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.
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.
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
Fig.1 Mechanical properties of Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 high-entropy alloy (HEA) under tensile testing at room temperature (HOMO—homogenization, PC—partially recrystallized, FC—fully recrystallized)
State
Yield stress MPa
Tensile stress MPa
Uniform elongation
%
HOMO
208
618
64.7
FC
245
680
54.9
PC
825
928
28.6
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)
Position
Fe
Mn
Co
Cr
1 (precipitate )
41.22
36.46
7.61
14.71
2 (precipitate )
41.78
36.70
7.46
14.06
3 (matrix )
47.48
32.69
9.56
10.27
4 (matrix )
47.07
32.86
9.81
10.26
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
1
Yeh J W. Alloy design strategies and future trends in high-entropy alloys [J]. JOM, 2013, 65: 1759
2
Yao M J, Pradeep K G, Tasan C C, et al. A novel, single phase, non-equiatomic FeMnNiCoCr high-entropy alloy with exceptional phase stability and tensile ductility [J]. Scr. Mater., 2014, 72-73: 5
3
Gludovatz B, Hohenwarter A, Catoor D, et al. A fracture-resistant high-entropy alloy for cryogenic applications [J]. Science, 2014, 345: 1153
4
Gali A, George E P. Tensile properties of high- and medium-entropy alloys [J]. Intermetallics, 2013, 39: 74
5
Anand G, Goodall R, Freeman C L. Role of configurational entropy in body-centred cubic or face-centred cubic phase formation in high entropy alloys [J]. Scr. Mater., 2016, 124: 90
6
Senkov O N, Wilks G B, Scott J M, et al. Mechanical properties of Nb25Mo25Ta25W25 and V20Nb20Mo20Ta20W20 refractory high entropy alloys [J]. Intermetallics, 2011, 19: 698
7
Juan C C, Tsai M H, Tsai C W, et al. Enhanced mechanical properties of HfMoTaTiZr and HfMoNbTaTiZr refractory high-entropy alloys [J]. Intermetallics, 2015, 62: 76
8
Zhao Y J, Qiao J W, Ma S G, et al. A hexagonal close-packed high-entropy alloys: The effect of entropy [J]. Mater. Des., 2016, 96: 10
9
Takeuchi A, Amiya K, Wada T, et al. High-entropy alloys with a hexagonal close-packed structure designed by equi-atomic alloy strategy and binary phase diagrams [J]. JOM, 2014, 66: 1984
10
Feuerbacher M, Heidelmann M, Thomas C. Hexagonal high-entropy alloys [J]. Mater. Res. Lett., 2015, 3: 1
11
Cantor B, Chang I T H, Knight P, et al. Microstructural development in equiatomic multicomponent alloys [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2004, A375-377: 213
12
Otto F, Dlouhý A, Somsen C, et al. The influences of temperature and microstructure on the tensile properties of a CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy [J]. Acta Mater., 2013, 61: 5743
13
Laplanche G, Kostka A, Horst O M, et al. Microstructure evolution and critical stress for twinning in the CrMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloy [J]. Acta Mater., 2016, 118: 152
14
Oh H S, Ma D C, Leyson G P, et al. Lattice distortions in the FeCoNiCrMn high entropy alloy studied by theory and experiment [J]. Entropy, 2016, 18: 321
15
Xiong F, Fu R D, Li Y J, et al. Effects of nitrogen alloying and friction stir processing on the microstructures and mechanical properties of CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys [J]. J. Alloys Compd., 2020, 822: 153512
16
Li Z M, Pradeep K G, Deng Y, et al. Metastable high-entropy dual-phase alloys overcome the strength-ductility trade-off [J]. Nature, 2016, 534: 227
17
Li Z M, Tasan C C, Pradeep K G, et al. A TRIP-assisted dual-phase high-entropy alloy: Grain size and phase fraction effects on deformation behavior [J]. Acta Mater., 2017, 131: 323
18
Deng Y, Tasan C C, Pradeep K G, et al. Design of a twinning-induced plasticity high entropy alloy [J]. Acta Mater., 2015, 94: 124
19
Lu W J, Liebscher C H, Dehm G, et al. Bidirectional transformation enables hierarchical nanolaminate dual-phase high-entropy alloys [J]. Adv. Mater., 2018, 30: 1804727
20
Su J, Raabe D, Li Z M. Hierarchical microstructure design to tune the mechanical behavior of an interstitial TRIP-TWIP high-entropy alloy [J]. Acta Mater., 2019, 163: 40
21
Bae J W, Seol J B, Moon J, et al. Exceptional phase-transformation strengthening of ferrous medium-entropy alloys at cryogenic temperatures [J]. Acta Mater., 2018, 161: 388
22
Uzer B, Picak S, Liu J, et al. On the mechanical response and microstructure evolution of NiCoCr single crystalline medium entropy alloys [J]. Mater. Res. Lett., 2018, 6: 442
23
He J Y, Wang H, Huang H L, et al. A precipitation-hardened high-entropy alloy with outstanding tensile properties [J]. Acta Mater., 2016, 102: 187
24
Sun S J, Tian Y Z, An X H, et al. Ultrahigh cryogenic strength and exceptional ductility in ultrafine-grained CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy with fully recrystallized structure [J]. Mater. Today Nano, 2018, 4: 46
25
Li Z M. Interstitial equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys: Carbon content, microstructure, and compositional homogeneity effects on deformation behavior [J]. Acta Mater., 2019, 164: 400
26
Wang Y M, Chen M W, Zhou F H, et al. High tensile ductility in a nanostructured metal [J]. Nature, 2002, 419: 912
27
He Z F, Jia N, Wang H W, et al. The effect of strain rate on mechanical properties and microstructure of a metastable FeMnCoCr high entropy alloy [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2020, A776: 138982
28
Takaki S, Nakatsu H, Tokunaga Y. Effects of austenite grain size on ε martensitic transformation in Fe-15mass%Mn alloy [J]. Mater. Trans. JIM, 1993, 34: 489
29
Olsen G B, Cohen M. Dislocation theory of martensitic transformations [A]. Dislocations in Solids [M]. Vol.7.,Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1986: 295
30
Zhang W Y, Yan D S, Lu W J, et al. Carbon and nitrogen co-doping enhances phase stability and mechanical properties of a metastable high-entropy alloy [J]. J. Alloys Compd., 2020, 831: 154799
31
He Z F, Jia N, Ma D, et al. Joint contribution of transformation and twinning to the high strength-ductility combination of a FeMnCoCr high entropy alloy at cryogenic temperatures [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2019, A759: 437
32
Wang M M, Li Z M, Raabe D. In-situ SEM observation of phase transformation and twinning mechanisms in an interstitial high-entropy alloy [J]. Acta Mater., 2018, 147: 236