Effects of grain size on body-centered-cubic martensitic transformation in metastable Fe46Co30Cr10Mn5Si7V2 high-entropy alloy

Abstract

Systematic investigation of microstructure characterization and mechanical property was performed on metastable Fe46Co30Cr10Mn5Si7V2 high-entropy alloy (HEA) with varying the grain size. The grain coarsening led to the decrease in stability of face-centered-cubic (FCC) phase, and consequently generated the formation of laminate-morphology hexagonal-close-packed (HCP) and butterfly-morphology body-centered-cubic (BCC) martensite. During the tensile test, a transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) from the FCC to BCC via the intermediate HCP occurred, and the accelerated transformation rate of BCC increased the strain-hardening rate. Our results suggest that microstructural evolutions related to thermally-induced martensitic transformation and strain-hardening mechanisms can be well interpreted by understanding the FCC to HCP to BCC martensitic transformation. (C) 2020 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.