0.75)B_(0.2)Si_(0.05)]_(96)Nb_4,Fe_(39)Ni_(39)B_(14.2)Si_(2.75)P_(2.75)Nb_(2.3),and Fe_(50)Ni_(30)P_(13)C_(7)BMGs exhibiting different plasticity were selected,and the correlation between deformation behavior and atomic-scale heterogeneity of Fe-based BMGs was studied.It is found that the serrated flow dynamics of Fe-based BMGs transform from chaotic state to self-organized critical state with increasing plasticity.This transformation is attributed to the increasing atomic-scale heterogeneity caused by the increasing free volume and short-to-medium range order,which facilitates a higher frequency of interaction and multiplication of shear bands,thereby results in a brittle to ductile transition in Fe-based BMGs.This work provides new evidence on heterogeneity in plastic Fe-based BMGs from the aspects of atomic-scale structure,and provides new insight into the plastic deformation of Fe-based BMGs.

A Brief Review of High Entropy Alloys and Serration Behavior and Flow Units

Multicomponent alloys with high entropy of mixing,e.g.,high entropy alloys（HEAs）and/or multiprincipal-element alloys（MEAs）,are attracting increasing attentions,because the materials with novel properties are being developed,based on the design strategy of the equiatomic ratio,multicomponent,and high entropy of mixing in their liquid or random solution state.Recently,HEAs with the ultrahigh strength and fracture toughness,excellent magnetic properties,high fatigue,wear and corrosion resistance,great phase stability/high resistance to heat-softening behavior,sluggish diffusion effects,and potential superconductivity,etc.,were developed.The HEAs can even have very high irradiation resistance and may have some self-healing effects,and can potentially be used as the first wall and nuclear fuel cladding materials.Serration behaviors and flow units are powerful methods to understand the plastic deformation or fracture of materials.The methods have been successfully used to study the plasticity of amorphous alloys（also bulk metallic glasses,BMGs）.The flow units are proposed as：free volumes,shear transition zones（STZs）,tension-transition zones（TTZs）,liquid-like regions,soft regions or soft spots,etc.The flow units in the crystalline alloys are usually dislocations,which may interact with the solute atoms,interstitial types,or substitution types.Moreover,the flow units often change with the testing temperatures and loading strain rates,e.g.,at the low temperature and high strain rate,plastic deformation will be carried out by the flow unit of twinning,and at high temperatures,the grain boundary will be the weak area,and play as the flow unit.The serration shapes are related to the types of flow units,and the serration behavior can be analyzed using the power law and modified power law.

Temperature dependence in tensile properties and deformation behavior of GH4169 alloy

The effect of temperature on the tensile properties and deformation mechanism of GH4169 alloy has been systematically studied over a wide range of room temperature(RT)to 1000℃.The results indicate that the stress–strain curve of the alloy shows serrations at 200–600℃,and the character of the serrations changes from type A to type B and then to type C at different temperatures.The ultimate tensile strength of the alloy decreases gradually from RT to 600℃.The yield strength decreases slowly from RT to 700℃ but decreases rapidly above 800℃.Transmission electron microscopy analysis relieves that the primary deformation mechanism of the alloy below 500℃ is Orowan bypass mechanism.At temperatures between 600 and 700℃,the coordinated deformation of twins and cross-slip of dislocations are activated.The transformation of\upgamma^{\prime\prime}phase toδphase above 650℃ will decrease the strength.The primary deformation mechanism above 800℃ transforms into the repeated shearing of\upgamma^{\prime\prime}by dislocations to form multiple stacking faults.Recrystallized grains were observed above 800℃,and continuous dynamic recrystallization and discontinuous dynamic recrystallization were observed.The stress concentration caused by Nb-rich carbides is the cause of intracrystalline crack nucleation.At 700℃,grain boundary crack sprouting is caused by the combined effect of slip band impact on grain boundaries and grain boundary dislocation plugging.The relationship between the serrated flow behavior and the deformation mechanism has been discussed based on the experimental results.