Understanding the strengthening and deformation mechanisms in refractory high-entropy alloys (HEAs), proposed as new high-temperature material, is required for improving their typically insufficient room-temperature ductility. Here, density-functional theory simulations and a continuum mechanics analysis were conducted to systematically investigate the competition between cleavage decohesion and dislocation emission from a crack tip in the body-centered cubic refractory HEAs HfNbTiZr, MoNbTaVW, MoNbTaW, MoNbTiV, and NbTiVZr. This crack-tip competition is evaluated for tensile loading and a totality of 15 crack configurations and slip systems. Our results predict that dislocation plasticity at the crack tip is generally unfavorable -- although the competition is close for some crack orientations, suggesting intrinsic brittleness and low crack-tip fracture toughness in these five HEAs at zero temperature. Fluctuations in local alloy composition, investigated for HfNbTiZr, can locally reduce the resistance to dislocation emission for a slip system relative to the configuration average of that slip system, but do not change the dominant crack-tip response. In the case of single-crystal MoNbTaW, where an experimental, room-temperature fracture-toughness value is available for a crack on a \{100\} plane, theoretical and experimental results agree favorably. Factors that may limit the agreement are discussed. We survey the effect of material anisotropy on preferred crack tip orientations, which are found to be alloy specific. Mixed-mode loadings are found to shift the competition in favor of cleavage or dislocation nucleation, depending on crack configuration and amplified by the effect of material anisotropy on crack tip stresses.
The fracture properties of as-cast TiVNbTa, a refractory high-entropy alloy (RHEA), were investigated using four-point bending tests from -139C to 20C under a strain-rate of 10-3 s-1. From those tests and fractography, the conditional fracture toughness values and the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature were obtained. The brittle-to-ductile transition temperature was between -47C to -27C, which gives an estimated activation energy value of 0.52+-0.09 eV for the alloy. This study provides a preliminary understanding of the nature of dislocation motion in a relatively ductile RHEA.
Developing ductile refractory BCC alloys has remained a challenge. The intrinsic ductility (D) of an alloy is the ratio of surface energy ($γ_s$) and unstable stacking fault energy ($γ_{usfe}$). Lowering the valence electron concentration has been shown to improve the intrinsic ductility of refractory alloys. However, Re has been widely used to ductilize W, contrary to the low valency criteria suggested in the literature. Here we use density functional theory to calculate the enthalpy of formation, $γ_{usfe}$ and $γ_s$ of Group IV, V, VI elements and their 25 equiatomic binary alloys in BCC cr…
Body-centered cubic (bcc) refractory multicomponent alloys are of great interest due to their remarkable strength at high temperatures. Meanwhile, further optimizing the chemical compositions of these alloys to achieve a combination of high strength and room-temperature ductility remains challenging, which would require systematic predictions of the correlated alloy properties across a vast compositional space. In the present work, we performed first-principles calculations with the special quasi-random structure (SQS) method to predict the unstable stacking fault energy ($γ_{usf}$) of the $(1…
Effect of cold rolling strain on the microstructural evolution in equimolar MoNbTaTiZr refractory complex concentrated alloy: Comprehensive characterization
Cracking the case: fluctuations enhance ductility in refractory alloys
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院）；Laboratory of materials design and simulation (MADES), Institute of Materials, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院材料研究所材料设计与模拟实验室）；National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院新型材料计算设计与发现国家中心）；EMPA - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology（瑞士联邦材料科学与技术研究院）；Laboratory for Multiscale Modeling in Mechanics (LAMMM), Institute of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院机械工程学院多尺度力学建模实验室）；School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906 USA（布朗大学工程学院）
The ability to predict the composition- and temperature-dependent stability of refractory complex concentrated alloys (RCCAs) is vital to the design of high-temperature structural alloys. Here, we present a model based on first-principles calculations to predict the thermodynamic stability of multicomponent equimolar solid solutions in a high-throughput manner and apply it to screen over 20,000 compositions. We develop a database that contains pairwise mixing enthalpy of 17 refractory metals using density-functional theory (DFT)-based total energy calculations. To these, we fit thermodynamic s…
Enhanced Elevated-Temperature Strength in Refractory Complex Concentrated Alloys via Temperature-Induced Transition from Screw-to-Edge Dislocation Control
University of California, Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校）；Oak Ridge National Laboratory（橡树岭国家实验室）；University of Tennessee, Knoxville（田纳西大学诺克斯维尔分校）
Improved toughness is a central goal in the development of wear-resistant refractory ceramic coatings. Extensive theoretical and experimental research has revealed that NaCl structure VMoN alloys exhibit surprisingly high ductility combined with high hardness and toughness. However, during operation, protective coatings inevitably oxidize, a problem which may compromise material properties and performance. Here, we explore the role of oxidation in altering VMoN properties. Density functional theory and theoretical intrinsic hardness models are used to investigate the mechanical behavior of cub…
Materials either have a high hardness or excellent ductility, but rarely both at the same time. Mo$_2$BC is one of the only crystalline materials that simultaneously has a high Vickers hardness and is also relatively ductile. The origin of this unique balance between hardness and ductility is revealed herein using first-principles stress-strain calculations. The results show an anisotropic response including a remarkable intermediate tensile strain-stiffening behavior and a two-step sequential failure under shear strain. The mechanism governing the mechanical properties more closely resembles …
Refractory high entropy alloys (R-HEAs) are having properties and uses as high strength and high hardness materials for ambient and high temperature, aerospace and nuclear radiation tolerance applications, orthopedic applications etc. The mechanical properties like yield strength and ductility of TaNbHfZr R-HEA depend on the local nanostructure and chemical ordering. In this study we have computationally obtained various properties of the TaNbHfZr alloy like the role of configurational entropy in the thermodynamic property, rate of evolution of nanostructure morphology in thermally annealed sy…
Ductility and Brittle Fracture of Tungsten by Disconnection Pile-up on Twin Boundaries
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory（劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室）；Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）；University of California Irvine（加州大学尔湾分校）；University of California Los Angeles（加州大学洛杉矶分校）；Lehigh University（理海大学）；Northwestern University（西北大学）
