E-Wen Huang

Microstructural Characteristics and Mechanical Behaviors of AlCoCrFeNi High-Entropy Alloys at Ambient and Cryogenic Temperatures

The phase-formation rule of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) with different microstructures is discussed, based on the atom-size difference in multicomponent alloys. For the single-phase HEA with the composition of AlCoCrFeNi, the yielding strengths and fracture strengths at cryogenic temperatures increase distinguishingly, compared to the corresponding mechanical properties at ambient temperature. However, the plasticity at 298 and 77 K changes very gently, while the fracture modes are intergranular and transgranular, respectively.

Direct evidence on magnetic-field-induced phase transition in a NiCoMnIn ferromagnetic shape memory alloy under a stress field

The magnetoelasticity and magnetoplasticity behaviors of a Ni–Co–Mn–In ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA) induced by the reverse phase transformation interplayed under multiple (temperature, magnetic, and stress) fields were captured directly by high-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction technique. The experiments showed the direct experimental evidence of that a stress (∼50MPa) applied to this material made a complete recovery of the original orientations of the martensite variants, showing a full shape memory effect. This finding offers the in-depth understanding the fundamental properties and applications of the Ni–Co–Mn–In FSMA with the magnetic-field-induced reverse transformation.

Fatigue initiation and propagation behavior in bulk-metallic glasses under a bending load

Understanding how to predict the fatigue lifetimes of bulk-metallic glass (BMG) materials is crucially important for their selection as structural alloys. In our paper, the nature of likely fatigue mechanisms for BMGs is revealed. Fatigue cracks, arising from machining/polishing damage, were experimentally observed to initiate from shear bands near defects. At the crack tip, a plastic-zone creation is observed through the formation of many shear bands, and the fatigue crack is found to propagate along these shear bands. The size of the plastic zone can be characterized by fracture-mechanics quantities, and each fatigue cycle is seen to produce a fine striation instead of a single coarse one. We propose a shear-band mechanism to explain the characteristics of the observed fatigue cracking. Numerical computations, based on linear-elastic-fracture mechanics, yield reasonably good agreement with experiments. Our findings are significant to predict the fatigue lifetimes of these materials.

Study of nanoprecipitates in a nickel-based superalloy using small-angle neutron scattering and transmission electron microscopy

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments were performed on a Ni-based nanoprecipitate-strengthened superalloy. A theoretical model for SANS absolute intensity distribution I(Q) was presented to extract the structural properties. During the deformation process, a change in the morphology of precipitates was discovered. However, the average interprecipitate distance and the average volume of precipitates were found to remain invariant. This microstructural information resolved by SANS is in good agreement with the results obtained from the quantitative transmission-electron-microscopy image analysis.

Microyielding of Core-Shell Crystal Dendrites in a Bulk-metallic-glass Matrix Composite

In-situ synchrotron x-ray experiments have been used to follow the evolution of the diffraction peaks for crystalline dendrites embedded in a bulk metallic glass matrix subjected to a compressive loading-unloading cycle. We observe irreversible diffraction-peak splitting even though the load does not go beyond half of the bulk yield strength. The chemical analysis coupled with the transmission electron microscopy mapping suggests that the observed peak splitting originates from the chemical heterogeneity between the core (major peak) and the stiffer shell (minor peak) of the dendrites. A molecular dynamics model has been developed to compare the hkl-dependent microyielding of the bulk metallic-glass matrix composite. The complementary diffraction measurements and the simulation results suggest that the interface, as Maxwell damper, between the amorphous matrix and the (211) crystalline planes relax under prolonged load that causes a delay in the reload curve which ultimately catches up with the original path.

Study of domain wall magnetoresistance by submicron patterned magnetic structure

Through the proper design of submicron permalloy (Ni80Fe20) wires, domain wall magnetoresistance is investigated. A positive contribution to magnetoresistance (MR) was found for domain walls in these wires after extracting the anisotropic MR effect. Some theoretical models are used to discuss our results.

Resolving ensembled microstructural information of bulk-metallic-glass- matrix composites using synchrotron x-ray diffraction

The microstructural characterization of the Zr60.0Ti14.7Nb5.3Cu5.6Ni4.4Be10.0 bulk-metallic-glass-matrix composites is investigated using high-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The convoluted diffraction-intensity distribution in the azimuthal direction is naturally yielded from the spatial arrangements of the crystalline dendrites and their amorphous matrix. We facilitate the area selection and the intensity integration of the diffraction collected from a two-dimensional detector to characterize the diffraction intensity of the amorphous matrix. The results enable us to apply the modified Williamson–Hall plots for using the peak width to study the microstrain and micromechanism of the deformation of the crystalline phase.

Three-Orthogonal-Direction Stress Mapping around a Fatigue-Crack Tip Using Neutron Diffraction

Quantitative determination of the stress fields around the crack tip is a challenging and important subject to understand the fatigue crack-growth mechanism. In the current study, we measured the distribution of residual stresses and the evolution of the stress fields around a fatigue crack tip subjected to the constant-amplitude cyclic loading in a 304L stainless steel compact-tension (CT) specimen. The three orthogonal stress components (i.e., crack growth, crack opening, and through thickness) of the CT specimen were determined as a function of distance from the crack tip with 1-mm spatial resolution along the crack-propagation direction. In-situ neutron-diffraction results show that the enlarged tensile stresses were developed during loading along the through-thickness direction at a localized volume close to the crack tip, resulting in the lattice expansion in all three orthogonal directions during Pmax. The current study suggests that the atypical plane strainlike behavior observed at the midthickness position might be the reason for the mechanism of the faster crack-growth rate inside the interior than that near the surface.

Cyclic-Loading Induced Lattice-Strain Asymmetry in Loading and Transverse Directions

Cyclic-loading effects on a nickel-based superalloy are investigated with in-situ neutron-diffraction measurements. The temperature evolution subjected to cyclic loading is estimated based on the lattice-strain evolution. The calculated thermoelastic responses are compared with the measured bulk temperature evolution. Two transitions in the temperature-evolution are observed. The first transition, observed with the neutron-measurement results, is associated with the cyclic hardening/softening-structural transformation. The second transition is observed at a larger number of fatigue cycles. It has a distinct origin and is related to the start of irreversible structural transformations during fatigue. A lattice-strain asymmetry behavior is observed. The lattice-strain asymmetry is quantified as a grain-orientation-dependent transverse/loading parameter. This strain-asymmetry evolution reveals the irreversible plastic deformation subjected to fatigue. The irreversible fatigue phenomena might relate to the formation of the microcracks. At elevated temperatures, the cyclic hardening/softening transition starts at lower fatigue cycles as compared to room temperature. A comparison between the room-temperature and the elevated-temperature fatigue experiments is performed. The asymmetry-parameter evolutions show the same irreversible trends at both the room and elevated temperatures.

Fabrication and physical properties of permalloy nano-size wires

Abstract Nano-size NiFe wires with patterned shapes in half-ring-in-series, octagon-in-series, and zigzag-in-series configurations were fabricated. Their magnetoresistance was studied below room temperature and their magnetic domain images were investigated at room temperature by a magnetic force microscope. In general, we have experimentally demonstrated that the variation of the magnetoresistance of our patterned nano-size wires can be related to different domain configurations and explained by the domain switching effect. The number of magnetic domain walls in our patterned wires can be controlled by the shape anisotropy and the size of each section of patterns that form the wires.