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Acta Metall Sin  2021, Vol. 57 Issue (5): 632-640    DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2020.00225
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Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of a FeMnCoCr High-Entropy Alloy with Heterogeneous Structure
WANG Hongwei1, HE Zhufeng1, JIA Nan2()
1.Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
2.State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Cite this article: 

WANG Hongwei, HE Zhufeng, JIA Nan. Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of a FeMnCoCr High-Entropy Alloy with Heterogeneous Structure. Acta Metall Sin, 2021, 57(5): 632-640.

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Abstract  

Growing attention has been placed on high-entropy alloys (HEAs) owing to their promising mechanical properties. Particularly, HEAs in which the main crystal structure is fcc are attracting significant attention. Although such alloys exhibit a good combination of strength and ductility, they cannot meet the increasing demands of applications because of limited yield strengths. In recent years, researchers have tried to improve yield strengths of HEAs by refining grains and introducing interstitial atoms. However, the processing cost is high and is often accompanied by the significant loss of ductility. In this study, we propose a simple processing route incorporating cold rolling at medium thickness reductions and short-time annealing at medium temperatures to obtain a heterogeneous structure in Fe-Mn based HEAs consisting of deformed grains with an average diameter of several tens of microns and recrystallized ultrafine grains. By simultaneously introducing multiple strengthening mechanisms, including the strengthening contributed by the microstructural characteristics of dense dislocations, grain refinement, precipitates, ε-martensite, α-martensite, and recovery twins, as well as the strengthening induced by deformation twinning and ε-martensite phase transition that occurs continuously during deformation, the yield strength of the alloy significantly increases compared with that of the fully recrystallized material and reaches 825 MPa. Simultaneously, due to the activation of significant deformation twinning and deformation-induced martensitic transformation, the uniform elongation of the alloy is about 28.6%. The proposed material fabrication method is simple, cost-effective, and can effectively improve the mechanical properties of Fe-Mn based HEAs, providing new insight into optimizing the mechanical properties of low stacking fault energy alloys of the fcc structure.

Key words:  high-entropy alloy      mechanical property      microstructure      strengthening mechanism     
Received:  28 June 2020     
ZTFLH:  TG156.21  
Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(51922026);Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(N2002005);Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province(20180510010);Programme of Introducing Talents of Displine to Universities(B2-0029)
About author:  JIA Nan, professor, Tel: 13591492980, E-mail: jian@atm.neu.edu.cn

URL: 

https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2020.00225     OR     https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2021/V57/I5/632

Fig.1  Mechanical properties of Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 high-entropy alloy (HEA) under tensile testing at room temperature (HOMO—homogenization, PC—partially recrystallized, FC—fully recrystallized)
StateYield stress MPaTensile stress MPaUniform elongation
%
HOMO20861864.7
FC24568054.9
PC82592828.6
Table 1  Mechanical properties of Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 HEAat different states
Fig.2  XRD spectra of the Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 HEA at different states
Fig.3  Phase distribution maps (a1-c1) and orientation maps (a2-c2) of the Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 HEA at the PC state before (a1, a2, b1, b2) and after (c1, c2) deformation taken from different regions (In the phase distribution maps, high-angle boundaries with misorientation angles larger than 10° are indicated by thick black lines, low-angle boundaries with misorientation angles between 3° and 10° are indicated by thin black lines, and Σ3 twin boundaries in the fcc phase are indicated by white solid lines, respectively; RD—rolling direction, ND—normal direction, LD—loading direction)
Fig.4  TEM images and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns (insets) of the Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 HEA at the PC state before deformation (The SAED patterns are taken from the dotted circle areas in the figures)
PositionFeMnCoCr
1 (precipitate )41.2236.467.6114.71
2 (precipitate )41.7836.707.4614.06
3 (matrix )47.4832.699.5610.27
4 (matrix )47.0732.869.8110.26
Table 2  EDS results of matrix and precipitate in theFe50Mn30Co10Cr10 HEA at PC state in Fig.4c
Fig.5  TEM images and corresponding SAED patterns of the region close to the fracture surface of the deformed Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 HEA at PC state (The SAED patterns are taken from the dotted circle areas in the figures)
Fig.6  TEM image (a) and corresponding SAED pattern (b) of the region close to the fracture surface of the deformed Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 HEA at FC state showing ε-martensite laths and deformation twins
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