Significant Enhancement of Strength and Ductility in a Tri-Phase FeMnCoCrAl High-Entropy Alloy Through the Design of a Heterogeneous Layered Structure
摘要
This study optimizes the thermomechanical processing to design a heterogeneous layered structure of a tri-phase FeMnCoCrAl high-entropy alloy (HEA), achieving a significant improvement in both strength and ductility compared to the fully recrystallized structure. After annealing at 1023 K for 10 min, the microstructure of the alloy consists of a soft domain of fully recrystallized face-centered cubic (FCC) phase, a hard domain of partially recrystallized FCC phase, and a hard domain of partially recrystallized body-centered cubic phase. The tensile strength and yield strength are 604 MPa and 781 MPa, respectively, with a total elongation of 31.1%. Compared to the fully recrystallized alloy, the tensile strength is enhanced by 25%, and the total elongation increases by 23%. The comprehensive improvement in strength and ductility is attributed to multiple strengthening and toughening mechanisms within the microstructure: grain refinement strengthening from recrystallized grains, dislocation strengthening from partial recrystallization, long-range back-stress effects from the soft-hard domain structure, and deformation mechanisms such as stacking fault nucleation and the transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP)–twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) effect, which are unique to composite the HEA.