The austenitic stability and strain-induced martensitic transformation behavior of a nanocrystalline FeNiCrMoC alloy were investigated. The alloy was fabricated by high-energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering. The phase fraction and grain size were measured using X-ray diffraction. The grain sizes of the milled powder and the sintered alloy were confirmed to be on the order of several nanometers. The variation in the austenite fraction according to compressive deformation was measured, and the austenite stability and strain-induced martensitic transformation behavior were calculated. The hardness was measured to evaluate the mechanical properties according to compression deformation, which confirmed that the hardness increased to 64.03 HRC when compressed up to 30%.

This study investigated the effect of adding Al–5Ti–1B grain refiner on the solidification microstructure and hot deformation behavior of direct-chill (DC) cast Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloys. The grain refiner significantly decreased the grain size and modified the morphology. Fine-grained (FG) alloys with grain refiners exhibit coarse secondary phases with a reduced number density compared to coarse-grained (CG) alloys without grain refiners. Dynamic recrystallization (DRX) was enhanced at higher compression temperatures and lower strain rates in the CG and FG alloys. Both particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) and continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) are enhanced in the FG alloys, resulting in decreased peak stress values (indicating DRX onset) at 450°C. The peak stress of the FG alloys was higher at 300-400°C than that of the CG alloys because of grain refinement hardening over softening by enhanced DRX.