A research team comprising experts from City University of Hong Kong (CityU), University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST) and Zhejiang University (ZJU) discovered for the first time the deformation transitions of multiscale nanotwins (NTs) in austenitic stainless steel, which will help develop materials with higher strength and ductility.
Their research results have been published recently by the journal Nature Communications, in a paper titled âScale law of complex deformation transitions of nanotwins in stainless steelâ?.
Experiments revealed that deformation mechanisms would be completely different when the spacing between NTs is smaller than 5 nm, between 6 and 129 nm, and greater than 129 nm. Furthermore, secondary twinning occurs when NT is between 6 and 129 nm.
Through strenuous efforts of experiments and theoretical studies over the years, the research team established a deformation map of NTs ranging from several nanometers to hundreds of nanometres in austenitic stainless steel to show the deformation mechanisms of multiscale NTs. They also clearly discussed in their paper the intrinsic mechanisms and transformation processes of NTs with varying scale effects.
