Part IX – September 1969 – Communications - Deformation Parameters of Ferrovac E Iron and Ferrovac E-0.15 Pct Ti Alloy in the Temperature Range 253° to 473° K

NUMEROUS studies have been reported on how the mechanical properties of a bcc metal are affected by interstitial solute atoms in the temperature range where appreciable diffusion occurs in finite time. Only recently, though, has work on an "interstitial-free" iron been reported, this by Leslie and sober,' on an Fe-0.15 pct Ti alloy. The data was limited to a maximum temperature of 296°K. This work presents a systematic study of the flow stress and the activation volume of a similar material as a function of plastic deformation over the temperature range 253" to 473°K. The material studied was Ferrovac E iron containing 0.01 wt pct C and 0.0002 wt pct N annealed at 870°C for 1 hr, and the same iron with an addition of 0.15 wt pct Ti annealed at 870°C for 80 hr; cooling rates being 75°C per hr. In the latter alloy depletion of interstitials in the a-iron matrix associated with the second phase formation was expected. The temperature dependence of the flow stress was measured at 6 = 3.33 x 10-5 sec-1 from 253" to 473°K as a function of the deformation in 0.01 intervals from 0.03 to 0.12 strain. Results for two strains, 0.03 and 0.09 are shown in Fig. 1. The flow stress increased and reached a maximum in the Ferrovac E iron with increasing temperature, but showed a consistent gradual decrease in the Ferrovac E-0.15 pct Ti alloy. A yield point and Luders region, observed in Ferrovac E, was absent in the Ferrovac E-0.15 pct Ti alloy. Also, the Ferrovac E exhibited a serrated stress-strain behavior in the temperature range 330" to 400°K; dynamic strain-aging characteristics were absent for the titanium alloy. The activation volume was determined over the same temperature range by the method of stress relaxation at constant strain. Results are shown in Fig. 2. At the temperatures of serrated stress-strain behavior in Ferrovac E the activation volume was found to increase toward infinity and, as the temperature rose, to decrease, to about 100 to 200 v/b3. By contrast, the activation volume for the Ferrovac E-0.15 pct Ti alloy tended to increase continuously from the initial value of approximately 300 at 300°K to more than 800 at 473°K. Above 400°K, then, the corresponding activation volume values of Ferrovac E were less than that of the Ferrovac E-0.15 pct Ti alloy. The activation volumes, Fig. 2, appear to depend on dislocation-interstitial interaction in Ferrovac E and on dislocation-dislocation interaction in Ferrovac E-0.15 pct Ti alloy. The gradual increase in the latter metal is associated with thermally activated motion of dislocation segments.' The decrease of the activation volume in Ferrovac E above 400°K is probably related to the diminishing effect of interstitials on dislocations. Here, the interstitials can be moved along with a dislocation without appreciable drag. As indicated in Fig. 1, removal of interstitials