Materials Science Forum Vols. 503-504

Abstract: Severe plastic deformation (SPD) has been applied to two classes of metallic materials, single phase and dual phase materials. The applied shear strain has been varied between 1 and 1000 and the homologous temperature between 0.08 and 0.4. The deformation experiments are performed by high pressure torsion (HPT). The resulting microstructures were investigated by backscattered electron imaging, orientation image microscopy, and in selected cases by transmission electron microscopy. It will be shown that the behavior of single phase material is relatively uniform. With increasing strain, the size of the structural elements decreases and reaches a saturation between a shear strain of 10 to 100. The temperature and the alloying are the main parameters, which controls the saturation size of the structural elements (grains). The behavior in the dual phase materials is more complex, it varies from simple homogenisation, fragmentation of one phase, to desintegration and supersaturation of the phases.

Abstract: Metallographic, X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy were used to study the phase compositions and structure of rapidly solidified the Al- alloys transition metals (Zr, Fe, Cr) subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD) by torsion under a high quasi-hydrostatic pressure. It was established that upon SPD a number and a size of aluminides decrease with increasing a degree of deformation. For example, the maximum effect of deformation - induced dissolution of the particles are observed in the case where they have a dendritic structure and are about one μm in size. Upon SPD the supersaturation of α-phase increases by a factor of 2.5. (for rapidly solidified Al-Cr and Al-Cr-Zr alloys) and by a factor of 10 (for rapidly solidified Al-Fe alloy). After SPD all alloys have submicrocrystalline (SMK) Al-based matrix with grain size of 100-200 nm and high hardness of 2 GPa. The thermal stability of SMK deformed materials and some specific features of post deformation phenomena as an aging and a recrystallization were investigated.

Abstract: Thermal- and stress-induced martensitic transformation was investigated on TiNi shape memory alloys subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD) by cold rolling. TEM observation revelaed the sample is a mixture of nanocrystalline and amorphous after 40% cold rolling. DSC analysis suggested that the martensitic transformation was suppressed when the thickness reduction was over 25% reduction. Aging at lower temperatures (573 ~ 673 K, 3.6 ks) restores the phase transformations, but to a limited extent. The stress-strain curves of nanocrystalline/amorphous TiNi are characterized by absence of stress-plateau and small hysteresis.

Abstract: New opportunities for fabricating massive nanocrystalline materials in bulk quantities are required for facilitating the transition of nanocrystalline solids from laboratory samples to technologically relevant materials. Advanced options might be based on combining different nonequilibrium processing routes sequentially, such that an initially metastable state is continuously energized and successively driven farer away from thermodynamic equilibrium. The current paper presents recent results on the evolution of nanoscaled microstructures resulting from combinations of different plastic deformation treatments or of vitrification and severe plastic deformation.

Abstract: Concentration gradients resulting from long range diffusion during Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) have been investigated with the 3D Atom Probe technique (3D-AP). First, in a pearlitic steel where alloying elements (Mn, Si and Cr) are partitioned between the ferrite and carbides in the non-deformed state. After processing by High Pressure Torsion (HPT), they are homogeneously distributed in the nanostructure, indicating that long range diffusion occurred along with the dissolution of carbides. 3D-AP data of a Cu-Fe composite processed by HPT show as well a significant interdiffusion of Cu and Fe, probably promoted by additional vacancies. On the basis of these experimental data, and using the theory described for irradiated materials, vacancy fluxes and vacancy production rates were estimated assuming that new vacancies are continuously produced and eliminated on grain boundaries.

Abstract: Recent studies of nanocrystalline materials have often found that the deformation mechanisms are radically different to those in coarse-grained materials, resulting in quite different mechanical properties for such materials. The use of pearlitic steels for the study of the deformation mechanisms in bcc materials with ultrafine grain sizes is quite convenient, because it is relatively straightforward to obtain a homogenous nanocrystalline structure with a mean grain size as small as 10 nm using various modes of severe plastic deformation (SPD). In this paper we show that highpressure torsion of an initially pearlitic steel results in a nanostructured steel in which austenite has been formed at or close to room temperature. The orientation relationship between neighboring ferrite and austenite grains is the well-known Kurdjumov-Sachs orientation relationship, i.e. the same observed in temperature-induced martensitic transformation of iron and steels. It is shown that this must have resulted from a reverse martensitic transformation promoted by the high shear strains experienced by the material during severe plastic deformation of the nanocrystalline structure. This transformation represents an alternative deformation mechanism that can be activated when conventional deformation mechanisms such as slip of lattice dislocations become exhausted.

Abstract: Ultrafine grained (UFG) ferrite-martensite dual phase steels were fabricated by equal channel angular pressing and subsequent intercritical annealing. Their room temperature tensile properties were examined and compared to those of coarse grained counterpart. The formation of UFG martensite islands of ~ 1 μm was not confined to the former pearlite colonies but they were uniformly distributed throughout UFG matrix. The strength of UFG dual phase steels was much higher than that of coarse grained counterpart but uniform and total elongation were not degraded. More importantly, unlike most UFG metals showing negligible strain hardening, the present UFG dual phase steels exhibited extensive rapid strain hardening.

Abstract: To study the influence of shear deformation on the evolution of the microstructure and the mechanical strength in rail steels, three steels with different microstructure (two pearlitic, one bainitic) were deformed by High Pressure Torsion (HPT). In order to evaluate in addition the effect of the strain path, a cyclic form of HPT was applied. The mechanical strength was determined by means of in-situ measurement of the flow stress and microhardness measurements. The differences of the mechanical strengths between the monotonic and cyclic deformed samples clearly indicate that a monotonic deformation promotes higher dislocation densities and leads to the assumption that dissolution of the cementite takes place more pronounced.

Abstract: Dissolution behavior of cementite in eutectoid steels with pearlitic and spheroidite structures by severe plastic deformation was studied. Applying a long time milling, cementite dissolved completely and matrix turned out to be nanocrystalline ferrite. By a ball drop deformation (at high strain rates), heavily deformed layers in which cementite dissolves completely or partially were produced. By applying pulsed laser irradiation, re-austenitized zone which transformed to fresh martensite during quenching was produced. The boundary between the re-austenitized zone and matrix exhibited similar microstructure with that observed in specimens subjected to a ball drop deformation. It was suggested that the dissolution of cementite by heavy deformation at high strain rates are probably due to thermal effect, that is, re-austenitization.

Abstract: Microstructure and texture evolution of pure copper (99.95%) after Equal-Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) and subsequent heat treatment were investigated. Initially the material was subjected up to twelve passes with a 90° die angle using route Bc. This resulted in an equivalent strain of 13.8. After deformation the samples were annealed at different temperatures. The deformed and annealed states were characterized by using the crystallographic texture analysis, EBSD measurements and microhardness tests.