On the low-cycle fatigue behavior of a multi-phase high entropy alloy with enhanced plasticity

A multi-phase non-equiatomic FeCrNiMnCo high entropy alloy (HEA) was fabricated using vacuum induction melting. Thermo-mechanical treatments consisting of cold rolling and annealing at 750 degrees C and 850 degrees C were employed to improve the mechanical properties of the HEA in focus. Tensile experiments revealed that yield strength and ultimate tensile strength levels can be enhanced significantly after thermo-mechanical processing (TMP). At the same time, ductility remains at an adequate level. Strain-controlled low-cycle fatigue (LCF) ex- periments were carried out in order to assess the mechanical properties of this HEA under cyclic loading con- ditions. At the same strain amplitude, the stress levels of the processed samples were considerably higher than that of the as-received counterpart. Similarly, fatigue lives of the former could surpass the base condition at the strain amplitudes of 0.2% and 0.4%; however, at the higher strain amplitudes, cyclic softening was observed. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed that phase transformation from face-centered cubic (FCC) to body-centered cubic (BCC/B2) took place at a higher occurrence with increasing strain amplitude (0.2% to 0.6%). Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies confirm that upon tensile deformation additional plasticity mechanisms, i.e., deformation twinning and phase transformation, contribute to the overall mechanical behavior of the multi-phase HEA.