Deformation and structural behavior of an experimental γ′-strengthened Co-base alloy during creep at 800 °C and 196 MPa have been investigated. The characteristic features of this alloy are zero γ/γ′-lattice misfit and a fine γ/γ′-microstructure. In the initial condition, the γ′-precipitates in this alloy are small (size of about 100 nm), have polyhedral morphology, and are separated by the very narrow γ-channels (width of about 10 nm). The tests performed up to about 1% creep strain (about 500 h creep time) gave creep curves with a slow constant strain rate and without an apparent transient creep, typical for superalloys with nonzero misfit. In this initial stage of creep, entering of the narrow γ-channels by dislocations is blocked by a strong Orowan force. The micromechanism of creep was identified as an octahedral glide of 〈011〉 superdislocations simultaneously in two phases, γ and γ′. The γ/γ′-microstructure with zero misfit shows no rafting but rapidly coarsens isotropically. It is concluded that zero misfit is beneficial at the initial stages of the creep but is unfavourable for long-term creep because of the continuous microstructural coarsening.

This paper presents the high temperature yield and fatigue strength as well as thermophysical properties of two polycrystalline wrought γ/γ′ Co-base superalloys developed for application in a temperature regime above 700 °C. The alloys CoWAlloy1 (Co42Ni32Cr12Al6W3Ti2.5Ta1.5 + Si,C,B,Zr,Hf) and CoWAlloy2 (Co41Ni32Cr12Al9W5 + Ti,Ta,Si,C,B,Zr,Hf) exhibited solidus temperatures of 1070 °C and 1030 °C, respectively, and a γ′ fraction of about 50%. CoWAlloy2 displayed a rather high Young’s modulus of 250 GPa. The two Co-base superalloys showed a good high temperature strength exceeding Ni-base disc alloys U720Li and Waspaloy at temperatures above 800 °C. When comparing the yield strength from tensile and compression tests, no asymmetry could be found. The low-cycle fatigue life of CoWAlloy2 at a total strain amplitude of 0.5% is similar to that of U720Li and Waspaloy (about 370 cycles, R = −1). During long-term aging for 1024 h at 750 °C, no additional phases were formed and the room temperature hardness barely changed.

A modification of the metal processing technique known as equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) to incorporate shear plane rotation, called ECAP-R, is presented. The new process was developed to produce hybrid materials with helical architecture of their constituents, which holds promise to enable enhanced mechanical properties. The process was trialled experimentally using a specially designed laboratory-scale rig. It was shown that a positive mean stress (negative hydrostatic pressure) in a part of the multipiece billet leads to separation of the constituents within that region. A way to improving the process design was suggested based on finite element simulations. It was demonstrated that the proposed processing results in excellent bonding between the helical parts of the hybrid in the regions of positive hydrostatic pressure. Subsequent annealing gave rise to further improvement of the quality of bonding. Processing by ECAP-R at elevated temperatures was suggested as a viable method of producing hybrid materials with helical architecture.

The present work describes the shear creep behavior of the superalloy LEK 94 at temperatures between 980 and 1050 °C and shear stresses between 50 and 140 MPa for loading on the macroscopic crystallographic shear system (MCSS) (011) $\left[ {01\bar 1} \right]$ . The strain rate versus strain curves show short primary and extended secondary creep regimes. We find an apparent activation energy for creep of Q app = 466 kJ/mol and a Norton-law stress exponent of n = 6. With scanning transmission electron microscopy, we characterize three material states that differ in temperature, applied stress, and accumulated strain/time. Rafting develops perpendicular to the maximum principal stress direction, γ channels fill with dislocations, superdislocations cut γ′ particles, and dislocation networks form at γ/γ′ interfaces. Our findings are in agreement with previous results for high-temperature and low-stress [001] and [110] tensile creep testing, and for shear creep testing of the superalloys CMSX-4 and CMSX-6 on the MCSSs (111) $\left[ {01\bar 1} \right]$ and (001)[100]. The parameters that characterize the evolving γ/γ′ microstructure and the evolving dislocation substructures depend on creep temperature, stress, strain, and time.

Aluminum laminates of high and technical purity layers were produced by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) at room temperature. To study the thermal stability, the laminates after 2 to 9 ARB cycles were annealed between 100 and 400 °C for one hour. Changes of the microstructure were analyzed by electron backscatter diffraction. For low ARB cycle numbers (4 or below) and 300 °C annealing temperature, the deformed technical pure layers start to recrystallize while the high-purity coarse recrystallized layers experience intralayer grain growth. For higher ARB cycle numbers (6 and 8) and an annealing temperature of 300 °C or above, the ultra-fine grained layers of technical purity are consumed by the layer overlapping growth of high-purity grains producing a banded grain structure. For 9 ARB cycles and at an annealing temperature of 400 °C, a globular grain structure develops with grain sizes larger than twice the layer thickness. The effect of impurities on recrystallization and grain growth of ARB laminates is discussed with regard to tailoring its microstructure by heat treatment. For further analyses, the results are compared with Potts model simulations finding a rather good qualitative agreement with the experimental data albeit some simplified model assumptions.

Pure Cu was made ultrafine-grained by equal channel angular pressing on route BC at ambient temperatures and deformed in situ in a scanning electron microscope at the elevated temperature of 373 K and at a constant total strain rate of 10−4 s−1. Deformation was repetitively stopped to take micrographs of the grain structure on the same area of observation, revealing limited activity of discontinuous dynamic recrystallization. During the stops of deformation, the flow stress was relaxing. The relaxation of stress as function of time was used to determine the rate of inelastic deformation as a function of stress, from which the activation volume ${V^ * }$ of the thermally activated flow was derived. It is found that the normalized values of ${V^ * }$ were lying in the same order generally found for coarse-grained pure materials. This seems to be in conflict with the literature. However, the conflict is resolved by noting that the literature results refer to quasistationary deformation with the concurrent dynamic recovery in contrast to the present results obtained at a virtually constant microstructure. The interpretation of the two kinds of activation volumes for thermally activated flow is discussed.

The plastic deformation mechanisms and the microstructure development during creep deformation of L12-hardened Co-base superalloys show a number of unique features. The preferred orientation of rafting is determined by their positive lattice mismatch. In addition, the regular interfacial dislocation networks often found in rafted specimens of other types of superalloys do not form. While the ordered γ′-L12 precipitates are supposed to harden the material, they are actually found to be frequently cut by partial dislocations generating stacking faults. In this work, specimens from creep tests interrupted at different strains were investigated using transmission and scanning electron microscopy. By this, it is possible to find out which of these processes take place in which stage of creep deformation. For a better understanding of creep deformation, the balance between γ′ cutting and dislocation activity within the matrix channels is of special interest.

The two-phase Ni3Al and Ni3V intermetallic alloy laser clad on substrate of SUS304 was evaluated by hardness measurement, scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalyzer and transmission electron microscopy observations, focusing on the effect of post annealing after laser irradiation. The laser clad coating layer was diluted with approximately 5.4 at.% Fe and 1.6 at.% Cr stemming from the substrate. In the as-clad coating layer, the inhomogeneous eutectoid microstructure due to incomplete phase separation into two intermetallic phases Ni3Al and Ni3V took place. The hardness in the as-clad coating layer was lower than that in post annealed coating layers. In the coating layer annealed at 1553 K for 5 h, a dual two-phase microstructure composed of the primary cuboidal Ni3Al surrounded by the channel regions in which the major constituent is the Ni3V phase was observed, indicating that the complete eutectoid microstructure was developed. In the coating layer annealed at 1248 K for 24 h, the developed microstructure was lamellar-like one composed of the Ni3Al and Ni3V phases. The hardness in the coating layer annealed at 1248 K was the highest in the coatings observed in this study.

The Al–Mg–Sc alloys have become important materials in research conducted on superplasticity in aluminum-based alloys. Many results are now available and this provides an opportunity to examine the consistency of these data and also to make a direct comparison with the predicted rate of flow in conventional superplasticity. Accordingly, all available data were tabulated with divisions according to whether the samples were prepared without processing using severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques or they were processed using the SPD procedures of equal-channel angular pressing or high-pressure torsion or they were obtained from friction stir processing. It is shown that all results are mutually consistent, the measured superplastic strain rates have no clear dependence on the precise chemical compositions of the alloys, and there is a general agreement, to within less than one order of magnitude of strain rate, with the theoretical prediction for superplastic flow in conventional materials.

The effect of specimen thickness on fracture toughness and fracture mechanism was investigated in bulk columnar-grained Cu with preferentially oriented nanoscale growth twins. Below a critical specimen thickness of ∼1.0 mm, plane stress state prevailed ahead of the crack tip and the fracture initiation toughness J C decreased with decreasing thickness. Above the critical thickness, J C decreased with increasing thickness until approaching an intrinsic thickness-independent value when the crack front was mainly under plane strain condition. Under plane strain condition, threading dislocations were majorly activated to glide along the nanotwin channels and to produce severe stress concentrations when they piled-up against grain boundaries (GBs). As a result, intergranular cracking mediated the failure of the nanotwinned Cu. On the contrary, under plane stress condition, dislocations slipping-transfer across twin boundaries (TBs) or partial dislocations gliding at TBs were activated to accommodate the plastic deformation. Consequently, stress intensification at GBs was plastically relaxed through enhanced detwinning and shear banding, which suppressed the intergranular fracture and promoted transgranular shear fracture.

A customized-built high-temperature tensile creep setup is introduced. Dog-bone shaped miniaturized specimens made from Nimonic-75 were tested as reference materials at temperatures of 850 and 1000 °C under constant load to verify the setup’s accuracy. The results were compared to tensile creep tests with conventional (standard size) specimens at identical experimental conditions. The shape of the creep curves obtained in the miniaturized specimens exhibits a pronounced minimum creep rate, thus, being seemingly different from the ones obtained for the bulk samples which reveal a clear steady-state regime. This is partly due to the continuous increase of stress under constant load testing conditions and very likely affected by the much higher surface to volume ratio of the miniaturized specimens leading to the premature onset of tertiary creep. Still, a good agreement was obtained between the two specimen sizes with respect to the dependence of the steady-state (standard size) and minimum (miniaturized size) strain rate on applied stress at various temperatures leading to also comparable activation energies of the creep.

The article focuses on the fatigue performance after a moderate heat treatment of nanocrystalline (nc) nickel, which leads to the formation of a bimodal microstructure in the nc to ultrafine grained (ufg) regime. Electrodeposition was used to produce nc macro nickel samples with grain sizes of about 40 nm for mechanical testing. The thermal stability of the material as well as the influence on the mechanical properties and the fatigue crack propagation behavior was investigated. The results of tensile and fatigue tests are discussed in respect to the chosen production method and boundary conditions. In this context, the influence of the bath additives used during the plating process was investigated and rated as the major challenge for a further improvement of the thermal stability and mechanical properties of the material. Finally, a co-deposition of nickel and metal oxides with enhanced thermal stability is presented.

In this work, the influence of Al-solutes on the mechanical behavior of Cu–AlX solid solutions has been studied using indentation strain rate jump tests for single crystalline and ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructures from high pressure torsion (HPT) processing. Al-solutes in Cu classically lead to a solid solution strengthening, coupled with a decrease in stacking fault energy, which influences also the grain size after HPT processing. For all alloys, a higher hardness is found at lower indentation depths, which can be nicely described by a modified Nix/Gao model down to 100 nm indentation depth. Among the single crystals, the largest size effects are found for the higher solute contents, indicating a stronger work hardening at small length scales for the solid solutions. The dilute UFG solid solutions showed a strong softening after a strain rate reduction test, with a pronounced transient region. Cu–Al15 is, however, quite stable, showing abrupt changes in hardness without strong transients. This indicates that solute solution strengthening does not only influence the indentation size effect and structure formation during HPT processing but also stabilizes the grain structure during subsequent deformation.

Hydrogen embrittlement behaviors of a 22Mn–0.6C (mass%) twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) steel with the grain sizes of 21 μm (coarse grain) and 0.58 μm (ultrafine grain) were investigated by means of hydrogen precharging and subsequent slow strain rate tensile tests. The total elongation and fracture stress for both of the coarse-grained and ultrafine-grained specimens decreased by hydrogen charging. The area fraction of the brittle fracture surfaces in the ultrafine-grained specimen was much smaller than that in the coarse-grained specimen. Three-point bending test also showed that the reduction of the fracture toughness by the introduction of hydrogen was much smaller in the ultrafine-grained specimen than that in the coarse-grained specimen. It was concluded that the suppressed hydrogen embrittlement by grain refinement in the 22Mn–0.6C TWIP steel was probably due to the smaller hydrogen contents per unit grain boundary area in the finer grain-sized material.

We develop a phase field model for the simulation of chemical diffusion-limited solidification in complex metallic alloys. The required thermodynamic and kinetic input information is obtained from CALPHAD calculations using the commercial software-package ThermoCalc. Within the case study on the nickel-base superalloy Inconel 718, we perform simulations of solidification with the explicit consideration of 6 different chemical elements. The stationary dendritic tip velocities as functions of the constant undercooling temperature obtained from isothermal solidification are compared with the stationary tip temperatures as functions of the imposed pulling velocity obtained during directional solidification. We obtain a good quantitative agreement between the two different velocity—undercooling functions. This indicates that the model provides a self consistent description of the solidification. Finally, the simulation results are discussed in light of experimental solidification conditions found in single crystalline casting experiments of Inconel 718.

Plastic deformation of small metallic single crystals has focused a lot of attention because of their enhanced or specific mechanical properties. Here, submicron beryllium wires, obtained from selective etching of an Al/Be eutectic alloy, were deformed in tension in situ using a transmission electron microscope. Our observations indicate that wires oriented parallel to their 〈c〉 axis and containing almost no dislocations present a fragile-like behavior associated to a high stress level. $\left\{ {10\bar 12} \right\}$ 〈1011〉 twins were also frequently observed near fractured wires, indicating that this deformation mode is important in small-scale Be. In a twinned area, a locally ductile behavior was observed due to the favorable orientation for prismatic slip. We also stress out the importance of a remaining outer layer, made of Al oxide, in the plastic deformation. On the basis of finite element modeling, we show that the deformation of the wire may involve dislocations moving along the wire axis, in or close to the Be/Al oxide interface, in agreement with in situ observations. Thus, even in naturally oxidized wires, the outer layer is supposed to play an important role in the deformation, not only in modifying a stress/strain field but also presumably in facilitating diffusional processes, such as dislocation climb or dislocation nucleation.