Papers by Author: Werner Skrotzki

Abstract: After equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at room temperature in 08%C-18%Cr-10%Ni-Ti steel grain-subgrain structure with the size of structural elements of 100-250 nm, volume of high angle boundaries (HAB) about 59% and 38% of martensite is formed. ECAP at 400°C results in fully austenitic structure with the structural element size of 100-400 nm and volume of HAB ~54%. ECAP increases the ultimate tensile strength of 08%C-18%Cr-10%Ni-Ti steel by 1.5 - 2 times, the yield stress by 3.8 - 5.2 times, the fatigue limit - by 1.4 - 1.7 times, however the ductility is reduced. Fatigue strength is enhanced by the refinement of the structure and twinning in the austenite during ECAP and due to intensive dynamic twinning, partial martensitic transformation and increasing of the volume of HAB during cyclic deformation.

Abstract: The texture of polycrystalline Ni₅₀Mn₂₉Ga₂₁ alloys fabricated by high pressure torsion (HPT) was investigated with high-energy synchrotron radiation. HPT was performed at temperatures between 873K and 1173K under a hydrostatic pressure of 400 MPa. During HPT above 973K the initial cyclic fibre texture changes to a strong cube and a weak F component. Below 973K a strong rotated cube and weak F and C components develop. Additionally, electron backscatter diffraction reveals that samples deformed at low temperature do not completely transform to martensite giving rise to residual austenite.

Abstract: The plastic anisotropy was studied on aluminium sheets with layers of different purity (A: 5N and B: 2N+) produced by accumulative roll bonding (ARB). Both material layers show a contrasting recrystallization behavior where A and B are discontinuously and continuously recrystallized, respectively. Global textures were measured by neutron diffraction. The mechanical anisotropy was measured by tensile testing after different numbers of ARB cycles. The planar anisotropy decreases with the number of ARB cycles while the normal anisotropy reaches a plateau after 4 cycles. Simulations of the Lankford parameters were carried out with the help of the viscoplastic self-consistent scheme (based on the global texture) and compared with the experimental data. Deviations of the simulated values from those of experiment are discussed with regard to through-thickness texture and material heterogeneities.

Abstract: Organic additives such as saccharin have been frequently used in electroplating operations to moderate deposit growth rates and to control film quality. In this study, texture development upon annealing of pulse-electroplated Nickel produced without additives is analyzed by use of electron backscatter diffraction technique. Plating without additives results in a microstructure with slightly elongated grains and a fibre texture in growth direction and this texture is conserved upon annealing up to 600°C. Structural units in form of groups of elongated grains possessing a common zone axis in growth direction and twin relationships between themselves are found in the microstructure. For revealing the influence of additives, the observations are compared with results obtained for Ni and Ni-Fe plated in the presence of additives where during abnormal grain growth the initial fibre texture changes to an energetically more favourable texture by twinning. The lack of additives is assumed to be responsible for the observed differences in texture and microstructure development.

Abstract: It is the aim of the present paper to quantify and visualise the grain size induced transition of the deformation mechanism in metal polycrystals from the conventional dislocation–dislocation interaction at large grain sizes to (probably) dislocation–grain boundary interaction in the “nano” region. Since both types of interaction are thermally activated, thermal activation analysis can be used to discriminate between them. For this purpose dynamic tensile tests with stress relaxation tests were performed on pure pulsed electrodeposited nickel with 140 nm grain size at temperatures between 4 and 320 K. The results clearly indicate the transition temperature to be around 77 K. A rather unexpected result is the existence of a second transition of the deformation mechanism, which is only observable at very low temperatures namely from the homogeneous deformation mode governed by conventional dislocation–dislocation interaction towards localized deformation by “catastrophic shear”.

Abstract: Cyclic slip irreversibility is one of the most important features of fatigue processes in ductile metals because it induces surface relief evolutions during cycling which are mainly responsible for crack initiation. The reversible and irreversible parts of the slip within persistent slip bands (PSBs) in polycrystalline nickel are measured directly after half-cycle deformation and one full cycle on specimen surfaces once more well-polished after 60% of fatigue life using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and different techniques of scanning electron microscopy as electron channelling contrast imaging and electron backscattered diffraction. Using AFM measures on the same slip steps after half-cycle and full cycle, the cyclic slip irreversibility factor is directly evaluated and discussed with respect to the literature.

Abstract: During high-cycle-fatigue loading of metastable austenitic steel AISI304L, the elastic anisotropy between neighboring grains causes the occurrence of stress peaks at grain boundaries, which again act as crack nucleation sites. This is in particular the case at twin boundaries. Cyclic crack tip plasticity leads to a transformation from  austenite to ´ martensite when different slip bands are activated, alternating during their operation. By means of in-situ fatigue testing in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) in combination with electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), the distributions of grain size, geometry, and crystallographic orientation relationship were correlated with the local occurrence of slip, martensite formation and fatigue-crack initiation and propagation. It was shown that the extent of martensite formation ahead of a propagating crack increases with increasing crack length and eventually, due to its higher specific volume, gives rise to transformation-induced crack-closure effects. The variation in the crack-propagation rate depending on the local microstructure was simulated by means of a short crack model, where the displacement fields within the crack, the adjacent plastic zone and the grain boundaries in combination with the martensite volume increase strain are superimposed by means of a boundary-element approach.

Abstract: Equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) was applied to polycrystalline NiAl at temperatures around the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature (BDTT). NiAl rods encapsulated in a steel jacket were ECAP-processed in a die with a channel angle of 120°. The microstructure and texture were characterized by electron backscatter diffraction with a scanning electron microscope. The volume fraction of the texture components typical for simple shear in the intersection plane of the channels changes in the range of the BDTT.

Abstract: Thick (up to 5 mm) Ni electrodeposits were produced by the pulsed electrodeposition (PED) technique. The PED-Ni was investigated in planar and cross-sections using high resolution scanning electron microscopy. Grain size and local texture were studied by electron backscatter diffraction. Thermal stability and grain growth behaviour were investigated using in-situ annealing in the transmission electron microscope. It is observed that columnar grains are present in the material and that the orientation of grains is not uniform. Textures and in-situ annealing behaviour are compared to previous data on nanocrystalline PED-Ni and Ni-Fe, where a subgrain coalescence model adopted from recrystallization is used to describe the occurrence of abnormal grain growth upon annealing and where twinning was found to be responsible for the texture development.

Abstract: In order to quantify the plastic anisotropy of the ultrafine grained aluminium alloy AA6016 produced by accumulative roll-bonding (ARB) the Lankford parameter is measured by tensile testing as a function of the number of ARB cycles. The experimental results are compared with those from texture-based Taylor simulations. Increasing differences between experiment and theory at higher number of ARB cycles may be attributed to highly oriented microstructural features.