Ni-based superalloy Inconel-718 is ubiquitous in metal 3D printing where high cooling rate and thermal gradient are present. These manufacturing conditions are conducive to high initial dislocation density and porosity or void in the material. This work proposes a molecular dynamics (MD) analysis method that can examine the role of dislocations, cooling rates, void, and their interactions governing the material properties and failure mechanism in Inconel-718 using Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potential. Three different structures: nanowire (NW), nanopillar, and nanoplate are used throughout this work. Initially, strain rates are varied from 10^8s^-1 to 10^10s^-1 keeping the NW diameter and temperature constant at 3.17 nm and 300K respectively. Compressive loading is applied to a 7.04 nm nanopillar by applying a constant strain rate of 109 s^-1 while temperature is varied from 100K to 700K. Different cooling rates ranging from 0.5x10^10 K/s to 1 x 10^14 K/s are applied to nanoplates (with and without a central void). The size of the central void is kept fixed at 2.12 nm. Increasing strain rates in tension not only results in strain hardening but also increase in dislocation density. Our computational method is successful to capture extensive sliding on {111} shear plane, which leads to significant necking of the alloy before fracture due to dislocation. The high cooling rates creating non-equilibrium structure leads to high strength and ductile behavior. On the other hand, the low cooling rate forming well defined crystalline structure causes low strength and brittle behavior. This brittle to ductile transition is observed solely due to cooling rate. Cooling rate may diminish the void by healing the structure during solidifications process. Subsequent mechanical properties by varying temperature and size are also presented in detail.
Plastic inhomogeneity, particularly localised strain, is one of the main mechanisms responsible for failures in engineering alloys. This work studied the spatial arrangement and distribution of microstructure and their influence in the plastic inhomogeneity of Inconel 718 fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM). In particular, the density and spatial distribution of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) and the crystallographic texture components were examined in relation to the spatial plastic deformation. In-situ tensile testing coupled with microscopy and EBSD was performed to under…
A microstructure-based model that accounts for the effect of grain size has been developed to study the effect of grain size on the fatigue life of Inconel 718 alloys. The fatigue behavior of two alloys with different grain size was determined by means of uniaxial cyclic deformation tests under fully-reversed deformation ($R_\varepsilon$ = -1) at 400$^\circ$C in the low cycle fatigue regime. The model was based in the determination of the fatigue indicator parameter (based on the local crystallographic strain energy dissipated per cycle) by means of computational homogenization of a representa…
Specimen- and grain-size effects on nanoscale plastic deformation mechanisms and mechanical properties of polycrystalline yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia (YSTZ) nanopillars are studied by molecular dynamics simulations. Through uniaxial compression of YSTZ columnar nanopillars, intergranular and transgranular deformation mechanisms are investigated. Cooperative intergranular deformations including grain boundary sliding and migration, grain rotation, and amorphous phase formation at grain boundaries are revealed. Results also reveal formation of partial dislocations, which act as splitte…
The combination of soft nanoscale organic components with inorganic nanograins hierarchically designed by natural organisms results in highly ductile structural materials that can withstand mechanical impact and exhibit high resilience on the macro- and nano-scale. Our investigation of nacre deformation reveals the underlying nanomechanics that govern the structural resilience and absorption of mechanical energy. Using high-resolution scanning/transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM) combined with in situ indentation, we observe nanoscale recovery of heavily deformed nacre that restores its me…
Amorphous silica deforms viscoplastically at elevated temperatures, as is common for brittle glasses. The key mechanism of viscoplastic deformation involves interatomic bond switching, which is known to be a thermally activated process. In this study, through systematic in-situ compression tests by scanning electron microscopy, the viscoplastic deformation of amorphous silica is observed without thermal activation. Furthermore, ductility does not increase monotonically with acceleration voltage and current density of the SEM e-beam but is maximized by a factor of three at a specific accelerati…
Shape memory (SM) ceramics, such as yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia (YSTZ), are a unique family of SM materials that offer unique properties including ultra-high operating temperature, and high resistance to chemical corrosion and oxidation. However, formation of defects is usually observed in SM ceramics during manufacturing and/or by mechanical deformation. To fully take advantage of the SM properties of these ceramics, it is necessary to fully understand the nano-structural evolution of defects under external stimuli. In this study, defect closure behaviors in YSTZ nanopillars are inv…
Three novel precipitation strengthened bcc alloys which exhibit a smooth microstructural gradient with composition have been fabricated in bulk form by induction casting. All three alloys are comprised of a mixture of disordered A2-(Fe, Cr) and L2$_1$-ordered (Ni, Fe)$_{2}$AlTi type phases both as-cast and after long-term annealing at 900 $^{\circ}$C. The ratio of disordered to ordered phase, primary dendrite fraction, and overall microstructural coarseness all decrease as Cr is replaced by Al and Ti. Differences in phase composition are quantified through domain averaged principal component a…
In spite of remarkable developments in the field of advanced materials, silicon remains one of the foremost semiconductors of the day. Of enduring relevance to science and technology is silicon's nanomechanical behaviour including phase transformation, amorphization and dislocations generation, particularly in the context of molecular dynamics and materials research. So far, comprehensive modelling of the whole cycle of events in silicon during nanoscale deformation has not been possible, however, due to the limitations inherent in the existing interatomic potentials. This paper examines how w…
Competing Mechanisms between Dislocation and Phase Transformation in Plastic Deformation of Single Crystalline Yttria-Stabilized Tetragonal Zirconia Nanopillars
Nanoindentation is a powerful tool capable of providing fundamental insights of material elastic and plastic response at the nanoscale. Alloys at nanoscale are particularly interesting as the local heterogeneity and deformation mechanism revealed by atomistic study offers a better way to understand hardening mechanism to build a stronger material. In this work, nanoindentation in Al-Cu alloys are studied using atomistic simulations to investigate the effects of loading direction, alloying percentages of Cu via dislocation-driven mechanisms. Also, a low-fidelity finite element (FE) model has be…
The lifetime and performance of any engineering component, from nanoscale sensors to macroscopic structures, are strongly influenced by fracture processes. Fracture itself is a highly localized event; originating at the atomic scale by bond breaking between individual atoms close to the crack tip. These processes, however, interact with defects such as dislocations or grain boundaries and influence phenomena on much larger length scales, ultimately giving rise to macroscopic behavior and engineering-scale fracture properties. This complex interplay is the fundamental reason why identifying the…
The evolution of deformation from plasticity to localization to damage is investigated in ferritic-pearlitic steel through nanometer-resolution microstructure-correlated SEM-DIC (u-DIC) strain mapping, enabled through highly accurate microstructure-to-strain alignment. We reveal the key plasticity mechanisms in ferrite and pearlite as well as their evolution into localization and damage and their relation to the microstructural arrangement. Notably, two contrasting mechanisms were identified that control whether damage initiation in pearlite occurs and, through connection of localization hotsp…
Despite decades of extensive research on mechanical properties of diamond, much remains to be understood in term of plastic deformation mechanisms due to the poor deformability at room temperature. In a recent work in Advanced Materials, it was claimed that room-temperature plasticity occurred in <001>-oriented single-crystal diamond nanopillars based on observation of unrecovered deformation inside scanning electron microscope. The plastic deformation was suggested to be mediated by a phase transition from sp3 carbon to an O8-carbon phase by molecular dynamics simulations. By comparison, our …
Carbon nanofibers (NFs) have been envisioned with broad promising applications, such as nanoscale actuators and energy storage medium. This work reports for the first-time super-elastic tensile characteristics of NFs constructed from a screw dislocation of carbon nanocones (NF-S). The NF-S exhibits three distinct elastic deformation stages under tensile, including an initial homogeneous deformation, delamination, and further stretch of covalent bonds. The delamination process endows the NF-S extraordinary tensile deformation capability, which is not accessible from its counterpart with a norma…
The continuous development of new multiphase alloys with improved mechanical properties requires quantitative microstructure-resolved observation of the nanoscale deformation mechanisms at, e.g., multiphase interfaces. This calls for a combinatory approach beyond advanced testing methods such as microscale strain mapping on bulk material and micrometer sized deformation tests of single grains. We propose a nanomechanical testing framework that has been carefully designed to integrate several state-of-the-art testing and characterization methods: (i) well-defined nano-tensile testing of careful…
Enabling plastic co-deformation of disparate phases in a laser rapid solidified Sr-modified Al-Si eutectic through partial-dislocation-mediated-plasticity in Si
Three-dimensional (3D) X-ray diffraction methods were used to analyze the evolution of the load-induced rearrangements of monoclinic twin microstructures within bulk nickel-titanium specimens in 3D and across six orders of magnitude in length scales: changes in lattice plane spacings and orientations at the nanoscale, growth and nucleation of martensite twin variants at the microscale, and localization of plastic strain into deformation bands at the macroscale. Portions of the localized deformation bands were reconstructed in situ and in 3D. Analyses of the data elucidate the sequence of twin …
Exploring the impact of Ti/Al on L12 nanoprecipitation and deformation behavior in CoNiFeAlTi multi-principal element alloys through atomistic simulations
The precise measurement of mechanical stress at the nanoscale is of fundamental and technological importance. In principle, all six independent variables of the stress tensor, which describe the direction and magnitude of compression/tension and shear stress in a solid, can be exploited to tune or enhance the properties of materials and devices. However, existing techniques to probe the local stress are generally incapable of measuring the entire stress tensor. Here, we make use of an ensemble of atomic-sized in-situ strain sensors in diamond (nitrogen-vacancy defects) to achieve spatial mappi…
Watching a GaN Transistor Switch: Real-Time Nanoscale Strain and Heat Dynamics
ESRF – The European Synchrotron（欧洲同步辐射光源）；KAI GmbH - Kompetenzzentrum Automobil- und Industrieelektronik（汽车与工业电子能力中心有限公司）；IKTS - Fraunhofer-Institut für Keramische Technologien und Systeme（弗劳恩霍夫陶瓷技术与系统研究所）；Infineon Technologies AG（英飞凌科技有限公司）；Infineon Technologies Austria AG（奥地利英飞凌科技有限公司）；Institute of Solid State Electronics, TU Wien（维也纳工业大学固态电子学研究所）
Magnesium and its alloys are the most investigated materials for solid-state hydrogen storage in the form of metal hydrides, but there are still unresolved problems with the kinetics and thermodynamics of hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of this group of materials. Severe plastic deformation (SPD) methods, such as equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP), high-pressure torsion (HPT), intensive rolling and fast forging, have been widely used to enhance the activation, air resistance, and hydrogenation/dehydrogenation kinetics of Mg-based hydrogen storage materials by introducing ultrafine/nanosca…
On nanostructured molybdenum-copper composites produced by high pressure torsion
采用液态金属渗Cu 30 Mo 70和Cu 50 Mo 50（wt.%），通过剧烈塑性形变制备了纳米结构的铍-铜复合材料。起始材料在室温下使用高压扭转进行加工，没有随后的烧结处理，产生无孔隙的超细晶粒复合材料。通过两步高压扭转对Cu 50 Mo 50复合材料进行大范围变形，产生了晶粒尺寸为10-15 nm的等轴纳米级Mo和Cu晶粒。Cu 30 Mo 70的相同处理产生了超细的层状结构，其由厚度分别为约5 nm和约10-20 nm的Cu和Mo层组成，并且层间间距为9 nm。这种显微组织与HPT变形的Cu-Cr和Cu-W复合材料的显微组织有很大不同，在HPT变形的Cu-Cr和Cu-W复合材料中，层状显微组织在高应变下破裂。超细晶结构和孔隙率的情况下，导致复合材料的维氏硬度值为600的Cu 30 Mo 70和475的Cu 50 Mo 50。生产Cu 30 Mo 70纳米复合材料的能力与高强度的组合，和一个罚款，定向微观结构应该是感兴趣的热电应用。
