Room temperature control of grain orientation via directionally modulated current pulses

Abstract

Abstract Traditional approaches to control the microstructure of materials, such as annealing, require high temperature treatment for long periods of time. In this study, we present a room temperature microstructure manipulation method by using the mechanical momentum of electrical current pulses. In particular, a short burst of high-density current pulses with low duty cycle is applied to an annealed FeCrAl alloy, and the corresponding response of microstructure is captured by using Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD) analysis. We show evidence of controllable changes in grain orientation at specimen temperature around 28 °C. To demonstrate such microstructural control, we apply the current pulses in two perpendicular directions and observe the corresponding grain rotation. Up to 18° of grain rotation was observed, which could be reversed by varying the electropulsing direction. Detailed analysis at the grain level reveals that electropulsing in a specific direction induces clockwise rotation from their pristine state, while subsequent cross-perpendicular electropulsing results in an anticlockwise rotation. In addition, our proposed room temperature processing yields notable grain refinement, while the average misorientation and density of low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) remain unaltered. The findings of this study highlight the potentials of ‘convective diffusion’ in electrical current based materials processing science towards microstructural control at room temperature.