ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P1-16

Considerable studies on metal selective laser melting (SLM) have proved the necessity to refine microstructure parts fabricated by SLM in order to eliminate property anisotropy, hot-tearing and to increase the SLM-processability. In the present work, Ti nanoparticles, at the first time, were discovered to be an extremely effective inoculant for an SLMed 2024 aluminium alloy. 0.7 wt% addition of Ti nanoparticles was capable of substantially eliminating the hot-tearing cracks and columnar structure, and refining the grains in the SLMed 2024 alloy in a broad processing window. The substantial grain refinement in the Ti-inoculated 2024 alloy was attributed to the in-situ formation of Al3Ti nanoparticles with a L12 ordered structure, which formed a coherent interface with Al matrix and therefore significantly promoted the heterogeneous nucleation of the α-Al during solidification of melt pools in the SLM process. After a conventional T6 heat treatment, this SLMed alloy exhibited a superior balance of strength and ductility (tensile strength was up to 432 ± 20 MPa and elongation of 10 ± 0.8%), which was comparable to its wrought counterpart. This work can be considered as a breakthrough in research of fabricating high-strength aluminium alloys using SLM.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P31-43

The creep behaviour and microstructural evolution of a Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu wt% sample with a columnar microstructure have been investigated through in-situ creep testing under constant stress of 30MPa at ~298 K. This is important, as 298 K is high temperature within the solder system and in-situ observations of microstructure evolution confirm the mechanisms involved in deformation and ultimately failure of the material. The sample has been observed in-situ using repeat and automatic forescatter diode and auto electron backscatter diffraction imaging. During deformation, polygonisation and recrystallisation are observed heterogeneously with increasing strain, and these correlate with local lattice rotations near matrix-intermetallic compound interfaces. Recrystallised grains have either twin or special boundary relationships to their parent grains. The combination of these two imaging methods reveal grain 1(loading direction, LD, 10.4° from [100]) deforms less than the neighbour grain 2 (LD 18.8° from [110]), with slip traces in the strain localised regions. In grain 2, （1-10）[001] slip system is observed and in grain 1 （1-10）[-1-11]/2 and （110）[-111]/2 slip systems are observed. Lattice orientation gradients build up with increasing plastic strain and near fracture recrystallisation is observed concurrent with fracture.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P44-51

Defect evolution under irradiation is investigated in a set of single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys (SP-CSAs) containing Ni with Co, Fe and/or Cr. We show that atomic segregation of Ni takes place already at very early stages of radiation damage in the 2–4 element SP-CSAs containing Fe or Cr, well below 1 dpa. We arrive at this conclusion by following the evolution of positron annihilation signals as a function of irradiation dose in single crystal samples, complemented by molecular dynamics simulations in the same model systems for high entropy alloys (HEAs). This manifestation of short-range order calls attention to composition fluctuations at the atomic level in irradiated HEAs. Ion irradiation may induce short-range order in certain alloys due to chemically biased elemental diffusion. The work highlights the necessity of updating the assumption of a totally random arrangement in the irradiated alloys, even though the alloys before irradiation have random arrangements of different chemical elements.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P69-77

Twin boundary sliding (TBS) is a deformation mode that is typically observed in nanocrystalline metals and usually occurs at multiple locations in the twinned region, including twin boundaries, of a crystal in a situation in which additional deformation via twinning is limited. Unlike the well-established dislocation slip and necking deformation process that occurs in large crystals, recent theories that explain TBS are often controversial, and much remains unsettled. Herein, we develop a factor that enables the prediction of deformation pathways by quantitatively analyzing the relative tendency for the formation of partial dislocations based on the dislocation and fault energy theories. The developed factor considers the effects of static/extrinsic features, such as the stacking fault energy (SFE) as well as the crystal size and orientation, and dynamic structural states characterized by the various fault energies of a material. The factor is initially validated using a Cu crystal exhibiting low SFE for various orientations and sizes. To determine whether the proposed factor can be generically extended to crystals with high SFE, we perform micro-mechanical tensile tests and molecular dynamics simulations on Al nanowires. The developed factor produces self-consistent results even for metals exhibiting different SFE values. The observations can be used as a guideline to design nanoscale structures for load-carrying applications.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P101-121

A new maraging steel, based on carbide precipitation, is described. Two alloys were designed namely Fe-10Mn-0.25C-2Cr-1Mo wt% (2CrMo) and Fe-10Mn-0.25C-1Cr-2Mo wt% (Cr2Mo). These compositions were chosen to achieve ultra-high strength and high tensile elongation; the former and latter are promoted through the simulatenous precipitation of Cr- and Mo-rich carbides and Mn-rich reverted austenite. The alloys were manufactured through the standard melting, casting and hot working route. Following a solution treatment at 870 °C and quench, which gave a fully martensitic structure, the alloys were aged for various times at 510 °C. The microstructure and tensile properties were investigated in detail as a function of ageing time. The microstructure observed was dominated by micron scale and nanometre scale Mn segregation which determined the local Ac3 temperature. Austenite reversion occurred in both alloys, peaking at 16 h in both cases. In the 2CrMo alloy, the reverted austenite was mainly globular in morphology due the Ac3 temperature being lower than the ageing temperature, but was acicular in the Cr2Mo with Ac3 similar to the ageing temperature of 510 °C. Moreover, acicular austenite was promoted by Mn segregation at martensite lath boundaries in Cr2Mo. In the 2CrMo steel, carbide precipitation (M3C and M7C3) occurred during heating to the ageing temperature, but the carbides gradually dissolved with further ageing. In contrast, in the Cr2Mo alloy, precipitation of carbides (M7C3 and M2C) occurred during ageing, the volume fraction of which increased with ageing time. In both alloys a TRIP effect was observed, but the extent of this was greater for the Cr2Mo alloy. The complex microstructure obtained after 16 h led to an excellent combination of strength of 1.3 GPa and elongation of 18%. Physics-based models for the microstructure in martensite, precipitation kinetics, as well as for TRIP in austenite were employed to explain and predict the individual strengthtening contributions of the microstructure to the total strength, confirming that the maximum strength-elongation relationship found after 16 h is due to an optimal combination of a slightly overaged - but still strong- martensite and 30% of reverted austenite, for increased work hardening and ductility.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P122-133

Vanadium (V) is sensitive to minute quantity of oxygen interstitials, which induce pronounced hardening and embrittlement. Here, we utilize oxygen to synthesize V solid solutions in order to reveal the mechanism of oxygen solutes induced hardening. With increasing of oxygen solute concentrations, the fracture modes of V samples transform from dimple, to a mixture of dimple and cleavage, and to a fully transgranular cleavage. High density of dislocations and dislocation debris are produced in strained samples. The mobility of screw dislocations is reduced and the dislocation cross-slip events are promoted by oxygen solutes. In addition to oxygen solution hardening, the generation of high density of oxygen-vacancy complexes plays a dominant role in the strengthening. High quantity of loop-shaped dislocation debris are direct evidence for the formation of oxygen-vacancy complexes. Profuse oxygen-vacancy complexes trap dislocations, promote cross-slips and assist dislocation storage, thus give rise to a superior combination of strengthening, strain hardening, and ductility in V with 1.0 at% of oxygen. Once beyond a critical oxygen concentration (>1.6 at%), V shows catastrophic brittle failure due to the exceptional high density of oxygen-vacancy complexes. These findings provide insight to design high performance refractory metals utilizing oxygen solutes.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P133-143

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) have received much attention for the development of nuclear materials because of their excellent irradiation tolerance. In the present study, the generation and evolution of irradiation-induced defects in the NiCoCrFe HEA were investigated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to understand the mechanisms of its irradiation tolerance compared with bulk Ni. The displacement cascades were simulated for the energies of primary knock-on atoms (PKA) ranging from 10 to 50 keV to understand the irradiation resistance in HEAs. In general, there are more displaced atoms produced in the thermal spike phase, but fewer defects survived at the end of the cascades in the NiCoCrFe alloy than in Ni. Both interstitial and vacancy clusters increase in size or number with increasing PKA energy in both materials, but they do so more slowly in the NiCoCrFe HEA. The delayed damage accumulations in the NiCoCrFe HEA are attributed to the high defect recombination caused by the following two mechanisms. First, the enhanced thermal spike and the low thermal conductivity of HEAs for heat dissipation result in the higher efficiency of defect recombination. Furthermore, the substantially small binding energies of interstitial loops in the NiCoCrFe HEA, as compared with those in Ni, are responsible for the delayed interstitial clustering in the NiCoCrFe HEA.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P144-153

Many of the purported virtues of Multi-Principal Element Alloys (MPEAs), such as corrosion, hightemperature oxidation and irradiation resistance, are highly sensitive to vacancy diffusivity. Similarly, solute interdiffusion is governed by vacancy diffusion. It is also often unclear whether MPEAs are truly stable or effectively stabilized by slow interdiffusion. The considerable composition space afforded to these alloys makes optimizing for desired properties a daunting task; theoretical and computational tools are necessary to guide alloy development. For diffusion, such tools depend on both a knowledge of the vacancy migration barriers within a given alloy and an understanding of how these barriers influence vacancy diffusivity. We present a generalized theory of vacancy diffusion in rugged energy landscapes, paired with Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of MPEA vacancy diffusion. The barrier energy statistics are informed by nudged elastic band calculations in the equiatomic CoNiCrFeMn alloy. Theory and simulations show that vacancy diffusion in solid-solution MPEAs is not necessarily sluggish, but can potentially be tuned, and that trap models are an insufficient explanation for sluggish diffusion in the CoNiCrFeMn HEA. These results also show that any model that endeavors to faithfully represent diffusion-related phenomena must account for the full nature of the energy landscape, not just the migration barriers.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P168-174

The plastic deformation behavior of commercially pure Ti single crystals has been investigated by uniaxial micropillar compression tests as a function of crystal orientation and specimen size at room temperature. {10-11}(first-order) pyramidal c+a slip and prism a slip are activated in micropillar specimens with the [0001] and [2-1-10] orientations, respectively. {10-11} pyramidal c+a slip has never been observed to operate as a major deformation mode in compression tests of ‘bulk’ single crystals at room temperature, in which {11-22}<11-2-3> twinning is usually observed. The CRSS values for {10-11} pyramidal c+a slip and prism a slip increase with the decrease in the specimen size, following an inverse power-law relationship with a power-law exponent of about 0.06 and 0.59, respectively. The extrapolation of the inverse power law relationship up to the ‘bulk’ specimen size estimated from the CRSS values of prism a slip gives the ‘bulk’ CRSS value for {10-11} pyramidal c+a slip to be 580-635 MPa, which is by far higher than those for any other deformation modes operative at room temperature.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P175-190

Metallic materials with a gradient microstructure usually exhibit excellent mechanical properties. However, the radiation response of gradient structural materials is less well understood. Here, room-temperature He ion irradiation up to ~4.5 dpa with ~10 at% He injection was performed on a gradient T91 steel processed by surface severe plastic deformation. In comparison to the coarse-grained ferritic T91, the gradient T91 with the nanocrystalline layers shows improved radiation tolerance in terms of less bubble swelling and radiation hardening. Additionally, bubble distribution along grain boundaries depends on misorientation angle suggesting a strong capacity of non-equilibrium grain boundaries in storing He atoms. The present study provides insight into the design of radiation tolerant gradient steels for nuclear industry applications.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P210-219

The capability of high-pressure torsion on the preparation of supersaturated solid solutions, consisting of Cu-14Fe (wt.%), is studied. From microstructural investigations a steady state is obtained with nanocrystalline grains. The as-deformed state is analyzed with atom probe tomography, revealing an enhanced solubility and the presence of Fe-rich particles. The DC-hysteresis loop shows suppressed long range interactions in the as-deformed state and evolves towards a typical bulk hysteresis loop when annealed at 500℃. AC-susceptometry measurements of the as-deformed state reveal the presence of a superparamagnetic blocking peak, as well as a magnetic frustrated phase, whereas the transition of the latter follows the Almeida-Thouless line, coinciding with the microstructural investigations by atom probe tomography. AC-susceptometry shows that the frustrated state vanishes for annealing at 250℃.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P220-230

An experimental-ab initio approach is applied to investigate solute diffusion in hexagonal high-entropy alloys. The radioisotope 57Co is selected to probe the diffusion behaviour in a series of HCP alloys, from equiatomic binary (HfZr) and ternary (HfTiZr) to quinary Al5Sc20Hf25Ti25Zr25 at.% and Al15Sc10Hf25Ti25Zr25 at.% high-entropy alloys. Diffusion of Co in the present alloys is found to be strongly anisotropic and exceptionally fast (by 5 to 10 orders of magnitude faster than self-diffusion) which can be explained in terms of a dissociative diffusion mechanism. The origin of ultra-fast diffusion of Co in the given HCP high-entropy alloys and the impact of the multi-element environment on the interstitial positions are analyzed in the framework of ab initio computations. Our results show that solute diffusion can be used as a tool to probe potential short range order in HCP multi-principal element alloys on very short time scales with respect to the jump rates of matrix atoms.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P252-260

Different grain coarsening behaviors (i.e. abnormal and homogeneous) are prevalently observed in gradient nanograined (GNG) Cu under stress controlled high-cycle and strain controlled low-cycle fatigue tests, respectively. In this paper, to comprehensively understand the intrinsic fatigue mechanism of gradient nanograined structures, both high and low cycle fatigue behaviors of GNG Cu are investigated under strain-controlled fatigue tests with a wide strain amplitude ranges. Cyclic behavior transition from abnormal grain coarsening at small strain amplitude to homogeneous grain coarsening at large strain amplitude is observed in GNG Cu. Microstructural analysis reveals that the grain coarsening behavior in either abnormal or normal (homogeneous) mode is closely related to the spatial distribution of the cyclic plastic strain in the GNG layer (localized or delocalized) under cyclic loading. Such unique cyclic strain aplitude-dependent fatigue behavior is inherent to the gradient nanostructure, which fundamentally differs from the conventional strain localizing mechanism in metals with homogeneous structures under cyclic loading.

ACTA Vol. 196, 1 Sept. 2020, P280-294

Deformation twinning in crystals is one of the major strain carrier during plastic deformation, which plays a critical role in determining the mechanical properties of metals and alloys. One of the key issues to understand deformation twinning mechanisms is the determination of deformation path, which is critical for the calculations of twinning strain and critical shear stress. This work provides a new perspective on deformation twinning by systematically investigating the relationship between symmetry breaking and deformation path, with the purpose of establishing a theoretical foundation to identify the broken symmetries associated with twinning and predicting the twinning modes using group theory and graph theory. From a physical point of view, deformation twins can be regarded as one type of the so called topological defects that are induced by symmetry-breaking. Taking BCC crystals as an example, we demonstrate how the presence of intermediate high symmetry states in the deformation strain space (strain calculated through lattice distortion) along the twinning path, such as FCC, HCP or orthorhombic state, can lead to different characteristic twinning modes. Our predictions not only agree well with classical theoretical analyses and experimental observations in BCC metals and alloys, but also reveal the origin of recently observed high-index twinning modes (such as {5 8 11} and {3 9 10} twins). This work may open a new avenue for analyzing deformation twinning through the symmetry breaking along twinning pathways.