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Compared to cold drawing, dieless drawing has shown great potential for manufacturing biodegradable Mg alloy microtubes due to the large reduction in area acquired in a single pass. However, owing to the local heating and local deformation, the deformation mechanism during dieless drawing is not clear, and thus causing difficulties in controlling the microstructure of dieless drawn tubes. For the purpose of acquiring a desired microstructure, in this study the deformation mechanism of ZM21 Mg alloy tube was clarified by conducting continuous observation of the microstructural evolution during dieless drawing. The results show that both SRX and DRX occurred during dieless drawing. SRX occurred before the plastic deformation to soften dieless drawn tubes. With increase of feeding speed, the deformation mechanism changed accordingly: (1) At the low-speed of 0.02 mm/s, the deformation mechanism was dominated by twin-slip sliding, during which {10–12} tension twins were generated inside grains to accommodate the plastic deformation by changing the crystal orientation. (2) At the intermediate-speed of 2 mm/s, a twin-DRX process related to {10–12} tension twin was observed, which was characterized by the generation of abundant {10–12} tension twins and the evolution of misorientation angle of {10–12} tension twins. Moreover, the transformation from twin-DRX to CDRX can be observed at the late stage of plastic deformation, which was attributed to the inhomogeneous conditions of dieless drawing. (3) At the high-speed of 5 mm/s, a CDRX process was observed, during which grain boundary sliding and grain tilting were observed, in addition to the gradual rotation of subgrains. These results show that during dieless drawing, DRX is not only a temperature-dependent phenomenon, but also influenced by the variation of feeding speed.

Heterogeneous metals and alloys are a new class of materials with superior mechanical properties. In this paper, we engineered sandwich-structured pure aluminum laminates composed of middle coarse-grained layer and outer fine-grained layer via extrusion, rolling and annealing. By controlling the post-annealing regimes, a larger degree of microstructure heterogeneities such as boundary spacing, misorientation and texture across the hetero-interface were obtained, which resulted in obvious mechanical differences. Tensile tests indicated that the 300 °C/30 min annealed laminates enabled a relatively high tensile ductility while simultaneously retaining a high strength, which was better than prediction by the rule-of-mixture. To explain the reasons behind it, the evolution of geometrically necessary dislocations and strain gradient at the hetero-interface zone were detected using in-situ tension and microscopic digital image correlation technique. It was found that with the increasing applied strain, a significant strain gradient was developed near the interface, which was accommodated by geometrically necessary dislocations, thereby contributing to higher hetero-deformation induced (HDI) strengthening and hardening.

Ytterbium (Yb) containing magnesium alloys have aroused extensive interest due to their excellent mechanical properties after thermomechanical processing and heat treatment. Unfortunately, the sole effect of Yb addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of pure Mg matrix remains uncertain to date. In this work, the effects of Yb concentration on the texture development and tensile properties of pure Mg matrix during hot extrusion and the subsequent annealing were systematically investigated. The results revealed that the constitutional supercooling induced by Yb addition refined the as-cast microstructure but exerted a negligible effect on the original columnar grain morphology. When extruded at 300 °C, the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) process was considerably retarded. The in-grain misorientation axes (IGMA) analysis combined with TEM observation indicated that non-basal slips operated with increasing Yb concentration. Specifically, the prismatic 〈a〉 slip should be robustly activated in Mg–1.0 Yb extrudate, promoting the formation of the texture with {10–10} plane normal to the extrusion direction (ED), while for the Mg–2.0 Yb counterpart, the increased activity of pyramidal 〈c + a〉 slip and the relaxation of basal/ dislocations generated an ED-tilted texture component. The preferential grain growth dominated the subsequent annealing texture development at 400 °C when a comparable grain size was achieved. An obvious ED-tilted texture intensity with the peak around 〈–12–13〉 was observed in Mg–2.0 Yb alloy, which was primarily caused by grains with the basal orientation vanished and with the non-basal orientations intensified due to a higher concentration of Yb solute. Favored by the grain refinement, the Mg–2.0 Yb extrudate exhibited a high tensile yield strength of 304 ± 3.5 MPa, while the subsequently annealed counterpart presented a favorable elongation to failure of 14.8 ± 1.2%, which mainly due to the homogeneous grain structure, weak ED-tilted texture, and dissolution of coarse phases after high-temperature annealing.

This research studied the mechanisms of Ca and Zn microalloying on the enhancement of ductility of extruded Mg-Gd sheet by combing electron backscattered diffraction and slip trace analysis. The ductility and microstructure of extruded Mg-0.6Gd and Mg-0.6Gd-0.3Ca-0.2Zn (wt%) sheets were investigated. Basal slip was the main deformation mode under investigation. Ca and Zn microalloying increased the frequency of grain boundaries (GBs) with misorientation angles (θs)

In this work, the microstructural evolution, micro-crack formation, and mechanical anisotropy of the selective laser melted (SLM) carbon-free Mar-M509 Co-based superalloy were systematically studied under different linear energy densities (LED). Observation shows that the SLM Mar-M509 superalloy possesses a fully dense structure, whereas some micro-cracks exist along the building direction. The electron backscatter diffraction results reveal that dominant columnar grains tend to elongate along the building direction parallel to the XZ plane. Meanwhile, both a near fiber texture and a {100} near sheet texture are observed in different specimens. For the specimen with fiber texture, a high misorientation angle exists among different columnar grains, which aggravated the generation of micro-cracks under thermal stress. Higher LED results in higher micro-crack density in the SLM specimen due to higher thermal stress. Mar-M509 specimen fabricated under lower LED exhibits higher tensile strength due to more significant grain refinement. More prominent anisotropy of tensile performance was found in the high LED specimen, which can be attributed to the higher density of micro-cracks and crystallographic texture. Furthermore, the SLM Mar-M509 superalloy exhibits better mechanical properties than the traditional cast technique. In summary, this work can contribute to the development and the future application of SLM-fabricated Co-based superalloy.

The important but highly complex α/β Burgers orientation relationship and slip behavior of a Ti–5.5Mo–7.2Al–4.5Zr–2.6Sn–2.1Cr titanium alloy plate were obtained and elaborated, which was subjected to hot rolling with 20%, 40%, and 60% reductions in thickness. The electron backscatter diffraction statistical results showed that the Burgers orientation relationship was strictly maintained in the initial microstructure and exhibited a slight deviation of ∼10° at 20% reduction. With the thickness reduction increasing to 40% and 60%, this classical relation between α- and β-Ti will be gradually broken. Furthermore, the low-angle grain boundaries fractions of the β phase were 94.95% and 92.77% at 20% and 40% reductions, respectively, indicating that the β phase had a significant contribution to the overall plastic deformation. For the α phase, the relative frequencies of the 2 ¯ 0>{0001}α and 2 ¯ 0>{10 1 ¯ 0}α slip systems were 32.81% and 44.43% at 20% reduction, respectively. Noticeably, under the applied loading of normal direction, the 2 ¯ 0>{0001}α slip system became more pronounced at 60% reduction (i.e., 59.01%) and, hence promoted a considerable strain partitioning in the α phase. In terms of typical α grains, an obvious intragranular misorientation diversity at 60% reduction was further traced, thereby reasonably leading to the Schmid factor gradient within grain interior and the breakdown of Burgers orientation relationship.

Variant selection under specific applied stresses during precipitation of α plates from prior-β matrix in Ti–6Al–4 V was investigated by 3D phase field simulations. The model incorporates the Burgers transformation path from β to α phase, with consideration of interfacial energy anisotropy, externally applied stresses and elastic interactions among α variants and β matrix. The Gibbs free energy and atomic mobility data are taken from available thermodynamic and kinetic databases. It was found that external stresses have a profound influence on variant selection, and the selection has a sensitive dependence, as evidenced by both interaction energy calculations and phase field simulations. Compared with normal stresses, shear stresses applied in certain directions were found more effective in accelerating the transformation, with a stronger preference to fewer variants. The volume fractions of various α variants and the final microstructure were determined by both the external stress and the elastic interaction among different variants. The α clusters formed by variants with Type2 misorientation ([1 1 -2 0]/60°) relation were found more favored than those with Type4 ([-10 5 5 -3]/63.26°) under certain applied tensile stress such as along β. The mechanical properties of different microstructures from our phase field simulation under different conditions were calculated for different loading conditions, utilizing crystal plastic finite element simulation. The mechanical behavior of the various microstructures from phase field simulation can be evaluated well before the alloys are fabricated, and therefore it is possible to select microstructure for optimizing the mechanical properties of the alloy through thermomechanical processing based on the two types of simulations.

The microstructural evolution law and the α variant selection relationship, as well as the deformation mechanism of the HIPed Ti-6Al-4V alloy, were investigated under the conditions of thermal compression and subsequent heat treatment. The results showed that lamellar α phase bending/kinking and fragmentation were the main spheroidizing mechanisms in the α+β phase region (850°C and 920°C), DDRX occurred as the restoration mechanism in the near-β region (940°C), and the heterogeneous microstructure originated from the temperature gradient distribution. The strain rate clearly affected the dynamically recrystallized grain fraction and diameter, e.g... both the fraction and diameter increased at a lower strain rate. The acicular α precipitated from β phase at 940°C obeyed the Burgers relationship with β, and their misorientation angle intensified at approximately 60°. GBα formed by reducing the adjacent lamellar α misorientation angle; therefore, the GBα nucleation energy was lowest. The microhardness variation was relatively stable along the X direction at α+β phase region deformation, while oscillation appeared at near-β deformation, which can be explained by microstructure heterogeneity after thermal compression. For heat treatment, the trimodal microstructure appeared at 940°C/0.001 s-1/60% thermal compression and subsequent 950°C/1 h/WQ heat treatment, and the result might guide practical production to optimize mechanical properties.

In order to investigate the grain growth behavior of a FGH96 superalloy during thermomechanical treatment, isothermal compression experiments of the superalloy were carried out on a Gleeble thermal simulator at the temperatures from 1020 to 1110 °C with strain rates from 10-3 to 1 s-1. Uniform heat treatment was performed on the deformed samples with typical Zener-Hollomon (Z) parameters after hot compression. Optical microscope (OM), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and finite element (FE) simulation were employed to explore the relationship between deformation conditions and microstructure evolution during thermomechanical treatment of the superalloy. The results show that with the decrease of Z parameter, the deformed microstructure in the center of the cross-section of the specimen transforms from a mixed state to a fully dynamic recrystallization (DRX) state. Under the conditions of high and medium Z parameters, obvious abnormal grain growth (AGG) emerges in the cross-section of the heat-treated samples, and inclines to form at higher strains with the decreasing Z parameter. Combined with the results of FE simulation, deformation conditions (Z parameter and strain) are suggested to be the main factors that control the normal grain growth (NGG) and AGG behaviors during thermomechanical treatment of the alloy, by influencing the deformation energy storage, the degree of DRX and γ′ precipitates. Stored energy in the special range of 1.25-1.38 J/mol, incomplete DRX and partial dissolution of γ′ precipitates can stimulate the occurrence of AGG. Under the stored energy conditions to ensure the occurrence of AGG, less DRX grains will favor individual formation of abnormally large grains (ALGs) with larger size after heat treatment. The microstructure with local misorientation (LM) between 0.25°-0.8° plays an important role in the later stage of ALGs growth. A variable β described as β = e·lnZ was proposed to define the formation condition of ALGs during thermomechanical treatment of the superalloy, and its corresponding mechanisms were also elucidated.

Laser processing results in modified mechanical properties and microstructural evolution due to high temperatures and fast cooling rates. Different laser surface treatment techniques are under investigation for their potential to alter local microstructure and properties while maintaining properties of the bulk material. Fatigue life of laser-engraved powder metallurgy steel is shown to be significantly reduced compared to as-sintered material, suggesting a degree of microstructural modification with engraving. The misorientation, dislocation density, and phase of samples engraved with a 2D matrix pattern using one laser pass and five laser passes are characterized using optical microscopy and SEM-EBSD, and a CFD simulation of the laser process quantifies the temperature profile of each laser engraving. Deep-engraved samples are seen to result in a possible martensitic transformation at the surface of the engraved region because of increased time at elevated temperature and extreme cooling rates. These findings reinforce the importance of understanding microstructural evolution during precision tailoring via laser surface modification.

Microstructure of the fusion zone of steel/nickel-alloy dissimilar metal welds (DMWs) for nozzle buttering was investigated by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and electron back-scattered microscopy (EBSD). The results showed that the dissimilar joint was complete, without welding defects. The structures of the fusion zone included the beach structure along the fusion boundary, the peninsula structures connected with the fusion boundary, and the island structures in the weld. The distribution of these three types of structures near the fusion boundary was uneven. The beach structure was formed because of the insufficient mixing and solidification of the molten liquid base material and the filler metal, with the width ranging between 0 and 150 μm. The peninsula and island structures were formed by the undercooling of the insufficiently mixed liquid base material and filler metal that entered the weld because of the convection and scouring of the weld pool. The composition of the three structures depended on the degree of mixing of the liquid base material and the filler metal, with a dilution ratio between 40 and 60%. The degree of dilution for the beach, peninsula, and island structures decreased in turn. With an increase in the dilution ratio, the initial solidification temperature of the corresponding composition increased significantly. When the dilution ratio exceeded 94.5%, the initial solidification phase transformed from the face-centered cubic γ-austenite into a body-centered cubic ferrite, with island structures solidified in the form of ferrites in the weld near the fusion boundary. The austenite grain orientations at weld side are dispersed with 75% large (> 15°) misorientation in frequency and the overall texture orientation distributes dispersedly with deviating from the direction.

The Alnico 8 alloy has been printed using the selective laser melting additive manufacturing approach, resulting in material with magnetic properties in the as-printed state comparable to properties produced by conventional casting or powder metallurgy routes. Microstructural characterization in 3D, via electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) in a TriBeam microscope, simultaneously reveals a fine-scale grain structure, grain orientations and sub-grain misorientation gradients as a function of proximity to spherical pores that form during the print process. The nanostructure of the 3D printed part has the same highly coherent spinodal α 1 / / α 2 structure observed in conventionally fabricated Alnico 8, which gives rise to a coercivity ( H c ) of 51.2 kA m - 1 . Further investigation of the phase constituents by TEM analysis provides an understanding of the microstructure evolution during the additive manufacturing process. Modified processing pathways for improved microstructure and properties are discussed.

The microstructure evolution of 7A85 aluminum alloy at the conditions of strain rate (0.001 − 1 s−1) and deformation temperature (250–450 °C) was studied by optical microscopy (OM) and electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD). Based on the K-M dislocation density model, a two-stage K-M dislocation density model of 7A85 aluminum alloy was established. The results reveal that dynamic recovery (DRV) and dynamic recrystallization (DRX) are the main mechanisms of microstructure evolution during thermal deformation of 7A85 aluminum alloy. 350–400 °C is the transformation zone from dynamic recovery to dynamic recrystallization. At low temperature (≼350 °C), DRV is the main mechanism, while DRX mostly occurs at high temperature (≽400 °C). At this point, the sensitivity of microstructure evolution to temperature is relatively high. As the temperature increased, the average misorientation angle ( $${\bar \theta _{\rm{c}}}$$ ) increased significantly, ranging from 0.93° to 7.13°. Meanwhile, the fLAGBs decreased with the highest decrease of 24%.

The constitutive relationships of Al-Mg-Si alloy deformed at various strain rates, temperatures and strains were studied. The microstructure evolution was quantitatively characterized and analyzed, including recrystallization fraction, grain sizes, local misorientation, geometrically necessary dislocation and stored strain energy during hot deformation and subsequent heat treatment. The results show that the dislocation density and energy storage are linear with lnZ during hot deformation and subsequent heat treatment, indicating continuous recrystallization occurring in both processes. With higher lnZ, the dislocation density declines more sharply during subsequent heat treatment. When lnZ is less than 28, dislocation density becomes more stable with less reduction during subsequent heat treatment after hot deformation. As these dislocations distribute along low angle grain boundaries, the subgrain has good stability during subsequent heat treatment. The main recrystallization mechanism during hot deformation is continuous dynamic recrystallization, accompanied by geometric dynamic recrystallization at higher lnZ.

Stray grains are the most severe of the solidification defects that occur in the industrial single-crystal blade preparation process. In this study, a single-crystal dummy blade cluster with different crystal orientations controlled by the seeding method was prepared, and the influence of the position of the circular platform (relative to the sample and furnace body) on stray grain nucleation was investigated. Results show that the microstructure of the circular platforms could be divided into the center, expansion, and stray grain regions. The inside of the circular platform facing the center of the cluster is more prone to stray grain formation than the outside of the circular platform facing the furnace body. With an increase in the distance between the circular platform and the bottom of the dummy blade cluster, the stray grain region expands, whereas the expansion region narrows. The stray grain is slightly aggravated with increase of the misorientation. Finally, the mechanism underlying the influence of platform position on the formation of stray grains in single-crystal dummy blade clusters is discussed based on the temperature evolution during directional solidification.

Surface mechanical treatments are known to introduce deformation heterogeneity, thus entailing a combination of excellent strength and ductility in metallic metals. Accumulative skin pass rolling (ASPR) was employed to introduce heterogeneous structure in pure copper, which significantly improved yield strength and maintained high ductility. The experimental observations of the ASPR processed copper showed that surface grains possessed a much larger magnitude of misorientations and geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) than the centre grains. Crystal plasticity finite element modelling was utilised to provide an in-depth understanding of microstructure evolution during ASPR. It was found that the surface grains accommodated higher shear strain and had higher slip resistance than the centre grains. The multiple active slip systems in the surface grains induce the lattice rotations and then the formation of intragranular misorientations accompanied by a high density of GNDs, while the single active slip system in the centre grains can accommodate the applied material rotation without the lattice rotation.

The influence of MoS2–Al2O3 nanofluid as a functional lubricant on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of hot-rolled steel surface was studied. Because of the excellent lubrication performance of the nanofluid, the rolled surface quality improved with a 18.2% and 69.5% reduction in surface roughness and oxide scale thickness, respectively, when compared with the base-fluid without nanoparticles. The further microstructure characterization determined that the grain size, local misorientation and deformed grain fraction of the steel decreased significantly. A diffusion layer of Al2O3, FeS and FeMo4S6 was found in the outer oxide layer of rolled surface. Closely arranged Al2O3 grains inhibited the oxidation of steel strips that the oxidation activation energy was increased by about 14.5%. Through density functional theory (DFT) calculation, the formation of FeS and FeMo4S6 was attributed to the migration of Mo and S atoms from MoS2 into the Fe lattice through substitutional and interstitial diffusion, respectively, with the energy barrier of 0.84 eV and 0.54 eV. Finally, the protection of diffusion layer, reduction in surface defects, and alleviation of residual stress and deformation resulted in the enhancement of corrosion resistance. This study provides a possible route to achieve surface enhancement during the hot rolling process.

Microstructural evolution of a refractory tantalum-tungsten alloy (Ta-4% W) after cold rolling from small to large von-Mises strains (0.12–2.7) was quantitatively studied using transmission electron microscopy. Grain subdivision was observed to take place at two levels. Geometrically necessary boundaries nearly paralleling to slip planes enclosed volumes further divided by diffuse cells and by remnants of Taylor lattices. With increasing strain, the diffuse cells evolved into clear incidental dislocation boundaries enclosing cells, while the Taylor lattices disappeared. Grain subdivision was thus intermediate between those observed in cell forming and in non-cell forming alloys. Meanwhile, the average misorientation angle across all boundaries increased while the average boundary spacing decreased. Distributions of the microstructural parameters at each strain level were found to exhibit universal scaling laws. The microstructural evolution was found closely linking to the observed high strength and strain hardening of this alloy. Based on measured microstructural parameters, the flow stress was calculated utilizing linearly addition of the strengthening by solutes, incidental dislocation boundaries (Taylor strengthening) and geometrically necessary boundaries (Hall-Petch equation). The relative contribution of each strength mechanism evolved with increasing strain and with microstructural evolution: solutes and friction stress dominated at small strains while boundaries dominated at larger strains. Calculated strengths were in close agreement with experimental tension tests and demonstrated an unexpectedly high and continuous parabolic hardening without transition across this large strain range.

Forming limit diagrams (FLDs) are widely used in sheet metal industries to assess formability. These are graphical representations of major and minor strains on a 2-D plot separating safe and unsafe regions. Limiting strains were measured by digital image correlation (DIC) technique. In the present work, microstructure evolution and forming behavior of family of interstitial free steels: interstitial free (IF) and interstitial free-high strength (IF-HS) grades have been investigated. Both experimental and finite element (FE) simulated FLDs indicated higher formability for IF steel. Microstructural developments affect forming limits and influence forming limit diagrams. Evolving microstructure during forming was studied by texture developments using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and in grain average misorientation developments using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) techniques as a function of strain and strain paths. Estimated microstructural parameters revealed that the enhanced formability of IF steel was due to the presence of strong γ-fiber (ND// ) recrystallization texture and corresponding absence of θ-fiber (ND// ). On the contrary, IF-HS steel showed the abundant θ-fiber component and hence decreased formability.

In the present work, the laser-induction hybrid cladding technology with induction post-heating (post-LIHC) was utilized to deposit coatings on the full-scale rail surface, and the effects of different induction post-heating temperature on the morphology, microstructure and mechanical performance of the heat affected zone (HAZ) were first in-depth analyzed. Results indicate that with the increase of the average induction post-heating temperature (Ta) in post-LIHC, the microstructure of the HAZ first transforms from the fine acicular martensite structure to the composite structure of martensite and pearlite, then changes to the pure pearlite structure, and finally retransforms to the coarse martensite structure. Especially, the morphology of the “Martensite Zone” (MZ) in HAZ undergoes three remarkable change with Ta increasing: “flat-U-shaped” → “flat-W-shaped” → “vanished” → “flat-V-shaped”. Under the induction post-heating window of Ta = 508 °C ~ 565 °C, not only the MZ in HAZ can be inhibited absolutely, but also fine pearlite with much lower interlamellar spacing, smaller grain size and higher grain misorientation forms instead, making the strength and toughness are both enhanced significantly than the other three type HAZs and the rail substrate. In addition, increasing the induction post-heating temperature within the window of Ta = 508 °C ~ 565 °C can increase the interlamellar spacing and reduce the ferrite grain misorientation of the pearlite structure in HAZ, but has no obvious effect on the grain size therein.

Semi-solid metal forming processes cover a wide variety of technologies in manufacturing, generally leading to non-dendritic microstructures typified by rosette-like or spherical grains. With the contemporary experimental methods, researchers still cannot completely understand the formation of such microstructures. However, as a process coupled with dendritic growth, deformation and flow, the microstructural evolution during the semi-solid deformation has been scarcely simulated. With the vector-valued phase-field method, two-phase flow model and an innovative design of boundary conditions, the current research numerically compressed a single dendrite into a less dendritic polycrystalline structure. The resulting microstructure was consistent with the metallographic analysis and the simulation enables a clear observation of the whole process: the ripening transformed the highly branched shape into a less dendritic one; the subsequent deformation crushed the dendrite into a stubby structure; eventually, the deformation caused the boundaries inside this structure, dividing the solid into multiple grains. The analysis on the boundaries inside the deformed solid offered further insight into the formation of non-dendritic structures. These boundaries showed a tendency towards melting with increasing misorientation, demonstrating the possibility of the grain boundary wetting, which was considered as the source of the fragmentation when the dendrite undergoes deformation, but is hard to validate in situ even with the cutting-edge X-ray imaging technique.

Microstructure and microtexture of a dual-phase (DP) steel was investigated using the electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) technique. A DP600 steel was produced by 60% cold-rolling a low carbon steel with an initial ferrite pearlite microstructure followed by intercritical annealing at 720°C for 1 h. Kernel average misorientation map of the DP600 steel showed that the density of geometrically necessary dislocations as well as the local misorientation is higher in the vicinity of ferrite–martensite interfaces compared to the middle of the ferrite grains. Microtexture analysis of the cold-rolled steel by EBSD revealed that a strong α fiber and weaker γ fiber texture forms after cold-rolling. After intercritical annealing, the intensity of the α fiber texture is significantly reduced, whereas that of the more desirable γ fiber texture is slightly increased. The maximum texture intensity in the DP600 steel was observed for (112)[110] component in the α fiber, and (111)[123] and (111)[112] components in the γ fiber.

Aluminum metal matrix composites of the varying percentage of SiC reinforcement were welded using the tungsten inert gas welding technique. For all the conditions of the specimen, the welding parameters were kept identical. The welded composites were thermally aged to peak age-hardening conditions. Significant differences in microstructure exist between aged and non-age hardened composites in terms of misorientation, grain boundary fractions and stored energy. These differences in microstructure were seen through identical changes in the mechanical behavior of the welded composites. After aging, microstructure showed refinement in grain size and preferential orientation. Hardness and tensile strength increased at different rates with increase in SiC content indicating that hardness was a clear function of stored energy and strength had a dependence on the misorientation. EBSD measured suggests that due to age hardening, a rearrangement in dislocation substructures occurred with precipitation of Mg2Si or increasing SiC content followed by dynamic recovery of the weld metal region which leads to enhancement of hardness. The increase in tensile strength with decreased misorien�tation was a clear indication that the effect of annihilation of dislocations as a result of recovery was less pronounced and precipitation strengthening was dominant. The present study aims to address the role of SiC addition in aluminum metal matrix composites on the welded microstructure and finally relating the microstructural changes to the observed mechanical behavior of the welded joints. The study reveals that strength not only de�pends on the average value of misorientation but also on the distribution of misorientation in the microstructure

Mooring chain steel has been widely used for stabilizing offshore platforms and suffers from stress corrosion cracking. Herein, the microstructure difference, its relation to strength and susceptibility of stress corrosion cracking after tempered at different temperatures have been studied. Result shows increasing tempering temperature increases the proportion of low value CSL boundaries, decreases the local misorientation angle and promotes the precipitation of carbides. These factors induced the decrease of SCC susceptibility at higher tempering temperature. The resistance to SCC at 640 °C tempering temperature is about 20% higher than that of 580 °C at − 1000 mVSCE. The main strengthening mechanism of the ultra-high-strength steel is ultra-fine grain strengthening mechanism, precipitation strengthening mechanism, and dislocation strengthening mechanism. Increasing tempering temperature from 580 to 640 °C decreases the yield strength by 85 MPa, which is mainly attributed to larger carbides size.

As the manufacturing sectors are leaning toward additive manufacturing, leaving the traditional methods behind. Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) technique is the growing technique to fabricate the aerospace, defense, and automotive sector components. The major problem associated with the WAAM technique is establishing the process parameters to acquire the defect-free components. In this research work, an attempt has been carried out to establish a wire arc additively manufactured component using Inconel 625 filler. A successful attempt has been made to build the thick slab wall component using Inconel 625. The microstructure analysis was studied in both longitudinal and transverse direction to check the homogeneity. The transverse microstructure at the near substrate region has a cellular structure. The columnar structure is observed in the layer bands between the layers, and the topmost layer revealed equiaxed with a dendritic structure. The longitudinal microstructure varies from a columnar structure in the inter-pass boundaries to fine equiaxed structures between the passes, and at the end, it is an equiaxed structure. Microsegregation in the dendritic core and interdendritic regions was evaluated along with microhardness measurement. The microhardness values along the different layers were increased when taken from bottom to top. Similarly, it increases across the passes due to the formation of an equiaxed dendritic structure. The EBSD investigation was performed to evaluate the manufactured component’s grain size (25.48 ± 61.02 μm), and misorientation angle, low boundary rotation angle (2–5°) and high boundary rotation angle (15–180°). Further, the local dislocation sites were observed through KAM mapping.

Bainite transformation kinetics, microstructure, and mechanical properties were comparably investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, transmission electron microscopy observation, and tensile and impact tests for two treatments: with and without quenching before isothermal bainite transformation at 300 °C. Both the incubation time and growth stage of bainite transformation are accelerated by the introduction of prior martensite, especially the former. In addition, the bainite microstructure around the prior martensite is refined and shows a similar orientation with the martensite due to the strain field caused by the existence of prior martensite. The finer bainite microstructure and prior martensite improve the strength and hardness of the high-carbon nano-bainitic steel. Although the presence of prior martensite and low misorientation relationship between the martensite and the adjacent bainite microstructure are prejudicial to impact toughness, the nanoscale bainite microstructure can inhibit the crack propagation and then improve the impact toughness of the high-carbon nano-bainitic steel.

Understanding the role of sintering aids during microstructure evolution is critical to the manufacture of densified SiC fibers. A variety of TEM characterization techniques are combined to investigate grain growth behavior in iron-doped SiC fibers. Ultra-large SiC grains in micron size, as the self-assembly of nano sub-grains into a similar orientation, were consistently discovered at the surface and indicative of abnormal grain growth. The growth front consisted of polycrystalline nanograins wetted by iron-rich particles, where several sub-grains were found to unify their (111) planes with a misorientation angle less than 10°, indicating grain rotation at the growth front. It is proposed that iron-rich particles form a quasi-liquid interfacial phase during sintering, which facilitates coherent attachment of grains and results in fast grain growth using neighboring irregular-shaped nanograins as building blocks. The imperfect ordered coalescence of nanograins introduces structural heterogeneities, including low angle grain boundaries and porosities.

Characterization of the austenite phase at high temperatures is important for understanding the microstructural evolution during steel processing. The austenite phase structure can be reconstructed from the room-temperature microstructure employing the crystallographic orientation relationship between the parent and product phases. The actual orientation relationships in steels are often calculated on the basis of well known relations (e.g. Kurdjumov–Sachs), which may differ from the experimentally observed orientation relationships. This work introduces a new approach to improve the current state of the art in prior phase reconstruction. The proposed approach consists of two new algorithms that are sequentially applied on an electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) measured data set of the product phase microstructure: (i) an automated identification of the optimum orientation relationship using the observed misorientation distribution of the entire EBSD scan and (ii) reconstruction of the parent phase microstructure using a random walk clustering technique. The latter identifies groups of closely related grains according to their angular deviation from the proposed orientation relationship. The results were validated by near in situ experimental observations of phase transformation in an Fe–Ni alloy whereby the experimentally measured parent phase structure could be compared point by point with the reconstructed counterpart.

The evolution of heterogeneous microstructure and mechanical properties of a 12Cr–10Ni–Mo–Ti maraging steel was investigated at different aging temperatures. As the aging temperature increases, more reversed austenite forms with the recovery of martensite matrix. When aging temperature is up to 560 °C, more lath-like reversed austenite coalesces together and leads to the formation of martensite and austenite dual-phase microstructure. Fine η-Ni3(Ti, Al) particles initially precipitate at 440 °C and grow up with increased aging temperature. Notably, it was found that η-precipitates can be encompassed in reversed austenite at 500 °C. Thermodynamic calculations further verify the austenite reversion, and nanoprecipitation can occur independently of each other though there is competition of Ni element. However, it leads to the coarsening and dissolution of η-precipitates as the aging temperature further increases. The desirable heterogeneous microstructure of the aged martensite matrix, soft reversed austenite and stable η-precipitates at 500 °C contributes to a high yield strength (~ 1 GPa, 25 °C; ~ 1.4 GPa, -196 °C) and a reasonable cryogenic impact toughness (~ 60 J, − 196 °C), which is mainly ascribed to the precipitation strengthening of η-precipitates, transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) toughening effect from the lath-like reversed austenite and the increased misorientation toward high-angle grain boundary.

The complex thermal cycles and temperature distributions observed in additive manufacturing (AM) are of particular interest as these define the microstructure and the associated properties of the part being built. Due to the intrinsic, layer-by-layer material stacking performed, contact methods to measure temperature are not suitable, and contactless methods need to be considered. Contactless infrared irradiation techniques were applied by carrying out thermal imaging and point measurement methods using pyrometers to determine the spatial and temporal temperature distribution in wire-based electron beam AM. Due to the vacuum, additional challenges such as element evaporation must be overcome and additional shielding measures were taken to avoid interference with the contactless techniques. The emissivities were calibrated by thermocouple readings and geometric boundary conditions. Thermal cycles and temperature profiles were recorded during deposition; the temperature gradients are described and the associated temperature transients are derived. In the temperature range of the α+β field, the cooling rates fall within the range of 180 to 350 °C/s, and the microstructural characterisation indicates an associated expected transformation of β→α'+α with corresponding cooling rates. Fine acicular α and α’ formed and local misorientation was observed within α as a result of the temperature gradient and the formation of the α’.

IC10 single-crystal Ni3Al-based alloy has poor weldability by electron beam welding (EBW). However, a defect-free butt joint can be obtained when the Inconel 718 alloy single-crystal deposited layer is used in the IC10 alloy EBW joint as a sandwich structure with a controlled chemical composition. The experimental results show that the optimized IC10 butt joint's microstructure contains preferably orientated columnar grains with deformation twins in the intragranular region and many small NbC particles in the intergranular region. The grain size, misorientation angle, and local grain orientation in weld seam changed with the deposited layer thickness variation. The residual deposited layer was found to be the most fragile zone possessing the lowest microhardness and tensile performance in the optimized IC10 butt joint. The tensile strength of the optimized IC10 butt joints deteriorated with the increasing deposited layer thickness. The optimal design with a 0.4 mm-thick deposited layer significantly improved the EBW joint mechanical properties. In general, the deposited layer thickness strongly influenced the microstructure and mechanical properties of the optimized IC10 butt joint.

Near the interface of two contacting metallic bodies in relative motion, the microstructure changes. This modified microstructure leads to changes in material properties and thereby influences the tribological behavior of the entire contact. Tribological properties such as the friction coefficient and wear rate are controlled by the microstructure, while the elementary mechanisms for microstructural changes are not sufficiently understood. In this paper, the influence of the normal load and the size of the counter body on the initiation of a tribologically induced microstructure in copper after a single sliding pass is revealed. A systematic variation in the normal load and sphere diameter resulted in maximum Hertzian contact pressures between 530 MPa and 1953 MPa. Scanning electron micros copy, focused ion beam, and transmission electron microscopy were used to probe the subsurface deformation. Irrespective of the normal load and the sphere diameter, a sharp line-like feature consisting of dislocations, the so-called dislocation trace line, was identified in the subsurface area at depths between 100 nm and 400 nm. For normal loads below 6.75 N, dislocation features are formed below this line. For higher normal loads, the microstructure evolution directly underneath the surface is mainly confined to the area between the sample surface and the dislocation trace line, which itself is located at increasing depth. Transmission Kikuchi diffraction and transmission electron microscopy demonstrate that the misorientation is predominantly concentrated at the dislocation trace line. The results disclose a material rotation around axes roughly parallel to the transverse direction. This study demonstrates the generality of the trace line phenomena over a wide range of loads and contact pressures and the complexity of subsurface processes under a sliding contact and provides the basis for modeling the early stages in the microstructure evolution.

In this work, a microstructural-related model was developed to simulate micromachining of FCC polycrystalline copper. Indeed, a crystal plasticity framework was adopted to describe the anisotropy of the mechanical behavior. Some material microstructure characteristics (such as grain size, grain misorientation and crystallographic orientation) are explicitly considered through the constitutive model. For describing the material removal during chip formation, a modified thermodynamically consistent formulation of the Johnson-Cook damage model was used. The model was implemented in the ABAQUS/Explicit finite element solver with a user-defined subroutine, and the experimental validation was performed using data on the cutting forces available in the literature. Finally, the model was used to investigate the effect of the microstructure on the micro-machining cutting forces and chip formation process. According to the results, the proposed model allows capturing the cutting forces trends due to the crystallographic anisotropy.