A multi-component nanocrystalline FeCrV alloy with improved mechanical properties and excellent irradiation resistance

An equiatomic low-activated FeCrV ternary alloy was prepared by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering. The BCC solid solution alloy exhibited an excellent strength-ductility synergy properties, which was 1.85 ?GPa compressive yield strength, 3.04 ?GPa fracture strength and more than 28% plasticity at room temperature. Even at an elevated temperature of 600 ?°C, its yield strength was still more than 1 ?GPa, revealing a pronounced high temperature resistance. The FeCrV alloy had a homogeneous microstructure with high-density dislocations. A nanocrystalline characteristic was demonstrated and the average grain size was about 322 ?nm, leading to the improved mechanical properties. The strengthening mechanism was discussed in detail and the contributions of strengthening factors were calculated. The FeCrV alloy was irradiated up to 160 dpa with 2 ?MeV Au²⁺ ions at 573 ?K. The nanoindentation test was carried out to simply evaluate the hardening degree under such a high dose irradiation with heavy ions. The semi-quantitative analysis results show that FeCrV alloy has an excellent irradiation tolerance compared with pure Fe.     

Impact of asymmetry deformation on microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ31B alloy sheets deformed by on-line heating rolling

The effect of asymmetry deformation on microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ31 sheet was investigated in the present paper. Two AZ31 sheets were rolled together with an on-line heating rolling mill and separated from each other afterwards. For each sheet, the strain on both surface during rolling was asymmetry and this rolling method is called asymmetry rolling (AR) in present work. For comparison, symmetry rolling (SR) was also carried out on the same rolling mill that only one sheet was rolled in one pass. The sheets deformed by AR showed more homogeneous microstructure with higher recrystallization level and symmetry distributional basal texture. Moreover, SR sheets showed many narrow shear bands which distributed as “V” shape along rolling direction, while less shear bands with wider size are observed in AR sheet. The shear bands in AR sheet distributed as a line and across the entire thickness of the sheet, resulting in layered bimodal structure. Based on the unique microstructure and texture characteristics, AR sheet has lowest mechanical property anisotropy and a good balance of strength and elongation.