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In situ SEM characterization of tensile behavior of nano-fibrous Al–Si and Al–Si–Sr eutectics

  • The Physics of Metal Plasticity: in honor of Professor Hussein Zbib
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Abstract

In situ tensile testing in a scanning electron microscope was used to study the effects of fiber orientation and colony boundaries in laser-refined fully eutectic Al–Si and Al–Si–Sr alloys. In Al–Si alloy, the measured tensile stress–strain response in samples from single colonies is highly dependent on the orientation of Si nanofiber relative to the loading direction. Tensile samples with multiple colonies exhibit improved strain hardening but the measured ductility was limited by cracking along inter-eutectic colony boundaries. The Al–Si eutectic alloys, doped with Sr and processed with finer spot size laser beam, exhibit higher yield strength in samples from single colony due to refined fiber diameter and inter-fiber spacing of nanoscale Si fibers. As a consequence, samples with multiple colonies exhibit sliding or cracking at eutectic colony boundaries before significant uniform elongation developed within the colonies. The low ductility of Al–Si–Sr sample could be ascribed to the reduced shear strength of colony boundary induced by Sr element addition.

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TEM images of the microstructures are available by request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is funded by the Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences with the Grant Number of DE-SC0016808. Micromechanical tests were performed in the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, which are supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS): 1542182 and the Nebraska Research Initiative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68588, USA

    Bingqiang Wei, Wenqian Wu & Jian Wang

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Arkajit Ghosh, Metin Kayitmazbatir & Amit Misra

Authors
  1. Bingqiang Wei
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  2. Wenqian Wu
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  3. Arkajit Ghosh
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  4. Metin Kayitmazbatir
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  5. Amit Misra
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  6. Jian Wang
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Contributions

BW and WW performed in situ micromechanical tests, TEM characterization and data analysis; BW prepared micropillars. AG and MK synthesized materials. BW, JW and AM prepared the manuscript. JW and AM conceived this study. All authors commented the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jian Wang.

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Handling Editor: M. Grant Norton.

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Wei, B., Wu, W., Ghosh, A. et al. In situ SEM characterization of tensile behavior of nano-fibrous Al–Si and Al–Si–Sr eutectics. J Mater Sci 59, 5233–5246 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09118-7

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