December 5, 2024
Journal Article
Irradiation-induced shift in the thermodynamic stability of phases and the self-healing effect in transformative high entropy alloys
Abstract
This work investigated Fe40Mn20Cr15Co20Si5 high entropy alloy (CS-HEA), which exhibits transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) from ?-fcc --> e-hcp, as a probable candidate for nuclear applications. CS-HEA is an extensively-explored, low stacking fault energy alloy with superior strength, ductility, fatigue resistance, and corrosion resistance. This study was focused on the effect of irradiation on the shift in thermodynamic stability of the phases and the evolution of c/a ratio in e-hcp phase. The evolution of phases, lattice parameters, and transformation volume, V_(??e,) were evaluated from X-ray diffraction experiments along with the mechanical response from nanoindentation. The alloy exhibited a negative change in V_(??e) and a low |V_(??e) |, which is an important criterion for the shape memory effect. Thus, this alloy was deemed as a good candidate for exploring the recently-proposed novel self-healing mechanism in TRIP HEAs to minimize irradiation damage by recovering the microstructure from irradiation damage via thermal recovery.Published: December 5, 2024