TY - CONF A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Transitions from scale-free to scale-dependent fluctuations in plasticity N2 - Plastic deformation in crystals is mediated by the motion of line defects known as dislocations. For decades, dislocation activity has been treated as a homogeneous, smooth continuous process that relies on well-average quantities. However, it is now recognized that plasticity can be determined by long-range correlated and intermittent collective dislocation activity, known as avalanches. These abrupt plastic fluctuations often exhibit pure power-law scaling or truncated power-law scaling, which indicates at least some degree of scale-free dislocation behavior. Intriguingly, such statistical signatures can persist across scales exceeding those of the material’s microstructure, raising the question of what relationship there may be between structure and long-range correlated dislocation activity that underlie power-law scaling. In this talk, we address this question by highlighting examples in which a transition from scale-free to scale-dependent plastic deformation is observed either due to changing external testing conditions (stress-state or temperature) or by tuning the microstructure. In particular, we will focus on the details of the temperature-driven change, that demonstrates how scale-free intermittent flow in body-centered cubic Nb is progressively quenched out with decreasing temperature. The plastic response of Nb is shown to be bimodal across the studied temperature regime, with conventional thermally-activated smooth plastic flow coexisting with sporadic bursts controlled by athermal screw dislocation activity, thereby violating the classical notion of temperature-dependent screw dislocation motion at low temperatures. An abrupt increase of the athermal avalanche component is identified at the critical temperature of the material. We combine the experimental observations with 3D dislocation dynamics simulations, identify a possible origin to athermal screw activity, and discuss the co-existence scale-free and scale-dependent plasticity. T2 - Cairo Symposium on The Physics of Metal Plasticity CY - Cairo, Egypt DA - 05.09.2023 KW - Plastic deformation KW - Dislocations KW - Avalanches PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-60648 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bordeenithikasem, Punnathat A1 - Carpenter, Kalind C. A1 - Hofmann, Douglas C. A1 - White, Victor E. A1 - Yee, Karl Y. A1 - Rizzardi, Quentin A1 - Maher, Jacob A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Miniaturized bulk metallic glass gripping structures for robotic mobility platforms N2 - Advancements in bulk metallic glass thermoplastic forming unleash the potential to fabricate microscale metallic features with unparalleled precision and durability, i.e. microspine gripping structures for mobility platforms on planetary or in-space robots. Four designs of grippers were fabricated and rigorously tested. Coefficient of friction on four test surfaces were measured and compared to SiC paper and Velcro. The hardness and elasticity of the bulk metallic glasses make them a game-changer in the field, offering a superior alternative to conventional nonmetallic grippers. KW - Bulk metallic glasses KW - Thermoplastic forming KW - Mobility KW - Microspine PY - 2024 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2024.03.040 SN - 0094-5765 VL - 219 SP - 399 EP - 407 PB - Elsevier Ltd. CY - Amsterdam, Niederlande AN - OPUS4-60182 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Elastic Microstructures in Metallic Glasses N2 - Metallic glasses (MGs) are disordered solids that exhibit a range of outstanding mechanical, thermomechanical, and functional properties. Whilst being a promising class of structural materials, well-defined and exploitable structure-property relationships are still lacking. This offsets them strongly from the crystalline counterparts, for which length-scale based property determination has been key for decades. In recent years, both atomistic simulations and experiments have nurtured the view of heterogeneities that manifest themselves either as a structural partitioning into well-relaxed percolated network components and more frustrated domains in atomistic simulations, or as spatially-resolved property fluctuations revealed with atomic force microscopy. These signatures depend sensitively on the processing history and likely reflect emerging medium-range order fluctuations at the scale of 1-10 nanometers. Here we demonstrate and discuss the emergence of spatially resolved property fluctuations at length scales that are one to two orders of magnitude larger. Such long-range decorrelation length scales are hard to reconcile in a monolithic glass but may offer the perspective of experimentally easy-to-access length-scale based structure-property relationships. Whilst long-range property fluctuations can be seen in both the plastic and elastic response, we focus here on high-throughput elastic nanoindentation mapping across the surface of a Zr-based model glass. After a deconvolution of surface topography and curvature effects, the spatially-resolved elastic response reveals an elastic microstructure with a correlation length of ca. 150-170 nm. Analytical scanning-transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is used to link the elastic property fluctuations to the chemistry and structure of the MG. In concert, nano-elastic mapping and STEM suggests that structural variations in the glass are responsible for the unexpectedly large length scales. We discuss these findings in terms of the materials processing history and the perspective of exploiting nanoindentation-based spatial mapping to uncover structural length scales in atomically disordered solids. T2 - 7th International Indentation Workshop – IIW7 CY - Hyderabad, India DA - 17.12.2023 KW - Metallic glass KW - Nanoindentation KW - Microstructure PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-60692 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stinville, J.C. A1 - Charpagne, M.A. A1 - Maaß, Robert A1 - Proudhon, H. A1 - Ludwig, W. A1 - Callahan, P.G. A1 - Wang, F. A1 - Beyerlein, I.J. A1 - Echlin, M.P. A1 - Pollock, T.M. T1 - Insights into Plastic Localization by Crystallographic Slip from Emerging Experimental and Numerical Approaches N2 - Advanced experimental and numerical approaches are being developed to capture the localization of plasticity at the nanometer scale as a function of the multiscale and heterogeneous microstructure present in metallic materials. These innovative approaches promise new avenues to understand microstructural effects on mechanical properties, accelerate alloy design, and enable more accurate mechanical property prediction. This article provides an overview of emerging approaches with a focus on the localization of plasticity by crystallographic slip. New insights into the mechanisms and mechanics of strain localization are addressed. The consequences of the localization of plasticity by deformation slip for mechanical properties of metallic materials are also detailed. KW - Slip localization KW - Metallic materials KW - Experimental and numerical techniques KW - Mechanical properties KW - Plasticity PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-578398 DO - https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-matsci-080921-102621 SN - 1531-7331 VL - 53 SP - 275 EP - 317 AN - OPUS4-57839 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ikeda, Yuki A1 - Ni, H.C. A1 - Chakraborty, A. A1 - Ghassemi-Armaki, H. A1 - Zuo, J.M. A1 - Darvishi Kamachali, Reza A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Segregation-induced grain-boundary precipitation during early stages of liquid-metal embrittlement of an advanced high-strength steel N2 - Liquid-metal embrittlement (LME) of galvanized (Zn-coated) advanced high-strength steels is a long-known problem in materials science. Here we reveal the initial microstructural processes underneath the Zn-coating that lead to LME-microcrack initiation in the steel substrate. We track the microstructural evolution during the first tens of milliseconds and find pronounced signatures of Fe-Zn intermetallic precipitation in both ferrite grain boundaries and at internal ferrite-oxide phase boundaries. In concert with novel CALPHAD-integrated density-based thermodynamic modelling, we demonstrate that Zn-rich intermetallic phase-nucleation can occur at markedly low processing temperatures due to a segregation transition. We show that a small Znenrichment caused by Zn bulk-diffusion during the initial temperature rise in a joining process is sufficient to induce the segregation transition and subsequent nucleation of Fe-Zn intermetallic grain-boundary phases, which the experiments link to crack initiation sites. These findings direct focus onto LME-controlling microstructural and thermodynamic phenomena at temperatures below the ductility trough and the austenite formation temperature. KW - Resistance spot welding KW - Liquid-metal embrittlement KW - Steels KW - Grain boundaries PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-581067 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2023.119243 VL - 259 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - Elsevier Ltd AN - OPUS4-58106 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rizzardi, Q. A1 - McElfresh, C. A1 - Sparks, G. A1 - Stauffer, D. A1 - Marian, J. A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Mild-to-wild plastic transition is governed by athermal screw dislocation slip in bcc Nb N2 - Plastic deformation in crystals is mediated by the motion of line defects known as dislocations. For decades, dislocation activity has been treated as a homogeneous, smooth continuous process. However, it is now recognized that plasticity can be determined by longrange correlated and intermittent collective dislocation processes, known as avalanches. Here we demonstrate in body-centered cubic Nb how the long-range and scale-free dynamics at room temperature are progressively quenched out with decreasing temperature, eventually revealing intermittency with a characteristic length scale that approaches the Burgers Vector itself. Plasticity is shown to be bimodal across the studied temperature regime, with conventional thermally-activated smooth plastic flow (‘mild’) coexisting with sporadic Bursts (‘wild’) controlled by athermal screw dislocation activity, thereby violating the classical Notion of temperature-dependent screw dislocation motion at low temperatures. An abrupt increase of the athermal avalanche component is identified at the critical temperature of the material. Our results indicate that plasticity at any scale can be understood in terms of the coexistence of these mild and wild modes of deformation, which could help design better alloys by suppressing one of the two modes in desired temperature Windows. KW - Plastic deformation KW - Microplastic stress KW - Intermittent microplasticity PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-543927 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28477-4 VL - 13 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - Nature AN - OPUS4-54392 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tielemann, Christopher A1 - Reinsch, Stefan A1 - Maaß, Robert A1 - Deubener, J. A1 - Müller, Ralf T1 - Internal nucleation tendency and crystal surface energy obtained from bond energies and crystal lattice data N2 - We present an easy-to-apply method to predict structural trends in the internal nucleation tendency of oxide glasses. The approach is based on calculated crystal fracture surface energies derived from easily accessible diatomic bond energy and crystal lattice data. The applicability of the method is demonstrated on literature nucleation data for isochemically crystallizing oxide glasses. KW - Glass KW - Nucleation tendency KW - Fracture surface energy KW - Crystal lattice KW - Bond energy PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-548814 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nocx.2022.100093 SN - 2590-1591 VL - 14 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-54881 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holzer, Marco A1 - Johansen, Sidsel M. A1 - Christensen, Johan F.S. A1 - Smedskjaer, Morten M. A1 - Cicconi, Maria Rita A1 - de Ligny, Dominique A1 - Müller, Ralf A1 - de Camargo, Andrea S.S. A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Direct connection between secondary relaxation mode and fracture toughness in alkali-aluminosilicate glasses N2 - Oxide glasses are intrinsically brittle, lacking sufficient atomic-scale mechanisms that can relax mechanical stresses in the vicinity of a propagating crack. As a result, fracture is typically well-captured by considering local bond rupture at the crack tip. Here we demonstrate that barrier energies related to the low-temperature 𝛾-relaxation mode in alkali-aluminosilicate glasses are inversely related to the fracture toughness measured via standardized three-point bending fracture experiments. This holds true for both a series with varying cations (Li, Na, K) and one with varying Li concentration. The structural rationale for this finding is gained via Raman spectroscopy. The findings suggest that a fundamental structural relaxation mode measured on bulk specimens can serve as an effective guideline for fracture toughness of oxide glasses. Data for additional silicate glasses support this conclusion. KW - Fracture toughness KW - Oxide glass KW - Mechanical properties KW - Alkali-aluminosilicate glasses KW - Internal friction PY - 2026 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-651540 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtadv.2025.100669 SN - 2590-0498 VL - 29 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Elsevier Ltd. CY - Amsterdam, Niederlande AN - OPUS4-65154 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Moschetti, Michael A1 - Lemiasheuski, Anton A1 - Bajer, Evgenia A1 - Porohovoj, Ilja A1 - Göbel, Artur A1 - Pfennig, Anja A1 - Bettge, Dirk A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Robot-Assisted Automated Serial-Sectioning and Imaging for 3D Microstructural Investigations N2 - Comprehensive materials characterization requires precise structural knowledge beyond traditional methods. The robot-assisted automated serial-sectioning and imaging (RASI) platform, developed at BAM, provides automated 3D metallographic reconstructions, enabling detailed microstructural analysis of technical materials. This article showcases RASI’s capabilities through several case studies, including characterization of lamellar graphite in gray cast iron, porosity in sintered steel, melt pool morphology in additively manufactured 316L stainless steel, defects in metal-ceramic packages, and oxidation behavior in an Fe-12Cr-2Co alloy. By automating sample handling, mechanical serial-sectioning, etching, and optical imaging, RASI captures complex 3D microstructures with high precision and at high speed. This approach reveals microstructural features missed by 2D analysis, even using stereological assumptions. Specifically, statistically rare and large microstructural features, such as secondary phases or interconnected pores, become apparent, which 2D methods cannot reveal. The generated volumetric data can furthermore serve as quantitative reference datasets (i.e., the ‘ground truth’) essential for validating other 3D characterization techniques and computational models, helping to bridge the gap between predictive simulations and real-world material behavior. RASI’s modular design makes it a flexible tool that provides realistic 3D insights into materials, which can be used for advanced materials research, process optimization, and quality control. KW - 3D metallography KW - Automated microstructure characterization KW - Image segmentation KW - Mechanical polishing based serial-sectioning KW - Process-microstructure-property relationships KW - Quantitative microstructure PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-649614 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202502202 SN - 1527-2648 VL - 28 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Wiley-VCH GmbH AN - OPUS4-64961 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ikeda, Yuki A1 - Wallis, Theophilus A1 - Maaß, Robert A1 - Darvishi Kamachali, Reza T1 - Thermodynamics of grain boundary segregation transition and their relevance for liquid metal embrittlement in Fe-Zn system N2 - Grain boundaries (GBs) are common sites of failure in polycrystalline materials. Recently, a massive Zn segregation transition at Fe GBs was discovered and shown to act as a potent precursor of liquid metal embrittlement (LME) in the Fe-Zn system (Kamachali et al., Scripta Materialia 238 (2024) 115758). In this study, we elaborate on how temperature, GB type and the chemo-structurally coupled phase decomposition at the GB impact this segregation transition. CALPHAD and atomistic simulation data were utilized as inputs to conduct quantitative density-based thermodynamic modeling and phase-field simulations across various GBs, alloy compositions, and temperatures. We reveal that once the segregation transition becomes possible, the GB structural variation stabilizes spinodally formed Zn-rich phases within the GB region, with a higher tendency in disordered GBs. GB phase diagrams were constructed to identify and analyze the range of critical temperatures and alloy compositions associated with the segregation transition. The phase diagrams reveal that the miscibility gap for more disordered GB expands and, although the segregation transition is inevitable and occurs for all GBs, the barrier to triggering it is lower for more disordered GBs. Based on our thermodynamic analyses, potential processing modifications and GB engineering strategies for mitigating segregation-induced LME are thoroughly discussed. KW - Thermodynamics KW - Phase-Field Modelling KW - Steels PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-634145 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2025.121134 SN - 1359-6454 VL - 296 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Elsevier BV AN - OPUS4-63414 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -