On the structural and phase transformations in solids induced by severe plastic deformation

Based on the analysis of our own and literature data, as well as on the principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, the influence of plastic deformation on the diffusion, structural, and phase transformations in solids at different temperatures is considered. The main regularities for all effects can be explained from a unified point of view based on the attainment of the critical internal energy in solids due to the high density of accumulated, interacting, and moving defects. This leads to various transformations at the expense of growth in the the phase energy to the extent that the thermodynamics of alloys and their phase diagrams change up to the transition of the alloys into to a state that, from the view-point of thermodynamics, corresponds to liquid. The high number density of moving defects facilitates the diffusion processes, which contributes to rapid transformations, even at liquid nitrogen temperatures.