neutron diffraction revealing the achievement of excellent combination of strength and ductility in metastable austenitic steel by grain refinement

Mao, W.; Gong, W.; Harjo, S.; Morooka, Satoshi; Gao, S.*; Kawasaki, Takuro; Tsuji, Nobuhiro*

Journal of Materials Science & Technology, 176, p.69 - 82, 2024/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2023.07.036

The yield stress of Fe-24Ni-0.3C (wt.%) metastable austenitic steel increased 3.5 times (158 551 MPa) when the average grain size decreased from 35 m (coarse-grained [CG]) to 0.5 m (ultrafine-grained [UFG]), whereas the tensile elongation was kept large (0.87 0.82). neutron diffraction measurements of the CG and UFG Fe-24Ni-0.3C steels were performed during tensile deformation at room temperature to quantitatively elucidate the influence of grain size on the mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms. The initial stages of plastic deformation in the CG and UFG samples were dominated by dislocation slip, with deformation-induced martensitic transformation (DIMT) also occurring in the later stage of deformation. Results show that grain refinement increases the initiation stress of DIMT largely and suppresses the rate of DIMT concerning the strain, which is attributed to the following effects. (i) Grain refinement increased the stabilization of austenite and considerably delayed the initiation of DIMT in the 111//LD (LD: loading direction) austenite grains, which were the most stable grains for DIMT. As a result, most of the 111//LD austenite grains in the UFG specimens failed to transform into martensite. (ii) Grain refinement also suppressed the autocatalytic effect of the martensitic transformation. Nevertheless, the DIMT with the low transformation rate in the UFG specimen was more efficient in increasing the flow stress and more appropriate to maintain uniform deformation than that in the CG specimen during deformation. The above phenomena mutually contributed to the excellent combination of strength and ductility of the UFG metastable austenitic steel.

Quantitatively evaluating respective contribution of austenite and deformation-induced martensite to flow stress, plastic strain, and strain hardening rate in tensile deformed TRIP steel

Mao, W.; Gao, S.*; Gong, W.; Bai, Y.*; Harjo, S.; Park, M.-H.*; Shibata, Akinobu*; Tsuji, Nobuhiro*

Acta Materialia, 256, p.119139_1 - 119139_16, 2023/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2023.119139

Transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP)-assisted steels exhibit an excellent combination of strength and ductility due to enhanced strain hardening rate associated with deformation-induced martensitic transformation (DIMT). Quantitative evaluation on the role of DIMT in strain hardening behavior of TRIP-assisted steels and alloys can provide guidance for designing advanced materials with strength and ductility synergy, which is, however, difficult since the phase composition keeps changing and both stress and plastic strain are dynamically partitioned among constituent phases during deformation. In the present study, tensile deformation with neutron diffraction measurement was performed on an Fe-24Ni-0.3C (wt.%) TRIP-assisted austenitic steel. The analysis method based on stress partitioning and phase fractions measured by neutron diffraction was proposed, by which the tensile flow stress and the strain hardening rate of the specimen were resolved into factors associated with each phase, i.e., the austenite matrix, deformation-induced martensite, and the transformation rate of DIMT after differentiation, and then the role of each factor in the global strain hardening behavior was discussed. In addition, the plastic strain partitioning between austenite and martensite was indirectly estimated using the dislocation density measured by diffraction profile analysis, which constructed the full picture of stress and strain partitioning between austenite and martensite in the material. The results suggested that both the transformation rate and the phase stress borne by the deformation-induced martensite played important roles in the global tensile properties of the material. The proposed decomposition analysis method could be widely applied to investigating mechanical behavior of multi-phase alloys exhibiting the TRIP phenomenon.

Hybridized propagation of spin waves and surface acoustic waves in a multiferroic-ferromagnetic heterostructure

Chen, J.*; Yamamoto, Kei; Zhang, J.*; Ma, J.*; Wang, H.*; Sun, Y.*; Chen, M.*; Ma, J.*; Liu, S.*; Gao, P.*; et al.

Physical Review Applied (Internet), 19(2), p.024046_1 - 024046_9, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.024046

Rediscovery of Hall-Petch strengthening in bulk ultrafine grained pure Mg at cryogenic temperature; A Combined neutron diffraction and electron microscopy study

Zheng, R.*; Gong, W.; Du, J.-P.*; Gao, S.*; Liu, M.*; Li, G.*; Kawasaki, Takuro; Harjo, S.; Ma, C.*; Ogata, Shigenobu*; et al.

Acta Materialia, 238, p.118243_1 - 118243_15, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118243

Achieving excellent mechanical properties in type 316 stainless steel by tailoring grain size in homogeneously recovered or recrystallized nanostructures

Liu, M.*; Gong, W.; Zheng, R.*; Li, J.*; Zhang, Z.*; Gao, S.*; Ma, C.*; Tsuji, Nobuhiro*

Acta Materialia, 226, p.117629_1 - 117629_13, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.117629

Monitoring residual strain relaxation and preferred grain orientation of additively manufactured Inconel 625 by in-situ neutron imaging

Tremsin, A. S.*; Gao, Y.*; Makinde, A.*; Bilheux, H. Z.*; Bilheux, J. C.*; An, K.*; Shinohara, Takenao; Oikawa, Kenichi

Additive Manufacturing, 46, p.102130_1 - 102130_20, 2021/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2021.102130

Calibration and optimization of Bragg edge analysis in energy-resolved neutron imaging experiments

Tremsin, A. S.*; Bilheux, H. Z.*; Bilheux, J. C.*; Shinohara, Takenao; Oikawa, Kenichi; Gao, Y.*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 1009, p.165493_1 - 165493_12, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2021.165493

High-field depinned phase and planar Hall effect in the skyrmion host GdPdSi

Hirschberger, M.*; Nakajima, Taro*; Kriener, M.*; Kurumaji, Takashi*; Spitz, L.*; Gao, S.*; Kikkawa, Akiko*; Yamasaki, Yuichi*; Sagayama, Hajime*; Nakao, Hironori*; et al.

Physical Review B, 101(22), p.220401_1 - 220401_6, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.101.220401

Valence-band electronic structure evolution of graphene oxide upon thermal annealing for optoelectronics

Yamaguchi, Hisato*; Ogawa, Shuichi*; Watanabe, Daiki*; Hozumi, Hideaki*; Gao, Y.*; Eda, Goki*; Mattevi, C.*; Fujita, Takeshi*; Yoshigoe, Akitaka; Ishizuka, Shinji*; et al.

Physica Status Solidi (A), 213(9), p.2380 - 2386, 2016/09

https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201532855

We report valence-band electronic structure evolution of graphene oxide (GO) upon its thermal reduction. The degree of oxygen functionalization was controlled by annealing temperature, and an electronic structure evolution was monitored using real-time ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. We observed a drastic increase in the density of states around the Fermi level upon thermal annealing at 600C. The result indicates that while there is an apparent bandgap for GO prior to a thermal reduction, the gap closes after an annealing around that temperature. This trend of bandgap closure was correlated with the electrical, chemical, and structural properties to determine a set of GO material properties that is optimal for optoelectronics. The results revealed that annealing at a temperature of 500C leads to the desired properties, demonstrated by a uniform and an order of magnitude enhanced photocurrent map of an individual GO sheet compared to an as-synthesized counterpart.

ITER test blanket module error field simulation experiments at DIII-D

Schaffer, M. J.*; Snipes, J. A.*; Gohil, P.*; de Vries, P.*; Evans, T. E.*; Fenstermacher, M. E.*; Gao, X.*; Garofalo, A. M.*; Gates, D. A.*; Greenfield, C. M.*; et al.

Nuclear Fusion, 51(10), p.103028_1 - 103028_11, 2011/10

https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/51/10/103028

Experiments at DIII-D investigated the effects of ferromagnetic error fields similar to those expected from proposed ITER Test Blanket Modules (TBMs). Studied were effects on: plasma rotation and locking; confinement; L-H transition; edge localized mode (ELM) suppression by resonant magnetic perturbations; ELMs and the H-mode pedestal; energetic particle losses; and more. The experiments used a 3-coil mock-up of 2 magnetized ITER TBMs in one ITER equatorial port. The experiments did not reveal any effect likely to preclude ITER operations with a TBM-like error field. The largest effect was slowed plasma toroidal rotation v across the entire radial profile by as much as via non-resonant braking. Changes to global , and were 3 times smaller. These effects are stronger at higher and lower . Other effects were smaller.