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    Influence of annealing on microstructure and mechanical properties of ultrafine-grained Ti45Nb
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2019) Völker, B.; Maier-Kiener, V.; Werbach, K.; Müller, T.; Pilz, S.; Calin, M.; Eckert, J.; Hohenwarter, A.
    Beta-Ti alloys have been intensively investigated in the last years because of their favorable low Young's moduli, biocompatibility and bio-inertness, making these alloys interesting candidates for implant materials. Due to their low mechanical strength, efforts are currently devoted to increasing it. A promising way to improve the strength is to tailor the microstructure using severe plastic deformation (SPD). In this investigation high pressure torsion was used to refine the microstructure of a Ti-45wt.%Nb alloy inducing a grain size of ~50 nm. The main focus of the subsequent investigations was devoted to the thermal stability of the microstructure. Isochronal heat-treatments performed for 30 min in a temperature range up to 500 °C caused an increase of hardness with a peak value at 300 °C before the hardness decreased at higher temperatures. Simultaneously, a distinct temperature-dependent variation of the Young's modulus was also measured. Tensile tests revealed an increase in strength after annealing compared to the SPD-state. Microstructural investigations showed that annealing causes the formation of α-Ti. The findings suggest that the combination of severe plastic deformation with subsequent heat treatment provides a feasible way to improve the mechanical properties of SPD-deformed β-Ti alloys making them suitable for higher strength applications.
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    Micro-mechanical response of ultrafine grain and nanocrystalline tantalum
    (Rio de Janeiro : Elsevier, 2021) Yang, Wen; Ruestes, Carlos J.; Li, Zezhou; Torrents Abad, Oscar; Langdon, Terence G.; Heiland, Birgit; Koch, Marcus; Arzt, Eduard; Meyers, Marc A.
    In order to investigate the effect of grain boundaries on the mechanical response in the micrometer and submicrometer levels, complementary experiments and molecular dynamics simulations were conducted on a model bcc metal, tantalum. Microscale pillar experiments (diameters of 1 and 2 μm) with a grain size of ~100–200 nm revealed a mechanical response characterized by a yield stress of ~1500 MPa. The hardening of the structure is reflected in the increase in the flow stress to 1700 MPa at a strain of ~0.35. Molecular dynamics simulations were conducted for nanocrystalline tantalum with grain sizes in the range of 20–50 nm and pillar diameters in the same range. The yield stress was approximately 6000 MPa for all specimens and the maximum of the stress–strain curves occurred at a strain of 0.07. Beyond that strain, the material softened because of its inability to store dislocations. The experimental results did not show a significant size dependence of yield stress on pillar diameter (equal to 1 and 2 um), which is attributed to the high ratio between pillar diameter and grain size (~10–20). This behavior is quite different from that in monocrystalline specimens where dislocation ‘starvation’ leads to a significant size dependence of strength. The ultrafine grains exhibit clear ‘pancaking’ upon being plastically deformed, with an increase in dislocation density. The plastic deformation is much more localized for the single crystals than for the nanocrystalline specimens, an observation made in both modeling and experiments. In the molecular dynamics simulations, the ratio of pillar diameter (20–50 nm) to grain size was in the range 0.2–2, and a much greater dependence of yield stress to pillar diameter was observed. A critical result from this work is the demonstration that the important parameter in establishing the overall deformation is the ratio between the grain size and pillar diameter; it governs the deformation mode, as well as surface sources and sinks, which are only important when the grain size is of the same order as the pillar diameter.
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    Synthesis and characterization of nanocrystallineMg-7.4%Al powders produced by mechanical alloying
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2013) Chaubey, A.K.; Scudino, S.; Khoshkhoo, M.S.; Prashanth, K.G.; Mukhopadhyay, N.K.; Mishra, B.K.; Eckert, J.
    Nanocrystalline Mg-7.4%Al powder was prepared by mechanical alloying using a high-energy mill. The evolution of the various phases and their microstructure, including size and morphology of the powder particles in the course of milling and during subsequent annealing, were investigated in detail. Room temperature milling leads to a rather heterogeneous microstructure consisting of two distinct regions: Al-free Mg cores and Mg-Al intermixed areas. As a result, the material is mechanically heterogeneous with the Mg cores displaying low hardness (40–50 HV) and the Mg-Al intermixed regions showing high hardness of about 170 HV. The Mg cores disappear and the microstructure becomes (also mechanically) homogeneous after subsequent cryo-milling. Rietveld structure refinement reveals that the crystallite size of the milled powders decreases with increasing the milling time reaching a minimum value of about 30 nm. This is corroborated by transmission electron microscopy confirming an average grain size of ~25 nm.