Mechanical behaviors of metallic materials in a small scale are characterized and physically modeled based on experimental measurements and computational simulation. Local plasticity in the vicinity of a grain boundary is considered in terms of an interaction between dislocation and grain boundary. It is shown experimentally that nanoindentation technique can detect a resistance to dislocation slip transfer by a grain boundary with a geometrical or a chemical factor. Molecular dynamic simulation revealed that the geometrical effect depends on not only a misorientation but also a combination with a dislocation character. TEM in-situ straining has a great potential to measure directly a critical stress upon slip transfer as well as a dislocation reaction at a grain boundary. Another potential reaction of a dislocation absorption at a grain boundary was discussed based on both the experimental results by TEM in-situ observation and the atomistic simulation in bcc metals.

Mechanical behaviors of metallic materials in a small scale are characterized and physically modeled based on experimental measurements and computational simulation. An effect of in-solution carbon or silicon in Fe on a plasticity initiation was characterizes by nanoindentation pop-in phenomenon. A coherency at a ferrite-cementite interface significantly affects to a plasticity initiation leading to a different macroscopic yielding behavior. A stability of an austenite phase in TRIP steel was evaluated though the analysis of indentation-induced deformation behavior, demonstrating a significant constraint effect on stabilization by an adjacent harder phase. Heterogeneous microstructures with a bimodal grain size in fcc metals show an inhomogeneous mechanical behavior depending on a location of the fine microstructure. An intermittent plasticity in pure iron was analyzed through a statistical model showing a Gaussian function by thermally activated process in the early stage and a power-law one by an avalanche type phenomenon in the subsequent stage. An elementally step in a plastic deformation in a metallic glass was characterized through Molecular Dynamics simulation indicating that the plasticity inhomogeneity depends remarkably on the initially inhomogeneous atomistic structure.

In this study, severe plastic deformation through high-pressure sliding (HPS) was applied for in situ high-energy X-ray diffraction analysis at SPring-8 in JASRI (Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute). Allotropic transformation of pure Ti was examined in terms of temperatures, pressures and imposed strain using a miniaturized HPS facility. The true pressure applied on the sample was estimated from the peak shift. Peak broadening due to local variation of pressure was reduced using white X-ray. The phase transformation from α phase to ω phase occurred at a pressure of ∼4.5 GPa. Straining by the HPS processing was effective to promote the transformation to the ω phase and to maintain the ω phase even at ambient pressure. The reverse transformation from ω phase to α phase occurred at a temperature of ∼110℃ under ambient pressure, while under higher pressure as ∼4 GPa, the ω phase remained stable even at ∼170℃ covered in this study. It was suggested that the reverse transformation from the ω phase to the α phase is controlled by thermal energy.

Mater. Trans. 62 (2021) 167-176に掲載