To explore the effect of strain rate ε on the high temperature deformation characteristics of ultrafine-grained materials, the deformation and damage features as well as microstructures of ECAP-treated pure Al at different temperatures T and strain ratesε were systematically studied through compression tests and microscopic observations. The increase in ε eliminates strain softening at T≤473 K, and largely enhances the yield strength and flow stress at 473?573 K. The shear deformation dominates the plastic deformation of ECAP-treated Al. Many cracks along shear bands (SBs) are formed at T≥473 K and secondary SBs basically disappear at 1×10?3 s?1; however, at 1×10?2 s?1, cracks are only observed at temperature below 473 K, and secondary SBs become clearer at T≥473 K. The microstructures of ECAP-treated Al mainly consist of sub-grains (SGs). The increase in ε inhibits the SG growth, thus leading to the increases both in yield strength and flow stress at high temperatures.
To explore the influence of cyclic pre-deformation on the mechanical behavior of ultrafine-grained（UFG）materials with a high stacking fault energy（SFE）,UFG Al processed by equal-channel angular pressing（ECAP）was selected as a target material and its tensile behavior at different pre-cyclic levels D（D=N_i/N_f,where N_i and N_f are the applied cycles and fatigue life at a constant stress amplitude of 50 MPa,respectively）along with the corresponding microstructures and deformation features were systematically studied.The cyclic pre-deformation treatment on the ECAPed UFG Al led to a decrease in flow stress,and a stress quasi-plateau stage was observed after yielding for all of the different-state UFG Al samples.The yield strengths_（YS）,ultimate tensile strengths_（UTS）,and uniform straineexhibited a strong dependence on D when D≤20%;however,when D was in the range from 20%to 50%,no obvious change in mechanical properties was observed.The micro-mechanism for the effect of cyclic pre-deformation on the tensile properties of the ECAPed UFG Al was revealed and compared with that of ECAPed UFG Cu through the observations of deformation features and microstructures.
Ying YanLi-jia ChenGuo-qiang ZhangDong HanXiao-wu Li
Grain boundary engineering（GBE） is a practice of improving resistance to grain boundary failure of the material through increasing the proportion of low Σ coincidence site lattice（CSL） grain boundaries（special grain boundaries） in the grain boundary character distribution（GBCD）. The GBCD in a cold rolled and annealed Fe-18Cr-18Mn-0.63N high-nitrogen austenitic stainless steel was analyzed by electron back scatter difraction（EBSD）. The results show that the optimization process of GBE in the conventional austenitic stainless steel cannot be well applied to this high-nitrogen austenitic stainless steel. The percentage of low ΣCSL grain boundaries could increase from 47.3% for the solid solution treated high-nitrogen austenitic stainless steel specimen to 82.0% for the specimen after 5% cold rolling reduction and then annealing at 1423 K for 10 min.These special boundaries of high proportion efectively interrupt the connectivity of conventional high angle grain boundary network and thus achieve the GBCD optimization for the high-nitrogen austenitic stainless steel.
To explore the temperature dependence of deformation behavior of BCC structural materials and the relevant effect of pre-annealing, commercially pure iron （CP Fe） produced by equal-channel angular pressing （ECAP） is selected as the experimental material. The influences of deformation temperature T and pre-annealing on deformation behavior, surface deformation characteristics and substructures of ECAP Fe were systematically studied. The results show that ECAP Fe undergoes a remarkable strain softening stage after a rapid strain hardening during uniaxial compression, and the softening degree and the yield strength avs first decrease and then increase with raising temperature. Pre-annealing at 400 ℃ effectively weakens the strain softening degree and increases trys. To understand the influence of deformation temperature on deformation behavior, as well as the relevant pre-annealing effect, deformation and damage characteristics and dislocation structures are studied in detail. In a word, the strain softening of ECAP Fe is associated not only with internal structural instability, but also with temperature, and pre-annealing at 400 ℃ improves high-temperature me- chanical properties of ECAP Fe.
