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Effects of Thermo-mechanical Treatment on the Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of a Medium-Entropy Alloy

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Abstract

The effects of hot-rolling (HR), cold-rolling (CR), and HR + CR followed by aging on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the medium-entropy alloy (MEA) Ni43.4Co25.3Cr25.3Al3Ti3 were investigated. The geometrically-necessary dislocation (GND) density increased with increasing cold rolling reduction to 1.8–2.4 × 1014 m−2, which is eight times the 2.9 × 1013 m−2 found in the as-hot-rolled MEA. Higher dislocation density before aging led to a finer, higher volume fraction of L12 nanoparticles as well as finer grains, which resulted from both accelerated nucleation on dislocations and, possibly, accelerated pipe diffusion via the dislocations. The aged CR MEA exhibited an excellent strength-ductility combination (yield strength ~ 1414 MPa, ultimate tensile strength ~ 1605 MPa, elongation ~ 15%) with precipitate strengthening accounting for 26% of the yield strength, which was better than the mechanical properties of the aged HR MEA (yield strength ~ 897 MPa, ultimate tensile strength ~ 1217 MPa, elongation ~ 32.3%). A combination of hot-rolling and cold-rolling also leads to a good strength-ductility combination (yield strength ~ 1501 MPa, ultimate tensile strength ~ 1651 MPa, elongation ~ 20.8%), with grain boundary strengthening and precipitate strengthening accounting for 62% and 25% of the yield strength, respectively. Substantial partitioning and fluctuations of the principle atoms were observed in as-CR sample due to dislocations interacting with the alloying atoms, i.e. several nano-scaled regions were enriched in Ni, Al, and Ti, and depleted in Cr and Co. In addition, Al and Ti have more substantial local fluctuations in composition than Ni, Co, and Co.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2022A1515110390), Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2023A04J0994), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (No. 2022B1212050001), GDAS′ Project of Science and Technology Development (2022GDASZH-2022010107), and Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (2020YFE0205300).

Funding

Funding was provided by Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2022A1515110390), Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2023A04J0994), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2022B1212050001), GDAS′ Project of Science and Technology Development (2022GDASZH-2022010107), and Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (2020YFE0205300).

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  1. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding Technology, China-Ukraine Institute of Welding, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China

    Hanlin Peng

  2. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Ling Hu

  3. Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    Ian Baker

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Peng, H., Hu, L. & Baker, I. Effects of Thermo-mechanical Treatment on the Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of a Medium-Entropy Alloy. High Entropy Alloys & Materials 1, 295–311 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44210-023-00018-8

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