Thermally activated dislocation mechanism in Mo studied by indentation, compression and impact testing

Abstract

Abstract Body-centered cubic metals like molybdenum and tungsten are interesting structural materials for high-temperature applications. These metals, are however, brittle at low homologous temperature, caused by the limited mobility of screw dislocations. In this study, the thermally activated deformation mechanisms in bcc Mo have been investigated using strain rate jump nanoindentation and compression tests as well as Charpy V-notch impact testing. The material shows a significant softening with increasing temperature and a maximum in strain rate sensitivity is found at the critical temperature, before decreasing again in the ductile regime. The activation volume, however, showed a distinct increase from about 5 b3 at the onset of the brittle to ductile transition temperature. Here we propose to use temperature-dependent nanoindentation strain rate jump testing and the activation volume as a complementary approach to provide some indication of the brittle to ductile transition temperature of bcc metals. Graphic Abstract