Implications of twinning on the microstructure development,crystallographic texture and mechanical performance of Mg alloys-a critical review

Deformation twinning is profusely activated in the Mg alloys due to lower critical resolved shear stress(CRSS) compared to the non-basal slip systems(prismatic and pyramidal ) and plays a significant role in texture reorientation, grain refinement and enhancement of mechanical performance. Twinning is a sequential process comprising twin nucleation, twin propagation and twin growth, hence several intrinsic and extrinsic parameters that facilitate or suppress the process have been critically reviewed. The dependence of twinning on the grain size, deformation temperature, favorable grain orientation and shear strain have been thoroughly discussed in the context of published literature and an attempt has been made to provide a benchmark conclusive finding based on the majority of works. Furthermore, the subsequent effect of twinning on the mechanical performance of Mg alloys, including ductility, formability and tension-compression asymmetry has been discussed in detail. Lastly, the stability of twins, including stress and thermal stability, is summarized and critical issues related to pertinent bottlenecks have been addressed.

Tension-compression asymmetry and corresponding deformation mechanism in ZA21 magnesium bars with bimodal structure

We investigated the asymmetric tension-compression(T-C)behavior of ZA21 bars with bimodal and uniform structures through axial tension and compression tests.The results show that the yield strengths of bars having bimodal structure are 206.42 and 140.28 MPa under tension and compression,respectively,which are higher than those of bars having uniform structure with tensile and compressive yield strength of 183.71 and 102.86 MPa,respectively.Prismatic slip and extension twinning under tension and basal slip and extension twinning under compression dominate the yield behavior and induce the T-C asymmetry.However,due to the basal slip activated in fine grains under tension and the inhibition of extension twinning by fine grains under compression,the bimodal structure possesses a lower T-C asymmetry(0.68)compared to the uniform structure(0.56).Multiple extension twins occur during deformation,and the selection of twin variants depends on the Schmid factor of the six variants activated by parent grains.Furthermore,the strengthening effect of the bimodal structure depends on the grain size and the ratio of coarse and fine grains.

{112}<111>Twins or Twinned Variants Induced by Martensitic Transformation?

Twinned substructure in lath martensite was induced in the interstitial free(IF)steel via a high pressure thermal cycle(heating up to 1100℃and holding for 30 min,cooling at 10℃/s to room temperature under a pressure of 4 GPa).Experimental observations and theoretical simulation confrm that the twinned substructure has the origin related to the twinned variants rather than the bcc{112}<111>twins,while extra difraction spots were caused by crystal overlapping rather than any extra phase.The diferences in crystallography and electron difraction behavior between twinned variants and{112}<111>twins were discussed in detail.

A Method to Distinguish Twinning Variants and Second Twins by EBSD Measurements

This paper proposes a direct and simple method to identify the second twins from twinning variants by electron back scattered diffraction （EBSD）. To clarify the orientation relationship between the neighboring crystals, the misorientation calculation by MATLAB software based on the EBSD data is also used. This method is generally applicable to predict the variants occurring in the nucleation and growth of the recrystallization or phase transformation process.

Origin and the Hardening Mechanism of Twinned Lenticular Martensite in a Fe-33Ni Alloy

The twinned substructure of lenticular martensite in a quenched Fe–33Ni alloy was studied.In contrary to the traditional viewpoint that the twinned laths come from{112}<111>deformation twins and show insignificant hardening,we demonstrate that they are actually originated from the twinned Kurdjumov Sachs(KS)variants and can give rise to 3–4 times hardening up to~420 HV(~130 HV for the starting sample).The underlying mechanisms responsible for the propensity for twinned variants and the carbon-independent hardening for Fe–Ni system were discussed.

Strong size effect on deformation twin-me diate d plasticity in body-centered-cubic iron

Deformation twinning serves as an important mode of plastic dissipation processes in nanoscale body-centered cubic(BCC)metals,but its origin and spatio-temporal features are mysterious.Here,applying in situ tensile experiments,we report a strong size effect on mediating the twinning behaviors and twin boundary(TB)-dislocation interaction mechanisms in BCC iron(Fe)nanowires(NWs).There exists a critical diameter(d)of∼2.5 nm,above which the deformation twinning rather than dislocation slip dominates the plasticity.Unlike the traditional reflection TBs,the intermediate isosceles TBs are consis-tently observed as mediated by the 1/12<111>partial dislocations.Moreover,we uncover two distinct TB-related deformation mechanisms,including twin variant re-orientation and TB cracking for NWs with d<17 nm and d>17 nm,respectively.Further molecular dynamics and statics simulations provide the basic underlying mechanisms for size-dependent plasticity,which have been largely overlooked in previous experimental investigations.Our findings highlight the importance of grain size in mediating the deformation behaviors in Fe,serving as possible guidance for exploring single-crystalline and poly-crystalline Fe-based materials(e.g.steel)with optimized mechanical performance.

Twinned substructure in lath martensite of water quenched Fe-0.2%C and Fe-0.8%C steels

In the present investigation,twinned substructures within lath martensite of two water quenched steels(0.2 wt.%C and 0.8 wt.%C)were studied.The lath martensite has typical hierarchical packet-block-lath with dislocation substructure.Besides,laths that are misoriented by<011>/70.5°or<111>/60° and bordered by{011}plane,namely twinned laths,are observed,of which the density increases and the scale decreases as more carbons were presented.Such twinned laths have body centered cubic(bcc)crystal structure,belonging to twinned variants following the classical Kurdjumov-Sachs(K-S)orientation relationship with respect to the parent austenite.Unlike bcc{112}<111>twins,twinned variants produce strong double diffraction and in turn the extra diffraction spots that are commonly observed in the martensite in steels with wide range of carbon contents.

Twinned Martensitic Substructure in a Water Quenched Fe–1.0 wt%C Alloy

A Fe–1.0 wt%C alloy was quenched into water from 1100 ℃,leading to lath martensite and plate martensite of body-centered tetragonal structure.Both these two martensites have the twinned substructure that generates mirror symmetric diff raction patterns with extra diff raction spots around n/3(112).The twinned substructure has the origin from twinned martensitic variants,namely twin-related crystals separated by{110},rather than{112}<111>deformation twins.Tetragonality eff ect on the electron double diff raction of twinned variants was discussed.