In the present study, microstructure and texture of drawn copper wires with a large number of transverse grain boundaries have been characterized and their mechanical properties have been analyzed. The results show that the texture evolution is accelerated by transverse grain boundary and the saturation value 60% of volume fraction of 〈111〉 fiber texture component is reached rapidly with increasing strain. For the microstructure of drawn wires with a large number of transverse grain boundaries, the critical strain, where lamellar boundaries form, is less than that for wires with equiaxed grains or columnar grains （all grain boundaries parallel to axis direction）. Since transverse grain boundary accelerates grain subdivision and dislocation density increases rapidly in drawn wires with a large number of transverse grain boundaries, there are a higher flow stress and a higher work hardening rate.
The microstructures and hardness of pure Al samples subjected to plastic deformation with different tem- peratures and strain rates were investigated. The results showed that the strain-induced grain refinement is significantly benefited by increasing strain rate and reducing deformation temperature. The saturated size of refined subgrains in Al can be as small as about 240 nm in cryogenic dynamic plastic deformation （DPD）. Grain boundaries of the DPD Al samples are low-angle boundaries due to suppression of dynamic recovery during deformation. Agreement of the measured hardness with the empirical Hall-Petch relation extrapolated from the coarse-grained Al implies that the low-angle boundaries can contribute to strengthening as effective as the conventional grain boundaries.
A nanostructured surface layer with a mean ferrite grain size of -8 nm was produced on a Fe-gCr steel by means of surface mechanical attrition treatment. Upon annealing, ferrite grains coarsen with increasing temperature and their sizes increase to -40 nm at 973 K. Further increasing annealing temperature leads to an obvious reduction of ferrite grain sizes, to -14 nm at 1173 K. The annealing-induced grain refinement is analyzed in terms of phase transformations in the nanostructured steel.
A nanostructured surface layer has been fabricated on an AISI H13 tool steel by means of surface mechanical attrition treatment （SMAT）.Strain-induced refinement processes of ferrite grains and carbide particles have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy （TEM） and scanning electron microscopy （SEM） in the SMAT surface layer.Grain refinement of ferrite is found to be dominated by dislocation activities and greatly facilitated by a large number of carbide particles at a depth 〉20 μm.The comparisons with microstructure refinement processes in other SMAT ferrite steels indicate that a larger volume fraction of carbide particles with a lower shear strength is expected to facilitate the refinement process of ferrite grains.
Shoudan Lu,Zhenbo Wang and Ke Lu Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science,Institute of Metal Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shenyang 110016,China
By means of dynamic plastic deformation （DPD） followed by thermal annealing, a mixed structure of micro-sized austenite grains embedded with nano-scale twin bundles （of about 20% in volume） has been synthesized in a 316L stainless steel （SS）. Such a 316L SS sample exhibits a tensile strength as high as 1001 MPa and an elongation-to-failure of about 23%. The much elevated strength originates from the presence of a considerable number of strengthening nano-twin bundles, while the ductility from the recrystallized grains. The superior strength-ductility combination achieved in the nano-twins-strengthened austenite steel demonstrates a novel approach for optimizing the mechanical properties in engineering materials.
G.Z. Liu, N.R. Tao and K. Lu Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Microstructure and hardness were investigated in pure Al samples with different purities （5N： 99.999%, 4N： 99.993%, and 2N： 99.7% in weight） subjected to dynamic plastic deformation at cryogenic temperatures. The saturated sizes of refined grains/subgrains in these samples induced by plastic deformation are about 240 nm without an obvious impurity effect, but the dislocation density in 2N Al is evidently higher than that in other samples. Boundary misorientations for 5N and 4N Al are below 10° with average values of 2–3°, while the average misorientation for 2N Al is obviously larger, being about 14°. Microhardness of LNT-DPD 2N Al is higher than that of 5N and 4N Al, owing to the enhanced dislocation density as their grain/subgrain sizes are almost identical.
