In contrast to conventional heat treatment processes, electropulsing not only heats an alloy, but also exerts some other positive effects during the heating process. In this paper, the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of a deformed Zr40Ti5Al4V alloy after electropulsing treatment were investigated. The results showed that when the charging voltage was 2 kV, there was a slight decrease in dislocation density due to the electron wind which softened the alloy even though the highest temperature of the specimen during the treatment was only 86 °C. Increasing the charging voltage to 6 kV not only further increased the heating temperature, but accelerated the phase transformation process of α″ → β → α. The presence of the α phase strengthened the alloy but notably deteriorated its ductility. A full and refined β phase microstructure could be obtained when the charging voltage was increased to 8 kV. This simultaneously increased the strength and ductility of the alloy.
The cyclic deformation behavior and fatigue characteristics of a new austenitic manganese steel with composition FeMn18Cr7C0.8N0.2 (wt%) have been explored and analyzed based on the partition of hysteresis loops linked with microstructure by low cycle testing in the total strain amplitudes 0.3% - 1.0%. The new N+C austenitic manganese steel exhibited immediate cyclic softening for small strain amplitude and initial hardening at the onset of fatigue life followed by softening for medium and high strain amplitudes. For low and high strain amplitudes the evolution of internal stress and effective stress partitioned from the hysteresis loop with the prolonged cycles both corresponded to the change in the total stress amplitudes. With the exception of 316LN0.2 austenitic stainless steel, the effective stress and internal stress made a contribution to the cyclic deformation behavior with similar effect. The markedly improved contribution of effective stress in the new N+C austenitic manganese steel was attributed to the enhanced short range order caused by N+C alloying whereas the decreasing of effective stress with the number of cycles was because of this broken short range interaction. TEM observations showed that the significantly increased planar dislocation structures due to the presence of N+C were responsible for the strong tendency to cyclic softening, in association with the decrease of effective stress and internal stress simultaneously. Moreover the fatigue short crack could be observed on the fractured sample surface at high strain amplitude.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.