Influence of deep cryogenic treatment on internal friction behavior in the process of tempering

This paper investigated the influence of deep cryogenic treatment on the internal friction behaviors in the process of tempering. The internal friction indicates the carbon atoms segregated to nearby dislocations and produced strong interactions, including interstitial carbon atoms themselves and between the interstitial carbon atoms with time-dependent strain field of dislocations. It is made clear that the cluster of carbon atoms nearby the dislocations in the DCT either acts as or grows into nuclei for the formation of carbide on subsequent during tempering. Thus the improvement of wear resistance due to more carbides precipitation after DCT treating has been observed indirectly by using internal friction.     

Microstructural evolution and corresponding property changes after deep cryotreatment of tool steel

The microstructural evolution and structure–property correlation subjected to deep cryotreatment of tool steel were studied. The results show that the retained austenite continues to transform into martensite almost but not complete at low temperature. The topography of retained austenite exhibits as a nanoscale thin film with a thickness range of 20–60?nm between the martensite laths. The changes of internal friction peaks have been explained well by the coupling model, which indicates that deep cryotreatment is not only removing retained austenite but also promoting the interstitial carbon atoms segregated to nearby dislocations under the shrinking strain energy. In addition, more carbides precipitated from the matrix during tempering in cryotreated samples and were verified by analyses of transmission electron microscopy.     

深冷处理对低碳高合金马氏体轴承钢力学性能及组织的影响

利用洛氏硬度计、X射线衍射仪、扫描电子显微镜及透射电子显微镜等研究了低碳高合金马氏体轴承钢深冷处理后的硬度变化及组织演化。结果表明:深冷处理促使部分残留奥氏体转变为马氏体,导致深冷处理后实验钢的硬度较淬火态硬度有所升高。经深冷处理后实验钢在0~100 h回火过程中的硬度均比未深冷处理实验钢的硬度高。深冷处理促使钢中碳原子偏聚并在回火过程中以碳化物的形式析出,与未经深冷处理的实验钢相比,经深冷处理的实验钢回火后马氏体基体中的含碳量更低,表明实验钢经深冷处理后在回火过程中析出更多的碳化物。透射电镜分析表明,实验钢在回火过程中析出的大量弥散分布的纳米级M2C和M6C型碳化物是实验钢长时间回火后保持高硬度的主要原因。     

Investigating the effect of quench environment and deep cryogenic treatment on the wear behavior of AZ91

Deep cryogenic heat treatment is a conventional supplementary treatment for steels to improve their wear resistance and hardness. Despite a variety of researches about steels, lack of investigation for the other alloys and materials is obvious. In this study, the effect of the deep cryogenic heat treatment and different quenching environments on the magnesium alloy (AZ91) was investigated via the optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), hardness evaluation and wear test. For this purpose, the samples were solutionized at 420 °C for 24 h followed by quenching in different environments of water, air and liquid nitrogen. After that the samples were deep cryogenically treated in liquid nitrogen, followed by aging. Results show that deep cryogenic heat treatment improves the hardness and wear resistance. This behavior is a consequence of aluminum atoms jumping to the nearby defects, including dislocations. Moreover, it was clarified that increasing the cooling rate of quench environment improves the hardness after aging and that the predominant wear mechanism is abrasive.     

The mechanism investigation of deep cryogenic treatment on high alloy martensitic steel by low frequency internal friction

Effects of deep cryogenic treatment (DCT) on the internal friction (IF) in high-carbon alloy steel are investigated. The temperature dependent internal friction (TDIF) of the quenched and DCT treated samples were measured in an inversed torsion pendulum with high vacuum by using free decay method. The TDIF of quenched sample is decomposed into four peaks: P1 at 342 K, P2 at 443 K, P3 at 492 K and P4 at 580 K. Peak P1 is attributed to the relaxation associated with the reorientation of interstitial solute atoms in metals under the application of oscillatory stress. Peak P2 is related to the carbides precipitation. Peak P3 is considered as the Snoek-Kê-Köster (SKK) peak, which is caused by both dislocations interaction and interstitial atoms decorating these dislocations. Peak P4 is attributed to retained austenite transformation basing on the peak disappearing while the samples carried out DCT treating.     

关于低碳钢屈服延伸现象的研究现状

低碳钢因其优良的塑性常被用于家电和汽车面板。在低碳钢工业生产中,节能、高效的连续退火工艺取代能耗高、效率低的罩式退火工艺后,低碳钢在使用过程中遇到了严重的质量问题——因时效而产生的屈服延伸现象。屈服延伸现象是指低碳钢经人工时效或长时间的自然时效后,钢板表面在变形过程产生不均匀塑性变形而出现褶皱的现象,又称吕德斯带,该现象对钢板的表面质量和性能造成严重的损害。屈服延伸现象受碳氮含量、晶粒尺寸、合金元素、工艺参数和应变等因素影响,在明确屈服延伸现象发生的微观机理前提下,选择适当的成分和工艺参数能够在一定程度上减少或消除屈服延伸现象。关于屈服延伸的出现一般认为与晶体内间隙原子(碳原子和氮原子)的偏聚有关:经典理论认为屈服延伸现象是由于间隙原子在晶体内位错周围偏聚(也称柯氏气团),柯氏气团对位错的反复钉扎和解钉扎过程导致了屈服延伸;但是部分学者认为屈服延伸现象是偏聚在晶界上的间隙原子对位错运动的反复钉扎和解钉扎引起;也有部分学者认为是两者共同作用的结果。因此,关于出现屈服延伸现象的原因的争议在于间隙原子偏聚的位置,即偏聚于位错周围形成柯氏气团或偏聚于晶界。为了有效消除屈服延伸现象带来的危害,近些年来除研究屈服延伸现象发生的微观机理,即探究屈服延伸发生过程间隙原子偏聚的位置外,研究者们也探索了屈服延伸现象发生的微观力学行为。针对屈服延伸现象的研究引入了内耗、三维原子探针、聚焦离子束等先进技术手段,可实现对基体、晶界和位错等位置上各元素含量的表征,为进一步明确屈服延伸现象产生机制奠定基础;纳米压痕和扫描电镜原位拉伸等技术可用来研究屈服延伸发生过程的微观形变机理。其中采用纳米压痕技术研究屈服延伸现象时所得载荷-位移曲线上出现的晶界pop-in现象已被证实与屈服延伸现象存在联系,否定了较早认为初始pop-in现象与屈服延伸现象存在联系的观点。本文对屈服延伸的影响因素、机理和研究方法等方面进行了系统的综述,以期为低碳钢连续退火工业生产工艺中消除屈服延伸现象提供一定的线索,在降低生产成本、提高低碳钢表面成形质量方面有重要意义。     

Effect of deep cryogenic treatment on mechanical properties and microstructure of Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu solder

The effect of deep cryogenic treatment on the performance of steels and alloys has attracted wide attention in the past decades. Deep cryogenic treatment can improve the strength and hardness of steel at room temperature, provide microstructure stability and improve wear or fatigue resistance of material. In the current study, the effect of deep cryogenic treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu solders are investigated. The influence to microstructure, tensile strength and ductility improvement are discussed. Experimental analysis shows that the tensile strength of Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu solder increases from 36.76 to 46.27 MPa after 600 h of deep cryogenic treatment at 77 K (??196 °C), the observed strength-time relation is similar to the Taylor theory for the yield strength and dislocation density. Large particles presented in the fracture of Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu samples are caused by the high cooling rate as well as the concentration difference between the β-Sn and the eutectic system. The precipitated Ag₃Sn particles exhibit relatively uniform distribution in deep cryogenic treated Sn-rich matrix, and the size of Ag₃Sn particles becomes smaller with longer deep cryogenic treatment time. It is noted that deep cryogenic treatment can increase the internal stress and the dislocation density, higher dislocation density and good ductility lead to movement of the pre-existing dislocations and specific dislocation configurations. Microscopic experiments on solder joints were performed to investigate the microstructure change. The Intermetallic layers were measured which showed negligible change in thickness. A unified creep and plasticity constitutive model is proposed to simulate the stress–strain relationship under deep cryogenic treatment, the predictions show good agreement compared with experimental results.     

Carbon Segregation in CoCrFeMnNi High-Entropy Alloy Driven by High-Pressure Torsion at Room and Cryogenic Temperatures

Herein, a CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy with reduced Cr content and with the addition of 2 at% C interstitial is processed via high-pressure torsion (HPT) under 6.5 GPa by three turns at room and cryogenic temperatures. The microstructure is investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT). The results indicate that C atoms segregate at the boundaries of the nanograins in the sample processed at room temperature, while the sample processed at cryogenic temperature does not show any notable segregations of carbon.     

Doping effects on the stability of stacking faults in silicon crystals

In silicon crystals annealed at 1173 K, n-type dopant atoms segregate nearby a stacking fault ribbon bound by a pair of partial dislocations and the width of the ribbon is increased. The origin of the width increase is the reduction of the stacking fault energy due to an electronic interaction between the ribbon and the dopant atoms segregating at the ribbon, rather than the reduction of the strain energy around the partial dislocations due to the dopant atoms segregating at the partials.     

Kinetic Monte Carlo study on the suppression of boron transient enhanced diffusion with carbon pre-implant

We report our kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) study of the effect of carbon co-implantation on the pre-amorphization implant (PAI) process. We employed the BCA (binary collision approximation) approach for the acquisition of the initial as-implanted dopant profile and the kMC method for the simulation of the diffusion process during the annealing. The simulation results implied that carbon co-implantation suppress boron diffusion due to recombination with interstitials. Also, we could compare boron diffusion with carbon diffusion by calculating the reaction of carbon atoms with interstitials, and we found that boron diffusion was affected by the carbon co-implantation energy by enhancing the trapping of interstitials between boron atoms and interstitials. Our KMC simulation implies that the probability of boron's encounterance with interstitial is reduced due to the carbon trapping between boron and an interstitial and that the effectiveness of co-implanted carbon as a interstitial trap is maximized at an implantation energy of 3 keV.     

深冷处理对Cr-Zr-Cu电极合金组织影响机理研究

分别采用光学显微镜、透射电子显微镜(TEM)及X射线衍射等手段对Cr-Zr-Cu电极合金在深冷处理过程中形成的组织变化进行了观察分析,对深冷处理作用的微观机理进行了深入探讨.通过研究发现,深冷处理使Cr,Zr粒子弥散析出,能使Cr-Zr-Cu合金出现孪晶结构,并且长时间的深冷处理使铜合金的XRD衍射峰值的强弱发生明显的变化,即深冷处理使铜合金晶粒发生了转动,出现了择优取向.     

深冷处理时间对M2高速钢红硬性的影响

使用洛氏硬度计、X射线衍射仪、扫描电子显微镜和透射电子显微镜等手段研究了深冷处理时间对M2高速钢的硬度和红硬性的影响及其机理.结果表明:深冷处理提高了M2钢的室温硬度和红硬性,深冷12h使650℃红硬性的改善最显著.随着深冷时间的延长残余奥氏体含量不断降低,其形貌由长条形块状转变为薄膜状分布在马氏体板条间;马氏体轴比和...     

Effects of tempering on internal friction of carbon steels

Two steels containing 0.626 and 0.71 wt.% carbon have been studied to determine the effects of tempering on the microstructure and the internal friction. The steels were annealed at 1093 K, quenched into water and tempered for 60 min at 423 K, 573 K and 723 K. The increase of the tempering time diminishes the martensite tetragonality due to the redistribution of carbon atoms from octahedrical interstitial sites to dislocations. Internal friction spectrum is decomposed into five peaks and an exponential background, which are attributed to the carbide precipitation and the dislocation relaxation process. Simultaneous presence of peaks P1 and P2 indicates the interaction of dislocations with the segregated carbon and carbide precipitate.     

Enhancement of the mechanical properties of EN52CrMoV4 spring steel by deep cryogenic treatment

The effect of the deep cryogenic treatment on the micro-structure and mechanical properties (tensile strength, toughness, residual stress and fatigue strength) of the medium carbon spring steel, which is subjected to different heat treatment steps, is investigated. Deep cryogenic treatment causes spring steel to keep compressive residual stress more efficiently due to an increase in the density of the crystalline defects, retardation in the stress relief after the phase transformations and nano-cluster carbide formations. If deep cryogenic treatment is applied before the tempering then the homogeneously distributed fine carbides form after the tempering and the grains remain relatively fine. The microstructure with homogeneously distributed fine carbides and fine grains cause spring steels to have simultaneously enhanced tensile strength, ductility and fatigue strength. If deep cryogenic treatment is applied after the conventional heat treatment (quenching+tempering), however, the coarse carbides form in the micro-structure and the improvement in the mechanical properties of the spring steel is limited.     

Investigating the effect of ball milling during the deep cryogenic heat treatment of the 1.2080 tool steel

The effect of attrition milling on the structure and hardness of the 1.2080 tool steel during the deep cryogenic heat treatment was investigated via the scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and microhardness and hardness evaluation. Some newly formed defects were produced during the attrition milling of the samples as a result of the surface contact between the balls and samples. These defects affect the carbides nucleation during the cryogenic heat treatment. Moreover, the surface impact produces a residual compressive stress on the samples surface. These phenomena lead to an increase in the hardness and percentage of the carbides. It was also observed that milling the samples before the cryogenic heat treatment is not beneficial due to austenite aging. Furthermore, some newly nano-sized carbides were also produced during the cryogenic heat treatment in the structure, increasing the hardness further.     

Carbon–carbon interactions in iron

Carbon atoms occupy interstitial sites in iron so that the configurations of any solid-solution at constant composition depend solely on the distribution of carbon atoms on the interstitial sub-lattice, this in turn being influenced by interactions between carbon atoms in close proximity. The carbon–carbon interaction energy, which influences the distribution of carbon atoms, is reviewed with a view to understanding the nature of the interaction and to highlight some recent developments in the subject. It appears that the C–C interaction energy for ferrite cannot be deduced from the thermodynamic data currently available, primarily because of the very low solubility of carbon in ferrite. On the other hand, there is ample evidence to support the view that the corresponding energy for austenite is consistent with a strong repulsion between near neighbour pairs of carbon atoms.     

Effect of dynamic strain aging on mechanical properties of vanadium microalloyed steel

Abstract

In the present work, the dynamic strain aging behaviour in microalloyed steels has been examined using a C-Mn-Al-V-N steel, which occasionally exhibits low toughness in the subcritical heat affected zone (HAZ). This may be attributed to dynamic strain aging, whereby materials show lower ductility and higher yield strength owing to the interaction between mobile dislocations and diffusing solute atoms. The research has shown that the high temperature tensile behaviour of C-Mn-Al-V-N steel depends on the presence of clusters believed to be of vanadium and carbon atoms. The interaction between dislocations and clusters of vanadium and carbon atoms at 200-450°C changes the work hardening rate and contributes to dynamic strain aging as confirmed in the present work. These interactions may also decrease toughness in the subcritical HAZ and lead to the subcritical embrittlement observed in the C-Mn-Al-V-N microalloyed steel.     

Cyclic deformation behaviour of a nickel base alloy at elevated temperature

Low cycle fatigue tests for a hot extruded Nickel base alloy tube material have been performed at room temperature and at 204°C. The alloy shows a normal hardening and softening cyclic stress-strain response at room temperature. At 204°C, however, the cyclic stress-strain response shows a strain hardening first, followed by a relatively stable stress and finally a secondary cyclic strain hardening. This stable stress disappears with increasing strain amplitude. The mechanisms of the secondary cyclic strain hardening have also been investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Besides dislocation multiplication, interactions between stacking faults and moving dislocations and between interstitial atoms and moving dislocations could also contributed to this secondary cyclic strain hardening. The formation of micro-twins during cyclic loading at 204°C and its influence on the cyclic stress-strain response were also discussed.     

Investigation the parameters for torsion ductility of bead wire

Torsion testing is used to determine the quality of steel wire used for beads in pneumatic tires. However, strain aging (dynamic and static) caused by interstitial carbon and nitrogen atoms bound to mobile dislocations increases yield strength and decreases bead formability. Processing parameters of bead wire, such as line speed, lead bath temperature and wire diameter, were investigated, and theoretical calculations were made to estimate the effect of these parameters on strain aging. Nitrogen concentration was measured in bead wire samples with varying numbers of twists to failure during torsion testing. Surface morphologies of twisted bead wires were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Experimental data showed that torsional properties of bead wire were a function of stress relief temperature on and theoretical calculations showed that line speed and temperature have to be optimized for optimum torsion ductility.     

A-centers and isovalent impurities in germanium: Density functional theory calculations

In the present study density functional theory calculations have been used to calculate the binding energies of clusters formed between lattice vacancies, oxygen and isovalent atoms in germanium. In particular we concentrated on the prediction of binding energies of A-centers or oxygen interstitials that are at nearest and next nearest neighbor sites to isovalent impurities (carbon, silicon and tin) in germanium. The A-center is an oxygen interstitial atom near a lattice vacancy and is an important impurity-defect pair in germanium. In germanium doped with carbon or silicon, we calculated that most of the binding energy of the cluster formed between A-centers and the carbon or silicon atoms is due to the interaction between the oxygen interstitial atom and the carbon or silicon atoms. For tin-doped germanium most of the binding energy is due to the interaction of the oversized tin atom and the lattice vacancy, which essentially provide space for tin to relax. The nearest neighbor carbon-oxygen interstitial and the silicon-oxygen interstitial pairs are significantly bound, whereas the tin-oxygen interstitial pairs are not. The results are discussed in view of analogous investigations in isovalently doped silicon.