Abnormal grain growth of FeMnAlNiCo shape memory alloys during directional recrystallisation

Abstract

Polycrystalline FeMnAlNi-based alloys generally exhibit poor pseudoelasticity owing to grain constraint. A promising method to improve the pseudoelasticity involves increasing the grain size by directional recrystallisation (DR). To improve the efficiency of obtaining large grain size, the effect of DR parameters—hot zone temperature (HZT) and drawing velocity—on the columnar grain size and the mechanisms of grain growth were investigated. The results showed that samples of FeMnAlNiCo shape memory alloys (SMAs) with an average grain size of over 20 mm and the largest grain size exceeding 50 mm were obtained after DR. The apparent activation energy of the columnar grain growth for DR was ≈135 kJ/mol, which was much lower than that of the equiaxed grain growth for isothermal annealing (≈384 kJ/mol). The lateral growth of the columnar grains was probably because the boundaries between columnar grains tend to form random high-angle grain (HAG) boundaries. By incremental compression test, at an applied strain of 7.0%, nearly <104> oriented single crystal exhibited a recoverable strain of ≈6.0%, while the polycrystal had a recoverable strain of only ≈3.4%. This work provides important guidance and inspires new strategies for microstructural control in FeMnAlNi-based SMAs.