Enhanced ductility of surface nano-crystallized materials by modulating grain size gradient

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Surface nano-crystallized (SNC) materials with a graded grain size distribution on their surfaces have been attracting increasing scientific interest over the past few decades due to their good synergy of high strength and high ductility. However, to date most of the existing studies have focused on the individual contribution of three different aspects, i.e. grain size gradient (GSG), work-hardened region and surface compressive residual stresses, which were induced by surface severe plastic deformation processes, to the improved strength of SNC materials as compared with that of their coarse grained (CG) counterparts. And the ductility of these materials has hardly been studied. In this study, a combination of theoretical analysis and finite element simulations was used to investigate the role of GSG in tuning the ductility of SNC materials. It was found that the ductility of an SNC material can be comparable to that of its CG counterpart, while it simultaneously possessed a much higher strength than its CG core if the optimal GSG thickness and grain size of the topmost phase were adopted. A design map that can be used as a guideline for fabrication of SNC materials was also plotted. Our predictions were also compared with the corresponding experimental results.