Papers by Author: Klaus Dieter Liss

Abstract: Well collimated, high energy X-rays of 90 keV from synchrotron sources have been used to study metals undergoing plastic deformation in-situ, in real time and in the bulk of the materials. The spottiness of poorly illuminated Debye-Scherrer rings showing reflections from individual crystallites is analyzed to obtain grain statistics, mosaic spread and orientation. Upon cold deformation, coarse grained materials show fingerprints of sub-grain formation, grain rotation, grain refinement and the evolution from a single grain into the asymptotic texture. Heating of metals under continuous load drives the observation through the regimes of phase transformation and grain relationships therein, grain coarsening, dynamic recovery and dynamic recrystallization. The paper points out these different phenomena which were observed without precedence.

Abstract: Intermetallic TiAl alloys are a class of innovative high-temperature materials which are developed to replace the substantially denser Ni-base alloys in low-pressure turbine blades of jet engines. By streamlining the production process of these parts, a substantial decrease in production costs can be achieved. To this end, a profound knowledge of the microstructural processes occurring during hot deformation is a prerequisite. To investigate the microstructural development during forming operations, cast and extruded as well as only cast specimens were hot-deformed and the microstructural development investigated in-situ by means of a novel diffraction method. This powder diffraction method utilizes the behavior of individual reflection spots on the Debye-Scherrer rings for deriving the materials response to the deformation imposed. It was found that the behavior of the two specimens is rather similar, although the starting microstructures show pronounced differences.

Abstract: In this work we compare and contrast the stability of retained austenite during tensile testing of Nb-Mo-Al transformation-induced plasticity steel subjected to different thermomechanical processing schedules. The obtained microstructures were characterised using optical metallography, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The transformation of retained austenite to martensite under tensile loading was observed by in-situ high energy X-ray diffraction at 1ID / APS. It has been shown that the variations in the microstructure of the steel, such as volume fractions of present phases, their morphology and dimensions, play a critical role in the strain-induced transition of retained austenite to martensite.

Abstract: Intermetallic TiAl alloys with a significant volume fraction of the body-centered cubic β-phase at elevated temperatures have proven to exhibit good processing characteristics during hot-working. Being a strong β stabilizer, Mo has gained importance as an alloying element for so-called β/γ-TiAl alloys. Unfortunately, the effect of Mo on the appearing phases and their temperature dependence is not well known. In this work, two sections of the Ti-Al-Mo ternary phase diagram derived from experimental data are shown. These diagrams are compared with the results of in-situ high-temperature diffraction experiments using high-energy synchrotron radiation.