The development of novel structural materials with increasing mechanical requirements is a very resource-intense process if conventional methods are used. While there are high-throughput methods for the development of functional materials, this is not the case for structural materials. Their mechanical properties are determined by their microstructure, so that increased sample volumes are needed. Furthermore, new short-time characterization techniques are required for individual samples which do not necessarily measure the desired material properties, but descriptors which can later be mapped on material properties. While universal micro-hardness testing is being commonly used, it is limited in its capability to measure sample volumes which contain a characteristic microstructure. We propose to use alternative and fast deformation techniques for spherical micro-samples in combination with classical characterization techniques such as XRD, DSC or micro magnetic methods, which deliver descriptors for the microstructural state.
As part of a novel method for evolutionary material development, particle-oriented peening is used in this work to characterize 100Cr6 (AISI 52100) microparticles that were heat-treated by means of a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The plastic deformation of the samples in particle-oriented peening is correlated with the microstructural properties considering different heat-treatment variations. While the heating rate was kept constant (10 K/min) for all heat treatments, different heating temperatures (500 °C, 800 °C, 1000 °C and 1100 °C) were realized, held for 20 min and then cooled down at a rate of 50 K/min. Thereby, microstructural states with different (mechanical) properties are generated. For validation, microsections of the particles were analyzed and additional universal microhardness measurements (UMH) were performed. It could be shown that the quickly assessable plastic deformation descriptor reacts sensitively to the changes in the hardness due to the heat treatment.
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