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 °C and 850 °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) experiments were carried out in order to assess the mechanical properties of this HEA under cyclic loading conditions. 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.