Systematic Development of Eutectic High Entropy Alloys by Thermodynamic Modeling and Experimentation: An Example of the CoCrFeNi-Mo System

Face centered cubic (FCC) high-entropy alloys (HEA) exhibit excellent ductility while body centered cubic (BCC) HEAs are characterized by high strength. Development of fine two-phase eutectic microstructure (consisting of a tough phase such as fcc and a hard phase such as bcc/intermetallic) can help in obtaining an extraordinary combination of strength and ductility in HEAs. Designing eutectic high entropy alloys is an extremely difficult task for which different empirical and non-empirical methods have been previously tried. In the present study, the possibility of developing a eutectic microstructure by the addition of Mo to CoCrFeNi was evaluated by calculation of the pseudo-binary phase diagram. Experimental results validated the presence of eutectic reaction in the calculated phase diagrams; however, small changes in the calculated phase diagrams were proposed. It has been shown that calculated pseudo-binary phase diagrams can provide a very good starting point for the development of eutectic HEAs and help in exponentially reducing the amount of experimental effort that may be required otherwise. Eutectic mixture consisting of FCC (A2) phase and intermetallic phases (σ and μ) was successfully obtained by the addition of Mo to the CoCrFeNi system. The development of the eutectic microstructure showed a profound effect on the mechanical properties. Hardness of the samples increased from 150 HV for CoCrFeNiMo0.1 to 425.5 HV for CoCrFeNiMo1.0, whereas yield strength increased from around 218 MPa for CoCrFeNiMo0.1 to around 1100 MPa for CoCrFeNiMo1.0.

Thermodynamic Modeling of Phase Equilibria in the FeO-Al2O3-Cr2O3 and MgO-Al2O3-Cr2O3 Systems

Thermodynamic modeling of phase equilibria and further construction of a full projection of the liquidus surface in the FeO–Al2O3–Cr2O3 and MgO–Al2O3–Cr2O3 systems were carried out. Theories of sub-regular ionic solutions, regular ionic solutions and ideal ionic solutions were used for calculation. Values of energy parameters of the used thermodynamic models were obtained in the course of the research. These values might be applicable for further modeling of more complex oxide slag systems which are formed in the process of manufacture of chromic steels. Calculated phase diagrams for the FeO–Al2O3–Cr2O3 and MgO–Al2O3–Cr2O3 systems were compared with available data from literature sources.

Simultaneous Temperature and Strain Measurements Using Polarization-Maintaining Few-Mode Bragg Gratings

Simultaneous measurement of temperature and strain was demonstrated using a polarization-maintaining few-mode Bragg grating (PM-FMF-FBG) based on the wavelength and phase modulation of the even L P 11 mode. The wavelength shift sensitivity and the interrogated phase sensitivity of the temperature and strain were measured to be 10 pm·°C−1 and 0.73 pm·με−1 and −3.2 × 10−2 rad·°C−1 and 4 × 10−4 rad·με−1, respectively, with a discrimination efficiency of 98%. The polarization interference led to selective polarization excitation of the reflection spectra, and the calculated phase sensitivity agreed with the experimental results.

On Gibbs Energy for the Metastable bcc_A2 Phase with a Thermal Vacancy in Metals and Alloys

An approach was proposed to obtain a reasonable thermodynamic description of a thermal vacancy in the metastable disordered body centered cubic (bcc_A2) phase, which had been consistently ignored in previous thermodynamic assessments. The present approach was first applied to obtain the thermodynamic descriptions for pure metastable bcc Ni and Zn, and then in the binary Ni-Zn system. The thermodynamic descriptions for both the metastable disordered bcc_A2 phase and the stable ordered bcc_B2  phases in the Ni-Zn binary system were updated based on the corresponding experimental equilibria. With these updated thermodynamic descriptions, several drawbacks, including the multiple solutions for thermal vacancy concentrations and the artificial phase boundaries in previous assessments, can be avoided. Moreover, the calculated phase boundaries and invariant reactions related to the  phase agree well with the experimental data.