Fatigue Behaviour and Crack Initiation in CoCrFeNiMn High-Entropy Alloy Processed by Powder Metallurgy

Abstract

Single-phase equiatomic five-element high entropy alloy CoCrFeMnNi was prepared by powder metallurgy. Two materials with ultra-fine-grained microstructure were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) of ball-milled powder at two sintering times (5 and 10 min), assigned as HEA 5 and HEA 10, respectively. Basic microstructural and mechanical properties were evaluated. The median grain size of the microstructures was determined to be 0.4 and 0.6 μm for HEA 5 and HEA 10, respectively. The differences in the microstructure led to a significant change in strength and deformation characteristics evaluated at room temperature. The effect of cyclic loading was monitored by three-point bending fatigue test. The results show that even relatively small change in the microstructure causes a significant effect on fatigue life. The fatigue endurance limit was measured to be 1100 MPa and 1000 MPa for HEA 5 and HEA 10, respectively. The detailed fractographic analysis revealed that abnormally large grains, localised in the microstructure on the tensile loaded surface, were a typical fatigue initiation site. The formation of (nano) twins together with dislocation slips caused the crack nucleation because of the cyclic loading.