HARDENING OF LIGHTWEIGHT MULTI-PRINCIPAL ELEMENT TITANIUM-BASED ALLOY UNDER AR ION IRRADIATION

Abstract

Among new prospective materials multi-principal element alloys (MPEA) have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to their excellent corrosion and irradiation resistance as well as their good mechanical properties over a wide temperature range. The new lightweight multi-principal element titanium-based alloy 61Ti-10Cr-7Al11V-11Nb (at. %) with high ductility at room and elevated temperatures is studied. This single-phase bcc alloy was irradiated with 1.4 MeV Ar ions at room temperature and mid-range doses from 1 to 10 displacements per atom. The effect of irradiation is studied by examining the hardening. A comparison was performed with irradiation-induced hardening behaviour of MPEA, 316 austenitic stainless steel irradiated under an identical condition. It was shown that hardness increases with irradiation dose for all the materials studied, but this increase is lower in multi-principal element alloys both face-centered cubic (FCC) and body-centered cubic (BCC) structures than in stainless conventional steel.