Thermally Stable Nanocrystalline Steel

Abstract Two novel nanocrystalline steels were designed to withstand elevated temperatures without catastrophic microstructural changes. In the most successful alloy, a large quantity of nickel was added to stabilize austenite and allow a reduction in the carbon content. A 50 kg cast of the novel alloy was produced and used to verify the formation of nanocrystalline bainite. Synchrotron X-ray diffractometry using in situ heating showed that austenite was able to survive more than 1 hour at 773 K (500 °C) and subsequent cooling to ambient temperature. This is the first reported nanocrystalline steel with high-temperature capability.</jats:p

Intermetallic-strengthened nanocrystalline bainitic steel

A new thermally stable, nanocrystalline bainitic steel has been developed, rich in nickel and aluminium. During tempering, it is expected that a significant quantity of intermetallic precipitates will form. This was confirmed by X-ray diffractometry, scanning transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform analysis of atomic column images, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and selected area electron diffraction. These are the first intermetallics to be produced in a nanocrystalline bainitic steel.This project was funded by Rolls-Royce plc and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for funding this work [grant number RG64823]

Mechanical properties of thermally-stable, nanocrystalline bainitic steels

Two novel, thermally stable bulk nanocrystalline bainitic steels were subjected to a range of mechanical tests. One alloy, containing 0.72 wt% carbon exhibited an ambient-temperature 0.2% proof strength of 1500 MPa and a fracture toughness of 64.6 MPa m$^{1}_{2}$ after the bainite transformation. The other, containing 0.45 wt% carbon and 13.2 wt% nickel, had a 0.2% proof stress of 1000 MPa and a fracture toughness of 103.8 MPa m$^{1}_{2}$. Both steels showed excellent creep resistance, with a rupture life at 450 °C and 700 MPa of 114 h and 94.8 h, respectively. Both displayed fatigue lives consistent with other steels of similar structure in the literature. After thermal exposure at 480 °C for 8 d, both steels increased in strength to 1800 MPa, and 1600 MPa, respectively. The latter steel reduced in fracture toughness to 19.6 MPa m$^{1}_{2}$. These alloys are suitable for a range of engineering applications and remain so after thermal exposure. Combined with impressive high-temperature performance, this makes the current alloys candidates for use in some elevated temperature applications.EPSRC RG64823, Rolls-Royce pl

Further evidence of tetragonality in bainitic ferrite

There is growing evidence that bainitic ferrite which retains a substantial amount of carbon in solid solution does not have cubic symmetry. We provide additional data on a different nanostructured bainitic steel to support this evidence, based on synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments. The data are consistent only with a displacive transformation mechanism for bainite.We would like to thank Rolls-Royce plc and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for their support during this project.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Maney Publishing via http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1743284714Y.000000069

Magnetism and high magnetic-field-induced stability of alloy carbides in Fe-based materials.

Understanding the nature of the magnetic-field-induced precipitation behaviors represents a major step forward towards unravelling the real nature of interesting phenomena in Fe-based alloys and especially towards solving the key materials problem for the development of fusion energy. Experimental results indicate that the applied high magnetic field effectively promotes the precipitation of M23C6 carbides. We build an integrated method, which breaks through the limitations of zero temperature and zero external field, to concentrate on the dependence of the stability induced by the magnetic effect, excluding the thermal effect. We investigate the intimate relationship between the external field and the origins of various magnetics structural characteristics, which are derived from the interactions among the various Wyckoff sites of iron atoms, antiparallel spin of chromium and Fe-C bond distances. The high-magnetic-field-induced exchange coupling increases with the strength of the external field, which then causes an increase in the parallel magnetic moment. The stability of the alloy carbide M23C6 is more dependent on external field effects than thermal effects, whereas that of M2C, M3C and M7C3 is mainly determined by thermal effects

Boundaries of Semantic Distraction: Dominance and Lexicality Act at Retrieval

Three experiments investigated memory for semantic information with the goal of determining boundary conditions for the manifestation of semantic auditory distraction. Irrelevant speech disrupted the free recall of semantic category-exemplars to an equal degree regardless of whether the speech coincided with presentation or test phases of the task (Experiment 1) and occurred regardless of whether it comprised random words or coherent sentences (Experiment 2). The effects of background speech were greater when the irrelevant speech was semantically related to the to-be-remembered material, but only when the irrelevant words were high in output dominance (Experiment 3). The implications of these findings in relation to the processing of task material and the processing of background speech is discussed

Research data supporting Experimental evidence for non-cubic bainitic ferrite

Data associated with syncrotron X-ray experiments conducted to show that the unit cell of bainitic ferrite is not cubi