Hot deformation and processing maps of an Fe3Al intermetallic alloy

The deformation behavior of an Fe–28Al–5Cr–0.08Zr–0.04B (at.%) intermetallic alloy under hot compression conditions was characterized in the temperature range of 600–1100 °C and strain rate range of 0.001–100 s−1. Processing maps were calculated to evaluate the efficiency of the hot working and to recognize the instability regions of the flow behavior. The investigated alloy possesses the optimum hot-working conditions at 1100 °C and 0.001 s−1, since the material undergoes dynamic recrystallization to produce a fine-grained structure with a high fraction of high-angle boundaries (∼70%). At lower temperature the material exhibited “large grained superplasticity” with a peak efficiency of ∼60% at 1000 °C and 0.001 s−1. These parameters are the optimum ones for superplastic working of that alloy. The occurrence of large grained superplasticity is attributed to the formation of a subgrain structure within the large original grains and higher strain-rate sensitivity. The material also exhibits flow instabilities due to flow localization at lower temperatures (<700 °C) and higher strain rates (>0.1 s−1).