Tensile and compressive plastic deformation behavior of medium-entropy Cr-Co-Ni single crystals from cryogenic to elevated temperatures

The equiatomic Cr-Co-Ni medium-entropy alloy has the face-centered cubic (FCC) structure. Bulk single crystals of this alloy were grown and tested in tension and compression between 14 K and 1373 K with the loading axis parallel to [1⁻23]. At room temperature, the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) for {111} slip is 65 ± 5 MPa and does not exhibit a tension-compression asymmetry. It does, however, increase significantly as the test temperature decreases. A dulling of this temperature dependence occurs below 50 K, which may be due to the inertia effect. When the measured values above 50 K are extrapolated to lower temperatures, a value of 225 MPa is estimated for the CRSS at 0 K. This is larger than that (168 MPa) previously determined for the equiatomic Cr-Mn-Fe-Co-Ni high-entropy alloy using a similar procedure. The stacking fault energy of the present Cr-Co-Ni is estimated to be about 14 mJm⁻², which is sufficiently low to account for deformation twinning both at 77 K and room temperature. Twinning at 77 K occurs on conjugate (1⁻1⁻1) planes at an onset shear stress of 482 MPa after primary slip and propagates in the form of Lüders deformation. At room temperature, twinning occurs uniformly throughout the gauge section on primary (111) planes at an onset shear stress of 381 MPa after primary and subsequent conjugate slip. Thin layers with the hexagonal close-packed stacking are observed in association with twinning both at 77 K and room temperature

High Strain Rate Tensile Testing of DOP-26 Iridium

The iridium alloy DOP-26 was developed through the Radioisotope Power Systems Program in the Office of Nuclear Energy of the Department of Energy. It is used for clad vent set cups containing radioactive fuel in radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) heat sources which provide electric power for spacecraft. This report describes mechanical testing results for DOP-26. Specimens were given a vacuum recrystallization anneal of 1 hour at 1375 C and tested in tension in orientations parallel and perpendicular to the rolling direction of the sheet from which they were fabricated. The tests were performed at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 1090 C and strain rates ranging from 1 x 10{sup -3} to 50 s{sup -1}. Room temperature testing was performed in air, while testing at elevated temperatures was performed in a vacuum better than 1 x 10{sup -4} Torr. The yield stress (YS) and the ultimate tensile stress (UTS) decreased with increasing temperature and increased with increasing strain rate. Between 600 and 1090 C, the ductility showed a slight increase with increasing temperature. Within the scatter of the data, the ductility did not depend on the strain rate. The reduction in area (RA), on the other hand, decreased with increasing strain rate. The YS and UTS values did not differ significantly for the longitudinal and transverse specimens. The ductility and RA values of the transverse specimens were marginally lower than those of the longitudinal specimens

Exceptional damage-tolerance of a medium-entropy alloy CrCoNi at cryogenic temperatures

High-entropy alloys are an intriguing new class of metallic materials that derive their properties from being multi-element systems that can crystallize as a single phase, despite containing high concentrations of five or more elements with different crystal structures. Here we examine an equiatomic medium-entropy alloy containing only three elements, CrCoNi, as a single-phase face-centered cubic (fcc) solid solution, which displays strength-toughness properties that exceed those of all high-entropy alloys and most multi-phase alloys. At room temperature the alloy shows tensile strengths of almost 1 GPa, failure strains of ~70%, and KJIc fracture-toughness values above 200 MPa.m1/2; at cryogenic temperatures strength, ductility and toughness of the CrCoNi alloy improve to strength levels above 1.3 GPa, failure strains up to 90% and KJIc values of 275 MPa.m1/2. Such properties appear to result from continuous steady strain hardening, which acts to suppress plastic instability, resulting from pronounced dislocation activity and deformation-induced nano-twinning.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Evolution of short-range order and its effects on the plastic deformation behavior of single crystals of the equiatomic Cr-Co-Ni medium-entropy alloy

Short-range ordering (SRO), its evolution in the equiatomic Cr-Co-Ni medium-entropy alloy (MEA), and its effects on mechanical properties were investigated by, respectively, electrical resistivity measurements and tension and compression tests on single crystal specimens at room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature. SRO below 973 K can be monitored by changes in electrical resistivity, which increases gradually with time to a saturation value during isothermal annealing in the temperature range of 673–973 K. While the time required to reach saturation is shorter at higher temperatures, the saturation resistivity is higher at lower temperatures, indicating a higher degree of SRO at lower temperature although it takes longer to reach saturation because of slower kinetics. No significant change in the plastic deformation behavior is found at room temperature and 77 K for different degrees of SRO. The yield stress as well as the slip localization behavior are basically the same after SRO, and the magnitude of yield drop does not correlate with the degree of SRO. Tensile stress-strain curves are not much affected by SRO up to high strain levels, resulting in identical shear stresses for the onset of deformation twinning at room temperature regardless of the degree of SRO. The dislocation structure, variations in dislocation dissociation width, and stacking fault energy are all essentially unchanged

Nanoscale Origins of the Damage Tolerance of the High-Entropy Alloy CrMnFeCoNi

Damage-tolerance can be an elusive characteristic of structural materials requiring both high strength and ductility, properties that are often mutually exclusive. High-entropy alloys are of interest in this regard. Specifically, the single-phase CrMnFeCoNi alloy displays tensile strength levels of ~1 GPa, excellent ductility (~60-70%) and exceptional fracture toughness (KJIc > 200 MPa/m). Here, through the use of in-situ straining in an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope, we report on the salient atomistic to micro-scale mechanisms underlying the origin of these properties. We identify a synergy of multiple deformation mechanisms, rarely achieved in metallic alloys, which generates high strength, work hardening and ductility, including the easy motion of Shockley partials, their interactions to form stacking-fault parallelepipeds, and arrest at planar-slip bands of undissociated dislocations. We further show that crack propagation is impeded by twinned, nano-scale bridges that form between the near-tip crack faces and delay fracture by shielding the crack tip.Comment: 6 figures, 4 figure

Exceptional fracture toughness of CrCoNi-based medium- and high-entropy alloys close to liquid helium temperatures

Medium- and high-entropy alloys based on the CrCoNi-system have been shown to display outstanding strength, tensile ductility and fracture toughness (damage-tolerance properties), especially at cryogenic temperatures. Here we examine the JIc and (back-calculated) KJIc fracture toughness values of the face-centered cubic, equiatomic CrCoNi and CrMnFeCoNi alloys at 20 K. At flow stress values of ~1.5 GPa, crack-initiation KJIc toughnesses were found to be exceptionally high, respectively 235 and 415 MPa(square-root)m for CrMnFeCoNi and CrCoNi, with the latter displaying a crack-growth toughness Kss exceeding 540 MPa(square-root)m after 2.25 mm of stable cracking, which to our knowledge is the highest such value ever reported. Characterization of the crack-tip regions in CrCoNi by scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy reveal deformation structures at 20 K that are quite distinct from those at higher temperatures and involve heterogeneous nucleation, but restricted growth, of stacking faults and fine nano-twins, together with transformation to the hexagonal closed-packed phase. The coherent interfaces of these features can promote both the arrest and transmission of dislocations to generate respectively strength and ductility which strongly contributes to sustained strain hardening. Indeed, we believe that these nominally single-phase, concentrated solid-solution alloys develop their fracture resistance through a progressive synergy of deformation mechanisms, including dislocation glide, stacking-fault formation, nano-twinning and eventually in situ phase transformation, all of which serve to extend continuous strain hardening which simultaneously elevates strength and ductility (by delaying plastic instability), leading to truly exceptional resistance to fracture.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, including Supplementary Informatio

Les droits disciplinaires des fonctions publiques : « unification », « harmonisation » ou « distanciation ». A propos de la loi du 26 avril 2016 relative à la déontologie et aux droits et obligations des fonctionnaires

The production of tt‾ , W+bb‾ and W+cc‾ is studied in the forward region of proton–proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98±0.02 fb−1 . The W bosons are reconstructed in the decays W→ℓν , where ℓ denotes muon or electron, while the b and c quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions.The production of $t\overline{t}$, $W+b\overline{b}$ and $W+c\overline{c}$ is studied in the forward region of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98 $\pm$ 0.02 \mbox{fb}^{-1}. The $W$ bosons are reconstructed in the decays $W\rightarrow\ell\nu$, where $\ell$ denotes muon or electron, while the $b$ and $c$ quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions

Measurement of the J/ψ pair production cross-section in pp collisions at s=13 \sqrt{s}=13 TeV

The production cross-section of J/ψ pairs is measured using a data sample of pp collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 279 ±11 pb$^{−1}$. The measurement is performed for J/ψ mesons with a transverse momentum of less than 10 GeV/c in the rapidity range 2.0 < y < 4.5. The production cross-section is measured to be 15.2 ± 1.0 ± 0.9 nb. The first uncertainty is statistical, and the second is systematic. The differential cross-sections as functions of several kinematic variables of the J/ψ pair are measured and compared to theoretical predictions.The production cross-section of $J/\psi$ pairs is measured using a data sample of $pp$ collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13 \,{\mathrm{TeV}}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $279 \pm 11 \,{\mathrm{pb^{-1}}}$. The measurement is performed for $J/\psi$ mesons with a transverse momentum of less than $10 \,{\mathrm{GeV}}/c$ in the rapidity range $2.0<y<4.5$. The production cross-section is measured to be $15.2 \pm 1.0 \pm 0.9 \,{\mathrm{nb}}$. The first uncertainty is statistical, and the second is systematic. The differential cross-sections as functions of several kinematic variables of the $J/\psi$ pair are measured and compared to theoretical predictions