Abstract
In-situ mechanical testing in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) system has quickly gained popularity, particularly because of its rich experimental outcomes. In this work, the advantages and challenges of this approach are systemized and critically discussed in relation to testing irradiated metallic materials and novel materials in development. Key observations and experimental results are evaluated for irradiated austenitic stainless steels, an additively manufactured (AM) 316 stainless steel, and a modern accident-tolerant FeCrAl alloy. Various deformation mechanisms are discussed using experimental EBSD datasets, including dislocation channeling in irradiated alloys, strain localization, lattice rotation, texture development, twinning, phase instability, and microfracture events. Several rare strain-induced phenomena are described, such as grain boundary dissolution in FeCrAl alloy and twinning boundary migration in AM 316 stainless steel. These results demonstrate the advantages and capability of EBSD-assisted experiments to inform assessment and understanding of the complexity of deformation processes at different microstructure scales. Some challenges and impediments associated with this approach are also discussed, along with recommendations for future research advancements.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 101132 |
| Journal | Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science |
| Volume | 28 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2024 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank Dr. J. Harp (ORNL) and Dr. Y. Lin for their thoughtful review of this manuscript and valuable comments and suggestions. The authors would like to thank T. Dixon, P. Tedder, S. Curlin, K. Everett (ORNL's Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis [LAMDA] facility), and Dr. N. Bibhanshu for their invaluable help with handling irradiated materials and with manufacturing, preparing, and testing irradiated specimens. Also, the authors thank R. Raney (ORNL) for helping with manuscript preparation. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the United States Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the Department of Energy Public Access Plan ( https://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- Deformation mechanisms
- Dislocation channeling
- Grain boundary dissolution
- Grain boundary migration
- Irradiated metallic materials
- Phase instability
- SEM/EBSD in-situ tensile testing
- Twinning