Progress in Strengthening and Toughening Mechanisms of Heterogeneous Nanostructured Metals

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2022.00303

Acta Metall Sin

2022, Vol. 58

Issue (11): 1360-1370 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2022.00303

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Progress in Strengthening and Toughening Mechanisms of Heterogeneous Nanostructured Metals

LU Lei(

), ZHAO Huaizhi

Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

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LU Lei, ZHAO Huaizhi. Progress in Strengthening and Toughening Mechanisms of Heterogeneous Nanostructured Metals. Acta Metall Sin, 2022, 58(11): 1360-1370.

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Abstract

Heterostructured metals typically exhibit excellent mechanical properties, such as high strength, plasticity, and fracture toughness, which are not present in conventional homogeneous materials. This is primarily due to the synergistic effects arising from the interactions between the internal components including the stress/strain gradients, geometrically necessary dislocations, and unique interfacial behavior. This study focuses on two typical heterogeneous nanostructures (laminated and nanotwinned) by reviewing the recent progress in their strengthening and toughening mechanisms. The analysis highlights the effects of the properties and sizes of the individual components, interfaces, and loading directions on the macroscopic strengthening and toughening behavior.

Key words: heterogeneous nanostructured metal laminated structure nanotwin strengthening and toughening interface anisotropy

Received: 20 June 2022

ZTFLH:

TG146

Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(51931010);National Natural Science Foundation of China(92163202);Key Research Program of Frontier Science and International Partnership Program, Chinese Academy of Sciences(GJ-HZ2029);Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program(XLYC1802026)

About author: LU Lei, professor, Tel: (024)23971939, E-mail: llu@imr.ac.cn

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2022.00303 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2022/V58/I11/1360

Fig.1 Microstructures and engineering stress-strain curves of laminated Cu/Cu4Zn and Cu/Cu32Zn, or nanotwinned Cu samples (GNT—gradient nanotwinned, HNT—homogeneous nanotwinned)
(a, b) microstructures of laminated Cu/Cu4Zn (a) and Cu/Cu32Zn (b) with layer thickness (λ) of 19 μm^[33] (c, d) tensile engineering stress-strain curves of freestanding Cu, Cu4Zn, and Cu32Zn samples (c), and laminated Cu/Cu4Zn, Cu/Cu32Zn with different layer thicknesses (d) (Inset in Fig.1c shows work-hardening rate vs true strain of freestanding Cu, Cu4Zn, and Cu32Zn)^[33] (e-g) schematics of microstructures of three sandwiched nanotwinned Cu samples (GNT-??, GNT-??, and GNT-??) (e), and their engineering stress-strain curves (f) and work hardening rate (Θ) vs true strain curves (g) in comparison to their HNT components^[34]

Fig.2 Sampling schematic diagram, cross-sectional microstructures, and stress-strain curves of DPD Cu (DPD—dynamic plastic deformation)^[45]
(a) schematic of the tensile specimens in the DPD disc and their orientations relative to the twin boundaries (TBs), i.e., parallel, normal, and 45° inclined to TBs, hereafter referred to as sample-P, sample-N, and sample-I, respectively (b, d) typical cross-sectional microstructures of DPD Cu, showing the nanotwins (NT) in the form of bundles embedded in a matrix of nanograins (NG) (c) tensile engineering stress-strain curves for the DPD processed heterogeneous nanostructured Cu and the coarse-grained (CG) Cu serve as a counterpart for comparison (e-g) local strain fields in sample-P (e), sample-N (f), and sample-I (g) at applied strain of 1.0%. The nanotwinned regions are denoted as NT, where the underscore indicated the direction parallel to TBs. The black dash lines indicate the position of the NT/NG interfaces. The tensile axes (TA) are represented by the double-headed arrows

Fig.3 Toughening mechanisms recorded in laminated materials with different cracking orientations relative to the heterointerfaces (a-e), EBSD and SEM images of the Al-7075/Al-1050 laminate (f-h)
(a-c) crack arrester orientation with both crack plane and crack growth direction perpendicular to the interfaces, where the crack deflection, delamination, or crack bridging may be activated (d, e) crack divider orientation with the crack plane perpendicular to the interfaces while the crack growth direction parallel to the interfaces, where the delamination may be developed (f, g) EBSD maps show the microstructure of the Al-7075/Al-1050 laminate^[54] (h) SEM image of a Charpy fractured sample of the Al-7075/Al-1050 laminate tested in crack arrester orientation^[54]

Fig.4 Microstructure and fracture toughness of nanolayered metals^[60] (a, b) microstructures and corresponding SAED patterns (insets) of Cu/Nb (a) and Cu/Zr (b) nanolayered films (c) dependence of fracture toughness (K_IC) on the thickness of Cu layer (h_Cu) for the Cu/Nb and Cu/Zr films (dots and left y-axis), and the calculated normalized K_IC (lines and right y-axis) at different normalized cohesive strengths (σ_c / μ, where σ_c is cohesive strength and μ is the shear modulus of Cu layer)

Fig.5 Schematic illustration of the CT specimens and their orientations, J-integral resistance(J-R) curves, and schematic illustrations of the failure process for the DPD Cu samples^[16] (CT—compact tension)
(a) schematic illustration of the CT specimens and their orientations in the DPD disc. The CT specimens were labeled with two-letter codes based on the crack plane orientation and crack growth direction with respect to the TBs inside the NTBs, i.e., parallel (P), normal (N), and 45° inclined (I) to the TBs, respectively; i.e., P-P, N-N, I-I and N-P, where the first letter designates the orientation of the expected crack plane with respect to the TBs, while the second letter designates the crack propagation direction with respect to the TBs
(b) J-R curves (c-f) schematic illustration of the failure process under different cracking orientations (The insert SEM image in Fig.5e shows a micro-crack (indicated by the white arrow) initiated at the NT/NG interface)

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