The mechanical properties of superplastic materials

High Strain Rate Superplasticity of WE54 Mg Alloy after Severe Friction Stir Processing

Friction stir processing (FSP) was used on coarse-grained WE54 magnesium alloy plates of as-received material. These were subjected to FSP under two different cooling conditions, refrigerated and non-refrigerated, and different severe processing conditions characterized by low rotation rate and high traverse speed. After FSP, ultrafine equiaxed grains and refinement of the coarse precipitates were observed. The processed materials exhibited high resistance at room temperature and excellent superplasticity at the high strain rate of 10−2 s−1 and temperatures between 300 and 400 °C. Maximum tensile superplastic elongation of 726% was achieved at 400 °C. Beyond 400 °C, a noticeable loss of superplastic response occurred due to a loss of thermal stability of the grain size. Grain boundary sliding is the operative deformation mechanism that can explain the high-temperature flow behavior of the ultrafine grained FSP-WE54 alloy, showing increasing superplasticity with increasing processing severity.

The Effect of Material Properties on the Accuracy of Superplastic Tensile Test

Tensile testing is widely used for the mechanical characterization of materials subjected to superplastic deformation. At the same time, it is known that the obtained flow data are affected by specimen geometry. Thus, they characterize the specimen rather than the material. This work provides the numerical analysis aimed to study how the material flow behavior affects the results of tensile tests. The simulations were performed by the finite element method in Abaqus software, utilizing user-defined procedures for calculation of forces acting on the crossheads. The accuracy of tensile testing is evaluated by the difference between the input material flow behavior specified in the simulations and the output one, obtained by the standard ASTM E2448 procedure based on the predicted forces. The results revealed that the accuracy of the superplastic tensile test is affected by the material properties. Even if the material flow behavior follows the Backofen power law, which is invariant for the effective strain, the output stress–strain curves demonstrate significant strain hardening and softening effects. The relation between the basic superplastic characteristics and the tensile test errors is described and analyzed.

Using High-Pressure Torsion to Achieve Superplasticity in an AZ91 Magnesium Alloy

An AZ91 magnesium alloy (Mg-9%, Al-1% Zn) was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) after solution-heat treatment. Tensile tests were carried out at 423, 523, and 623 K in the strain rate range of 10−5−10−1 s−1 to evaluate the occurrence of superplasticity. Results showed that HPT processing refined the grain structure in the alloy, and grain sizes smaller than 10 µm were retained up to 623 K. Superplastic elongations were observed at low strain rates at 423 K and at all strain rates at 523 K. An examination of the experiment data showed good agreement with the theoretical prediction for grain-boundary sliding, the rate-controlling mechanism for superplasticity. Elongations in the range of 300–400% were observed at 623 K, attributed to a combination of grain-boundary-sliding and dislocation-climb mechanisms.

Nano-Scaled Creep Response of TiAlV Low Density Medium Entropy Alloy at Elevated Temperatures

A low density, medium entropy alloy (LD-MEA) Ti33Al33V34 (4.44 g/cm3) was successfully developed. The microstructure was found to be composed of a disordered body-centered-cubic (BCC) matrix and minor ordered B2 precipitates based on transmission electron microscopy characterization. Equilibrium and non-equilibrium modeling, simulated using the Calphad approach, were applied to predict the phase constituent. Creep behavior of {110} grains at elevated temperatures was investigated by nanoindentation and the results were compared with Cantor alloy and Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Dislocation creep was found to be the dominant mechanism. The decreasing trend of hardness in {110} grains of BCC TiAlV is different from that in {111} grains of face-centered-cubic (FCC) Cantor alloy due to the different temperature-dependence of Peierls stress in these two lattice structures. The activation energy value of {110} grains was lower than that of {111} grains in FCC Cantor alloy because of the denser atomic stacking in FCC alloys. Compared with conventional Ti-6Al-4V alloy, TiAlV possesses considerably higher hardness and specific strength (63% higher), 83% lower creep displacement at room temperature, and 50% lower creep strain rate over the temperature range from 500 to 600 °C under the similar 1150 MPa stress, indicating a promising substitution for Ti-6Al-4V alloy as structural materials.

Achieving excellent superplasticity of Mg-7Zn-5Gd-0.6Zr alloy at low temperature regime

Mg-7Zn-5Gd-0.6Zr (wt%) alloy strengthened with quasicrystal phase (I-Mg₃Zn₆Gd phase) is prepared through hot extrusion and subsequent heat treatments. The low temperature (range from 25 °C to 250 °C) superplastic deformation behavior of the as-extruded, aging treated (T5) and solution and aging treated (T6) alloys are investigated. The results reveal that a superior superplastic elongation of 863% is obtained at 250 °C and strain rate of 1.67 × 10^-3 s^-1 and the elongation of this alloy increases with the increasing tensile temperature. Detailed microstructural analyses show that I-Mg₃Zn₆Gd phase and W-Mg₃Gd₂Zn₃ phase are crushed into small particles during extrusion. A high density of nanoscale I-phase precipitates after T5 treatment. Dynamic recrystallization occurs in as-extruded Mg-7Zn-5Gd-0.6Zr alloy. The T5-treated Mg-7Zn-5Gd-0.6Zr alloy shows a relatively weak basal texture intensity, a large number fraction of high angle boundaries and a very finer grain structure (3.01 μm). During superplastic deformation, the nanoscale I-phase is slightly elongated and the microstructure is still equiaxed grains. The superplastic mechanism of the alloy is grain boundary sliding (GBS) accommodated by dislocation movement and static recrystallization. The cavity nucleation at the nanoscale I-phase/α-Mg matrix boundaries or grain boundaries and the cavity stringer formation leads to final fracture.

Thermally Activated Deformation Behavior of ufg-Au: Environmental Issues During Long-Term and High-Temperature Nanoindentation Testing

For testing time-dependent material properties by nanoindentation, in particular for long-term creep or relaxation experiments, thermal drift influences on the displacement signal are of prime concern. To address this at room and elevated temperatures, we tested fused quartz at various contact depths at room temperature and ultra-fine grained (ufg) Au at various temperatures. We found that the raw data for fused quartz are strongly affected by thermal drift, but corrected by use of dynamic stiffness measurements all the datasets collapse. The situation for the ufg Au shows again that the data are only useful with drift correction, but with this applied it turns out that there is a significant change of elastic and plastic properties when exceeding 200°C, which is also reflected by an increasing strain rate sensitivity.

Superplastic Behaviour of AA5083 Aluminium Alloy with Scandium and Zirconium

The aim of the present investigation was to determine and to compare the superplastic behaviour of the AA5083 (Al-Mg-Mn) alloy with Sc and Zr additions. The investigated alloys were processed to form sheets by conventional hot and cold rolling. The superplastic properties were determined with strain rates in the range of 1x10-4to 5x10-2s-1and forming temperatures of 350 to 550°C. The results showed that the alloy with about 0.4% Sc exhibited a high superplastic ductility across a wide temperature range and strain rates up to 1x10-2s-1. The highest elongations to failure of about 2000% were attained at 550°C and at an initial strain rate of 5x10-3s-1. However, the alloy with about 0.15% Zr exhibited elongations up to 600%. The FSP processed Al-4.5Mg alloy with combined addition of about 0.2% Sc and 0.15% Zr exhibited good superplastic properties at higher strain rates (> 1x10-2s-1) with elongations up to 1500%.

Application of a Continuous Annealing Process to the Production of Superplastic High-Carbon Steels

High-carbon steels with carbon content of more than 0.8wt% have been known to be superplastic by refining their microstructure. Many methods such as warm rolling have been proposed to refine the microstructure. But most of them are considered to be difficult to use as an actual production method. To make high-carbon steels superplastic and economical, application of a cold rolling and continuous annealing process has been examined.

Changes in microstructure of high-carbon hot rolled steels during the cold rolling and continuous annealing was investigated. By cold rolling with a reduction of more than 50%, a lamellar pearlite structure is deformed and heavily sheared, and a large strain energy is stored. Rapid annealing at temperatures just below the A1 temperature(1000K) is shown to spheroidize the sheared pearlite and to recrystallize the ferrite grains. After processing, the final structure consists of very fine cementite particles with 0.05–0.2μm diameter in a very fine equiaxed ferrite matrix with 0.1–0.5μm diameter. The processed steel shows total elongations of more than 700% and a strain rate sensitivity index of about 0.5 when deformed at 973K.

Routes to Develop Fine-Grained Magnesium Alloys and Composites for High-Strain Rate Superplasticity

Superplastic properties of magnesium alloys and their composites were reviewed with a special emphasis on the achievement of high strain rate superplastic forming. The role of grain size on superplastic deformation mechanisms was particularly addressed. Commercial Mg-Al-Zn alloys and a ZK60-based composite are used as model materials to illustrate the underlining principles leading to the observation of high strain rate superplasticity. In this paper, experimental results from several processing routes, including thermomechanical processing, severe plastic deformation, and extrusion of machined chips and rapidly solidified powders, are presented. High strain rate superplasticity (HSRS) is demonstrated in ZK60-based composites.