Effect of solid-solution strengthening on deformation mechanisms and strain hardening in medium-entropy V1-xCrxCoNi alloys

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2021.07.042

Abstract

Abstract:

High- and medium-entropy alloys (HEAs and MEAs) possess high solid-solution strength. Numerous investigations have been conducted on its impact on yield strength, however, there are limited reports regarding the relation between solid-solution strengthening and strain-hardening rate. In addition, no attempt has been made to account for the dislocation-mediated plasticity; most works focused on twinning- or transformation-induced plasticity (TWIP or TRIP). In this work we reveal the role of solid-solution strengthening on the strain-hardening rate via systematically investigating evolutions of deformation structures by controlling the Cr/V ratio in prototypical V_1-_xCr_xCoNi alloys. Comparing the TWIP of CrCoNi with the dislocation slip of V_0.4Cr_0.6CoNi, the hardening rate of CrCoNi was superior to slip-band refinements of V_0.4Cr_0.6CoNi due to the dynamic Hall-Petch effect. However, as V content increased further to V_0.7Cr_0.3CoNi and VCoNi, their rate of slip-band refinement in V_0.7Cr_0.3CoNi and VCoNi with high solid-solution strength surpassed that of CrCoNi. Although it is generally accepted in conventional alloys that deformation twinning results in a higher strain-hardening rate than dislocation-mediated plasticity, we observed that the latter can be predominant in the former under an activated huge solid-solution strengthening effect. The high solid-solution strength lowered the cross-slip activation and consequently retarded the dislocation rearrangement rate, i.e., the dynamic recovery. This delay in the hardening rate decrease, therefore, increased the strain-hardening rate, results in an overall higher strain-hardening rate of V-rich alloys.

Key words: Medium-entropy alloy, Tensile property, Solid-solution strength, Strain-hardening rate, Stacking fault energy

Hyun Chung, Dae Woong Kim, Woo Jin Cho, Heung Nam Han, Yuji Ikeda, Shoji Ishibashi, Fritz Körmann, Seok Su Sohn. Effect of solid-solution strengthening on deformation mechanisms and strain hardening in medium-entropy V_1-_xCr_xCoNi alloys[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2022, 108: 270-280.

Figures/Tables 11

Table 1. Difference in atomic radii (δr), average valence electron concentration (VEC), mixing enthalpy (ΔHmix), electronegativity difference (Δχ), elastic modulus (E), shear modulus (G), and Poisson's ratio (ν) of the V1-xCrxCoNi (x = 0, 0.3, 0.6, 1) alloys.

Specimen	δ_r(%)	VEC	ΔH_mix(kJ mol^-1)	Δχ	E(GPa)	G(GPa)	ν
VCoNi [8]	6.2	8	- 14.2	0.156	192	72	0.334
V_0.7Cr_0.3CoNi	5.8	8.1	- 11.6	0.143	235	90	0.308
V_0.4Cr_0.6CoNi	5.4	8.2	- 8.8	0.127	223	85	0.313
CrCoNi [8]	4.8	8.3	- 4.9	0.1	211	87	0.286

Fig. 1. EBSD IPF maps of the annealed V0.4Cr0.6CoNi and V0.7Cr0.3CoNi alloys at (a1, b1) 900 °C for 10 min, (a2, b2) 900 °C for 1 h, (a3, b3) 950 °C for 1 h, (a4, b4) 1000 °C for 1 h, and (a5, b5) 1200 °C for 1 h.

Table 2. Room temperature tensile properties and average grain sizes of the V1-xCrxCoNi (x = 0, 0.3, 0.6, 1) alloys according to various annealing conditions.

Specimen	Annealing Condition	Average Grain Size(μm)	YS (MPa)	UTS(MPa)	El.(%)
VCoNi [8]	900 °C, 10 min	2.0 ± 1.5	991 ± 8	1359 ± 2	38 ± 0.5
	900 °C, 1 h	5.6 ± 3.1	767 ± 5	1221 ± 1	46 ± 0.1
	950 °C, 1 h	18.7 ± 13.9	602 ± 7	1123 ± 8	51 ± 1.6
	1000 °C, 1 h	27.8 ± 19.5	517 ± 8	1049 ± 1	55 ± 1.5
	1200 °C, 1 h	122.2 ± 76.4	461 ± 6	886 ± 4	58 ± 0.1
V_0.7Cr_0.3CoNi	900 °C, 10 min	1.6 ± 1.1	956 ± 11	1232 ± 5	40.1 ± 1.2
	900 °C, 1 h	2.4 ± 1.5	852 ± 8	1183 ± 3	42.9 ± 1.4
	950 °C, 1 h	6.0 ± 3.1	657 ± 7	1087 ± 4	49.2 ± 0.8
	1000 °C, 1 h	9.8 ± 4.3	587 ± 5	1051 ± 6	52.5 ± 1.4
	1200 °C, 1 h	47.3 ± 21.3	449 ± 7	927 ± 7	64.9 ± 2.2
V_0.4Cr_0.6CoNi	900 °C, 10 min	2.8 ± 1.8	737 ± 8	1061 ± 5	47.9 ± 1.5
	900 °C, 1 h	5.0 ± 2.5	598 ± 7	991 ± 10	54.5 ± 2.4
	950 °C, 1 h	6.4 ± 3.2	537 ± 7	951 ± 11	56.5 ± 3.3
	1000 °C, 1 h	14.4 ± 9.2	472 ± 9	920 ± 5	61.5 ± 1.8
	1200 °C, 1 h	54.6 ± 33.1	404 ± 7	842 ± 2	68.2 ± 2.2
CrCoNi [8]	900 °C, 1 h	11.0 ± 6.7	389 ± 6	883 ± 5	68 ± 1.2

Fig. 2. Engineering stress-strain curves at room-temperature for the fully recrystallized V1-xCrxCoNi (x = 0, 0.3, 0.6, 1) alloys under different heat treatments: (a) VCoNi and CrCoNi [8], (b) V0.7Cr0.3CoNi, (c) V0.4Cr0.6CoNi alloys.

Fig. 3. (a) Experimental solid-solution strengths (σ0), (b) ab initio computed MSADs, (c) Bader volumes (VBader), (d) Bader charges (ρBader), and (e) atomic-level pressures (σBader) as functions of the Cr content. The Pearson correlation coefficients r are also shown in the panels.

Fig. 4. Plotted solid-solution strength with Hall-Petch coefficients of the VCrCoNi alloys, compared with other HEAs and MEAs, binary alloys, and pure metals.

Fig. 5. (a) True stress-strain curve of the VCrCoNi alloys (b) Kocks-Mecking plot of each alloy. Modified Crussard-Jaoul analysis for dividing different deformation stages for the (c) VCoNi, (d) V0.7Cr0.3CoNi, (e) V0.4Cr0.6CoNi, and (f) CrCoNi alloys.

Fig. 6. EBSD IPF and IQ maps for the fully deformed VCrCoNi alloys with similar grain sizes.

Fig. 7. ECCI micrographs of deformation structures at the strain of 0.05 for (a) VCoNi, (b) V0.7Cr0.3CoNi, (c) V0.4Cr0.6CoNi, and (d) CrCoNi alloys. White arrows indicate stacking faults (SF).

Fig. 8. ECCI micrographs of deformation structures at the strain of 0.2 for (a) VCoNi with white dashed line of {111} slip trace, (b) V0.7Cr0.3CoNi, (c) V0.4Cr0.6CoNi, and (d) CrCoNi alloys. White arrows indicate deformation twins.

Fig. 9. Ab initio computed SFEs at the fcc lattice parameter of 3.6 Å. Blue circles represent the results at 0 K, and orange squares represent the results at 300 K with lattice vibrational contributions. The red triangle demonstrates an experimental SFE of CrCoNi [5].

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