Novel multi-metal stainless steel (316L)/high-modulus steel (Fe-TiB2) composite with enhanced specific modulus and strength using high-pressure torsion

doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130510

Materials Letters

Volume 303, 15 November 2021, 130510

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130510 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Novel multi-metal 316L/Fe-TiB₂ composite was fabricated by high-pressure torsion.
•
This composite possessed high specific modulus, yield strength and ductility.
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Heterogeneous ultra-fine microstructures formed with sound bonded interface.

Abstract

A novel multi-metal composite with 316L stainless steel matrix and Fe-TiB₂ high-modulus steel reinforcement was successfully fabricated using high-pressure torsion (HPT). After post-HPT annealing at 800 °C for 60 min, the composite demonstrated a superior combination of high specific modulus (~25.5 GPa·cm³·g⁻¹), high yield strength (881 MPa), and good ductility (31%). The improved properties can be ascribed to the high relative density, sound metallurgical bonded 316L/Fe-TiB₂ interface, ultra-fine grains and heterogeneous microstructures.

Introduction

Breaking through the strength–ductility trade-off dilemma is a long-standing pursuing in materials science [1], [2]. Multi-metal composites (MMCs) have attracted great interest recently due to their synergy in strength and ductility [3], [4]. However, it is challenging to fabricate these MMCs, as both the matrix/reinforcement phases are metals. Most processing routes involving high temperatures lead to various metallurgy problems such as excessive elemental diffusion, hard intermetallic phase formation, and cracking [5]. Solid-state techniques are best suited for the fabrication of these MMCs [3]. Recently, high-pressure torsion (HPT), a severe plastic deformation technique, was shown very promising to fabricate these MMCs [4], [6].

High-modulus steel (HMS) with TiB₂ particles reinforced in pure Fe is very promising for lightweight structural applications due to its high modulus, low density, and high strength-ductility combination [7]. The current work aims to fabricate MMCs using HPT with HMS as a reinforcement in the stainless steel (SS) matrix to improve both the strength and the specific modulus.

Section snippets

Experimental procedure

Gas atomized powders of HMS and SS with spherical morphology and average particle sizes of ~100 µm and ~109 µm, respectively, were used as the starting materials (Fig. S1). The chemical compositions of the powders are given in Table S1. The nano-size TiB₂ particles (50 ~ 300 nm) are segregated to the inter-dendritic regions of Fe in the HMS powder (Fig. S1d). Before HPT processing, the powders were mixed in the required proportion targeting a ~10 vol% (MMC10) and 20 vol% (MMC20) of HMS in SS.

Results and discussions

MMCs with uniform distribution of the HMS (dark phase) amounting to 10 vol% and 20 vol% within the SS matrix are successfully obtained after HPT processing (Fig. 1a and b). The HMS particles are elongated, indicating that they underwent sufficient deformation during HPT processing. Excellent metallurgical bonded interfaces between the SS/HMS are achieved with no excessive elemental diffusion across the interface (Fig. 1c). Deformation of the reinforcements can break the thin oxide layer on the

Conclusions

The current work demonstrates the fabrication of a novel multi-metal composite with Fe-TiB₂ HMS reinforcement in a 316L SS matrix using HPT. The composite demonstrated superior properties with high specific modulus (~25.5 GPa·cm³·g⁻¹), high yield strength (881 MPa), and good ductility (31%). The high relative density, ultra-fine grains, heterogeneous microstructures, and sound metallurgical bonded SS/HMS interface would account for these superior properties.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Renlong Xiong: Data curation, Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Hyeonseok Kwon: Data curation, Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Investigation, Writing - original draft. G.M. Karthik: Validation, Writing - review & editing. Gang Hee Gu: Investigation. Peyman Asghari-Rad: Visualization. Sujung Son: Investigation. Eun Seong Kim: Investigation. Hyoung Seop Kim: Supervision, Writing - review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51801139), the China Scholarship Council (No. 201808420368), the Scientific Research Foundation of Wuhan Institute of Technology (K201711). NRF of Korea, Ministry of Science and ICT (2016M3D1A1023384). GMK is supported by the Bain Pool Program through the NRF of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2019H1D3A1A01102866).

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¹: These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Novel multi-metal stainless steel (316L)/high-modulus steel (Fe-TiB2) composite with enhanced specific modulus and strength using high-pressure torsion

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Experimental procedure

Results and discussions

Conclusions

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Declaration of Competing Interest

Acknowledgments

Mater. Sci. Eng. A

Scr. Mater.

J. Alloys Compd.

Mater. Sci. Eng. A

Compos. B Eng.

Powder Technol.

Novel multi-metal stainless steel (316L)/high-modulus steel (Fe-TiB₂) composite with enhanced specific modulus and strength using high-pressure torsion