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Microstructure and Mechanical Properties Investigation On Nanostructured Nickel 200 Alloy Using Multi-Axial Forging
Microstructure and Mechanical Properties Investigation On Nanostructured Nickel 200 Alloy Using Multi-Axial Forging
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A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Multiaxial Forging (MAF) is one of the novel severe plastic deformation techniques, which can be used to
Ni alloy produce nanostructured materials in large-scale production. This process is a simple one as it is not necessary to
Severe plastic deformation use special tooling. The present goal of this research work is to manufacture nanostructured Ni 200 alloy using
Multiaxial forging the multiaxial forging process at room temperature. The microstructural examination using various microscopes
Grain refinement
and mechanical properties evolution due to the variation of the number of cycle of forging (4 cycles) was
Mechanical properties
investigated. The observed results explained that the grain size of Ni 200 alloy was decreased significantly due to
Hardness
grain refinement. The rate of shifting of the microstructure to ultrafine and Nano regimes was variable as it was
remarkable after the first cycle of MAF and reduced significantly in subsequent cycles. The average grain size
after the third cycle was 220 nm. The results of uniaxial compression and hardness tests indicated a considerable
increase in strength and hardness.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: zahidhussain@qec.edu.sa (Z. Hussain), almufadi@qec.edu.sa (F.A. Al-Mufadi), sivasankarangs1979@gmail.com, s.udayar@qu.edu.sa (S. Subbarayan),
osamaerfan@qec.edu.sa (O.M. Irfan).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2017.12.042
Received 24 November 2017; Received in revised form 9 December 2017; Accepted 11 December 2017
Available online 13 December 2017
0921-5093/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Z. Hussain et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 712 (2018) 772–779
Table 1
Chemical composition of material used in this research.
Element Ni Cu Mn Si C Mg S Fe Pb
Weight (%) 99.5 0.01 0.002 0.01 0.01 < 0.005 < 0.002 0.02 < 0.002
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Fig. 5. Optical microstructures of Nickel 200 alloy during MAF (a) zero cycle (b) one cycle (c) two cycles (d) three cycles (e) four cycles.
researcher for other metals during SPD [33–37]. Although this pattern fourth cycle. The increase in hardness is due to microstructure refine-
of strength reduction as the result of further processing needs to be ment and strength boosting as explained earlier. The decrease in
further explored. Some researchers have attempted to explain this hardness at high strains is due to “flow softening” mechanism as it has
phenomenon. One of the mechanisms found in the literature is micro- been reported by Kumar [35]. Another parameter called inhomogeneity
cracks formation on the surface [24]. However, with the use of proper factor (IF) was calculated that gives an idea about the variation of
lubricant, micro-cracks can be avoided. Another mechanism is “flow hardness within the sample. IF is defined as [11].
softening” [37] during the final stages that cause the reduction of
i = n (Hi − H)2
strength. When cumulative strain further increases, the strain hard- ∑i = 1 n−1
ening ability tends to restore due to dislocation annihilation and this I. F. = x100
H (4)
may result in strength reduction as explained by Kumar [38].
where n is the number of measurements taken along the height of each
3.4. Hardness examination sample, Hi is the ith measurement and H is average hardness value. Ten
number of measurements were taken along the three orthogonal di-
Fig. 10 shows the results of Vickers hardness tests. A significant rections (X, Y and Z axes) to assess the IF. It is well known that lesser
increase in hardness has been observed for the first cycle (Cumulative value of IF indicates the material would have more homogeneity con-
strain = 2.40) and then there is a gradual increase in hardness for sequently it would exhibit improved properties. Fig. 10 shows the re-
second and third cycles of MAF followed by a slight decrease in the sults of IF of Ni 200 alloy after MAF. It can be observed that IF tends to
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Z. Hussain et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 712 (2018) 772–779
Fig. 6. TEM bright field images of Ni 200 alloy: (a) before MAF; (b) after one cycle of MAF; (c) after two cycle of MAF; (d) after three cycle of MAF; (e) SAD pattern of (d); (f) after four
cycle of MAF.
decrease as the number of cycles of MAF increases. This means that observed. This can be interpreted with grain size reduction.
strain homogeneity was improved and attained after MAF process. In ● An unusual drop in yield strength and ultimate strength was seen
general, it is expected that the as-received metals/alloys might have after application of the fourth cycle of MAF. This was explained by
more inhomogeneity due to several processes carried out during its flow softening mechanism. Annihilation of dislocations occurs when
manufacturing in the Industries (casting, extrusion with different further strain is imposed thereby causing dynamic recovery and flow
stages, rolling, cutting, machining etc….). Therefore, the as-received softening of materials to arise.
metals/alloys might have more non-uniform strain homogeneity, re- ● The results of hardness measurement show that there was a severe
sidual stresses, and other defects which resulted in more hardness increase in hardness after the first cycle of MAF and then the rate of
variation. However, it can be decreased slightly by annealing process increase was significantly reduced. Also, there was a slight decline
before plastic deformation applied. The presence of more in- in hardness after the fourth cycle of forging. The trend of variations
homogeneity factor (IF) in as-received Ti-6Al-4V alloy and annealed in hardness can be correlated with that of variations in micro-
was also observed, investigated by Behzad et al. [11] before multi-axial structure refinement.
forging and the value of IF had started to decrease with subsequent ● Inhomogeneity factor (IF) calculated on the basis of hardness was
MAF cycles. The similar result of IF was observed in the present work. observed to decrease with the cycles of MAF. The rate of reduction
in IF was decreased with the applied cycles of MAF. A slight rise in
4. Conclusions IF was observed after fourth cycles of MAF.
In this research Nickel 200 alloy was multiaxially forged to produce Acknowledgments
nanostructured material. The average grain size after three cycles of
forging was 220 nm. The outcomes can be summarized as follows: The teamwork of this research wishes to thank Qassim University
for all funding and support required to carry out this research.
● There was severe grain size reduction during the first cycle of MAF
and then the rate of grain refinement was reduced. The trend was Author contributions
explained using dislocation theory. The grain refinement was also
validated by X-ray diffraction analysis. Zahid Hussain, Fahad Al-Mufadi, Osama Irfan and Sivasankaran
● A great increase in yield strength and ultimate strength was Subbarayan put the idea of this work, conceived and designed the
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Fig. 7. Schematic of microstructure of Ni 200 alloy under MAF (a) 0 cycle of MAF; (b) 3 cycle of MAF; (c) 4 cycle of MAF.
Table 3
Mechanical properties of Ni 200 alloy during MAF at different cycles.
S. No. Sample condition Compressive yield strength (σy) at 0.2% Ultimate compressive strength Vicker's hardness Inhomogeneity factor (IF), %
strain, MPa (σu), MPa (HV30)
Fig. 8. Compressive engineering stress and strain plots for Ni 200 alloy after MAF with
different cycles of forging. Fig. 9. Compressive properties of Ni 200 alloy during MAF at different cycles.
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