Roles of Friction-Induced Strain Hardening and Recrystallization in Dry Sliding Wear of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy

Dry sliding wear tests were performed on AZ31 alloy using a pin-on-disc configuration under the loads of 5–360 N and sliding speeds of 0.1–1.5 m/s. Friction and wear characteristics of AZ31 alloy were investigated as a function of the load and sliding speed. Wear mechanisms for AZ31 alloy were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The wear behavior in mild and severe wear regimes was described in terms of plastic deformation and microstructure evolution in subsurface, and surface hardness change and temperature rise of worn surfaces. The results revealed that surface strain hardening caused by large plastic deformation played an important role in maintaining a low slope of wear rate in mild wear regime, while surface thermal softening originating from dynamic recrystallization and surface melting were responsible for a rapid wear in severe wear regime.     

Fe-19Cr-0.2Ni-5Mn-0.2Si在循环加载下的马氏体相变规律及其影响

 相变诱导塑性(TRIP)双相不锈钢具有优良的强度和塑性,且兼顾经济性,因此工业应用潜力很大。而厘清TRIP型双相不锈钢在循环加载下产生的马氏体相变对其循环力学性能的影响规律,是促进其进一步开发及工业化应用的基础。以TRIP型双相不锈钢Fe-19Cr-0.2 Ni-5Mn-0.2Si为研究对象,开展循环性能及相变特征研究。应用INSTRON试验机,分别进行拉伸试验和应变幅为0.6%的对称循环加载试验,测定试验钢的拉伸力学性能及循环软硬化性能。在循环加载过程中,应用铁素体测量仪测量不同循环周次下的马氏体转变量,分析马氏体相变特征。利用透射电镜,观测典型循环周次下的微观结构,分析马氏体相变和位错结构演化规律。进而,研究马氏体相变和位错结构演化对循环软硬化性能的作用机制。结果表明,试验钢在拉伸条件下,表现出明显的TRIP效应;循环初期马氏体转变速率较快,之后转变速率逐渐降低并且逐渐趋于零;循环软硬化特征可分为3个阶段,初始循环硬化、循环软化和二次循环硬化阶段;初始循环硬化由两相中位错的增殖引起的硬化效应起主导作用;随后的循环软化,由铁素体中低能位错结构所引起的软化效应起主导作用;在二次循环硬化阶段,相变马氏体对材料的硬化起主导作用。总的来说,马氏体相变对试验钢循环加载初期的循环软硬化性能影响较小,但对循环后期的性能影响较大。     

基于Gurson模型的镁合金板材温热冲压成形研究

在Gurson损伤模型的基础上,采用有限元数值模拟与温热冲压实验相结合的方法,对镁合金板材温热冲压成形过程中的材料损伤过程进行了预测.考虑了板材的塑性各向异性行为,通过用户自定义材料子程序VUMAT将损伤模型嵌入到有限元软件ABAQUS/Explicit中.采用单轴拉伸试验数据与有限元数值模拟结果进行迭代,确定了Gurson模型所需要的材料参数.使用ABAQUS模拟得到了镁合金板材温热冲压过程中微孔洞的演变及分布规律.通过扫描电子显微镜,对不同温度下的AZ31镁合金板材由孔洞增长和聚合引起的内部损伤演化进行了观察分析.研究结果表明,板材中微孔洞的分布与实验数据相吻合,说明本文所提出的方法可以应用于金属板材温热冲压成形性能预测.      

含硅镍低密度钢的温拉伸力学行为及强韧机制

 为了分析硅镍合金化奥氏体基低密度钢在中温环境下的拉伸变形行为,采用Instron电子拉力试验机对Fe-28.64Mn-8.99Al-1.68Si-1.39Ni-1.0C(Mn29Al9Si2Ni,质量分数/%)低密度钢在23~300 ℃下进行了温拉伸试验,研究了该钢的温拉伸力学行为,并采用SEM、TEM和热力学计算对该钢的强韧化机制进行了研究。结果表明,随着应变的增加,温拉伸应力-应变曲线主要包括弹性变形、均匀塑性变形和断裂等几个过程,没有明显的屈服现象。随着温度的提高,该钢的强度逐渐降低,塑性(断后伸长率)先增加后减小再升高,于200 ℃时出现塑性低谷,此时该钢的应力-应变曲线和应变硬化率曲线均具有明显的锯齿状特征,应变硬化率随应变的增加变化不大。而该钢在其他温度下的应力-应变曲线和应变硬化率曲线没有发现明显的“锯齿状”特征,应变硬化率随应变的增加而平缓下降。试验钢在23~300 ℃下的主要强韧化机制为κ-碳化物强化、应变强化、孪生诱发塑性和动态应变时效强化。较低温度下位错可动性较差对孪生诱发的促进作用、镍元素和硅元素对孪生的抑制作用、较高温度下孪生现象的减弱和温度对动态应变时效的促进或抑制作用等使得试验钢在23、100和300 ℃时存在明显的孪生诱发塑性,而在200 ℃时存在明显的动态应变时效强化的主要原因。动态应变时效强化是该钢在200 ℃时出现塑性低谷的主要原因。     

Modeling the mechanical behavior of tantalum

A crystal plasticity model is proposed to simulate the large plastic deformation and texture evolution in tantalum over a wide range of strain rates. In the model, a modification of the viscoplastic power law for slip and a Taylor interaction law for polycrystals are employed, which account for the effects of strain hardening, strain-rate hardening, and thermal softening. A series of uniaxial compression tests in tantalum at strain rates ranging from 10⁻³ to 10⁴ s⁻¹ were conducted and used to verify the model’s simulated stress-strain response. Initial and evolved deformation textures were also measured for comparison with predicted textures from the model. Applications of this crystal plasticity model are made to examine the effect of different initial crystallographic textures in tantalum subjected to uniaxial compression deformation or biaxial tensile deformation.     

Surface Hardening and Microstructural Changes in 304 Stainless Steel Resulting from Elevated Temperature Ultrasonic Vibration

The influence of 40 kHz ultrasonic vibration at 925 °C on hardness and substructure has been studied for 304 stainless steel. Vibration at 33 MPa and 40 MPa stress amplitude produced an increase in hardness although the degree of hardening was nonuniform throughout the specimens. Hardening was greatest near the surface and decreased with distance from the surface. The amount of hardening and depth of the hardened region increased nonlinearly with the stress amplitude of the vibration. The surface hardening resulted from an increased dislocation density, deformation twinning, and enhanced precipitation of dispersed M₂₃C₆ carbide. The incidence of deformation twinning in the surface region was attributed to the inherently low stacking fault energy of the material, high strain rate, and severe strain localization along slip bands. Although deformation was more uniform at the surface, grain boundary regions in the interior of vibrated specimens showed a hardening compared to unvibrated annealed samples. In this case, the strengthening resulted from a dislocation cell structure primarily near grain boundaries combined with increased carbide precipitation.     

Finite Element Simulation of Flow Localization During Equal Channel Angular Pressing

The hardening or softening behavior of materials is one of the major factors affecting the deformation homogeneity in work-pieces during processing by equal channel angular pressing. In the present study, the difference between plastic flow behavior and deformation homogeneity of strain hardening and strain softening materials were investigated with the aid of finite element simulation. Results showed that localization of plastic strain occurred in the strain softening materials and fluctuations were observed in the strain distribution along work-piece. In strain hardening materials, a more uniform distribution of plastic strain was obtained compared to strain softening material.     

High-strain-rate behavior of low-alloy multiphase aluminum- and silicon-based transformation-induced plasticity steels

High-strength, low-alloy transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steels are advanced multiphase steel grades that combine high-strength levels with an excellent ductility, making them ideally suited for application in crash-relevant parts of automotive car bodies. The enhanced plastic hardening and deformability are due to a complex interaction between the microstructural phases and to the transformation of metastable austenite to martensite during plastic deformation. During high-strain-rate loading, not only the material but also the transformation will be influenced by adiabatic heating. The impact-dynamic properties of CMnAl- and CMnSi-TRIP steels were determined in the range of 500 to 2000 s⁻¹ using a split Hopkinson tensile bar (SHTB) setup. Bake-hardening treatments were applied to study the effect of strain aging. The experiments show that strain-rate hardening is superior to thermal softening: yield stresses, deformation, and energy dissipation increase with the strain rate. Phenomenological material models were investigated to describe the strain-rate and temperature-dependent behavior of TRIP steels. Both the Johnson-Cook model and an extended version of the Ludwig model were found to give good agreement with the experimental data.     

Strain Hardening of Hadfield Manganese Steel

The plastic flow behavior of Hadfield manganese steel in uniaxial tension and compression is shown to be greatly influenced by transformation plasticity phenomena. Changes in the stress-strain (σ−ε) curves with temperature correlate with the observed extent of deformation twinning, consistent with a softening effect of twinning as a deformation mechanism and a hardening effect of the twinned microstructure. The combined effects give upward curvature to the σ−ε curve over extensive ranges of plastic strain. A higher strain hardening in compression compared with tension appears to be consistent with the observed texture development. The composition dependence of stacking fault energy computed using a thermodynamic model suggests that the Hadfield composition is optimum for a maximum rate of deformation twinning. Comparisons of the Hadfield steel with a Co-33Ni alloy exhibiting similar twinning kinetics, and an Fe-21Ni-lC alloy deforming by slip indicate no unusual strain hardening at low strains where deformation is controlled by slip, but an unusual amount of structural hardening associated with the twin formation in the Hadfield steel. A possible mechanism of anomalous twin hardening is discussed in terms of modified twinning behavior (pseudotwinning) in nonrandom solid solutions. Formerly Graduate Student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology     

Fatigue behavior of a precipitation hardening Ni−Al−Cu medium carbon steel

The fatigue behavior of an Fe-0.3 wt pet C-4 wt pet Ni-1 wt pet Al-1 wt pet Cu precipitation hardening steel was investigated in three different heat treated conditions which give similar tensile strengths but different microstructures. One heat treatment produced a lightly tempered lath martensite having fine carbides and a high dislocation density. The other two heat treatments produced highly tempered martensite with coarse carbides, fine intermetallic precipitates and a relatively low dislocation density. The steel in the lightly tempered condition showed marked softening on strain cycling while the highly tempered conditions resulted in both hardening and softening. The lightly tempered structure had better low cycle fatigue resistance but the two highly tempered structures had better high cycle resistance. The dislocation substructure in the lightly tempered steel rearranges itself and accommodates plastic strain during cyclic deformation while the substructure in the highly tempered structures containing fine precipitates resists rearrangement. This difference is suggested as the reason for the differences in behavior. The three conditions show little variation in their resistance to fatigue crack propagation. However, the highly tempered, precipitate containing structures were much more resistant to fatigue crack initiation in notched specimens.     

Cyclic deformation of pearlitic eutectoid rail steel

Cyclic deformation behavior in pearlitic eutectoid steel strongly depends on the interlamellar spacing with cyclic softening in fine pearlite, cyclic hardening in coarse pearlite, and both cyclic softening and hardening depending on the strain amplitude in medium pearlite. Dislocations in cyclically softened specimens were uniformly distributed, while dislocation cells were observed with cyclic hardening. The cell size decreased with increasing strain amplitude. Using the cell size to interlamellar spacing ratios, conditions for cell formation were quantified. Based on dislocation structure observations, mechanisms for cyclic softening and hardening were proposed. Both monotonic and cyclic yield stresses follow Hall-Petch type relations when plotted against interlamellar spacing. Surface fatigue microcrack initiation usually occurred in the ferrite matrix associated with extrusions and intrusions. Most microcracks were almost parallel to the cementite lamellae and oriented between 30 and 90 deg with respect to the tensile axis. Little influence of MnS inclusions on microcrack initiation was noticed.     

非线性组合硬化条件下镁合金板料变形回弹预测

变形回弹作为金属板料成形的主要缺陷之一,如何提高变应变路径条件下的回弹预测精度一直是研究者们面临的难题.本文针对镁合金变形特点,提出了同时考虑同向硬化、动态硬化和屈服圆畸变的本构模型.以0.8 mm厚AZ31B镁合金板料为研究对象,施加不同预拉伸后进行弯曲变形试验,观察了不同预变形对回弹规律的影响.同时结合有限元分析ABAQUS-Explicit (Vumat)和ABAQUS-Implicit (Umat)对板料的变形及回弹过程进行模拟仿真,对比试验与模拟结果,验证动态硬化对于镁合金板料变形回弹的重要影响.      

Fatigue behavior of a precipitation hardening Ni-Al-Cu medium carbon steel

The fatigue behavior of an Fe-0.3 wt pct C-4 wt pct Ni-1 wt pct Al-1 wt pct Cu precipitation hardening steel was investigated in three different heat treated conditions which give similar tensile strengths but different microstructures. One heat treatment produced a lightly tempered lath martensite having fine carbides and a high dislocation density. The other two heat treatments produced highly tempered martensite with coarse carbides, fine intermetallic precipitates and a relatively low dislocation density. The steel in the lightly tempered condition showed marked softening on strain cycling while the highly tempered conditions resulted in both hardening and softening. The lightly tempered structure had better low cycle fatigue resistance but the two highly tempered structures had better high cycle resistance. The dislocation substructure in the lightly tempered steel rearranges itself and accommodates plastic strain during cyclic deformation while the substructure in the highly tempered structures containing fine precipitates resists rearrangement. This difference is suggested as the reason for the differences in behavior. The three conditions show little variation in their resistance to fatigue crack propagation. However, the highly tempered, precipitate containing structures were much more resistant to fatigue crack initiation in notched specimens. Former Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering     

Effects of Aluminum Addition on Tensile and Cup Forming Properties of Three Twinning Induced Plasticity Steels

In the present study, a high Mn twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) steel and two Al-added TWIP steels were fabricated, and their microstructures, tensile properties, and cup formability were analyzed to investigate the effects of Al addition on deformation mechanisms in tensile and cup forming tests. In the high Mn steel, the twin formation was activated to increase the strain hardening rate and ultimate tensile strength, which needed the high punch load during the cup forming test. In the Al-added TWIP steels, the twin formation was reduced, while the slip activation increased, thereby leading to the decrease in strain hardening rate and ultimate tensile strength. As twins and slips were homogeneously formed during the tensile or cup forming test, the punch load required for the cup forming and residual stresses were relatively low, and the tensile ductility was sufficiently high even after the cup forming test. This indicated that making use of twins and slips simultaneously in TWIP steels by the Al addition was an effective way to improve overall properties including cup formability.     

Creep deformation mechanisms in high-pressure die-cast magnesium-aluminum-base alloys

Creep of die-cast Mg alloys is described as an integral part of their plastic deformation behavior in terms of stress-strain-rate-strain relations. Creep tests yield information on yield stress, work hardening, maximum deformation resistance (minimum creep rate), and work softening. Testing in compression avoids influences by fracture. Data on the alloy AJ52 (5Al, 2Sr) in the temperature range between 135 °C and 190 °C are presented and compared to those for AZ91 and AS21. Die-cast Mg-Al alloys consist of fine grains with a grain boundary region containing intermetallic precipitates. Transmission electron microscopic observations indicate that basal glide is the dominant mechanism of deformation being supplemented by nonbasal glide and twinning to maintain compatiblity between the grains. The deformation resistance can be modeled with a composite approach assuming that the grain boundary region is relatively hard due to precipitation of intermetallic phases. The differences in long-term creep resistance at low stress are explained in terms of different strength and stability of precipitates in the different alloys. This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled “Phase Transformations and Deformation in Magnesium Alloys,” which occurred during the Spring TMS meeting, March 14–17, 2004, in Charlotte, NC, under the auspices of the ASM-MSCTS Phase Transformations Committee.     

Constitutive Behavior of Commercial Grade ZEK100 Magnesium Alloy Sheet over a Wide Range of Strain Rates

The constitutive behavior of a rare-earth magnesium alloy ZEK100 rolled sheet is studied at room temperature over a wide range of strain rates. This alloy displays a weakened basal texture compared to conventional AZ31B sheet which leads to increased ductility; however, a strong orientation dependency persists. An interesting feature of the ZEK100 behavior is twinning at first yield under transverse direction (TD) tensile loading that is not seen in AZ31B. The subsequent work hardening behavior is shown to be stronger in the TD when compared to the rolling and 45 deg directions. One particularly striking feature of this alloy is a significant dependency of the strain rate sensitivity on orientation. The yield strength under compressive loading in all directions and under tensile loading in the TD direction is controlled by twinning and is rate insensitive. In contrast, the yield strength under rolling direction tensile loading is controlled by non-basal slip and is strongly rate sensitive. The cause of the in-plane anisotropy in terms of both strength and strain rate sensitivity is attributed to the initial crystallographic texture and operative deformation mechanisms as confirmed by measurements of deformed texture. Rate-sensitive constitutive fits are provided of the tensile stress–strain curves to the Zerilli–Armstrong[1] hcp material model and of the compressive response to a new constitutive equation due to Kurukuri et al.[2]     

Role of nitrogen in the cyclic deformation behavior of duplex stainless steels

The role of nitrogen in the cyclic deformation behavior of duplex stainless steels (DSS) has been studied under fully reversed total-strain amplitude. The cyclic hardening-softening curves show that cyclic stress levels become lower with increasing nitrogen content. The cyclic softening becomes more evident with increasing nitrogen content. It can be attributed to the greater strength of austenite than that of ferrite as plastic strain is accumulated beyond the critical strain. This is achieved by a higher strain hardening of austenite than that of ferrite with increasing nitrogen content. In this regard, the higher austenite volume fraction is also responsible for higher cyclic softening, resulting from much stronger strain partitioning in ferrite. Dislocation-structure observations reveal that severe strain localization in ferrite causes greater cyclic softening in the alloys with higher nitrogen content. The cyclic stress-strain response can be described in terms of two regimes with low and high plastic-strain amplitudes. In the former regime, the cyclic strain-hardening rates (CSHRs) become higher with increasing nitrogen content because austenite dominantly takes part in plastic deformation, being more strain hardened due to the higher nitrogen content in austenite. On the contrary, those in the high-plastic-strain-amplitude regime hardly change because ferrite, more dominantly accommodating plastic strain, rarely shows a change of strain-hardening behavior due to the similar nitrogen content in ferrite.     

Effects of SiCp Parameters on Microstructures,Interface Structure and Mechanical Property of Mg Bulk Composites Produced by Ultrasonic Vibration Processing

In this study, the effects of submicron silicon carbide particulates (SiCp) addition on microstructures of the SiCp/AZ31B composites prepared by stir casting combined with ultrasonic vibration, as well as on the interface and the tensile behavior of AZ31B alloy were discussed. Most of the SiCp tended to aggregate in the last solidified regions (such as grain boundaries) during solidification. Microstructural characterization of the developed magnesium matrix composites also revealed significant grain refinement. The grain of composite was refined by increasing particle volume fraction. Moreover, better interfacial bonding was realized in the composite. Tensile test results showed that strengths of the submicron SiCp/AZ31B composites were enhanced significantly whilst as the amount of submicron SiCp were increased, the strengths of the SiCp/AZ31B composites also increased.