Beyond Fundamental Building Blocks: Plasticity in Structurally Complex Crystals.

Intermetallics, which encompass a wide range of compounds, often exhibit similar or closely related crystal structures, resulting in various intermetallic systems with structurally derivative phases. This study examines the hypothesis that deformation behavior can be transferred from fundamental building blocks to structurally related phases using the binary samarium-cobalt system. SmCo and SmCo are investigated as fundamental building blocks and compared them to the structurally related SmCo and SmCo phases.

Materials Design by Constructing Phase Diagrams for Defects.

Phase transformations and crystallographic defects are two essential tools to drive innovations in materials. Bulk materials design via tuning chemical compositions is systematized using phase diagrams. It is shown here that the same thermodynamic concept can be applied to manipulate the chemistry at defects.

Tailoring the Plasticity of Topologically Close-Packed Phases via the Crystals' Fundamental Building Blocks.

Brittle topologically close-packed precipitates form in many advanced alloys. Due to their complex structures, little is known about their plasticity. Here, a strategy is presented to understand and tailor the deformability of these complex phases by considering the Nb-Co µ-phase as an archetypal material.

Correction: Heller et al. Characterization Methods along the Process Chain of Electrical Steel Sheet-From Best Practices to Advanced Characterization. 2022, , 32.

In the original publication [...

Atomistic structures of 〈0001〉 tilt grain boundaries in a textured Mg thin film.

Nanocrystalline Mg was sputter deposited onto an Ar ion etched Si {100} substrate. Despite an ∼6 nm amorphous layer found at the interface, the Mg thin film exhibits a sharp basal-plane texture enabled by surface energy minimization. The columnar grains have abundant 〈0001〉 tilt grain boundaries in between, most of which are symmetric with various misorientation angles.

Characterization Methods along the Process Chain of Electrical Steel Sheet-From Best Practices to Advanced Characterization.

Non-oriented (NO) electrical steel sheets find their application in rotating electrical machines, ranging from generators for wind turbines to motors for the transportation sector and small motors for kitchen appliances. With the current trend of moving away from fossil fuel-based energy conversion towards an electricity-based one, these machines become more and more important and, as a consequence, the leverage effect in saving energy by improving efficiency is huge. It is already well established that different applications of an electrical machine have individual requirements for the properties of the NO electrical steel sheets, which in turn result from the microstructures and textures thereof.

Grain Size Influence on the Magnetic Property Deterioration of Blanked Non-Oriented Electrical Steels.

Non-oriented electrical steel sheets are applied as a core material in rotors and stators of electric machines in order to guide and magnify their magnetic flux density. Their contouring is often realized in a blanking process step, which results in plastic deformation of the cut edges and thus deteriorates the magnetic properties of the base material. This work evaluates the influence of the material's grain size on its iron losses after the blanking process.

Influence of Process Parameters on Grain Size and Texture Evolution of Fe-3.2 wt.-% Si Non-Oriented Electrical Steels.

The magnetic properties of non-oriented electrical steel, widely used in electric machines, are closely related to the grain size and texture of the material. How to control the evolution of grain size and texture through processing in order to improve the magnetic properties is the research focus of this article. Therefore, the complete process chain of a non-oriented electrical steel with 3.

Integrated Process Simulation of Non-Oriented Electrical Steel.

A tailor-made microstructure, especially regarding grain size and texture, improves the magnetic properties of non-oriented electrical steels. One way to adjust the microstructure is to control the production and processing in great detail. Simulation and modeling approaches can help to evaluate the impact of different process parameters and finally select them appropriately.

Material Design for Low-Loss Non-Oriented Electrical Steel for Energy Efficient Drives.

Due to the nonlinear material behavior and contradicting application requirements, the selection of a specific electrical steel grade for a highly efficient electrical machine during its design stage is challenging. With sufficient knowledge of the correlations between material and magnetic properties and capable material models, a material design for specific requirements can be enabled. In this work, the correlations between magnetization behavior, iron loss and the most relevant material parameters for non-oriented electrical steels, i.

Finding and Characterising Active Slip Systems: A Short Review and Tutorial with Automation Tools.

The behaviour of many materials is strongly influenced by the mechanical properties of hard phases, present either from deliberate introduction for reinforcement or as deleterious precipitates. While it is, therefore, self-evident that these phases should be studied, the ability to do so-particularly their plasticity-is hindered by their small sizes and lack of bulk ductility at room temperature. Many researchers have, therefore, turned to small-scale testing in order to suppress brittle fracture and study the deformation mechanisms of complex crystal structures.

Large-area, high-resolution characterisation and classification of damage mechanisms in dual-phase steel using deep learning.

High performance materials, from natural bone over ancient damascene steel to modern superalloys, typically possess a complex structure at the microscale. Their properties exceed those of the individual components and their knowledge-based improvement therefore requires understanding beyond that of the components' individual behaviour. Electron microscopy has been instrumental in unravelling the most important mechanisms of co-deformation and in-situ deformation experiments have emerged as a popular and accessible technique.

Ti and its alloys as examples of cryogenic focused ion beam milling of environmentally-sensitive materials.

Hydrogen pick-up leading to hydride formation is often observed in commercially pure Ti (CP-Ti) and Ti-based alloys prepared for microscopic observation by conventional methods, such as electro-polishing and room temperature focused ion beam (FIB) milling. Here, we demonstrate that cryogenic FIB milling can effectively prevent undesired hydrogen pick-up. Specimens of CP-Ti and a Ti dual-phase alloy (Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-6Mo, Ti6246, in wt.

Eliminating deformation incompatibility in composites by gradient nanolayer architectures.

Composite materials usually possess a severe deformation incompatibility between the soft and hard phases. Here, we show how this incompatibility problem is overcome by a novel composite design. A gradient nanolayer-structured Cu-Zr material has been synthesized by magnetron sputtering and tested by micropillar compression.

Data on measurement of the strain partitioning in a multiphase Zn-Al eutectic alloy.

This paper presents original data related to the research article "Local mechanical properties and plasticity mechanisms in a Zn-Al eutectic alloy" (Wu et al., 2018). The raw data provided here was used for in-situ digital image correlation on the microstructural level using a new method described in the related study.

Non-Newtonian Flow to the Theoretical Strength of Glasses via Impact Nanoindentation at Room Temperature.

In many daily applications glasses are indispensable and novel applications demanding improved strength and crack resistance are appearing continuously. Up to now, the fundamental mechanical processes in glasses subjected to high strain rates at room temperature are largely unknown and thus guidelines for one of the major failure conditions of glass components are non-existent. Here, we elucidate this important regime for the first time using glasses ranging from a dense metallic glass to open fused silica by impact as well as quasi-static nanoindentation.