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Plastic behaviour of high-strength lightweight Al/Ti multilayered films

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Abstract

In the present work, a high-strength lightweight Al/Ti multilayered film was fabricated using a magnetron sputtering method, and its deformation behaviour was studied under nanoindentation. The Al and Ti layers were approximately 70 and 50 nm, respectively, in thickness, with the total film thickness of 2.4 μm. According to the measured hardness, the specific strength of the Al/Ti multilayer film was estimated at 245 kN m/kg, higher than most reported nanostructured metallic multilayer films. After nanoindentation, the deformation behaviour of each layer was examined in detail using SEM–FIB. It shows that the two materials exhibited co-deformation behaviour when the layers were thinned to approximately 30 nm. It was also found that the co-deformation behaviour of the Al/Ti multilayers resulted in cooperative-layer-induced shear bands under nanoindentation. Further, nanoscratch-induced deformation behaviour of the Al/Ti multilayers, such as layer buckling, was investigated.

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Acknowledgement

This research was supported by funding from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, the University of Sydney, under the Faculty Research Cluster Program. The authors also acknowledge the scientific and technical input and support from the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility node at the University of Sydney.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Kunkun Fu, Li Chang, Hongjian Wang, Maricar Maandal & Lin Ye

  2. School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, 2751, Australia

    Chunhui Yang & Leigh Sheppard

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  1. Kunkun Fu
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  2. Li Chang
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Correspondence to Kunkun Fu or Li Chang.

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Fu, K., Chang, L., Yang, C. et al. Plastic behaviour of high-strength lightweight Al/Ti multilayered films. J Mater Sci 52, 13956–13965 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1478-7

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