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Title: Grain Boundary Segregation and Intermetallic Precipitation in Coarsening Resistant Nanocrystalline Aluminum Alloys

Abstract

In-spite of all of the unique properties of nanocrystalline materials, they are notorious when it comes to their susceptibility to thermally induced grain coarsening, thus imposing an upper limit to their application temperature. In this study, we demonstrate a coupled Monte Carlo-molecular dynamics simulation-guided experimental approach of improving the resistance to thermally induced grain coarsening in light-weight nanocrystalline Al-Mg alloys. The structure, grain boundary segregation of Mg, and extent of grain coarsening of the Al-Mg alloys were characterized using plan view and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography. Coarsening resistance is attributed to a combination of thermodynamic stabilization of grain boundaries by controlled Mg segregation, and kinetic stabilization through pinning of the boundaries with nanoscale intermetallic precipitates. Furthermore, we highlight the opportunities in extending the upper limit of application temperature for nanocrystalline alloys by using a complementary thermodynamic and kinetic stabilization approach.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  2. Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States)
  3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1477775
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1636947
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-135423
Journal ID: ISSN 1359-6454; PII: S135964541830750X
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Acta Materialia
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 165; Journal ID: ISSN 1359-6454
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Al-Mg; grain boundary segregation; intermetallic precipitation; nanocrystalline; stability

Citation Formats

Devaraj, Arun, Wang, W., Vemuri, R., Kovarik, L., Jiang, X., Bowden, M., Trelewicz, J. R., Mathaudhu, S., and Rohatgi, Aashish. Grain Boundary Segregation and Intermetallic Precipitation in Coarsening Resistant Nanocrystalline Aluminum Alloys. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2018.09.038.
Devaraj, Arun, Wang, W., Vemuri, R., Kovarik, L., Jiang, X., Bowden, M., Trelewicz, J. R., Mathaudhu, S., & Rohatgi, Aashish. Grain Boundary Segregation and Intermetallic Precipitation in Coarsening Resistant Nanocrystalline Aluminum Alloys. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2018.09.038
Devaraj, Arun, Wang, W., Vemuri, R., Kovarik, L., Jiang, X., Bowden, M., Trelewicz, J. R., Mathaudhu, S., and Rohatgi, Aashish. Thu . "Grain Boundary Segregation and Intermetallic Precipitation in Coarsening Resistant Nanocrystalline Aluminum Alloys". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2018.09.038. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1477775.
@article{osti_1477775,
title = {Grain Boundary Segregation and Intermetallic Precipitation in Coarsening Resistant Nanocrystalline Aluminum Alloys},
author = {Devaraj, Arun and Wang, W. and Vemuri, R. and Kovarik, L. and Jiang, X. and Bowden, M. and Trelewicz, J. R. and Mathaudhu, S. and Rohatgi, Aashish},
abstractNote = {In-spite of all of the unique properties of nanocrystalline materials, they are notorious when it comes to their susceptibility to thermally induced grain coarsening, thus imposing an upper limit to their application temperature. In this study, we demonstrate a coupled Monte Carlo-molecular dynamics simulation-guided experimental approach of improving the resistance to thermally induced grain coarsening in light-weight nanocrystalline Al-Mg alloys. The structure, grain boundary segregation of Mg, and extent of grain coarsening of the Al-Mg alloys were characterized using plan view and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography. Coarsening resistance is attributed to a combination of thermodynamic stabilization of grain boundaries by controlled Mg segregation, and kinetic stabilization through pinning of the boundaries with nanoscale intermetallic precipitates. Furthermore, we highlight the opportunities in extending the upper limit of application temperature for nanocrystalline alloys by using a complementary thermodynamic and kinetic stabilization approach.},
doi = {10.1016/j.actamat.2018.09.038},
journal = {Acta Materialia},
number = ,
volume = 165,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Thu Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 60 works
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Figures / Tables:

Table 1 Table 1: Summary of literature on nanostructured Al-Mg binary alloys, sorted in the order of increasing Mg%. The literature reported wt % value is listed in normal font while the corresponding converted at % value is italicized.

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Interaction of precipitate with shear–coupled grain boundary migration
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Atomistic Study of the Effect of Magnesium Dopants on the Strength of Nanocrystalline Aluminum
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