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Understanding materials microstructure and behavior at the mesoscale

  • Mesoscale Materials, Phenomena, and Functionality
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Abstract

Taking the mesoscale to mean length and time scales at which a material’s behavior is too complex to be understood by construction from the atomistic scale, we focus on three-dimensional characterization and modeling of mesoscale responses of polycrystals to thermal and mechanical loading. Both elastic and plastic internal structural responses are now accessible via high-energy x-ray probes. The combination of diffraction experiments and computed tomography, for example, is yielding new insights into how void formation correlates with microstructural features such as grain boundaries and higher-order junctions. The resulting large, combined data sets allow for validation of micromechanical and thermal simulations. As detectors improve in resolution, quantum efficiency, and speed of readout, data rates and data volumes present computational challenges. Spatial resolutions approach one micrometer, while data sets span a cubic millimeter. Examples are given of applications to tensile deformation of copper, grain growth in nickel and titanium, and fatigue cracks in superalloys.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge many conversations about mesoscale science as it pertains to microstructure and mechanical properties, and especially, with members of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee. The nf-HEDM experimental capabilities illustrated here were developed at the Advanced Photon Source in collaboration with U. Lienert and P. Kenesei; analysis procedures and codes were developed at CMU by S.F. Li, J. Lind, C.M. Hefferan, and R.M.S. This work was supported, in part, by an AFOSR Discovery Challenge Thrust Grant #FA9550–10–1-0213 (characterization of fatigue cracks in super-alloys); in part by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under Award DESC0002001 (copper deformation); and in part by National Science Foundation Award DMR-1105173 (microstructural evolution in nickel during annealing).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA

    A. D. Rollett & G. S. Rohrer

  2. Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, USA

    R. M. Suter

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Rollett, A.D., Rohrer, G.S. & Suter, R.M. Understanding materials microstructure and behavior at the mesoscale. MRS Bulletin 40, 951–960 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2015.262

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