Short-range order clustering in BCC Fe–Mn alloys induced by severe plastic deformation

Abstract

The effect of severe plastic deformation, namely, high-pressure torsion (HPT) at different temperatures and ball milling (BM) at different time intervals, has been investigated by means of Mössbauer spectroscopy in Fe100–xMnx (x = 4.1, 6.8, 9) alloys. Deformation affects the short-range clustering (SRC) in BCC lattice. Two processes occur: destruction of SRC by moving dislocations and enhancement of the SRC by migration of non-equilibrium defects. Destruction of SRC prevails during HPT at 80–293 K; whereas enhancement of SRC dominates at 473–573 K. BM starts enhancing the SRC formation at as low as 293 K due to local heating at impacts. The efficiency of HPT in terms of enhancing SRC increases with increasing temperature. The authors suppose that at low temperatures, a significant fraction of vacancies are excluded from enhancing SRC because of formation of mobile bi- and tri-vacancies having low efficiency of enhancing SRC as compared to that of mono vacancies. Milling of BCC Fe100–xMnx alloys stabilises the BCC phase with respect to α → γ transition at subsequent isothermal annealing because of a high degree of work hardening and formation of composition inhomogeneity.