International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

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International Journal of Plasticity

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijplas

Enhanced dynamic mechanical properties and resistance to the

formation of adiabatic shear band by Cu-rich nano-precipitates in
high-strength steels
B.Z. Long a, Y. Zhang a, **, C.H. Guo a, Y. Cui a, L.X. Sun a, D. Chen a, F.C. Jiang a,
T. Zhao b, G. Zhao b, Z.W. Zhang a, b, *
a
Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering,
Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Metal Materials for Marine Equipment and Application, Anshan, Liaoning, 114009, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel is a kind of promising impact-resistant structural

Nano-precipitates materials due to its perfect combination of strength and ductility. In this study, the effects of the
Dynamic mechanical properties Cu-rich nano-precipitates on the dynamic mechanical properties, deformation resistance and
Deformation resistance
adiabatic shear band formation were systematically investigated. It is found that the Cu-rich
Adiabatic shear band
nano-precipitates can effectively improve the strength at high strain rate during dynamic
deformation. The maximum flow stress reaches ~2565 MPa at the strain rate of 6000 s− 1, pre­
senting the outstanding dynamic mechanical properties. The nano-precipitate-strengthened steel
has a great positive strain rate sensitivity at a high strain rate, showing the excellent resistance to
high-speed deformation and delayed fracture. The nano-precipitates can effectively hinder the
formation and development of the adiabatic shear bands and improve significantly the maximum
flow stress and microstructure stability during the high-speed impact.

1. Introduction

Precipitation strengthening is recognized as one of the most effective methods for strengthening metallic materials (Li et al., 2020;
Rawlings et al., 2017; Sun et al., 2015b). Among them, Cu nano-precipitates have been widely used in precipitation strengthening of
steels (Jiao et al., 2017a; Wen et al., 2013b). Cu-rich nano-precipitates can effectively hinder the movement of dislocations during the
deformation process. The comprehensive mechanical properties are greatly improved, possessing high plasticity and toughness, good
weldability and low-temperature toughness (Kapoor et al., 2014b). Therefore, it has the broad application prospects in the aerospace,
shipbuilding and automotive industries (He et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2015; Sun et al., 2018).
However, most of the studies on Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steels are focusing on the static mechanical properties. Very
few studies on the dynamic deformation were reported (Jiao et al., 2017b). In the process of high strain rate deformation, the
rheological behavior of the materials is mainly balanced by the strengthening effect from the increase of strain/strain rate and the

* Corresponding author. Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and
Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, China.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: zhangyang0115@hrbeu.edu.cn (Y. Zhang), zwzhang@hrbeu.edu.cn (Z.W. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2020.102924
Received 8 September 2020; Received in revised form 15 December 2020; Accepted 28 December 2020
Available online 31 December 2020
0749-6419/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

thermal softening effect caused by the instantaneous severe plastic deformation (Longère, 2018; Ran et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2014).
When the thermal softening is dominant, a localized adiabatic shear band (ASB) with strong shear strain is formed, which becomes a
favorable site for the crack initiation and propagation (Gurrutxaga-Lerma, 2018; Zhou et al., 2018). Since stress reaches saturation in
the shear band and strong localization occurs, the deformation is concentrated within this zone, so no additional localization occurs far
away from the center of the shear band (Zhu et al., 2017). Dynamic deformation is a complex process which is the indispensable
performance for applications in the fields of bullet impact, explosive impact and cutting. Therefore, investigating the mechanical
properties of Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel at high strain rates is of great significance for evaluating its applications in
ships and bridges.
The nano-precipitates can not only improve the static mechanical properties of the materials (Wu and Baker, 2020; Wu et al., 2019),
but also possess an obvious strengthening effect on the dynamic mechanical properties. The main deformation mode of materials
during high-speed deformation is still the dislocation slip (Zhan et al., 2014). Aged 6063 aluminum alloy possesses a high strength in
the high-speed deformation because the high-density β′ precipitates can effectively hinder the migration of dislocations, leading to the
dislocation plugging, and reduce the probability of dislocation cutting and bypassing the β′ precipitates. Therefore, lateral slip is
difficult to occur, and the combined effect of the strain hardening and strain rate hardening is stronger than the lateral slip softening
effect of dislocations (Ye et al., 2019). The strength enhancement effect of the L12 precipitates was estimated by using the Orowan
strengthening model based on the dislocation cut-through mechanism. The calculated Orowan strengthening effect is about ~360
MPa, which is consistent with the experimental result of ~310 MPa. After high strain rate deformation, the L12 precipitates become
disordered, and the antiphase domain boundaries form after the dislocation cutting through the L12 precipitates, which further im­
proves the strain hardening rate and makes the alloy possess higher deformation resistance and strength (Gwalani et al., 2019). And the
precipitates can be regarded as the “unit” of energy absorption, and the finely dispersed and high-density precipitates can absorb more
energy, making the alloys exhibit a higher strength in high strain rate deformation (Ye et al., 2014). In addition, the types of the
nano-precipitates will also lead to the difference in dynamic mechanical behavior. For example, Al 7056 alloy with the shearable
precipitates formed by slightly overaged possesses the high strength but low strain hardening properties, while the alloy with the
non-shearable precipitates formed after massively overaged exhibits high ductility and high initial strain hardening rate (Ku et al.,
2020).
However, the influence of nano-precipitates on the dynamic mechanical properties, deformation resistance and adiabatic shear
band formation in Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel remains unknown. In this study, the dynamic mechanical properties of
solid solution state (without nano-precipitates), peak-aged state (preset nano-precipitates) and over-aged state (preset nano-
precipitates) under high-speed loading are studied. The effects of nano-precipitates on the dynamic mechanical properties, defor­
mation resistance and adiabatic shear band formation under high-speed loading were analyzed, and the formation mechanism of
adiabatic shear bands was discussed.

2. Experiments

2.1. Specimen preparation

The composition of the Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel is 3.50% Ni, 1.50% Cu, 1.00% Mn, 0.22% Si, 0.05% C, and
balance Fe. This steel possesses BCC single-phase with a mass density of 7.8 g/cm3. In this study, two kinds of specimens, cylindrical
and hat-shaped, were used to study the high-speed impact properties. The cylindrical specimens can obtain the stress-strain curves
with a large strain rate range, which are used to study the influence of nano-precipitates and strain rate on the dynamic mechanical
properties. However, due to the small size of cylindrical specimens, it is difficult to accurately locate the ASB formation position in the
preparation of the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) specimen. There is a connecting region more than 2 mm wide in the hat-
shaped specimens, which can form forced shear localization during high strain rate impact. This structure design aims to obtain
obvious adiabatic shear band, making it easy to prepare for TEM specimens (Staudhammer et al., 1981). Therefore, the hat-shaped
specimens are introduced to study the formation mechanism of the ASB. The mandatory shear localization is formed at the brim,
which is easy to obtain an obvious ASB. The sizes of cylindrical and hat-shaped specimens are shown in Fig. 1 (a) and (b). The
specimens are first solid-solution treated at 913 ◦ C for 1 h (marked as SS), and then aged at 500 ◦ C for 0.25 h, 0.2 h, 1 h, 2 h, 5 h, 10 h,
20 h.

2.2. High-speed impact experiment

The surface of specimens was mechanically polished to a roughness of 10 μm. High-speed impact experiments with solid solution
state (SS), peak-aged state (PA) and over-aged state (OA) were conducted under 0.1–0.4 atm air pressure and room temperature with
split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB). Three times of experiments were performed under each air pressure. The data was calibrated,
fitted and calculated by LabVIEW 8.2. The strain ε, strain rate ε̇ and stress σ were calculated as follows (Guo et al., 2017):
∫τ
2C0
ε(t) = − εR (t)dt (1)
l
0

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

Fig. 1. (a) The size of Φ3*3 mm3 cylindrical specimen; (b) The size of hat-shaped specimen; (c) microstructure showing the central area of the shear
band (ASB) and the deformation area on both sides (Transition zone). The sampling location of the supplemented APT observation was
also indicated.

2C0
ε̇(t) = − εR (t) (2)
l

A
σ(t) = E( )εT (t) (3)
As

where C0 is the propagation speed of the pulse signal in the rod, l is the original length of the sample, As is the cross-sectional area of the
sample, A is the cross-sectional area of the bar, E is the elastic modulus of the rod, and εR(t) and εT(t) refer to the function of the
reflected wave and transmitted wave with time, respectively. The impact rod hits the incident rod to generate a stress pulse and form an
incident wave. When the stress pulse reaches the sample, part of the pulse is reflected into the incident rod to form a reflected wave,
and the other part transfers into the transmission rod through the sample to form a transmitted wave. Finally, they are collected
through the strain gauges attached to SHPB and then obtained by importing into the computer for processing (Khosravani and
Weinberg, 2018). The data with gradient changes in strain rate were selected for analysis.

2.3. Characterization of microhardness and microstructure

The Vickers microhardness tests were carried out using a Vickers diamond pyramid under a load of 1 kg for 25 s, and 15 points were
tested for each sample to ensure the accuracy. The internal and external microstructure and element distribution of the shear band
were characterized by Jiangnan MR5000 optical microscope (OM), FEI HELIOS NANOLAB 600i scanning electron microscope (SEM)
and JEOL JEM-2100 high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM). The TEM sample was cut from the shear band followed
by grinding to a thickness of 30 μm, and prepared using a Gatan PIPS ion double jet thinner. The complete adiabatic shear band area is
selected, including the central area of the shear band and the deformation area on both sides, as shown in Fig. 1 (c).
The nano-precipitates were characterized by atom probe tomography (APT). Needle-shaped specimens required for APT were
fabricated by lift-outs and annular milled in the FEI Scios focused ion beam/scanning electron microscope (FIB/SEM). The APT
characterizations were performed in a local electrode atom probe (CAMECA LEAP 5000 XR). The specimens were analyzed at 70 K in
voltage mode, at a pulse repetition rate of 200 kHz, a pulse fraction of 20%, and an evaporation detection rate of 0.2% atom per pulse.
Imago Visualization and Analysis Software (IVAS) version 3.8 was used for creating the 3D reconstructions and data analysis. The 5%
Cu concentration isosurfaces were used to visualize the Cu-rich nano-precipitates before and after high strain rate impact. Two APT
samples in central area of the shear band and the matrix are selected to investigate the preparation and evolution of nano-precipitates
during impacting, as shown in Fig. 1 (c).

3. Results

3.1. Microhardness under different aging time

It is well known that changes in the number density and volume fraction of precipitates will cause the variations in alloy hardness

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

(Zhang et al., 2012). Fig. 2(a) shows the microhardness values aged for up to 20 h at 500 ◦ C. The solid solution (SS, without
nano-precipitates) steel has a hardness of ~285 HV. The hardness reaches the peak value of ~324 HV after aging (PA, preset
nano-precipitates) for 1 h. The tensile stress-strain curve is shown in the upper right corner of Fig. 2(a) with yield strength of 1026 MPa,
tensile strength of 1050 MPa, and elongation of 0.21, whose comprehensive mechanical property is better than Ti alloy (Zhan et al.,
2014), dual-phase high-strength steel (Qin et al., 2013) and 316L stainless steel (Li et al., 2019). With the further increase in aging
time, the hardness value begins to decrease due to the coarsening of the nano-precipitates. The hardness after aging for 20 h (OA) is
almost the same as the SS steel. A large number of researches have showed that the nano-precipitates are fine and distribute dispersedly
in the PA steel, in which the size and number density match the best and contribute the highest strength effect (Xu et al., 2018, 2020a,
2020b; Zhang et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2017). Prolonged aging, i.e., aging beyond 1 h, the nano-precipitates coarsens unevenly and
decreases in number density, leading to a decline in hardness. The initial microstructure of the SS, PA and OA steel are shown in Fig. 2
(b)–(d). Since the aging treatment mainly affects the number density and volume fraction of nano-precipitates, there is no obvious
difference in the microstructure of the SS, PA and OA steels.

3.2. Dynamic mechanical properties

3.2.1. Dynamic mechanical properties of the SS and OA steels

The influence of nano-precipitates on the high-speed impact properties is studied. The nano-precipitate is controlled as a single
variable in view of the fact that the SS (without nano-precipitates) and OA steel (preset nano-precipitates) have the same micro­
hardness and matrix microstructure under quasi-static conditions. Under static compression, the yield strength of the OA steel is
slightly higher than that of SS steel (Fig. 3(a)), and the dynamic stress-strain curves of the SS and OA steels at the same strain rate (4000
s− 1, 5200 s− 1, 5600 s− 1 and 6500 s− 1) were selected for comparison (Fig. 3(b-e)). The σ 0.2 and σ f values of the SS and OA steels at high
strain rates are summarized in Fig. 3(f). Under dynamic loading conditions, the yield strength of the OA and SS steels are obviously
higher than those under static compression. The fluctuations in the dynamic stress-strain curves can be attributed to the strain
hardening, strain rate hardening and thermal softening (Kuang et al., 2017; Ran et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2014). But the maximum flow
stress of the OA steel is always higher than the SS steel at the same strain rate, reaching a peak of ~1990 MPa at a strain rate of 5200
s− 1, which is ~260 MPa higher than the SS steel. This indicates that the nano-precipitates have an obvious strengthening effect, and
can effectively increase the maximum flow stress under dynamic impact.

Fig. 2. (a) Microhardness with different aging time at 500 ◦ C, and the tensile stress-strain curve of PA is in the upper right corner. The initial OM
microstructures of (b) SS steel, (c) PA steel and (d) OA steel.

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

3 − 1
Fig. 3. Stress-strain curve under the same strain rate of the SS and OA steels: (a) 10− s ; (b) 4000 s− 1; (c) 5200 s− 1; (d) 5600 s− 1; (e) 6500 s− 1; (f)
σ0.2 and σf values.

3.2.2. Dynamic mechanical properties of the PA steel

It is confirmed that nano-precipitates can improve the maximum flow stress in Section 3.2.1. In order to further study the nano-
precipitate strengthened effect at high strain rates, SHPB experiments of the PA samples were conducted. Obviously, the yield
strength under dynamic loading is much higher than that under static compression. The dynamic stress-strain curves of the PA steel at a
strain rate of 2300 s− 1–6000 s− 1 are shown in Fig. 4(a). The ultimate strength, yield strength and strain show two obvious stages, as
shown in Fig. 4(b). The strength of the PA steel shows an obvious stress platform in the first stage (2300 s− 1–4000 s− 1), in which the
maximum flow stress increases from ~1600 MPa to ~1745 MPa, and the yield stress keeps almost unchanged. While in the second
stage (4000 s− 1–6000 s− 1), the dynamic mechanical properties of the PA steel increase significantly, and strain strengthening and
strain rate strengthening effects are obvious. The maximum flow stress increases rapidly with the increase of strain rate, from ~1745
MPa to ~2565 MPa (an increase of ~820 MPa).
In order to further explore the influence of nano-precipitates on the dynamic strength improvement, the dynamic stress-strain
curves of the PA and SS at the same strain rate are compared. The maximum flow stress and the yield stress of the PA steel at 6000
s− 1 is ~726 MPa and ~312 MPa higher than the SS steel, respectively, as shown in Fig. 4(c). The SS steel reached the peak maximum
flow stress at 5600 s− 1, and then decreased as the strain rate increased. However, the maximum flow stress of the PA steel has not

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

Fig. 4. Dynamic mechanical properties of the PA steel: (a) impact curve of different strain rates; (b) the relationship between strain rate and stress/
strain; (c) comparison of dynamic mechanical properties of the PA and SS steels at 6000 s− 1; (d) Microhardness changes of the SS, OA and PA after
impact; (e) comparison of dynamic mechanical properties of Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel and other alloys.

reached maximum at 6000 s− 1 (Fig. 4(b)), indicating that the dynamic mechanical properties can further increase as the strain rate
continues to increase. The reason is that the precipitates become disordered and form antiphase domain boundaries when the dis­
locations pass through the precipitates, thereby further increasing the strain hardening rate of the alloys (Wani et al., 2016).
In this study, the Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel possesses the ultra-high strength during dynamic deformation due to
the precipitation of nano-precipitates. Experiments have proved that the strengthening effect of the PA state nano-precipitates to the
dynamic mechanical properties of Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel increases significantly, and the strength is greatly
improved when the strain rate is higher than 4000 s− 1 (Fig. 4(b)). The maximum flow strength of Cu-rich nano-precipitate
strengthened steel, dual-phase steel, austenitic stainless steel, titanium alloy and other alloys are compared, as shown in Fig. 4(e). The
Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel in this study has excellent comprehensive dynamic mechanical properties maintaining a
very high strength of ~2565 MPa at the strain rate of 6000 s− 1. Moreover, the strength may continue to increase with the increase of
strain rate, but it is a pity that the 6000 s− 1 has reached the limit of our SHPB equipment. However, all of other materials exist some
shortcomings compared to Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel. For example, the strength reaches the peak when the strain rate

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

is very low, and then decreases sharply with the further increase of the strain rate in gradient metallic alloy (Fan and Jiang, 2019) and
Ti alloys (Li et al., 2014, 2017; Ming et al., 2019; Ren et al., 2019; Shi et al., 2019). The strength keeps at a low value without significant
increase even at a large strain rate, such as dual phase steels (Qin et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2013), austenitic stainless steels (Tiamiyu
et al., 2018, 2019) and other alloys, such as nanostructured Cu-11.14%Al alloy, AlCrCuFeNi2 high-entropy alloy, Ni–W alloy, U-2.5 wt
%Nb alloy and zirconium alloy (Li et al., 2016; Ma et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2012; Xiao et al., 2019; Zou et al., 2012).

3.3. The microhardness of the SS, OA and PA samples after impacted at different strain rate

The microhardness of the SS, OA and PA steels increased significantly after high-speed impact with different strain rates, as shown
in Fig. 4(d). The SS steel approaches the peak hardness platform of ~385 HV when the strain rate is relatively low (4000 s− 1), and then
decreases as the strain rate increases beyond 5500 s− 1. The hardness of the OA steel increases rapidly with the increase of the strain
rate. The hardness reaches a peak of ~402 HV when the strain rate is 5200 s− 1. The trends of hardness variation of the SS, OA and PA
steels are consistent with their maximum flow stress trends under dynamic impact. It has been reported that strain and strain rate
hardening contribute to the increase in hardness during impact (Sun et al., 2015a; Ye et al., 2019), while adiabatic temperature rise can
induce heat softening beyond a certain strain rate. It can be seen from Fig. 4(d), the hardness evolution for the SS and OA steels can be
attributed to the above regimes. The hardness of the PA steel increases almost linearly when the strain rate is lower than 5600 s− 1, and
then reaches ~432 HV abruptly at the strain rate of 6000 s− 1. The strengthening effects of strain hardening and strain rate hardening of
the PA steel is more obvious compared with the SS and OA steels.

3.4. Microstructures of the SS, OA and PA steels after impact at different strain rates

The microstructures of the SS, OA and PA steels at different strain rates are shown in Fig. 5. The microstructures of the SS, OA and
PA samples are irregular lath martensite surrounded by a small amount of ferrite structure with uniform and fine grains, and the
boundaries are clearly visible at the strain rate of 4000 s− 1, as shown in Fig. 5(a), (d) and (g). Deformed shear bands (DSB) and
transformed shear band (TSB) form at sufficiently high strain rate for cylindrical specimens. The relationship between the loading
direction and DSB and TSB is indicated in each subfigure of Fig. 5. Both DSB and TSB belong to ASB, and the obvious difference is that
the grain refinement in TSB is more serious and obvious recrystallization occurs. The method of distinguishing DSB and TSB under OM
is mainly based on their colors. The color of TSB is darker than DSB, which can be observed obviously in Fig. 5(c). There is a clear
boundary between each other. When the strain rate reaches 5200 s− 1, stress concentration sites result in the nucleation and initiation of

Fig. 5. The OM characterization of the SS, OA and PA steels in cylindrical specimens after high strain rate: (a) SS at 4000 s− 1; (b) SS at 5600 s− 1; (c)
SS at 6000 s− 1; (d) OA at 4000 s− 1; (e) OA at 5200 s− 1; (f) OA at 5600 s− 1; (g) PA at 4000 s− 1; (h) PA at 5600 s− 1; (i) PA at 6000 s− 1.

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

shear strain localization (Boakye Yiadom et al., 2014), so the grains in the OA steel are refined along a certain arc-shaped area, showing
the typical characteristics of the DSB (Li et al., 2010; Song et al., 2012), whose grain boundaries are blurred and the color is darker than
the matrix structure, as shown in Fig. 5(e). As the strain rate increases to 5600 s− 1, there is higher concentrated stress in the local area
of the OA steel, resulting in the complete grain refinement and forming a black TSB (Li et al., 2010; Song et al., 2012), as shown in Fig. 5
(f). The occurrence of TSB indicates that the steel has undergone thermoplastic instability (Zhu et al., 2014). The SS and PA steels begin
to form the DSB at the same strain rates. When the strain rate reaches 6000 s− 1, the stress further increases and the DSB transforms to
the TSB in the SS steel, as shown in Fig. 5(c).
DSB and TSB form at different deformation stages during shear localization, as the stress increases, DSB forms first. Then as the
stress is further concentrated, the temperature in the DSB reaches the recrystallization temperature, and recrystallization occurs in the
DSB, thereby transforming to TSB. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) images of TSB and DSB are shown in the upper right
corner, which shows an obvious difference between TSB and DSB (Yan et al., 2020). The grains are obviously refined, and obvious
recrystallization occurs in TSB, and the corresponding SAED image also shows that there are a large number of small grains inside the
TSB (Zou et al., 2011), leading to a continuous ring due to plenty of grain orientation as shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b). However, the shear
band in the PA steel is still the DSB, as shown in Fig. 5(i). DSB in PA steel is the sub-grains without recrystallization, and the diffraction
ring in SEAD is discontinuously distributed as shown in Fig. 6(c).

3.5. The evolution of nano-precipitates before and after the high-speed impact

The elements distribution in both matrix and ASB of the PA steel after high-speed impact were carefully characterized by APT as
shown in Fig. 7 (a) and (c), respectively. The nano-precipitates are mainly enriched with Cu, Ni and Mn, forming Cu-rich precipitates.
The Cu-rich nano-precipitates with the isoconcentration surfaces of 5 at.% Cu are shown in Fig. 7 (b) and (d). In matrix, the average
radius of the Cu-rich nano-precipitates is 0.95 ± 0.13 nm, and the number density is 3.67 × 1023 m− 3. While in the ASB, the Cu-rich
nano-precipitates possess an average radius of 1.26 ± 0.50 nm and the number density is 8.09 × 1023 m− 3. The average radius in the
ASB is slightly larger than that in the matrix, indicating that the nano-precipitates have coarsened and grown after high-speed impact.
Moreover, the number density in the ASB is also higher than that in the matrix, showing that there are extra precipitaion of Cu-rich
nano-precipitates after impact. The proximity histograms of the Cu nano-precipitates are displayed in Fig. 7 (e) and (f). In both ASB and
matrix, the Cu, Ni and Mn enrich, and Fe is depleted at the interface of nano-precipitates and matrix. It is found that there is almost no
difference in the element concentration between the matrix and ASB.

3.6. The strain rate sensitivity of nano-precipitate strengthened steel

The strain rate has a significant effect on the dynamic mechanical properties (maximum flow stress, yield stress and strain),
especially at high strain rates, as shown in Fig. 4(b). Therefore, the plastic deformation behavior under dynamic loading was studied by
analyzing the change of the strain rate sensitivity (SRS). The expression of the SRS index m is calculated as follows (Hart, 1967):
∂lnσ
m= (4)
∂lnε̇

where σ is the maximum flow stress, and ε̇ is the strain rate. The larger the m value is, the stronger the material resist deformation and
delay fracture (Ye et al., 2019). Fig. 8 shows the change in the logarithm of the maximum flow stress in different states with the
logarithm of the strain rate, and the slope is the SRS index m.
The changes of SRS in OA and SS steels present two stages. The SRS of both states are positive but small when the strain rate is less
than 5000 s− 1, indicating that the ability to resist plastic deformation is weak within this strain rate range. As the increase of the strain
rate, SRS becomes the turning point and the DSB begins to appear (Fig. 5(b) and (e)) when the SS steel is at 5600 s− 1 and the OA steel is

Fig. 6. The TEM characterizations of the SS, OA and PA steels in cylindrical specimens: (a) TSB in SS at 6000 s− 1; (b) TSB in OA at 5600 s− 1; (c) DSB
in PA at 6000 s− 1. The SAED images of TSB and DSB are shown in the upper right corner of each state.

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Fig. 7. The APT characterization of nano-precipitates in the PA steel after high-speed impact: (a) 3D APT atom maps of the distribution of the Fe,
Cu, Ni and Mn solute elements in the matrix; (b) 5 at.% Cu isosurface of precipitates in the matrix; (c) elements distribution in ASB; (d)5 at.% Cu
isosurface of precipitates in ASB; proximity histograms of Cu nano-precipitates in the matrix (e) and in ASB (f).

at 5200 s− 1, indicating the deformation resistance of the material drops sharply. The SRS further decreases and the TSB appears (Fig. 5
(c) and (f)) as the increase of the strain rate, showing the complete failure of the materials. The change of SRS is closely related to the
internal microstructure evolution, which can verify the occurrence of material failure.
The SRS of the PA steel presents three stages. The curve of strength versus strain rate is positive in the first stage. SRS increases
rapidly when the strain rate is 2300 s− 1–2500 s− 1. Then, the PA steel exhibits a very weak SRS within 2500 s− 1 to 4000 s− 1. When the
strain rate reaches 4000 s− 1–6000 s− 1, the SRS increases rapidly and becomes larger, which means that the PA steel has a strong
resistance to deformation. It can be found that the SRS has a slowly decreasing stage before transforming into a negative value in the SS
and OA steels. This indicates that the SRS of the PA steel maintains positive as the increase of strain rate until the TSB appears. While,
the TSB forms after the DSB appears in the OA and SS steels, leading to the negative values of the SRS. In the PA steel, not only the
strength increases after the DSB appears, but also the TSB does not appear with the increase of strain rate, as shown in Fig. 5(i),
indicating that the PA steel has better dynamic mechanical properties and impact resistance due to its fine and dense nano-precipitates.

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Fig. 8. The logarithmic relationship between flow stress and strain rate of PA, OA and SS.

Fig. 9. The absorption energy of the PA, OA and SS steels at different strain rates.

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3.7. The ability to absorb impact energy of nano-precipitate-strengthened steel

As we all know, the materials will absorb impact energy during the process of high-speed impact, and convert to heat, thereby
driving the evolution of the microstructure. Therefore, the energy absorbed by the sample must be considered to better investigate the
effects of nano-precipitates on the formation of the ASB. The energy absorbed per unit volume, W, can be calculated by integrating the
area of the stress-strain curve as follows (Yi et al., 2001):
∫εe
W= σ dε (5)
0

where εe is the maximum strain; σ is the stress; ε is the strain. The calculated results are shown in Fig. 9. The absorption energy per unit
volume of the PA and OA steels is higher than the SS steel at the same strain rate. Especially, the absorbed energy of the PA steel is
much higher than that of the SS steel at 6000 s− 1, which is identified with the microstructure evolution of samples. There is still the DSB
in the PA steel (Fig. 5(i)), while the TSB has appeared in the SS and OA steels (Fig. 5(c) and (f)).

3.8. Morphology characteristics of the ASB

3.8.1. Overall morphology of the ASB

Fig. 10(a) shows the ASB with a width of about 19 μm generated in the hat-shaped sample, penetrating the junction of the hat-
shaped specimen. The deformation zones near the matrix are composed of slender and compact strip-shaped grains that are
severely elongated and deformed by high shear localization. This is the characteristic structure produced on both sides of the ASB, and
presents an angle of 35◦ with the shear band, and as the strain rate increases, the angle will be further smaller. The grains in the center
of the shear band are completely refined (Fig. 10(b)). Obvious cracks were also produced at both ends of the shear band, extending
inward along the ASB direction at the junction between the shear band and the matrix, as shown in Fig. 10(c) and (d). When the energy
of crack initiation was exhausted, the cracking stopped. It can be seen that the appearance of ASB is often accompanied by the initiation
of cracks, which provides a path and direction for the occurrence and propagation of cracks (Gurrutxaga-Lerma, 2018).

3.8.2. Micromorphology of the ASB

Fig. 11 shows the evolution of the ASB microstructure. Under the action of high-speed impact, the lath martensite is elongated
along the shear direction, and is closely arranged side by side with a width of about 50 nm–100 nm. At the same time, the dislocations
are activated, and gradually move to the grain boundaries of the lath martensite, and then are hindered at the grain boundaries and
stop moving (Hansen and Huang, 1997; Winther et al., 1997), as shown in Fig. 11(a). With the continuous accumulation of dislocations
at the grain boundaries, the grain boundaries begin to blur. The reason is that the dislocation dipoles and dislocation loops are
generated due to the interaction of primary dislocations and secondary dislocations, which in turn leads to the formation of the local
dislocation entanglements (Luo et al., 2016), as shown in Fig. 11(b). Because the dislocation structure in the vicinity of grain
boundaries are different from those in the grain interior (Liu and Hansen, 1997), the orientation difference between the grains in­
creases. The elongated lath martensite is broken to form sub-grains, as shown in Fig. 11. (c).

Fig. 10. The ASB structure of the SS steel hat-shaped specimen: (a) OM characterization of overall morphology of ASB; (b) SEM characterization of
ASB; (c) and (d) OM characterization of cracks on both ends of ASB.

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

Fig. 11. TEM characterization of the microstructure of the deformation region and the ASB: (a) movement of dislocations; (b) Blurred grain
boundaries; (c) Subcrystal formation; (d) Recrystallization begins to form; (e) bright field image of the microstructure at the center of the ASB; (f)
dark field image of the microstructure at the center of the ASB.

As the shear deformation further increases, the sub-crystals begin to recrystallize, as shown in Fig. 11(d). Finally, obvious grain
refinement is observed inside the ASB with grain size of 40 nm–100 nm and almost no dislocation, as shown in Fig. 11(e). All of these
equiaxed ultrafine grains are formed by dynamic recrystallization. The corresponding dark field image in Fig. 11(f) also confirms the
nano-scale recrystallized grains inside the shear band. The diffraction pattern in the upper right corner of Fig. 11(e) shows that Cu-rich
nano-precipitate strengthened steel is a polycrystalline material, and the shear band presents a completely recrystallized micro­
structure. The extremely low dislocation density between these small grains can be caused by two main reasons: 1) the grains undergo
the dynamic recovery and dynamic recrystallization effects in the ASB, 2) the grains occur self-rotated in the ASB in order to adapt to
the dynamic deformation process under high strain rate (Wu et al., 2018).

4. Discussion

4.1. Deformation resistance of Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel

The results on the microstructure dependence of strain rate show that the influence of short-distance (thermal) and long-distance
(non-thermal) obstacles on the movement of dislocations determines the SRS (Gangireddy et al., 2018). Since the dislocation slip is the
prerequisite mechanism of deformation (Mahajan, 2013), before twinning or the occurrence of phase transformation, the difference in
deformation mechanism has no effect on the strength. In this case, the strength depends on individual dislocation slip resistance. The
size and distance of the long-range obstacle are too large for thermal activation. Thus, the large size and long-distance obstacles can be
regarded as non-thermal and weak relation to the strain rate/temperature. Therefore, the large amount of fine nano-precipitates can
act as short-distance obstacles playing a decisive role in the dependence of strain rate. The PA steel has better deformation resistance
than the SS and OA steels at high strain rates, which can be explained by the fact that a larger dislocation density will appear in the
sample as the strain rate increases during dynamic impact. The Orowan theory is kinematic and independent of materials, which is
related to the strain rate and dislocation parameters in dislocation theory. According to Orowan theory, the strain rate, ε̇p , is described
as follows (Meyers, 1994):
ε̇p = αρm bv (6)

where α is the orientation factor; ρm is the density of movable dislocations, b is the Burger vector; v is the average velocity of the
dislocation, the time for dislocations to overcome the nano-precipitates is shortened with the increase in the strain rate (Maity et al.,
2018). When the movement of dislocations is hindered by nano-precipitates, they will gather around the nano-precipitates. That is, V

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

decreases and ρ increases sharply, which eventually leads to the accumulation of dislocations and the increase of flow stress. Therefore,
the PA steel has greater SRS at high strain rates, exhibiting the excellent resistance to deformation and delay of fracture.

4.2. The evolution mechanism of nano-precipitates

When metallic materials undergo adiabatic deformation under high strain rate, the heat generated by the local large plastic
deformation can not be released in time, leading to the temperature increase in the local areas of the materials (Ye et al., 2014). The
deformation is further intensified, leading to the formation of ASB. At the same time, the temperature rise will also promote the
evolution of microstructure, including the evolution of the nanoscale precipitates. This is confirmed by the observation of
nano-precipitates before and after impact in ASB and matrix as shown in Fig. 7. The pre-existing nano-precipitates coarsen after impact
with an increase in average radius from 0.95 ± 0.13 nm (in the matrix) to 1.26 ± 0.50 nm (in the ASB). The heat generated by
high-speed impact promotes the increase of average radius about 0.31 nm, leading to the decrease of hardness and strength of the steel.
The precipitation characteristics, such as morphology, size, number density and composition of Cu-rich nano-precipitates before and
after impact, are similar to that in the other nano-precipitate strengthened steels (Kapoor et al., 2014a; Wen et al., 2013a; Xu et al.,
2020a). Besides, a large number of new nano-precipitates are precipitated out inside the ASB after high-speed impact (Fig. 7(d)),
compensating the loss of hardness and strength due to the grain recrystallization in ASB during high speed impact. Although the
thermal softening effect and the coarsening of pre-existing nano-precipitates have an adverse effect on the strength, the precipitation of
new nano-precipitates effectively improves the strength of steel significantly under high-speed deformation, which is confirmed by the
dynamic mechanical properties in Figs. 3 and 4. It can be seen from Fig. 5 that the PA steel with high number density of
nano-precipitates can effectively inhibit the formation of TSB, indicating that nano-precipitates can alleviate the adiabatic shear
deformation. It is reported that the pre-existing finer and denser θ′ precipitates in 2519A alloy can act as energy absorption sink,
contributing to the strength significantly and improving the stability during dynamic impact (Sun et al., 2015a). Based on these results
and the effects of precipitates on the absorbed energy reported in other papers (Gao et al., 2008; Ye et al., 2014), we deduce that the
nano-precipitates can absorb/dissipate impact energy (Fig. 9). This also prevents the generation and further development of adiabatic
shear bands, and significantly improves the adiabatic shear resistance and microstructure stability.

4.3. The formation mechanism of the ASB and its effects on maximum flow stress

Local shear instability occurs in a certain area inside the materials, resulting in the formation of ASB in the process of dynamic
deformation under high strain rate, which is the main failure mode of the materials in dynamic load. The ASB is a strip-like structure
with highly concentrated shear deformation in a certain direction, whose appearance indicates the occurrence of serious failure
(Landau et al., 2016). Cracks can initiate and develop inside or on the boundary between the ASBs and the matrix, leading to the
fracture of materials consequently (Xu et al., 2008).
The ASB is generally generated when the strain rate is high enough (greater than 5200 s− 1 in this steel), and appear in an arc on the
maximum shear stress plane at 45◦ or 135◦ to the loading direction in the cylindrical samples (Ran et al., 2018), as shown in Fig. 12(a).
The relationship between the loading direction and the position of ASB (including DSB and TSB) is indicated in Fig. 5. DSB and TSB can
coexist adjacently or exist independently like in Fig. 5(c), (f) and 5(i). If DSB and TSB coexist, TSB is located in the center of ASB, and
DSB is located between TSB and the matrix. The formation of DSB or TSB is related to the strain rate and the materials itself. For
example, the existence of nano-precipitates can suppress the formation TSB, and only DSB forms in PA steel as shown in Fig. 5(i). DSB is

Fig. 12. The ASB distribution model diagram in (a) cylindrical specimen and (b) hat-shaped specimen.

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

easier to form, and can be treated as the previous stage of TSB. The grain refinement is more serious in TSB than that in DSB, and the
grains occur obvious recrystallization in TSB (Fig. 6).
In the hat-shaped sample, the elongated structure of the deformation region is distributed at an angle of 35◦ to the shear band,
because the joint of the hat-shaped specimen is not subjected to pure shear strain, but the combined effect of shear deformation and
compression deformation during the high-speed impact process (Kuang et al., 2017). The shear force can be decomposed into two
components: along and perpendicular to the shear band. Because the microstructures inside the shear band and the matrix are uniform,
the micro-cracks are difficult to initiate. Therefore, the micro-cracks usually nucleate and grow at the interfaces between the shear
band and matrix. The component force along the ASB provides the energy for the initiation and propagation of micro-cracks under
further deformation, which promotes the further nucleation, growth and coalescence of micro-cracks, thereby accelerating the fracture
of the materials along the ASB, as shown in Fig. 12(b). As the shear force is high enough, the micro-cracks can generate, and thus the
formation process of ABS skips DSB, forming TSB directly.
However, no matter what kinds of samples, the grain refinement is an important feature of the microstructure evolution in the ASB
(Li et al., 2011). The grain size is gradually reduced from micron to sub-micron, and finally to nano-scale level (Lieou and Bronkhorst,
2018). When the deformation begins, the grains are severely elongated under the action of shear stress. Thereafter, the shear band
reaches or exceeds the recrystallization temperature under the combined action of high strain rate deformation and adiabatic tem­
perature rise, and newly recrystallized grain nuclei generate recrystallized grains, eventually growing into the equiaxed grains. On the
other hand, it is reported that nano-precipitates can pin dislocations and grain boundaries, hindering the static and dynamic
recrystallization (Wang et al., 2016). This is also benefitting to the suppression of TSB formation. Finally, only the DSB is produced in
PA steel, as shown in Fig. 5(i). Without TSB, the formation of cracks can be effectively restrained. This can significantly improve the
ductility and enhance the strain and strain rate hardening, leading to the high maximum flow stress and strain.

5. Conclusion

The SHPB was used to study the dynamic mechanical properties of the Cu-rich nano-precipitate-strengthened steel. The effects of
nano-precipitates on the dynamic mechanical properties, deformation resistance and the formation of ASB were systematically
evaluated, and the formation mechanism of the adiabatic shear band was explained. The main conclusions are summarized as follows:

1. The maximum flow stress of the OA steel is higher than the SS steel under the same strain rate and hardness. The maximum flow
stress of the PA steel reaches ~2565 MPa at the strain rate of 6000 s− 1, which is ~726 MPa higher than the SS steel. The nano-
precipitates can significantly improve the strength of the Cu-rich nano-precipitate strengthened steel during dynamic deformation.
2. The SRS becomes negative when the SS and OA steels form the TSB, while the PA steel still has a great positive SRS at 6000 s− 1, and
remains positive at the higher strain rate. The PA steel has more excellent resistance to high-speed deformation and delayed
fracture due to the strengthening effect of nano-precipitates.
3. The SS and OA steels are apt to form the TSB while the PA steel possesses a higher resistance to the formation of TSB. The Cu-rich
nano-precipitates in ASB in PA coarsen during high speed impact, indicating the nano-precipitates can dissipate the impact energy.
The nano-precipitates can effectively hinders the formation and development of the ASB, and significantly improves the micro­
structure stability. The precipitation of new nano-precipitates during high speed impact further increases the strength of the PA
steel at high strain rate.
4. In the cylindrical samples, DSB and TSB can coexist adjacently or exist independently, depending on the strain rate and nano-
precipitates in Cu-rich nano-precipitate-strengthened steel. In the hat-shaped sample, TSB forms directly and skips the stage of
DSB due to the imposed shear force at high strain rate. The nano-precipitates in the PA steel can effectively delay the dynamic
recrystallization and the formation of TSB.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

B.Z. Long: Writing - original draft, Conceptualization, Investigation, Visualization, Resources. Y. Zhang: Conceptualization,
Methodology, Validation, Writing - review & editing, Project administration, Funding acquisition. C.H. Guo: Software, Formal
analysis. Y. Cui: Visualization, Resources. L.X. Sun: Data curation, Supervision. D. Chen: Investigation, Validation. F.C. Jiang:
Software, Formal analysis. T. Zhao: Visualization. G. Zhao: Visualization. Z.W. Zhang: Conceptualization, Validation, Project
administration, Funding acquisition.

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.

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Project (2018YFE0115800), Youth Talent Project of China
National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC2019YTEP-HEU01), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(3072020CFT1005), the NSFC Funding (52001083, 11874327, 51701051), Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang

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B.Z. Long et al. International Journal of Plasticity 138 (2021) 102924

(LH2019E030), Heilongjiang Touyan Innovation Team Program, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project
(2019T120255, 2017M320111), and Innovation Center of Nuclear Materials for National Defense Industry (HCL-08). Atom probe
tomography research was conducted with the assistance of Dr. J. H. Luan and Dr. Z. B. Jiao at the Inter-University 3D Atom Probe
Tomography Unit of City University of Hong Kong supported by the CityU grant 9360161.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2020.102924.

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