The effect of the chemical inhomogeneities on the local mechanical behavior was studied in a CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy. Micropillar compression revealed that, despite the difference in the chemical composition, the stress-strain behaviors in the two regions were almost identical. The size effect was negligible in the micropillar compression experiments.

A cold-rolled Ti-6Al-4V alloy was subjected to consecutive heat treatments at 1283 K for 1 h and at 823 K for 3 h in order to produce a fully lamellar microstructure. Thereafter, the material was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) through various numbers of turns up to a maximum of 30. It is shown that the HPT processing leads to exceptional grain refinement with average grain sizes of similar to 70 and similar to 50 nm after 20 and 30 turns, respectively. Tensile testing was conducted at 873 and 923 K with different initial strain rates using the material processed through 20 turns of HPT and this gave a maximum superplastic elongation of 820% at the relatively low temperature of 923 K when testing with an initial strain rate of 5.0 x 10(-4) s(-1). The associated strain rate sensitivity for this low temperature superplasticity was estimated as m approximate to 0.5 which is consistent with flow by grain boundary sliding.

Two different initial microstructures, martensitic and lamellar, were developed in a Ti-6Al-4V alloy to examine their effect on the high temperature mechanical properties and superplasticity after high-pressure torsion (HPT). Significant grain refinement was achieved in both conditions with grain sizes after HPT processing of similar to 30 and similar to 40 nm, respectively. The nanocrystalline alloy in both conditions was subjected to mechanical testing at 923-1073 K with strain rates in the range from 10(-3) to 10(-1) s(-1). The martensitic and lamellar alloys exhibited excellent ductility at these high temperatures including superplastic elongations at 973 K with maximum elongations of 815% and 690%, respectively. The fcc phase was stable at elevated temperatures in the martensitic alloy and the results suggests the fcc phase may contribute to the superior superplastic properties of the martensitic alloy.

A CoCrFeNiMnTi0.1 high-entropy alloy (HEA) was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) followed by post-deformation annealing (PDA) at 200-900 degrees C. Microstructural evaluations revealed that the initial and HPT-processed microstructures consisted of a single fcc phase and there was no evidence for decomposition during severe plastic deformation. However, PDA at temperatures below 900 degrees C promoted the formation of a multiphase microstructure containing new precipitates and significant grain coarsening occurred after PDA at > 800 degrees C due to a dissolution of the precipitates. PDA at 800 degrees C for 60 min led to very good mechanical properties with an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation to failure of > 1000 MPa and similar to 40%, respectively. The results demonstrate that the minor addition of Ti to the CoCrFeNiMn alloy has no direct effect on the strengthening mechanisms but nevertheless this addition significantly increases the thermal stability of the precipitates and these precipitates are effective in minimizing grain coarsening. Therefore, the Ti addition plays an important role in strengthening the HEA.

A martensitic TiNi shape memory alloy was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) for 1.5, 10 and 20 turns followed by post-deformation annealing (PDA) at 673 and 773 K for various times in order to study the microstructural evolution during annealing and the shape memory effect (SME). Processing by HPT followed by the optimum PDA leads to an appropriate microstructure for the occurrence of a superior SME which is attributed to the strengthening of the martensitic matrix and grain refinement. A fully martensitic structure (B19' phase) with a very small grain size is ideal for the optimum SME. The results indicate that the nanocrystalline microstructures after PDA contain a martensitic 131.9 phase together with an R-phase and this latter phase diminishes the SME. Applying a higher annealing temperature or longer annealing time may remove the R-phase but also reduce the SME due to grain growth and the consequent decrease in the strength of the material. The results show the optimum procedure is a short-term anneal for 10 min at 673 K or only 1.5 min at 773 K after 1.5 turns of HPT processing to produce a maximum recovered strain of similar to 8.4% which shows more than 50% improvement compared with the solution-annealed condition.

A CoCrFeNiMn high-entropy alloy (HEA) with an addition of 2 at% Ti was processed by high-pressure torsion to produce a grain size of similar to 30 nm and then tested in tension at elevated temperatures from 873 to 1073 K using strain rates from 1.0 x 10(-3) to 1.0 x 10(-1) s(-1). The alloy exhibited excellent ductility at these elevated temperatures including superplastic elongations with a maximum elongation of 830% at a temperature of 973 K. It is shown that the Ti addition contributes to the formation of precipitates and, combined with the sluggish diffusion in the HEA, grain growth is inhibited to provide a reasonable stability in the fine-grained structure at elevated temperatures. By comparison with the conventional CoCrFeNiMn HEA, the results demonstrate that the addition of a minor amount of Ti produces a smaller grain size, a higher volume fraction of precipitates and a significant improvement in the superplastic properties.