We investigate the influence of grain size on the strain hardening of two Fe–22Mn–0.6C (wt.%) twinning-induced plasticity steels with average grain sizes of 3 and 50μm, respectively. The grain size ...has a significant influence on the strain hardening through the underlying microstructure. The dislocation substructure formed in the early deformation stages determines the density of nucleation sites for twins per unit grain boundary area which controls the developing twin substructure.
We investigate the strain hardening of two austenitic high-Mn low density steels, namely, Fe–30.5Mn–2.1Al–1.2C and Fe–30.5Mn–8.0Al–1.2C (wt.%), containing different precipitation states. The strain ...hardening of the alloy with low Al content is attributed to dislocation and twin substructures. The precipitation of intergranular M3C-type carbides strongly influences the fracture mode. We associate the strain hardening behavior of the alloy with high Al content to the precipitation of shearable nanosized κ-carbides and their role in the development of planar dislocation substructures.
For 5000 years, metals have been mankind's most essential materials owing to their ductility and strength. Linear defects called dislocations carry atomic shear steps, enabling their formability. We ...report chemical and structural states confined at dislocations. In a body-centered cubic Fe–9 atomic percent Mn alloy, we found Mn segregation at dislocation cores during heating, followed by formation of face-centered cubic regions but no further growth. The regions are in equilibrium with the matrix and remain confined to the dislocation cores with coherent interfaces. The phenomenon resembles interface-stabilized structural states called complexions. A cubic meter of strained alloy contains up to a light year of dislocation length, suggesting that linear complexions could provide opportunities to nanostructure alloys via segregation and confined structural states.
We introduce the alloy design concepts of high performance austenitic FeMnAlC steels, namely, Simplex and alloys strengthened by nanoscale ordered κ-carbides. Simplex steels are characterised by an ...outstanding strain hardening capacity at room temperature. This is attributed to the multiple stage strain hardening behaviour associated to dislocation substructure refinement and subsequent activation of deformation twinning, which leads to a steadily increase of the strain hardening. Al additions higher that 5 wt-% promote the precipitation of nanoscale L′1
2
ordered precipitates (so called κ-carbides) resulting in high strength (yield stress ∼1·0 GPa) and ductile (elongation to fracture ∼30%) steels. Novel insights into dislocation-particle interactions in a Fe-30·5Mn-8·0Al-1·2C (wt-%) steel strengthened by nanoscale κ-carbides are discussed.
In many cases, the three-dimensional reconstructions from atom probe tomography (APT) are not sufficiently accurate to resolve crystallographic features such as lattice planes, shear bands, stacking ...faults, dislocations or grain boundaries. Hence, correlative crystallographic characterization is required in addition to APT at the exact same location of the specimen. Also, for the site-specific preparation of APT tips containing regions of interest (e.g. grain boundaries) correlative electron microscopy is often inevitable. Here we present a versatile experimental setup that enables performing correlative focused ion beam milling, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and APT under optimized characterization conditions. The setup was designed for high throughput, robustness and practicability. We demonstrate that atom probe tips can be characterized by TEM in the same way as a standard TEM sample. In particular, the use of scanning nanobeam diffraction provides valuable complementary crystallographic information when being performed on atom probe tips. This technique enables the measurement of orientation and phase maps as known from electron backscattering diffraction with a spatial resolution down to one nanometer.
•Atom probe tips can be characterized in TEM like any standard TEM sample.•In principal all TEM techniques can be performed on atom probe tips.•Scanning NBD enables the measurement of orientation maps on AP tips with a lateral spatial resolution of 2nm or better.•Grain orientations can be measured by NBD even in the topmost 10nm of an AP tip.
The microstructure-mechanical property relationships of a non-equiatomic FeMnCoCr high entropy alloy (HEA), which shows a single face-centered cubic (fcc) structure in the undeformed state, have been ...systematically investigated at room and cryogenic temperatures. Both strength and ductility increase significantly when reducing the probing temperature from 293 K to 77 K. During tensile deformation at 293 K, dislocation slip and mechanical twinning prevail. At 173 K deformation-driven athermal transformation from the fcc phase to the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) martensite is the dominant mechanism while mechanical twinning occurs in grains with high Schmid factors. At 77 K athermal martensitic transformation continues to prevail in addition to dislocation slip and twinning. The reduction in the mean free path for dislocation slip through the fine martensite bundles and deformation twins leads to the further increased strength. The joint activation of transformation and twinning under cryogenic conditions is attributed to the decreased stacking fault energy and the enhanced flow stress of the fcc matrix with decreasing temperature. These mechanisms lead to an elevated strain hardening capacity and an enhanced strength-ductility combination. The temperature-dependent synergy effects of martensite formation, twinning and dislocation plasticity originate from the metastability alloy design concept. This is realized by relaxing the equiatomic HEA constraints towards reduced Ni and increased Mn contents, enabling a non-equiatomic material with low stacking fault energy. These insights are important for designing strong and ductile Ni-saving alloys for cryogenic applications.
The deformation of an initially spherical capsule, freely suspended in simple shear flow, can be computed analytically in the limit of small deformations D. Barthés-Biesel, J.M. Rallison, The ...time-dependent deformation of a capsule freely suspended in a linear shear flow, J. Fluid Mech. 113 (1981) 251–267. Those analytic approximations are used to study the influence of the mesh tessellation method, the spatial resolution, and the discrete delta function of the immersed boundary method on the numerical results obtained by a coupled immersed boundary lattice Boltzmann finite element method. For the description of the capsule membrane, a finite element method and the Skalak constitutive model R. Skalak, A. Tozeren, R.P. Zarda, S. Chien, Strain energy function of red blood cell membranes, Biophys. J. 13 (1973) 245–264 have been employed. Our primary goal is the investigation of the presented model for small resolutions to provide a sound basis for efficient but accurate simulations of multiple deformable particles immersed in a fluid. We come to the conclusion that details of the membrane mesh, as tessellation method and resolution, play only a minor role. The hydrodynamic resolution, i.e., the width of the discrete delta function, can significantly influence the accuracy of the simulations. The discretization of the delta function introduces an artificial length scale, which effectively changes the radius and the deformability of the capsule. We discuss possibilities of reducing the computing time of simulations of deformable objects immersed in a fluid while maintaining high accuracy.
Today, a large number of different steels are being processed by Additive Manufacturing (AM) methods. The different matrix microstructure components and phases (austenite, ferrite, martensite) and ...the various precipitation phases (intermetallic precipitates, carbides) lend a huge variability in microstructure and properties to this class of alloys. This is true for AM-produced steels just as it is for conventionally-produced steels. However, steels are subjected during AM processing to time-temperature profiles which are very different from the ones encountered in conventional process routes, and hence the resulting microstructures differ strongly as well. This includes a very fine and highly morphologically and crystallographically textured microstructure as a result of high solidification rates as well as non-equilibrium phases in the as-processed state. Such a microstructure, in turn, necessitates additional or adapted post-AM heat treatments and alloy design adjustments. In this review, we give an overview over the different kinds of steels in use in fusion-based AM processes and present their microstructures, their mechanical and corrosion properties, their heat treatments and their intended applications. This includes austenitic, duplex, martensitic and precipitation-hardening stainless steels, TRIP/TWIP steels, maraging and carbon-bearing tool steels and ODS steels. We identify areas with missing information in the literature and assess which properties of AM steels exceed those of conventionally-produced ones, or, conversely, which properties fall behind. We close our review with a short summary of iron-base alloys with functional properties and their application perspectives in Additive Manufacturing.
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