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Abstract: Additive Manufacture (AM) of Ti-6Al-4V frequently leads to undesirable, coarse, columnar β-grain structures with a strong <100> fibre texture. In Wire-Arc AM (WAAM), it has been found that the application of a low plastic strain, by methods such as inter-pass rolling, can disrupt β columnar growth and produce a refined, equiaxed grain structure that is more randomly orientated. The origin of this desirable effect has been investigated by thermo-mechanical simulation, direct in-situ EBSD observation, as well as by real-time synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD) during rapid heating. These complementary approaches have shown that, when starting with a WAAM microstructure, the grain refinement process produces a unique micro-texture represented by a four-pole motif symmetrically centred on the parent grain {100} orientations. These new β-grain orientations can be reproduced by a double {112}<111> twinning operation, which produces 12 new, unique, β-orientation variants. High-resolution orientation-mapping techniques and in-situ SXRD heating simulations suggest that the prior β does not twin during deformation, but rather the grain refinement and related texture may be caused by annealing twinning during β re-growth on rapid re-heating of the deformed AM microstructure. Although this is the first time such a unique texture has been observed in a deformed and β annealed Ti-6Al-4V material, it was only found to dominate under the unusual conditions that occur in AM of rapid heating – a fine, lightly deformed α transformation microstructure, with a very coarse starting β-grain structure.

Open Access

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Abstract: There are several mechanisms contributing towards detrimental damage in wind turbine gearbox bearings, with sudden overload events believed to reduce their expected operational life. The generation of subsurface plasticity, followed by rolling contact fatigue, may lead to the initiation of either surface or subsurface cracking. This study presents a novel technique capable of measuring subsurface strain evolution in a rotating roller bearing, using energy dispersive X-ray diffraction. A pre-overloaded bearing was tested dynamically and consequently failed prematurely, supporting the hypothesis that overloads accelerate bearing failure. Throughout the test, an increase in compressive radial strain was observed, indicative of material softening, generally associated with the unstable stage of rolling contact fatigue, which occurs prior to definitive bearing failure.

Open Access

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Abstract: Plastic effects during sheet metal forming can lead to undesirable distortions in formed components. Here, the three-stage work hardening and plastic strain recovery (“springback”) in a cold-rolled, α-phase commercially pure titanium is examined. Interrupted standard tensile tests with in situ x-ray diffraction and quasi- in situ electron backscatter diffraction show that twinning plays a minor role in both of these phenomena. The experiments give evidence that the observed work hardening plateau is the result of an abrupt activation and multiplication of  c + a  slip and a subsequent redistribution of load between grain families. The springback can be attributed to inelastic backwards motion and annihilation of dislocations, driven by backstresses from dislocation-based hardening during loading. The peak broadening behavior, observed by x-ray diffraction, suggests that the internal stress state is highest in the rolling direction, resulting in consistently higher springback magnitude along this direction.

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Abstract: Changes in crack growth rate associated with overload events during fatigue are poorly understood, especially for materials with anisotropic microstructures. Here overload fatigue tests are reported for compact tension samples cut in two different orientations from high pressure torsion disc samples. During growth the crack planes reoriented either slightly, or significantly, to align with the elongated grain structure leading to low, and high, levels of mixed mode fatigue loading respectively. In both cases the ultrafine grained microstructure led to macroscopically flat crack faces. The fatigue crack growth rate was around 3.4 times slower for the case with the high mode II component than for the low. A 100% overload was then introduced and synchrotron X-ray diffraction and digital image correlation (DIC) were applied in-situ to map the bulk crack-tip elastic strain field (plane strain) and surface displacement field (plane stress) respectively prior to, during and after overload. The high mode II case displayed a larger degree of retardation after overload. Residual stress and plasticity-induced crack closure were found to be the primary causes for the retardation as the crack grows into the overload plastic zone. Significant crack face contact was observed for the high mode II case along with significant levels of compressive stress transferred across the crack faces at minimum load. Compared with conventional (coarse) grain Ni, the ultrafine grained Ni is less retarded by overload, because of its relatively flatter crack path and higher yield stress and thus less plasticity and residual stress induced closure.

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Abstract: The creep life and deformation behaviour of high-temperature steels can be significantly affected by the prior plastic loading. This effect is partly due to the generation of intergranular strains from the grain-scale elastic and plastic anisotropic deformation during plastic loading. This paper investigates the effect of these plasticity generated intergranular strains on the subsequent creep strain accumulation behavior in type 316H stainless steel. An in-situ synchrotron diffraction experiment was conducted at 550°C, where the sample was loaded incrementally to different magnitudes of plastic strain, followed by a displacement-controlled stress relaxation dwell at each of this stage. The lattice strains of 4 grain families were measured during these stages. It was found that the intergranular strains generated during the plastic deformation significantly affect the relative magnitude of creep strain accumulation in different grain families. A subtle but significant difference has been observed between the creep intergranular strain accumulation behavior and the plastic intergranular strain accumulation behavior in different grain families which can be used to interrogate the validity of any micromechanical models’ formulation for creep and plastic deformation. The macroscopic stress relaxations measured from the experiment were compared with the prediction from a novel crystal plasticity based micromechanical model developed in our group. A good overall match was found between the experiment and the model regarding the magnitude of stress relaxation after various level of plasticity. The experiments have demonstrated that the model requires further development to accurately predict the rate of stress relaxation and the micro scale lattice strain evolution during creep.