Affects Microstructure Evolution Research Articles

Simulations of multivariant Si I to Si II phase transformation in polycrystalline silicon with finite-strain scale-free phase-field approach

Scale-free phase-field approach and corresponding finite element method simulations for multivariant martensitic phase transformation from cubic Si I to tetragonal Si II in a polycrystalline aggregate are presented. Important features of the model are large and very anisotropic transformation strain tensor ɛt={0.1753;0.1753;−0.447} and stress-tensor dependent athermal dissipative threshold for transformation, which produce essential challenges for computations. 3D polycrystals with stochastically oriented grains are subjected to uniaxial strain- and stress-controlled loadings under periodic boundary conditions and zero averaged lateral strains. Coupled evolution of discrete martensitic microstructure, volume fractions of martensitic variants and Si II, stress and transformation strain tensors, and texture are presented and analyzed. Macroscopic variables effectively representing multivariant transformational behavior are introduced. Macroscopic stress–strain and transformational behavior for 55 and 910 grains are close. Large transformation strains and grain boundaries lead to huge internal stresses of tens GPa, which affect microstructure evolution and macroscopic behavior. In contrast to a single crystal, the local mechanical instabilities due to phase transformation and negative local tangent modulus are stabilized at the macroscale by arresting/slowing the growth of Si II regions by the grain boundaries. This leads to increasing stress during transformation. The developed methodology can be used for studying similar phase transformations with large transformation strains and for further development by including plastic strain and strain-induced transformations.

Metastable CrMnNi steels processed by laser powder bed fusion: experimental assessment of elementary mechanisms contributing to microstructure, properties and residual stress

The complex thermal history imposed by the laser-based powder bed fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M) process is known to promote the evolution of unique microstructures. In the present study, metastable CrMnNi steels with different nickel contents and, thus, different phase stabilities are manufactured by PBF-LB/M. Results clearly reveal that an adequate choice of materials will allow to tailor mechanical properties as well as residual stress states in the as-built material to eventually redundantize any thermal post-treatment. The chemical differences lead to different phase constitutions in as-built conditions and, thus, affect microstructure evolution and elementary deformation mechanisms upon deformation, i.e., twinning and martensitic transformation. Such alloys designed for additive manufacturing (AM) highlight the possibility to tackle well-known challenges in AM such as limited damage tolerance, porosity and detrimental residual stress states without conducting any post treatments, e.g., stress relieve and hot isostatic pressing. From the perspective of robust design of AM components, indeed it seems to be a very effective approach to adapt the material to the process characteristics of AM.

Effect of Preheating Temperature on the Microstructure and Tensile Properties of 6061 Aluminum Alloy Processed by Hot Rolling-Quenching

The present work investigates the microstructure and tensile properties of a hot rolled 6061 alloy quenched by cold rolls (RQ) at different preheating temperatures. The preheating temperature strongly affects microstructure evolution and mechanical properties. Low preheating temperature (490 °C) resulted in both low strength and low elongation. The RQ alloy preheated at 540 °C exhibited improved ductility compared to those subjected to T6 and T8 temper, and comparable strength to that after T8 temper. The dynamic recovery during hot rolling contributed to the improved tensile elongation and retained work hardening. High preheating temperature also led to pronounced ageing hardening during short-term ageing.

On the mobility of defect clusters and their effect on microstructure evolution in fcc Ni under irradiation

µs-scale molecular dynamics studies of vacancy and interstitial clusters in fcc Ni revealed three- and one- dimensional (3-D and 1-D) modes of the cluster motion. The 1-D mobility of interstitial defects is known to enhance swelling rate. The theoretical analysis performed here suggests two novel mechanism by which the 3-D mobile clusters affect microstructure evolution under irradiation. First, the mobility of vacancy clusters hinders nucleation of stable voids due to recombination with interstitial-type loops and edge dislocations. Second, the capture efficiency of dislocations is higher for 3-D mobile vacancy and interstitial clusters than single defects, with the combined effect depending on relative fractions of clustered vacancies and interstitials produced in cascades. The observed differences in radiation damage of most fcc and bcc metals is attributed to the difference in cascade-produced vacancy defects: immobile SFTs and loops in fcc metals and mobile clusters in bcc metals. In this context, fcc Ni is similar to bcc metals due to its high stacking fault energy.

An Analytical Computation of Temperature Field Evolved in Directed Energy Deposition

This paper presents an analytical computation of temperature field evolved in a directed energy deposition process, using single-bead walls as illustrating examples. Essentially, the temperature field evolution during the deposition of a wall is computed by super-position of the temperature field generated by the laser source depositing the current bead and that induced from each of the past beads (layers). First, the transient solution to a point heat source in a semi-infinite body is applied to describe each individual temperature field. Then, to better describe temperature contribution from a past bead, a pair of virtual heat sources with positive and negative powers is assigned for each past bead to compute the temperature field under cooling. In addition, mirrored heat sources through a reflexion technique are introduced to define adiabatic boundaries of the part and to account for substrate thickness. In the end, three depositions of Ti-6AL-4V walls with different geometries and interlayer dwell times on an Optomec® laser engineering net shaping (LENS) system are used to validate the proposed analytical computation, where predicted temperatures at several locations of the substrate show reasonable agreement with the in situ temperature measurements with prediction error rate ranging from 12% to 27%. Furthermore, temperature distributions predicted by the proposed model are compared to finite element simulations. The proposed analytical computation for temperature field could be potentially used in model-based feedback control for thermal history in the deposition, which could affect microstructure evolution and other properties of the final part.

Evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties during Q&P processing of medium-carbon steels with different silicon levels

Evolution of microstructure during heat treatment plays a fundamental role in the resulting mechanical properties of steel. Today, mechanical properties in conjunction with technological properties, such as weldability, formability, and machinability, and their optimum combinations, are widely discussed in a number of mechanical engineering disciplines. In this manner, requirements arise for developing steels which could offer high strength and good formability, and which could be used for making parts with high resistance to failure and with a long life. One present-day example of such steels involves Q&P-processed martensitic steels. Their properties are dictated by their treatment, as well as their alloying, particularly by the silicon content. Silicon fundamentally affects microstructure evolution during Q&P processing and, as a result, mechanical properties. With this way it is possible to receive microstructures consinsting of martensite and retained austenite with an ultimate tensile stress of more than 1600 MPa and a uniform elongation of more than 12 %.

Characterization of hot deformation microstructure of a near beta titanium alloy Ti-5553

The hot deformation microstructures of Ti-5553 titanium alloy in the temperature range of 750–900°C and strain rate range of 10−3–10−1s−1 were investigated by hot compressive testing on the Gleeble-3500 thermo-mechanical simulator. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) were employed to investigate the effect of deformation conditions on the microstructure and deformation mechanism. The results showed that deformation parameters can significantly affect microstructure evolution, and dynamic recrystallization is more noticeable at temperature 900°C and strain rate 10−3s−1. Hot deformation dramatically increased the fraction of low-angle grains boundaries (LAGBs), and the misorientation distribution skewed toward low-angle rotations, and also changed the strict Burgers-relationship between α and β phase. Furthermore, thermo-mechanical processing can increase the driving force of phase transformation. The phenomenon of α phase globularization can be explained accurately by β phase wedges model.

Milling, Sintering and Crystallization of 11BaO‐25CaO‐64SiO2 Glass Powder

The crystallization of 11BaO‐25CaO‐64SiO2 mol% glass powders and related effects of glass powder milling have been studied by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). Glass powders were made by ZrO2 crushing with subsequent sieving or sedimentation or alternatively made by milling with agate, corundum and tungsten carbide. Although surface crystallization was detectable during late sintering, all powders fully sintered. Wollastonite was found as primary crystal phase followed by cristobalite and sanbornite precipitation. The latter crystallization steps caused a second DTA‐peak for fine powders. DTA‐peak temperatures shifted to lower temperature with decreasing particle size in any case. No significant effects of milling materials on DTA‐peak temperatures were evident. As an exception, however, milling in agate caused strongly decreased temperatures of the second DTA‐peak. This observation can be explained by the progressive mechanical damaging, which results from the required prolonged milling time with agate due to its small materials density, and the fact that diamond made scratches did promote surface crystallization of cristobalite. The present study thus shows that even for glass powders with excellent sinterability, milling can affect microstructure evolution.

Microstructurally Explicit Simulation of Intergranular Mass Transport in Oxide Nuclear Fuels

Transport of fission products (FPs) inside fuel pellets is an important mechanism that affects microstructure evolution as well as fuel performance. To study this phenomenon for low fuel burnups, when solid-state diffusion is likely to be the controlling mechanism that sets the stage for subsequent phenomena, e.g., fission gas bubble formation and linkage, we created a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element model based on the real microstructure of a depleted UO2 sample. The model couples grain bulk, grain boundary (GB), and triple junction (TJ) diffusion by using 3-D elements for grain bulks, two-dimensional elements for GBs, and one-dimensional elements for TJs. Grain boundary percolation theory is applied in one case study, and the result shows that the presence of high-diffusivity TJs reduces the effect of GB percolation. The model is also used with mass generation from grain bulks, and it is found that localized regions with a high concentration of FPs can form in the presence of a dominant GB percolation path. The work introduces an approach to model diffusion through GBs and TJs at a fair computational cost that can be applied to study the effects of microstructure on FP transport.

Deformation of Ferrite-Austenite Banded Structure in Cold-Rolled Duplex Steel / Odkształcenie Pasmowej Struktury Ferrytu I Austenitu W Walcowanej Na Zimno Stali Duplex

Duplex type ferritic-austenitic stainless steels develop a specific two-phase banded structure upon thermo-mechanical pre-treatment and subsequent cold-rolling. The band-like morphology of ferrite and austenite imposes different conditions on plastic deformation of both constituent phases in comparison to one-phase ferritic and austenitic steels. In the present research the ingot of a model ferritic-austenitic steel of duplex type, produced by laboratory melt, was subjected to preliminary thermo-mechanical treatment including forging and solution annealing. Afterwards cold-rolling was conducted over a wide deformation range. The investigations comprised examination of ferrite and austenite microstructures by means of optical and transmission electron microscopy and texture measurements after selected rolling reductions. The presented results indicate that deformation mechanisms operating within the bands of both constituent phases are essentially the same as compared to one-phase steels, however their appearance and contribution are changed upon deformation of two-phase banded structure. Different deformation behavior within ferrite-austenite bands in duplex steels, visible especially at higher strains, considerably affects microstructure evolution and in consequence texture formation in both phases.

Unusual field-coupled nonlinear continuum mechanics of smart materials

A set of anisotropic constitutive relations is developed using nonlinear continuum mechanics to model chemical and field-coupled material behavior in a relatively broad range of smart materials. A Landau-based free energy function is formulated and numerically implemented to elucidate how finite deformation and crystal anisotropy affect field-coupled deformation and how deformation affects microstructure evolution. Rotationally invariant order parameters are introduced within the Landau energy function to illustrate how field-coupled mechanics occurs without introducing explicit phenomenological parameters. Spontaneous deformation due to scalar, vector, and tensor order parameters is quantified. It is shown that both the scalar and vector order parameters induce hydrostatic deformation, while the second-order tensor order parameter induces a range of different anisotropic spontaneous deformation states. Numerical simulations are given, which illustrate unusual field-coupled microstructure evolution for a select number of active materials in comparison with data in the literature. The materials simulated range from chemically responsive glassy polymer networks, soft polydomain liquid crystal elastomers, to tetragonal phase ferroelectric materials. The results illustrate that finite deformation continuum mechanics can be useful in modeling many unusual field-coupled, anisotropic constitutive relations without introducing explicit coupling parameters.

Grain boundary migration: misorientation dependence

The ability of grain boundaries (GB) to move has been found to be strongly dependent on crystallography, i.e. misorientation of the adjacent grains and orientation (inclination) of the GB in a crystal. Boundary mobility is rate-controlling in recrystallization and grain growth and thus, affects microstructure evolution and texture formation. This paper deals with recent advances in our understanding of misorientation and inclination dependence of grain boundary migration.