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Updated: May 29, 2025

Determining the Mechanical Strength of Ultra-Fine-Grained Metals
Published on: November 22, 2021
A high-entropy alloy showing gigapascal superelastic stress and nearly temperature-independent modulus
Junming Gou1, Guoxin Liu2, Tianzi Yang2
1Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, and State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China. goujunming@xjtu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
High-performance superelastic materials with a combination of high superelastic stress, large elastic recovery strain, and stable elastic modulus over a wide temperature range are highly desired for a variety of technological applications. Unfortunately, it is difficult to achieve these multi-functionalities simultaneously because most superelastic materials have to encounter the modulus softening effect and the limited superelastic stress, whereas most Elinvar-type materials show small elastic strain limit. Here, we report a (TiZrHf)44Ni25Cu15Co10Nb6 high-entropy alloy that meets all these requirements. This alloy also shows good cyclic stability, thermally-stable capacity for elastic energy storage, high micro-hardness and good corrosion resistance, allowing it to operate stably in hostile environments. We show that its multi-functionalities stem from a natural composite microstructure, containing a highly-distorted matrix phase with strain glass transition and various structural and compositional heterogeneities from micro- to nano-scale. Our findings may provide insight into designing high-entropy alloys with unconventional and technologically-important functional properties.
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