Nanocrystallization process and mechanism in a nickel alloy subjected to surface severe plastic deformation

Bulk components made of a Ni-base C-2000 alloy with a face-centered cubic crystal structure and a very low stacking fault energy have been severely plastically deformed at the surface region to attain a grain size gradient ranging from nanocrystalline at the surface to coarse grained in the bulk. The evolution of microstructural characteristics has been studied as a function of the processing time employing a variety of analytical techniques, including extensive conventional and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy analyses. The thickness of the nanocrystalline surface layer is found to increase with the processing time. Deformation twinning is ubiquitous and occurs at the earliest stage of deformation and the deepest region of the material where plastic deformation has taken place in the surface severe plastic deformation process. A grain-refinement mechanism led by deformation twins and complemented by dislocation activity has been put forth to explain the nanocrystallization of the coarse-grained material employed in this investigation.