Yoshito Sugino

Grain characteristic and texture evolution in friction stir welds of nanostructured oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steel

Abstract The present paper investigated the grain and texture characteristics in a nanostructured oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steel subjected to friction stir welding. The ‘onion rings’ structure obviously exhibited in the macrostructure overview of the welds. The electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) work revealed that the ‘onion rings’ comprised alternate layers made by coarse and fine grains, while no strong texture was exhibited in the alternate layers of the ‘onion rings’. Image quality maps of EBSD indicated that layers of fine grains were deformed under high strain conditions. Textures within the stir zone and thermomechanically affected zone were weak and exhibited some characteristics of bcc simple shear textures. Results of grain boundary revealed that the mechanical action in welding process promoted the transformation of low angle to high angle boundaries and contributed to the grain refinement.

Mantle region accommodating two-dimensional grain boundary sliding in ODS ferritic steel

Two-dimensional grain-boundary sliding (GBS) was achieved microscopically in an oxide-dispersion-strengthened ferritic steel with an elongated and aligned grain structure, which was deformed perpendicular to the long axis. At the border between superplastic regions II and III, microscopic deformation was observed using sub-micron grids drawn on the material surface using a focused ion beam. GBS was accommodated by intragranular deformations in narrow areas around grain boundaries, which has been predicted by earlier researchers as characteristics of the core–mantle model. These observations suggest that dislocations slip only in the mantle regions around wavy boundaries to relax the stress concentration caused by GBS during superplasticity.

Three-dimensional characterization of ODS ferritic steel using by FIB-SEM serial sectioning method

Considerable attention has been paid to the research of the electron tomography due to determine the three-dimensional (3D) structure of materials [1]. One of the electron tomography techniques, focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) imaging has advantages of high resolutions (10 nm), large area observation (μm order) and simultaneous energy dispersive x- ray microanalysis (EDS)/ electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. The purpose of this study, three-dimensional EBSD analysis of ODS ferritic steel which carried out cold work using FIB-SEM equipment was conducted, and it aimed at analyzing the microstructure obtained there. The zone annealing tests were conducted for ferritic steel [2,3], which were produced through mechanical alloying and hot-extrusion. After zone annealing, specimens were mechanically polished with #400∼4000 emery paper, 1 µm diamond paste and alumina colloidal silica. The serial sectioning and the 3D-electron backscattering diffraction (3D-EBSD) analysis were carried out. We made the micro pillar (30 x 30 x 15 µm). The EBSD measurements were carried out in each layer after serial sectioning at a step size and milling depth was 80 nm with 30 slices. After EBSD analysis, the series of cross-sectional images were aligned according to arbitrarily specified areas and then stacked up to form a volume. Consequently, we obtained the 3D-IPF maps for ODS ferritic steel. In this specimen, the {111} and {001} grains are layered by turns. In addition, the volume fraction value of both plane are similar. The aspect ratio increases with specimen depth. The 3D-EBSD mapping is useful to analysis of the bulk material since this method obtain many microstructure information, such a shape, volume and orientation of the crystal, grain boundary.

Two-Dimensional Observation of the Core–Mantle Model for Superplastic Flow in an ODS Ferritic Steel

Two-dimensional grain movements were microscopically observed in high-temperature shear deformation of an oxide-dispersion-strengthened ferritic steel with an elongated and aligned grain structure that was sheared in a direction perpendicular to the grain long axis. The microstructure was analyzed using electron back-scattered diffraction and electron channeling contrast imaging techniques before and after the shear deformation. Clear grain switching events, which are assumed to occur via grain-boundary sliding (GBS), were observed and the switching mechanism was characteristic of the core–mantle superplasticity model proposed by Gifkins; dislocation densities got much higher in narrow areas near the grain boundaries (mantles) than the grain interiors (cores). The mantle regions typically appeared in protruding portions of grains that was likely resistant to GBS, and low-angle boundaries were found to emerge at the core–mantle boundaries via slipping of dislocations within the mantle regions.

Direct Observation of Two-Dimensional Grain Boundary Sliding and Switching in ODS Ferritic Steel

High-temperature tensile deformation was performed using an oxide-dispersionstrengthened (ODS) ferritic steel,, which has grain structure largely elongated and aligned in one direction, in the perpendicular direction. In the superplastic region II, two-dimensional grain boundary sliding (GBS) was achieved, in which the material did not shrink in the grain-axis direction and grain-boundary steps appeared only in the surface perpendicular to the grain axis. In this condition, a classical grain switching event was observed. Using kernel average misorientation maps drawn with SEM/EBSD, dominant deformation mechanisms and accommodation processes for GBS were examined in the different regions. Cooperative grain boundary sliding, in which only some of grain boundaries slide, was also observed.

Ferrite Grain Coarsening from Hot Rolled Austenite in ODS Steels

The hot rolling at temperature range of 1100 °C to 862 °C and subsequent air-cooling induce a formation of the coarse ferrite grains in the 9CrODS steels. This coarse ferrite is produced by transformation from the severely hot rolled γ-grains to ferrite. Formation process and mechanism of the transformed coarse ferrite are interpreted in terms of a nucleation, growth and coalescence of the same variant ferrite grains under a variant restriction rule.