Strain-dependence of deformation microstructures in ultra-low-C IF steel deformed to high strains by torsion at elevated temperatures

Single-phase bcc-ferrite in an interstitial free(IF)steel was deformed to different strains in a wide range from low to high strains(ε=1–7)by torsion under different Zener-Hollomon(Z)conditions.The specimens were rapidly quenched after the torsion to preserve microstructures formed under different deformation conditions.The results showed that during high-Z(low-temperature)deformation,grains were subdivided by geometrically necessary boundaries(GNBs)via the grain subdivision mechanism.Deformation to high strains(ε>5)led to the ultrafine lamellar structures(with grain sizes<1μm)mainly composed of GNBs having high misorientation angles.Decreasing Z with increasing temperature and/or decreasing strain rate accelerated thermally activated processes,such as dynamic recovery and boundary migration.Unlike the ultrafine lamella formed under the high-Z condition,a variety of microstructures having equiaxed morphologies with fine to coarse grain sizes(>1μm)were realized with decreasing Z.The significance of the grain subdivision and the thermally activated phenomena on the formation of various microstructures under different deformation conditions is discussed.

In-situ observation of twinning and detwinning in AZ31 alloy

Twinning and detwinning behavior of a commercial AZ31 magnesium alloy during cyclic compression–tension deformation with a total strain amplitude of 4%(±2%) was evaluated using the complementary techniques of in-situ neutron diffraction, identical area electron backscatter diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy. In-situ neutron diffraction demonstrates that the compressive deformation was dominated by twin nucleation, twin growth, and basal slip, while detwinning dominated the unloading of compressive stresses and subsequent tension stage. With increasing number of cycles from one to eight: the volume fraction of twins at-2% strain gradually increased from 26.3% to 43.5%;the residual twins were present after 2% tension stage and their volume fraction increased from zero to 3.7% as well as a significant increase in their number;and the twinning spread from coarse grains to fine grains involving more grains for twinning. The increase in volume fraction and number of residual twins led to a transition from twin nucleation to twin growth, resulting in a decrease in yield strength of compression deformation with increasing cycles. A large number of-component dislocations observed in twins and the detwinned regions were attributed to the dislocation transmutation during the twinning and detwinning. The accumulation of barriers including twin boundaries and various types of dislocations enhanced the interactions of migrating twin boundary with these barriers during twinning and detwinning, which is considered to be the origin for increasing the work hardening rate in cyclic deformation of the AZ31 alloy.

Deformation mechanism of bimodal microstructure in Ti-6Al-4V alloy:The effects of intercritical annealing temperature and constituent hardness

The so-called bimodal microstructure of Ti-6 Al-4 V alloy,composed of primaryαgrains(α_(p))and transformed β areas(β_(trans)),can be regarded as a"dual-phase"structure to some extent,the mechanical properties of which are closely related to the sizes,volume fractions,distributions as well as nanohardness of the two constituents.In this study,the volume fractions of primaryαgrains(vol.%(α_(p)))were systematically modified in three series of bimodal microstructures with fixed primaryαgrain sizes(0.8μm,2.4μm and 5.0μm),by changing the intercritical annealing temperature(T_(int)).By evaluating the tensile properties at room temperature,it was found that with increasing T_(int)(decreasing vol.%(α_(p))),the yield strength of bimodal microstructures monotonically increased,while the uniform elongation firstly increased with T_(int)until 910°C and then drastically decreased afterwards,thereby dividing the T_(int)into two regions,namely region I(830-910°C)and region II(910-970℃).The detailed deformation behaviors within the two regions were studied and compared,from the perspectives of strain distribution analysis,slip system analysis as well as dislocation analysis.For bimodal microstructures in region I,due to the much lower nano-hardness ofβ_(trans)thanα_(p),there was a clear strain partitioning between the two constituents as well as a strain gradient from theα_(p)/β_(trans)interface to the grain interior ofα_(p).This activated a large number of geometrically necessary dislocations(GNDs)near the interface,mostly with components,which contributed greatly to the extraordinary work-hardening abilities of bimodal microstructures in region I.With increasing T_(int),theα_(p)/β_(trans)interface length density gradually increased and so was the density of GNDs with components,which explained the continuous increase of uniform elongation with T_(int)in this region.For bimodal microstructures in region II,where the nano-hardness ofβ_(trans)andα_(p)were comparable,neither a clear strain-partitioning tendency nor a strain gradient across theα_(p)/β_(trans)interface was observed.Consequently,only statistically stored dislocations(SSDs)with component were activated insideα_(p).The absence of dislocations together with a decreased volume fraction ofα_(p)resulted into a dramatic loss of uniform elongation for bimodal microstructures in region II.

Two-stage Hall-Petch relationship in Cu with recrystallized structure

Although Cu was studied extensively,the Hall-Petch relationship was mainly reported in the coarsegrained regime.In this work,fully recrystallized Cu specimens with a wide grain size regime of 0.51–14.93μm manifest a two-stage Hall-Petch relationship.There is a critical grain size of 3μm that divides stagesⅠandⅡwhere the Hall-Petch slope k value are quite different.The stageⅡis supposed to be validified down to 100 nm at least by comparing with a Cu-Ag alloy.The critical grain size varies in different materials systems,and the underline mechanisms are discussed based on the dislocation glide modes.

Phonon broadening in high entropy alloys

Refractory high entropy alloys feature outstanding properties making them a promising materials class for next-generation hightemperature applications.At high temperatures,materials properties are strongly affected by lattice vibrations(phonons).Phonons critically influence thermal stability,thermodynamic and elastic properties,as well as thermal conductivity.In contrast to perfect crystals and ordered alloys,the inherently present mass and force constant fluctuations in multi-component random alloys(high entropy alloys)can induce significant phonon scattering and broadening.Despite their importance,phonon scattering and broadening have so far only scarcely been investigated for high entropy alloys.We tackle this challenge from a theoretical perspective and employ ab initio calculations to systematically study the impact of force constant and mass fluctuations on the phonon spectral functions of 12 body-centered cubic random alloys,from binaries up to 5-component high entropy alloys,addressing the key question of how chemical complexity impacts phonons.We find that it is crucial to include both mass and force constant fluctuations.If one or the other is neglected,qualitatively wrong results can be obtained such as artificial phonon band gaps.We analyze how the results obtained for the phonons translate into thermodynamically integrated quantities,specifically the vibrational entropy.Changes in the vibrational entropy with increasing the number of elements can be as large as changes in the configurational entropy and are thus important for phase stability considerations.The set of studied alloys includes MoTa,MoTaNb,MoTaNbW,MoTaNbWV,VW,VWNb,VWTa,VWNbTa,VTaNbTi,VWNbTaTi,HfZrNb,HfMoTaTiZr.

Prediction of pressure-promoted thermal rejuvenation in metallic glasses

Rejuvenation is the structural excitation of glassy materials,and is a promising approach for improving the macroscopic deformability of metallic glasses.This atomistic study proposes the application of compressive hydrostatic pressure during the glass-forming quenching process and demonstrates highly rejuvenated glass states that have not been attainable without the application of pressure.Surprisingly,the pressure-promoted rejuvenation process increases the characteristic short-and mediumrange order,even though it leads to a higher-energy glassy state.This‘local order’–‘energy’relation is completely opposite to conventional thinking regarding the relation,suggesting the presence of a well-ordered high-pressure glass/high-energy glass phase.We also demonstrate that the rejuvenated glass made by the pressure-promoted rejuvenation exhibits greater plastic performance than as-quenched glass,and greater strength and stiffness than glass made without the application of pressure.It is thus possible to tune the mechanical properties of glass using the pressure-promoted rejuvenation technique.

Grain size altering yielding mechanisms in ultrafine grained high-Mn austenitic steel:Advanced TEM investigations

The underlying mechanism of discontinuous yielding behavior in an ultrafine-grained(UFG)Fe-31 Mn-3 Al-3 Si(wt.%)austenitic TWIP steel was investigated by the use of advanced TEM technique with taking the plastic deformation mechanisms and their correlation with grains size near the macroscopic yield point into account.Typical yield drop mechanisms such as the dislocation locking by the Cottrell atmosphere due to the presence of interstitial impurities cannot explain the origin of this phenomenon in the UFG high-Mn austenitic TWIP steel.Here,we experimentally revealed that the plastic deformation mechanisms in the early stage of deformation,around the macroscopic yield point,show an obvious association with grain size.More specifically,the main mechanism shifts from the conventional slip in grain interior to twinning nucleated from grain boundaries with decreasing the grain size down to less than 1μm.Our observation indicates that the grain size dependent deformation mechanisms transition is also deeply associated with the discontinuous yielding behavior as it could govern the changes in the grain interior dislocation density of mobile dislocations around the macroscopic yield point.

Temperature-dependent phonon spectra of magnetic random solid solutions

A first-principles-based computational tool for simulating phonons of magnetic random solid solutions including thermal magnetic fluctuations is developed.The method takes fluctuations of force constants due to magnetic excitations as well as due to chemical disorder into account.The developed approach correctly predicts the experimentally observed unusual phonon hardening of a transverse acoustic mode in Fe–Pd an Fe–Pt Invar alloys with increasing temperature.This peculiar behavior,which cannot be explained within a conventional harmonic picture,turns out to be a consequence of thermal magnetic fluctuations.The proposed methodology can be straightforwardly applied to a wide range of materials to reveal new insights into physical behaviors and to design materials through computation,which were not accessible so far.

Effect of high pressure torsion process on the microhardness,microstructure and tribological property of Ti6Al4V alloy

In the present study,a fully lamellar Ti6Al4V alloy was severely deformed by high pressure torsion(HPT)process under a pressure of 7.5 GPa up to 10 revolutions.Experimental results revealed that the microhardness of Ti6Al4V was increased remarkably by about~41%and saturated at about 432 Hv after the HPT process.A relatively uniform bulk nanostructured Ti6Al4V alloy with an average grain size of about52.7 nm was obtained eventually,and no obvious formation of metastableωphase was detected by XRD analysis.For the first time,the tribological properties of the HPT processed Ti6Al4V alloy were investigated by a ball-on-disc test at room temperature under a dry condition.It was found that HPT process had a great influence on the friction and wear behaviors of Ti6Al4V alloy.With increasing the number of HPT revolutions,both friction coefficient and specific wear rate were obviously decreased due to the reduction of abrasion and adhesion wears.After being deformed by 10 HPT revolutions,the friction coefficient was reduced from about 0.49 to 0.37,and the specific wear rate was reduced by about 48%.The observations in this study indicated that HPT processed Ti6Al4V alloys had good potential in structural applications owing to their greatly improved mechanical and tribological properties.

Mechanical properties of Fe-rich Si alloy from Hamiltonian

The physical origins of the mechanical properties of Fe-rich Si alloys are investigated by combining electronic structure calculations with statistical mechanics means such as the cluster variation method,molecular dynamics simulation,etc,applied to homogeneous and heterogeneous systems.Firstly,we examined the elastic properties based on electronic structure calculations in a homogeneous system and attributed the physical origin of the loss of ductility with increasing Si content to the combined effects of magneto-volume and D03 ordering.As a typical example of a heterogeneity forming a microstructure,we focus on grain boundaries,and segregation behavior of Si atoms is studied through high-precision electronic structure calculations.Two kinds of segregation sites are identified:looser and tighter sites.Depending on the site,different segregation mechanisms are revealed.Finally,the dislocation behavior in the Fe-Si alloy is investigated mainly by molecular dynamics simulations combined with electronic structure calculations.The solid-solution hardening and softening are interpreted in terms of two kinds of energy barriers for kink nucleation and migration on a screw dislocation line.Furthermore,the clue to the peculiar work hardening behavior is discussed based on kinetic Monte Carlo simulations by focusing on the preferential selection of slip planes triggered by kink nucleation.