We present a brief overview on recent developments in the field of strong and ductile non-equiatomic high-entropy alloys (HEAs). The materials reviewed are mainly based on massive transition-metal ...solute solutions and exhibit a broad spectrum of microstructures and mechanical properties. Three relevant aspects of such non-equiatomic HEAs with excellent strength–ductility combination are addressed in detail, namely phase stability-guided design, controlled and inexpensive bulk metallurgical processing routes for appropriate microstructure and compositional homogeneity, and the resultant microstructure–property relations. In addition to the multiple principal substitutional elements used in these alloys, minor interstitial alloying elements are also considered. We show that various groups of strong and ductile HEAs can be obtained by shifting the alloy design strategy from single-phase equiatomic to dual- or multiphase non-equiatomic compositional configurations with carefully designed phase instability. This design direction provides ample possibilities for joint activation of a number of strengthening and toughening mechanisms. Some potential research efforts which can be conducted in the future are also proposed.
We demonstrate a novel approach of utilizing a hierarchical microstructure design to improve the mechanical properties of an interstitial carbon doped high-entropy alloy (HEA) by cold rolling and ...subsequent tempering and annealing. Bimodal microstructures were produced in the tempered specimens consisting of nano-grains (∼50 nm) in the vicinity of shear bands and recovered parent grains (10–35 μm) with pre-existing nano-twins. Upon annealing, partial recrystallization led to trimodal microstructures characterized by small recrystallized grains (<1 μm) associated with shear bands, medium-sized grains (1–6 μm) recrystallized through subgrain rotation or coalescence of parent grains and retained large un-recrystallized grains. To reveal the influence of these hierarchical microstructures on the strength-ductility synergy, the underlying deformation mechanisms and the resultant strain hardening were investigated. A superior yield strength of 1.3 GPa was achieved in the bimodal microstructure, more than two times higher than that of the fully recrystallized microstructure, owing to the presence of nano-sized grains and nano-twins. The ductility was dramatically improved from 14% to 60% in the trimodal structure compared to the bimodal structure due to the appearance of a multi-stage work hardening behavior. This important strain hardening sequence was attributed to the sequential activation of transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) and twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) effects as a result of the wide variation in phase stability promoted by the grain size hierarchy. These findings open a broader window for achieving a wide spectrum of mechanical properties for HEAs, making better use of not only compositional variations but also microstructure and phase stability tuning.
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Dislocation glide is a general deformation mode, governing the strength of metals. Via discrete dislocation dynamics and molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the strain rate and dislocation ...density dependence of the strength of bulk copper and aluminum single crystals. An analytical relationship between material strength, dislocation density, strain rate and dislocation mobility is proposed, which agrees well with current simulations and published experiments. Results show that material strength displays a decreasing regime (strain rate hardening) and then increasing regime (classical forest hardening) as the dislocation density increases. Accordingly, the strength displays universally, as the strain rate increases, a strain rate-independent regime followed by a strain rate hardening regime. All results are captured by a single scaling function, which relates the scaled strength to a coupling parameter between dislocation density and strain rate. Such coupling parameter also controls the localization of plasticity, fluctuations of dislocation flow and distribution of dislocation velocity.
We present a systematic microstructure oriented mechanical property investigation for a newly developed class of transformation-induced plasticity-assisted dual-phase high-entropy alloys ...(TRIP-DP-HEAs) with varying grain sizes and phase fractions. The DP-HEAs in both, as-homogenized and recrystallized states consist of a face-centered cubic (FCC) matrix containing a high-density of stacking faults and a laminate hexagonal close-packed (HCP) phase. No elemental segregation was observed in grain interiors or at interfaces even down to near-atomic resolution, as confirmed by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and atom probe tomography. The strength-ductility combinations of the recrystallized DP-HEAs (Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10) with varying FCC grain sizes and HCP phase fractions prior to deformation are superior to those of the recrystallized equiatomic single-phase Cantor reference HEA (Fe20Mn20Ni20Co20Cr20). The multiple deformation micro-mechanisms (including strain-induced transformation from FCC to HCP phase) and dynamic strain partitioning behavior among the two phases are revealed in detail. Both, strength and ductility of the DP-HEAs increase with decreasing the average FCC matrix grain size and increasing the HCP phase fraction prior to loading (in the range of 10–35%) due to the resulting enhanced stability of the FCC matrix. These insights are used to project some future directions for designing advanced TRIP-HEAs through the adjustment of the matrix phase's stability by alloy tuning and grain size effects.
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The recently developed interstitial high-entropy alloys (iHEAs) exhibit an enhanced combination of strength and ductility. These properties are attributed to dislocation hardening, deformation-driven ...athermal phase transformation from the face-centered cubic (FCC) γ matrix into the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) ε phase, stacking fault formation, mechanical twinning and precipitation hardening. For gaining a better understanding of these mechanisms as well as their interactions direct observation of the deformation process is required. For this purpose, an iHEA with nominal composition of Fe-30Mn-10Co-10Cr-0.5C (at. %) was produced and investigated via in-situ and interrupted in-situ tensile testing in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) combining electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) techniques. The results reveal that the iHEA is deformed by formation and multiplication of stacking faults along {111} microbands. Sufficient overlap of stacking faults within microbands leads to intrinsic nucleation of HCP ε phase and incoherent annealing twin boundaries act as preferential extrinsic nucleation sites for HCP ε formation. With further straining HCP ε nuclei grow into the adjacent deformed FCC γ matrix. γ regions with smaller grain size have higher mechanical stability against phase transformation. Twinning in FCC γ grains with a size of ∼10 μm can be activated at room temperature at a stress below ∼736 MPa. With increasing deformation, new twin lamellae continuously nucleate. The twin lamellae grow in preferred directions driven by the motion of the mobile partial dislocations. Owing to the individual grain size dependence of the activation of the dislocation-mediated plasticity, of the athermal phase transformation and of mechanical twinning at the different deformation stages, desired strain hardening profiles can be tuned and adjusted over the entire deformation regime by adequate microstructure design, providing excellent combinations of strength and ductility.
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The concurrent ferrite recrystallization and austenitic transformation during intercritical annealing of cold-rolled DP steels is investigated by cellular automaton (CA) modeling. The simulations ...provide insight into the microstructural phenomena that result from the interaction of primary recrystallization and phase transformation. We find that the interaction between ferrite recrystallization and austenite formation affects not only the transformation kinetics but also the morphology and spatial distribution of the austenite. From this we can interpret experimental data of the observed temperature-dependent hardness and its dependence on the two metallurgical processes. The influence of the initial heating rate on subsequent isothermal transformation kinetics and the microstructure evolution is also obtained by the model.
Metals are key materials for modern manufacturing and infrastructures as well as transpot and energy solutions owing to their strength and formability. These properties can severely deteriorate when ...they contain hydrogen, leading to unpredictable failure, an effect called hydrogen embrittlement. Here we report that hydrogen in an equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy (HEA) leads not to catastrophic weakening, but instead increases both, its strength and ductility. While HEAs originally aimed at entropy-driven phase stabilization, hydrogen blending acts opposite as it reduces phase stability. This effect, quantified by the alloy's stacking fault energy, enables nanotwinning which increases the material's work-hardening. These results turn a bane into a boon: hydrogen does not generally act as a harmful impurity, but can be utilized for tuning beneficial hardening mechanisms. This opens new pathways for the design of strong, ductile, and hydrogen tolerant materials.
Metallic materials have enabled technological progress over thousands of years. The accelerated demand for structural (that is, load-bearing) alloys in key sectors such as energy, construction, ...safety and transportation is resulting in predicted production growth rates of up to 200 per cent until 2050. Yet most of these materials require a lot of energy when extracted and manufactured and these processes emit large amounts of greenhouse gases and pollution. Here we review methods of improving the direct sustainability of structural metals, in areas including reduced-carbon-dioxide primary production, recycling, scrap-compatible alloy design, contaminant tolerance of alloys and improved alloy longevity. We discuss the effectiveness and technological readiness of individual measures and also show how novel structural materials enable improved energy efficiency through their reduced mass, higher thermal stability and better mechanical properties than currently available alloys.
The antagonism between strength and resistance to hydrogen embrittlement in metallic materials is an intrinsic obstacle to the design of lightweight yet reliable structural components operated in ...hydrogen-containing environments. Economical and scalable microstructural solutions to this challenge must be found. Here, we introduce a counterintuitive strategy to exploit the typically undesired chemical heterogeneity within the material's microstructure that enables local enhancement of crack resistance and local hydrogen trapping. We use this approach in a manganese-containing high-strength steel and produce a high dispersion of manganese-rich zones within the microstructure. These solute-rich buffer regions allow for local micro-tuning of the phase stability, arresting hydrogen-induced microcracks and thus interrupting the percolation of hydrogen-assisted damage. This results in a superior hydrogen embrittlement resistance (better by a factor of two) without sacrificing the material's strength and ductility. The strategy of exploiting chemical heterogeneities, rather than avoiding them, broadens the horizon for microstructure engineering via advanced thermomechanical processing.
This article reviews the concept of metastability in alloy design. While most materials are thermodynamically metastable at some stage during synthesis and service, we discuss here cases where ...metastable phases are not coincidentally inherited from processing, but rather are engineered. Specifically, we aim at compositional (partitioning), thermal (kinetics), and microstructure (size effects and confinement) tuning of metastable phases so that they can trigger athermal transformation effects when mechanically, thermally, or electromagnetically loaded. Such a concept works both at the bulk scale and also at a spatially confined microstructure scale, such as at lattice defects. In the latter case, local stability tuning works primarily through elemental partitioning to dislocation cores, stacking faults, interfaces, and precipitates. Depending on stability, spatial confinement, misfit, and dispersion, both bulk and local load-driven athermal transformations can equip alloys with substantial gain in strength, ductility, and damage tolerance. Examples include self-organized metastable nanolaminates, austenite reversion steels, metastable medium- and high-entropy alloys, as well as steels and titanium alloys with martensitic phase transformation and twinning-induced plasticity effects.
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