Practical Approbation of Thermodynamic Criteria for the Consolidation of Bimetallic and Functionally Gradient Materials

This study concerns the key problem of determining the conditions for the consolidation or fracture of bimetallic compounds and high-gradient materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion. The well-known approach to determining the strength is based on the assessment of the critical energy release rates during fracture, depending on the conditions of loading (the portion of shear loading). Unfortunately, most of the experimental results cannot be used directly to select suitable fracture toughness criteria before such a connection is made. This especially applies to the region of interphase interaction, when it is required to estimate the internal energy of destruction accumulated during the preparation of the joint in the adhesion layer within the range of 20–50 μm. Hence, criteria for the adhesive consolidation of bimetallic compound layers were obtained on the basis of the thermodynamics of nonequilibrium processes. The analysis of the quality of the joint using the obtained criteria was carried out on the basis of the calculation of isochoric and isobaric heat capacities and coefficients of thermal expansion of multiphase layers. The applicability of the criteria for the qualitative assessment of the adhesion of layers is demonstrated in the example of bimetallic joints of steel 316L—aluminum alloy AlSi10Mg obtained by the SLM method at various fusion modes.

Nano-Gradient Materials Prepared by Rotary Swaging

Gradient nanostructured metallic materials with a nanostructured surface layer show immense potential for various industrial applications because of their outstanding mechanical, fatigue, corrosion, tribological properties, etc. In the past several decades, various methods for fabricating gradient nanostructure have been developed. Nevertheless, the thickness of gradient microstructure is still in the micrometer scale due to the limitation of preparation techniques. As a traditional but potential technology, rotary swaging (RS) allows gradient stress and strain to be distributed across the radial direction of a bulk cylindrical workpiece. Therefore, in this review paper, we have systematically summarized gradient and even nano-gradient materials prepared by RS. We found that metals processed by RS usually possess inverse nano-gradient, i.e., nano-grains appear in the sample center, texture-gradient and dislocation density-gradient along the radial direction. Moreover, a broad gradient structure is distributed from center to edge of the whole processed rods. In addition, properties including micro-hardness, conductivity, corrosion, etc., of RS processed metals are also reviewed and discussed. Finally, we look forward to the future prospects and further research work for the RS processed materials.

Preparation of Gradient Materials with Molten Salts Electrodeposition

A new way of preparing W–Cu functional gradient materials (FGM) with molten salts electrodeposition is studied. The results show that, with the conditions of current density 70 mA·cm−2, electrodeposition temperature 700 °C and bidirectional pulse electrodepositing for 30 minutes (min), the Cu–Ni gradient layer prepared under this condition is widely used dense and smooth. Fundamental to the preparation of Cu–Ni functional gradient layer, Cu–Ni is used as a cathode to deposit W. Under the current density of 50 mA·cm−2, the time of 20 min, with bidirectional pulse electrodeposition, the Cu+Ni+W gradient layer has uniform composition gradient change and larger thickness. The W–Cu gradient materials prepared in this study have good cohesiveness. The addition of Ni would promote the inter-diffusion of Cu and W, and increase the diffusion coefficient significantly.

Surface phenomena of gradient materials

The behavior of third gradient materials is analyzed. They possess stress tensor fields of second, third and fourth order. Starting from the principle of virtual power, we derive the admissible boundary conditions. Those on free surfaces can only be obtained by the application of the divergence theorem of surfaces. On the other hand, such an application to fictitious internal cuts makes no sense although it is usually practiced. We prove that some of the boundary conditions on a free surface may be interpreted as the equilibrium conditions of a shell. So a crust shell exists on such a surface and a beam exists where patches of the surface meet. On the other hand, no such shells or beams can be found with fictitious surfaces in the interior of a continuum. Our finding does not depend on any specific constitutive assumption.

Extra plasticity governed by shear band deflection in gradient metallic glasses

Inspired by gradient materials in nature, advanced engineering components with controlled structural gradients have attracted significant research interest due to their exceptional combinations of properties. However, it remains challenging to generate structural gradients that penetrate through bulk materials, which is essential for achieving enhanced mechanical properties in metallic materials. Here, we propose a heat treatment engineering protocol to realize a controllable structural gradient in bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). By adjusting the holding time of cryogenic thermal cycling, a series of BMGs with gradient-distributed free volume contents from internal to external can be synthesized. Both mechanical testing and atomistic simulations demonstrate that the spatial gradient can endow BMGs with extra plasticity without sacrificing their ultrahigh strength. Such an enhanced mechanical property is governed by the gradient-induced deflection of shear deformation that fundamentally suppresses the unlimited shear localization on a straight plane that would be expected in BMGs without such a gradient.