Atomistic Investigation of Elementary Dislocation Properties Influencing Mechanical Behaviour of $Cr_{15}Fe_{46}Mn_{17}Ni_{22}$ alloy and $Cr_{20}Fe_{70}Ni_{10}$ alloy

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to compare dislocation behaviors in a high entropy alloy and a stainless steel alloy, revealing higher dislocation movement resistance in the HEA and proposing a predictive mobility law.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed atomistic analysis of dislocation properties in a high entropy alloy, highlighting differences from conventional stainless steel alloys.

Findings

Higher critical stress needed for dislocation movement in HEA

Dislocation mobility can be predicted by a simple constitutive law

Dislocation dissociation distance varies with temperature and stress

Abstract

In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to investigate elementary dislocation properties in a Co-free high entropy (HEA) model alloy ($Cr_{15}Fe_{46}Mn_{17}Ni_{22}$ at. %) in comparison with a model alloy representative of Austenitic Stainless Steel (ASS) ($Cr_{20}Fe_{70}Ni_{10}$ at. %). Recently developed embedded-atom method (EAM) potentials were used to describe the atomic interactions in the alloys. Molecular Statics (MS) calculations were used to study the dislocation properties in terms of local stacking fault energy (SFE), dissociation distance while MD was used to investigate the dissociation distance under applied shear stress as a function of temperature and strain rate. It was shown that higher critical stress is required to move dislocations in the HEA alloy compared with the ASS model alloy. The theoretical investigation of simulation results of the dislocation mobility shows that a simple constitutive mobility law allows to predict dislocation velocity in both alloys over three orders of magnitude, covering the phonon drag regime and the thermally activated regime induced by dislocation unpinning from local hard configurations.