Evolution of Microstructure and Texture during Hot Deformation of a Commercially Processed Supral100

The microstructure and texture in a commercially processed Al-6 wt% Cu-0.4 wt% Zr(Supral100) aluminium alloy have been investigated after annealing and hot tensile straining at 450 ℃,using a field emission gun scanning electron microscope(SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction(EBSD).The microstructure of commercially processed alloy had a relatively large fraction of high angle grain boundaries(HAGBs) which were aligned parallel to the rolling direction,and a strong texture.Annealing at 450 ℃ led to an increase in the fraction of HAGBs and to an increase in HAGB spacing and these changes were progressively enhanced by subsequent tensile deformation.The increasing fraction of HAGBs was due to the annihilation of low angle grain boundaries(LAGBs).A sharpening of texture during annealing was attributed to preferential textural growth,and the reduction of texture at higher tensile strains led to the development of superplastic behaviour.The present work supports the view that the evolution of the fine grain microstructure during the high temperature straining of Supral100 is primarily due to the accumulation of a large area of grain boundary during the initial thermomechanical processing,and does not involve any unusual restoration processes.     

Recrystallization and Grain Growth in Ultrafine‐Grained Materials Produced by High Pressure Torsion

Ultrafine‐grained (UFG) materials processed by severe plastic deformation are known to exhibit good mechanical properties. Much about the annealing behavior of such materials is still unknown, and this work aims to provide a better understanding of the thermal properties of UFG materials. For this purpose a Cu–0.17 wt%Zr alloy was subjected to high pressure torsion (HPT) with a maximal pressure of 4.8 GPa at room temperature. The microstructures of the specimens were characterized using electron back scatter (EBSD) measurements, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and hardness measurements. During annealing of the samples, dispersoids were formed which improved the thermal stability of the alloy. At higher strain levels the fraction of high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) increased above 70% of the total grain boundaries.     

Hot deformation behavior and microstructural evolution of a modified 310 austenitic steel

To study the hot deformation behavior and microstructural evolution of a new modified 310 austenitic steel, hot compression tests were conducted at the temperature range from 800 to 1100 °C with strain rate of 0.1–10 s⁻¹ and strain of 30–70% using Gleeble 3500 thermal–mechanical simulator. The results showed that the serrated flow curves were caused by the competitive interaction between solute atoms and mobile dislocations. There were some coarsened precipitates on the high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs), which facilitated the nucleation of dynamic recrystallization grains. But these precipitates inhibited the growth of the recrystallization grains, and changed the deformation texture in the matrix. Low angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) decreased, while twin GBs and random HAGBs and increased as dynamic recrystallization occurred. Dynamic recrystallization occurred more readily at evaluated temperature or high strain rate. The true stress decreased with the reduction of LAGBs percent. The internal connections between mechanics and microstructures were also discussed.     

Microstructure and mechanical behavior of friction stir processed ultrafine grained Al-Mg-Sc alloy

Twin-roll cast (TRC) Al-Mg-Sc alloy was friction stir processed (FSP) to obtain ultrafine grained (UFG) microstructure. Average grain size of TRC alloy in as-received (AR) condition was 19.0 ± 27.2 μm. The grain size reduced to 0.73 ± 0.44 μm after FSP. About 80% of the grains were smaller than 1 μm in FSP condition. FSP resulted into 80% of the grain boundaries to have high angle grain boundary (HAGBs) character. Uniaxial tensile testing of UFG alloy showed an increase in yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) (by ∼100 MPa each) of the alloy with a very marginal decrease in total and uniform elongation (total - 27% in AR and 24% in UFG and uniform - 19% in AR and 14% in UFG). A theoretical model predicted that the grain refinement cannot take place via discontinuous dynamic recrystallization. Zener pinning model correctly predicted the grain size distribution for UFG alloy. From work hardening behaviors in both the conditions, it was concluded that grain boundary spacing is more important than the character of grain boundaries for influencing extent of uniform deformation of an alloy.     

Effect of high-pressure torsion processing on the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of consolidated micro size Cu and Cu-SiC powders

In this paper, micro size Cu and Cu-SiC composites powders were consolidated by powder metallurgy (PM) followed by sintering or high-pressure torsion (HPT) to study the effect of the different processing methods on microstructure evolution and mechanical properties. HPT contributes in producing fully dense samples with a relative density higher than those processed by PM followed by sintering. Bimodal and trimodal microstructures with a mixture of ultrafine grain (UFG) and micro or nano grain sizes were noted in the case of Cu and Cu-SiC HPTed samples, respectively. The increase of the SiC volume fraction (SiC%) produces smaller grain size with higher fractions of high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) in the HPTed Cu-SiC samples than that in the case of HPTed Cu sample. The HPT under a pressure of 10 GPa and 15 revolutions was effective to achieve a complete fragmentation of SiC particles down to ultrafine particle size. HPT processing of Cu and Cu-SiC composites enhanced the mechanical properties (hardness and tensile strength) with conserving a reasonable degree of ductility (elongation%). The yield strength of the samples was estimated based on the microstructure observations and processing parameters by different models correctly with an error range of 5.1–1% from the experiential results.     

Advancing nanograined/ultrafine-grained structures for metal implant technology: Interplay between grooving of nano/ultrafine grains and cellular response

Nanograined/ultrafine-grained (NG/UFG) metals provide surfaces that are different from conventional coarse-grained polycrystalline metals because of the high fraction of grain boundaries. In the context of osseointegration of metal implants, grooving of nanograins/ultrafine grains by electrochemical grooving is a potential approach to increase the biomechanical interlocking and anchorage with consequent enhancement of cellular response. The primary objective of the research described here is to advance science and technology of metal implants by making a relative comparison of osteoblast response of grain boundary grooved and planar NG/UFG surfaces. The NG/UFG substrates were obtained using an ingenious concept of controlled phase reversion and the grain boundaries were electrochemically treated to induce grooving of large fraction of grain boundaries of NG/UFG substrate. Experiments on the effect of grooving of grain boundaries of NG/UFG metal indicated that cell attachment, proliferation, viability, morphology, and spread are favorably modulated and significantly different from planar (non-grooved) NG/UFG substrates. Furthermore, immunofluorescence studies demonstrated stronger vinculin signals associated with actin stress fibers in the outer regions of the cells and cellular extensions on electrochemically grooved NG/UFG substrate. These observations are indicative of accelerated response of cell–substrate interaction and activity. The differences in the cellular response of planar and grain boundary grooved NG/UFG surface are attributed to favorable surface topography that accelerates the cellular activity.     

Quantitative study of grain refinement in Al–Mg alloy processed by equal channel angular pressing at cryogenic temperature

Strain induced grain refinement of an Al–1 wt.% Mg alloy processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at cryogenic temperature is investigated quantitatively. The results show that both mean grain and subgrain sizes are reduced gradually with increasing ECAP pass. ECAP at cryogenic temperature increases the rate of grain refinement by promoting the fraction of high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) and misorientation at each pass. The fraction of HAGBs and the misorientation of Al–1 wt.% Mg alloy during ECAP at cryogenic temperature increase continuously as a function of equivalent strain. Both {110} and {111} twins at ultrafine-grained size are observed firstly in Al–Mg alloy during ECAP. The analysis of grain boundaries and misorientation gradients demonstrates the grain refinement mechanism of continuous dynamic recrystallization.     

Stability against coarsening in ultra-fine grained aluminum alloy AA 3103 sheet fabricated by continuous confined strip shearing

The stability of ultra-fine grained Al–Mn alloy AA 3103 against coarsening at elevated temperature is analyzed. AA 3103 sheets were produced by means of continuous confined strip shearing (CCSS), which represents an adaptation of equal channel angular pressing to impose severe plastic deformation on sheet samples. With increasing number of CCSS passages, finer and more uniform grains with an increasing fraction of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) were observed. In particular, the sample subjected to 12 passages of CCSS displayed fairly uniform equiaxed grains with an average size of 1.6 μm. During subsequent annealing at 300 and 350 °C, these grains were quite stable, exhibiting a rather low growth rate. This stability is explained in terms of Humphreys’ unified theory of the stability of cellular structures, which has shown that under conditions of very large strains when HAGBs prevail intrinsically stable microstructure will be formed.     

Nickel with multimodal grain size distribution achieved by SPS: microstructure and mechanical properties

Using spark plasma sintering, bulk polycrystalline nickel samples are created from high-purity multimodal nickel powder. The resulting compacts yield relative mass densities of 95–97 %, depending on the sintering temperature. Microstructural investigations of the processed samples show a composite-like microstructure made of the following elements: multicrystalline agglomerates (5 < d < 120 μm), isolated single crystalline and small aggregates (1 < d < 5 μm) and an ultrafine-grained (UFG) component (d < 1 μm). Adjusting the processing parameters allows full control of the microstructural characteristics, such as the average grain size and the volume fraction of the UFG component. The mechanical properties of the processed samples are investigated by compression tests conducted at room temperature at a strain rate of 2 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. The flow stress of the multimodal micrometre-sized nickel increases from ~100 to 400 MPa, depending on the microstructural characteristics, whereas the monomodal nickel has a flow stress of 395 MPa. Stress–strain plots reveal that there is a strong but brief strain hardening, followed by a plateau and/or a strain softening. The evolution of grain misorientation across boundaries after straining suggests the following: in the UFG components, deformation occurs mainly via a grain rotation mechanism, while the coarser microstructures experience deformation by a classical dislocation-based plasticity. Strain softening is more pronounced for samples with a large fraction of UFG components because the rotations of the grains may induce deformation incompatibilities, leading to microcracking at grain boundaries.     

High temperature thermal stability of ultrafine-grained silver processed by equal-channel angular pressing

The high temperature thermal stability of the ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructures in low stacking-fault-energy silver was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The UFG microstructures in two samples having purity levels of 99.995 and 99.99 at.% were achieved by four passes of equal-channel angular pressing at room temperature. The defect structure was studied by electron microscopy, X-ray line profile analysis, and positron annihilation spectroscopy before and after the exothermic DSC peak related to recovery and recrystallization. The heat released in the DSC peak was correlated to the change of defect structure during annealing. It was found for both compositions that a considerable fraction of stored energy (~15–20 %) was retained in the samples even after the DSC peak due to the remaining UFG regions and a large density of small dislocation loops in the recrystallized volumes. The larger impurity level in Ag yielded a higher temperature of recrystallization and a lower released heat. The latter observation is explained by the much lower vacancy concentration before the DSC peak which is attributed to the segregation of dopants at grain boundaries resulting in a smaller free volume in the interfaces.     

Grain-boundary structure of oxygen-free high-conductivity (OFHC) copper subjected to severe plastic deformation and annealing

The influence of grain-boundary structure on grain growth in copper subjected to severe plastic deformation has been studied using orientation imaging microscopy. The investigation was carried out on oxygen-free high-conductivity (OFHC) copper which was wire drawn to a true strain of about 4 and processed by equal-channel angular extrusion (ECAE) to 4 and 8 passes via “route B_c” (where the billet is rotated by 90° in the same direction between consecutive passes). The grain-boundary character distribution (GBCD) of the as-drawn wire was similar to that of ECAE-processed specimens, and both materials possessed a higher fraction of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) than special coincidence-site lattice (CSL) boundaries. While the high fraction of HAGBs was retained in the annealed wires, they were transformed to CSL boundaries in the annealed ECAE-processed materials. In spite of an initially smaller grain size, when annealed at 750 °C for 1 h, the grain size of the 4-pass ECAE-processed material was larger than that of the wire drawn to a similar strain. This difference was attributed to a high density of high-mobility 35–50° 0 0 1 boundaries in the 4-pass ECAE materials. On the other hand, the presence of 50–60° 1 1 1  pinning boundaries in the annealed 8-pass material accounted for the smaller grain size after recrystallization.     

Three-dimensional numerical analysis and experimental investigation of grain refinement in multi-pass equal channel angular pressing for round-workpieces

Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) has the capability of producing ultra fine-grained (UFG) materials bellow the dimension of 1 μm. At present, it is one of the most important methods to get bulk UFG materials. Multi-pass ECAP processes for round workpieces are investigated by using numerical simulations and experimental studies in this paper. The deformation mechanism of ECAP for grain refinement is obtained. Three processing routes A, B and C are simulated in order to study the influence of the processing routes to the deformation uniformity of the workpiece. The finite element (FE) analysis results of the multi-pass ECAP process show that the different processing routes result in the different deformation distributions. The grain in the workpiece is refined obviously after multi-pass pressing. The microstructures of the processed material are more different than that of the microstructure of the annealing initial equiaxed grains. The microstructure evolution of the workpiece can be changed via different processing routes. It is found that route B can get a high angle grain boundaries distribution in the workpiece than other routes. The results of the analysis show that the process of grain refinement can be described as a continuous dynamic recovery and recrystallization. The microstructure evolutions of the grain refinement mechanisms and micro-structural characteristics for different multi-pass ECAP processing routes are verified by using OM (optical model) and TEM (transmission electron microscope) analysis. In addition, the experimental microstructure results are also consistent with FE analysis results.     

The effect of SiC nanoparticles on deformation texture of ARB-processed steel-based nanocomposite

In this study, the influence of SiC nanoparticles on deformation texture of steel-based nanocomposite fabricated by accumulative roll bonding process was investigated. It was found that there was a texture transition from the rolling texture to the shear texture for both pure interstitial free steel and steel-based nanocomposite. However, the texture transition occurred in different cycles for the pure steel (the third cycle) and steel-based nanocomposite (the first cycle). It was realized that the fraction of low misorientation angle grain boundaries was decreased and the fraction of high misorientation angle grain boundaries was increased by the number of cycles. Also, recrystallization occurred in the pure steel and steel-based nanocomposite samples after the third and first cycles, respectively. In addition, the occurrence of recrystallization in steel-based nanocomposite was sooner than that of pure steel. At the early stage of dynamic recrystallization in processed steels, the {011}< 100 >-oriented grains were evolved and the fraction of grains with α-fiber and γ-fiber orientations was slightly decreased. The formation of the rolling texture in the steel-based nanocomposite samples was different from the typical rolling texture for the pure steel samples, due to the presence of the SiC nanoparticles in the nanocomposite. The weak rolling texture was attributed to the high stored energy of deformation, which was, in turn, due to low deformation temperature.     

A comprehensive evaluation of parameters governing the cyclic stability of ultrafine-grained FCC alloys

The current paper presents results of a thorough experimental program undertaken to shed light onto the mechanisms dictating the cyclic stability in ultrafine-grained (UFG) alloys with a face-centered cubic structure. Cyclic deformation responses of several copper- and aluminum-based UFG alloys were investigated and the corresponding microstructural evolutions were analyzed with various microscopy techniques. The important finding is that a larger volume fraction of high-angle grain boundaries and solid solution hardening significantly improve the fatigue performance of these alloys at elevated temperatures and high strain rates, and under large applied strain amplitudes.     

A comparison of microstructures and mechanical properties in a Cu–Zr alloy processed using different SPD techniques

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the microstructures and mechanical properties of a Cu–0.1 % Zr alloy processed using two different techniques of severe plastic deformation: equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) and high-pressure torsion (HPT). The samples were processed at room temperature through ECAP for eight passes or through HPT for 10 turns. The results show HPT is more effective both in refining the grains and in producing a large fraction of grain boundaries having high angles of misorientation. Both procedures produce reasonably homogeneous hardness distributions but the average hardness values were higher after HPT. In tensile testing at 673 K, the highest strength and ductility was achieved after processing by HPT. This is attributed to the grain stability and high fraction of high-angle grain boundaries produced in HPT.     

Correlation of microstructures and low temperature toughness in low carbon Mn–Mo–Nb pipeline steel

Abstract

By adjusting thermomechanical controlled processing parameters, different microstructures were obtained in a low carbon Mn–Mo–Nb pipeline steel. The microstructural characteristic and its effect on low temperature toughness were investigated. The results show that under higher reduction in austenite non-recrystallisation region and faster cooling rate during accelerated cooling, the microstructure is dominated by acicular ferrite (AF) accompanied by a small amount of fine martensite/austenite (M/A) islands. In contrast, lower reduction and slower cooling rate lead to a predominantly quasi-polygonal ferrite microstructure with coarse M/A islands. The fine effective grain size (EGS) and the high fraction of high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) make the cleavage crack propagation direction deflect frequently. The coarse M/A islands can lead to cleavage microcracks at the M–A/ferrite matrix interfaces. Compared with the microstructure mainly consisting of quasi-polygonal ferrite, the microstructure dominated by AF exhibits excellent low temperature toughness because of fine EGS, high fraction of HAGBs and fine M/A islands.     

Dynamic recrystallization behavior of GH4169G alloy during hot compressive deformation

The microstructure evolutions and nucleation mechanisms of GH4169 G alloy were studied by optical microscope, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The hot compression tests were performed different imposed reductions in the range of true strain from 0.12 to 1.2 at the temperatures of 930 ℃-1050 ℃ with strain rates of 0.01 s⁻¹-1 s⁻¹. It is found that cumulative and local misorientation increase firstly and then decrease when the strain is increased due to the progress of dynamic recrystallization (DRX). The low angle boundaries (LAGBs) rapidly develop to high angle boundaries (HAGBs) at relatively high deformation temperature or the low strain rate. There are three DRX mechanisms observed for GH4169 G alloy during hot deformation. Discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) as the dominant mechanism for GH4169 G alloy is characterized by typical necklace structures and bulged-original boundaries. Besides, different deformation bands with dislocation cells formed in deformed matrix at low temperature and large strain, which indicates that continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) contributed to the DRX process. The twin boundaries lost their coherent characteristics and provide sites for nucleation, which also accelerates the nucleation of DRX.     

Fatigue Damage Evolution in Ultrafine‐Grained Interstitial‐Free Steel

The current work presents the crack propagation behavior in ultrafine‐grained (UFG) interstitial‐free (IF) steel, and in particular, focuses on the damage evolution in UFG IF steel under cyclic loading. The current results indicate that equal‐channel angular pressing (ECAP) has a major influence on the cyclic deformation response of the UFG IF steel, such that the failure and the crack path depend on the inclination plane during ECAP. Furthermore, the UFG IF steel demonstrates significant notch sensitivity in comparison to its coarse‐grained counterpart. This is attributed to the ultrafine grains with a large volume fraction of high‐angle grain boundaries, where glide of dislocations is hindered and the resulting internal stresses increase the stress concentration further in the presence of a pre‐existing notch.     

Stability of the ultrafine-grained microstructure in silver processed by ECAP and HPT

The high-temperature thermal stability of the ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructures in low stacking fault energy silver was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The UFG microstructures were achieved by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) and high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature (RT). The defect structure in the as-processed samples was examined by electron microscopy and X-ray line profile analysis. The stored energy calculated from the defect densities was compared to the heat released during DSC. The sum of the energies stored in grain boundaries and dislocations in the ECAP-processed samples agreed with the heat released experimentally within the experimental error. The temperature of the DSC peak maximum decreased while the released heat increased with increasing numbers of ECAP passes. The released heat for the specimen processed by one revolution of HPT was much smaller than after 4–8 passes of ECAP despite the 2 times larger dislocation density measured by X-ray line profile analysis. This dichotomy was caused by the heterogeneous sandwich-like microstructure of the HPT-processed disk: about 175 μm wide surface layers on both sides of the disk exhibited a UFG microstructure while the internal part was recrystallized, thereby yielding a relatively small released heat.     

Superplastic behavior of an ultrafine-grained Mg-13Zn-1.55Y alloy with a high volume fraction of icosahedral phases prepared by high-ratio differential speed rolling

An ultrafine-grained(UFG) Mg-13Zn-1.55 Y alloy(ZW132) with a high volume fraction(7.4%) of icosahedral phase(I-phase, Mg_3Zn_6Y) particles was prepared by applying high-ratio differential speed rolling(HRDSR) on the cast microstructure following homogenization. The alloy exhibited excellent superplasticity at low temperatures(tensile elongations of 455% and 1021% 473 K-10~(-3)s~(-1) and 523 K-10~(-3)s~(-1),respectively). Compared with UFG Mg-9.25Zn-1.66 Y alloy(ZW92) with a lower volume fraction of I-phase particles(4.1%), which was prepared using the same processing routes, the UFG ZW132 alloy exhibited a higher thermal stability of grain size. Rapid grain coarsening, however, occurred at temperatures beyond523 K, leading to a loss of superplasticity. The high-temperature deformation behavior of the HRDSRprocessed ZW132 alloy could be well described assuming that the mechanisms of grain boundary sliding and dislocation climb creep competed with each other and considering that the grain-size was largely increased by accelerated grain growth at the temperatures beyond 523 K.