A comparative study on the evolution of microstructure and hardness during monotonic and cyclic high pressure torsion of CoCuFeMnNi high entropy alloy

Discs of CoCuFeMnNi face centered cubic high entropy alloy were subjected to monotonic and cyclic high pressure torsion (HPT) in a single step and multiple steps of 5° forward and reverse cycle for 100° and 360° twist, respectively, under 5 GPa pressure at room temperature. It was observed that the 100° cyclic HPT sample shows the highest hardness at the periphery comparable to 360° monotonic HPT sample, while the cyclic 360° HPT sample shows the lowest hardness throughout the sample. High hardness of 100° cyclic HPT sample can be attributed to finer grain size and unstable dislocation substructure by continuous change in strain path from initial compression to forward—reverse torsion, while stable dislocation structure corresponding to shear contributes to increase in hardness from 100° to 360° for monotonic HPT sample. The unstable dislocation substructure promotes grain boundary migration—enabled grain growth leading to low hardness throughout the 360° cyclic HPT sample.