Grain growth competition and formation of grain boundaries during solidification of hcp alloys

Grain growth competition during directional solidification of a polycrystal with hexagonal (hcp) symmetry (Mg-1wt%Gd alloy) is studied by phase-field modeling, exploring the effect of the temperature gradient G on the resulting grain boundary (GB) orientation selection. Results show that selection mechanisms and scaling laws derived for cubic (fcc, bcc) crystals also apply to hcp materials (within their basal plane), provided a re-estimation of fitting parameters and re-scaling to account for the sixfold symmetry. While grain growth competition remains stochastic with rare events of unexpected elimination or side-branching along the developing GBs, we also confirm an overall transition from a geometrical limit to a favorably oriented grain limit behavior with an increase of thermal gradient within the dendritic regime, and the progressive alignment of dendrites and GBs toward the temperature gradient direction with an increase of G during the dendritic-to-cellular morphological transition. Comparisons with original thin-sample directional solidification experiments show a qualitative agreement with PF results, yet with notable discrepancies, which nonetheless can be explained based on the stochastic variability of selected GB orientations, and the statistically limited experimental sample size. Overall, our results extend the understanding of GB formation and grain growth competition during solidification of hcp materials, and the effect of thermal conditions, nonetheless concluding on the challenges of extending the current studies to three dimensions, and the need for much broader (statistically significant) data sets of GB orientation selected under well-identified solidification conditions

Ultrafine grained plates of Al-Mg-Si alloy obtained by Incremental Equal Channel Angular Pressing : microstructure and mechanical properties

In this study, an Al-Mg-Si alloy was processed using via Incremental Equal Channel Angular Pressing (I-ECAP) in order to obtain homogenous, ultrafine grained plates with low anisotropy of the mechanical properties. This was the first attempt to process an Al-Mg-Si alloy using this technique. Samples in the form of 3 mm-thick square plates were subjected to I-ECAP with the 90˚ rotation around the axis normal to the surface of the plate between passes. Samples were investigated first in their initial state, then after a single pass of I-ECAP and finally after four such passes. Analyses of the microstructure and mechanical properties demonstrated that the I-ECAP method can be successfully applied in Al-Mg-Si alloys. The average grain size decreased from 15 - 19 µm in the initial state to below 1 µm after four I-ECAP passes. The fraction of high angle grain boundaries in the sample subjected to four I-ECAP passes lay within 53-57 % depending on the examined plane. The mechanism of grain refinement in Al-Mg-Si alloy was found to be distinctly different from that in pure aluminium with the grain rotation being more prominent than the grain subdivision, which was attributed to lower stacking fault energy and the reduced mobility of dislocations in the alloy. The ultimate tensile strength increased more than twice, whereas the yield strength - more than threefold. Additionally, the plates processed by I-ECAP exhibited low anisotropy of mechanical properties (in plane and across the thickness) in comparison to other SPD processing methods, which makes them attractive for further processing and applications

Constitutive Analysis and Hot Deformation Behavior of Fine-Grained Mg-Gd-Y-Zr Alloys

Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloys are among the newly developed magnesium alloys with superior strength properties at elevated temperatures. Accordingly, the hot shear deformation behavior of fine-grained extruded Mg-9Gd-4Y-0.4Zr (GWK940), Mg-5Gd-4Y-0.4Zr (GWK540), and Mg-5Gd-0.4Zr (GK50) alloys was investigated using the localized shear punch testing (SPT) method. Shear punch tests were performed at 573 K, 623 K, 673 K, 723 K, and 773 K (300 °C, 350 °C, 400 °C, 450 °C, and 500 °C) under shear strain rates in the range of 6.7 × 10 to 6.7 × 10 s. The new fitting method of Rieiro, Carsi, and Ruano was used for direct calculation of the Garofalo constants. It was concluded that the Garofalo equation can be used satisfactorily for describing the deformation behavior of the alloys in the entire studied ranges of strain rates and temperatures. In addition, stability maps were obtained by calculations based on the Lyapunov criteria using the Garofalo constants. The predicted stability ranges of temperature and strain rate were similar for the studied alloys. At an intermediate strain rate of 0.05 s, the optimal temperature at which a stable region is expected was found to be 648 K to 673 K (375 °C to 400 °C) for all three materials. The most pronounced effect of the Gd and Y elements was to enhance the high-temperature strength of the alloys.The authors thank the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) for support of this work under Grant No. 94028861. The Spanish MAT2015-68919 program is acknowledged.Peer Reviewe

Microstructure, texture and superplasticity of a fine-grained Mg-Gd-Zr alloy processed by equal-channel angular pressing

There are limited reports to date on the microstructure and superplasticity of the Mg-Gd alloys after processing by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP). Accordingly, the effects of ECAP temperature from 473 K to 723 K (200 °C to 450 °C) and number of passes (2, 4, and 8) on the microstructure and texture of an extruded Mg-5Gd-0.4Zr (GW50) alloy were investigated by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and electron backscattered diffraction. The results show that the optimum ECAP temperature is 623 K (350 °C). Higher temperatures give extensive grain growth and the material has insufficient formability at lower temperatures. The results show also that the alloy exhibits no further grain refinement after four ECAP passes and there is slight grain growth at 8 ECAP passes. Samples were processed by four passes at 623 K (350 °C) and then subjected to shear punch testing. The results confirm the occurrence of superplastic behavior at 723 K (450 °C) with a maximum strain rate sensitivity index of ~0.47 and an activation energy of ~110 kJ mol-1. The results are consistent with the occurrence of flow by grain boundary sliding in the superplastic region