Microscopy and tensile behavior of melt-spun Ni-Al-Fe alloys

Microscopy and room-temperature tensile tests were performed on as-spun and annealed ribbons of Ni-20 (at. pet) Al-Fe alloys containing 20 to 40Fe. The ribbons had the duplex structures consisting of grains of ordered bec β-NiAl and grains of disordered fee γ-Ni, which contains precipitates of γ′-Ni₃Al. The 25 to 30Fe alloys exhibited high ductility (∼10 pet elongation) in both the as-spun and annealed conditions. These results indicate that rapid solidification-induced effects, such as the suppression of ordering, do not enhance ductility as previously reported. The ductile alloys were found to contain high dislocation densities in both they and β grains, with no evidence of stress-induced martensite formation in the β phase. Dislocation analysis revealed that the vast majority of dislocations in theβ had ≤100≥Burgers vectors; however, ≤111≥ dislocations were also observed. Additionally, slip bands were frequently observed meeting at γ-β grain boundaries. Since they tend to align across the interphase grain boundary, deformation transfer between γ and β is inferred. The deformation transfer was found to be facilitated by a specific orientation relationship between the grains. The unusual deformation of ββby ≤111≥ slip and by deformation transfer from neighboring grains may be responsible for the high ductility.