Enhancing fatigue life by ductile-transformable multicomponent B2 precipitates in a high-entropy alloy

Rui Feng, You Rao, Chuhao Liu, Xie Xie, Dunji Yu, Yan Chen, Maryam Ghazisaeidi, Tamas Ungar, Huamiao Wang, Ke An, Peter K. Liaw

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121 Scopus citations

Abstract

Catastrophic accidents caused by fatigue failures often occur in engineering structures. Thus, a fundamental understanding of cyclic-deformation and fatigue-failure mechanisms is critical for the development of fatigue-resistant structural materials. Here we report a high-entropy alloy with enhanced fatigue life by ductile-transformable multicomponent B2 precipitates. Its cyclic-deformation mechanisms are revealed by real-time in-situ neutron diffraction, transmission-electron microscopy, crystal-plasticity modeling, and Monte-Carlo simulations. Multiple cyclic-deformation mechanisms, including dislocation slips, precipitation strengthening, deformation twinning, and reversible martensitic phase transformation, are observed in the studied high-entropy alloy. Its improved fatigue performance at low strain amplitudes, i.e., the high fatigue-crack-initiation resistance, is attributed to the high elasticity, plastic deformability, and martensitic transformation of the B2-strengthening phase. This study shows that fatigue-resistant alloys can be developed by incorporating strengthening ductile-transformable multicomponent intermetallic phases.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3588
JournalNature Communications
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2021

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