Three strategies to achieve uniform tensile deformation in a nanostructured metal

In nanostructured metals with grain sizes of the order of 100 nm, dislocation mechanisms remain dominant in controlling plastic deformation. These materials, similar to their coarse-grained counterparts that have been subjected to heavy cold work, can no longer go through the several strain hardening stages of normal metals and are hence susceptible to plastic instabilities such as necking in tension. For processing and applications, it is obviously important and often necessary to control such inhomogeneous plastic deformation. Here we demonstrate three strategies to achieve relatively large stable tensile deformation in nanostructured metals, using the pure Cu processed by equal channel angular pressing as a model. The first approach uses an in situ formed composite-like microstructure, such as a bimodal grain size distribution, to impart strain hardening to the material and attain large uniform tensile strains while maintaining the majority of the strengthening brought forth by nanostructuring. In the second route, deformation is conducted at low temperatures, such as 77 K. The material regains the ability to work harden due to suppressed dynamic recovery. Uniform elongation is achieved as a result, together with an elevated strength at the cryogenic temperature. The third method takes advantage of the elevated strain rate sensitivity of the flow stress of the nanostructured Cu, especially at slow strain rates. Using the stabilizing effects of strain rate hardening on tensile deformation, nearly uniform strains can be acquired in absence of strain hardening. We also discuss the deformation mechanisms involved in these approaches to assess their applicability to nanocrystalline metals with grain sizes well below 100 nm, where normal dislocation activities become severely suppressed.