Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

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]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  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.
Copy to clipboard
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
Copy to clipboard
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.
Copy to clipboard
@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 = {2018},
month = {9}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2018.09.038
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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.
All figures and tables (10 total)
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials
journal, May 2006

Grain boundary segregation and thermodynamically stable binary nanocrystalline alloys
journal, March 2009

Comparison between kinetic and thermodynamic effects on grain growth
journal, November 2004

Design of Stable Nanocrystalline Alloys
journal, August 2012

Microstructures and Stabilization Mechanisms of Nanocrystalline Iron-Chromium Alloys with Hafnium Addition
journal, June 2015

  • Xu, Weizong; Li, Lulu; Saber, Mostafa
  • Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, Vol. 46, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1007/s11661-015-2985-2

Amorphous intergranular films as toughening structural features
journal, May 2015

The effect of alloying elements on grain boundary and bulk cohesion in aluminum alloys: An ab initio study
journal, November 2011

A STEM study of grain-boundary segregation in Al-6.5 wt% Mg alloy
journal, December 1986

  • Paine, D. C.; Weatherly, G. C.; Aust, K. T.
  • Journal of Materials Science, Vol. 21, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1007/BF01106539

Grain-boundary segregation in an Al-8 wt % Mg alloy
journal, May 1982

  • Malis, T.; Chaturvedi, M. C.
  • Journal of Materials Science, Vol. 17, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1007/BF00752263

Microstructural investigation of nanocrystalline bulk Al–Mg alloy fabricated by cryomilling and extrusion
journal, June 2004

  • Park, Young S.; Chung, Kyung H.; Kim, Nack J.
  • Materials Science and Engineering: A, Vol. 374, Issue 1-2
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.msea.2004.02.013

A preliminary creep study of a bulk nanocrystalline Al-Mg alloy
journal, August 1999

Grain refinement in nanostructured Al–Mg alloys subjected to high pressure torsion
journal, May 2010

Severe Plastic Deformation Induced Sensitization of Cryo-milled Nanocrystalline Al-7.5 Mg
journal, February 2014

  • Goswami, Ramasis; Pao, Peter S.; Qadri, Syed B.
  • Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, Vol. 45, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1007/s11661-014-2227-z

An investigation of grain boundaries in submicrometer-grained Al-Mg solid solution alloys using high-resolution electron microscopy
journal, August 1996

  • Horita, Zenji; Smith, David J.; Furukawa, Minoru
  • Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 11, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1557/JMR.1996.0239

An investigation of microstructural stability in an AlMg alloy with submicrometer grain size
journal, July 1996

Superstrength of nanostructured metals and alloys produced by severe plastic deformation
journal, December 2012

  • Valiev, R. Z.; Murashkin, M. Yu.; Ganeev, A. V.
  • The Physics of Metals and Metallography, Vol. 113, Issue 13
  • DOI: 10.1134/S0031918X12130042

Mg segregations at and near deformation-distorted grain boundaries in ultrafine-grained Al–Mg alloys
journal, June 2014

  • Ovid’ko, I. A.; Sheinerman, A. G.; Valiev, R. Z.
  • Journal of Materials Science, Vol. 49, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1007/s10853-014-8351-8

Fast Parallel Algorithms for Short-Range Molecular Dynamics
journal, March 1995

Visualization and analysis of atomistic simulation data with OVITO–the Open Visualization Tool
journal, December 2009

Formation of giant atomic clusters in the β-Samson (β-Al3Mg2) phase of the Al-Mg alloy system
journal, April 2017

    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Interaction of precipitate with shear–coupled grain boundary migration
    journal, October 2019

    Atomistic Study of the Effect of Magnesium Dopants on the Strength of Nanocrystalline Aluminum
    journal, February 2019

      Sort by:
      [ × clear filter / sort ]

      Figures / Tables found in this record:

      Table 1 (p. 7)table
      Figure 1 (p. 33)figure
      Figure 2 (p. 34)figure
      Figure 3 (p. 35)figure
      Figure 4 (p. 36)figure
      Figure 5 (p. 37)figure
      Figure 6 (p. 38)figure
      Figure 7 (p. 39)figure
      Figure 8 (p. 40)figure
      Figure 9 (p. 41)figure
        [ × clear filter / sort ]
        Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.

        Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: