Role of Grain Boundary Strengthening for Increasing the Microhardness of Aluminum Alloys Irradiated by High-Current Pulsed Electron Beam

Authors V.V. Bryukhovetsky1 , V.V. Lytvynenko1 , D.E. Myla1 , O.L. Rak2
Affiliations

1Institute of Electrophysics and Radiation Technologies NAS of Ukraine, 61002 Kharkiv, Ukraine

2National Science Center «Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology», 61108 Kharkiv, Ukraine

Е-mail bvv260170@ukr.net
Issue Volume 17, Year 2025, Number 4
Dates Received 23 April 2025; revised manuscript received 20 August 2025; published online 29 August 2025
Citation V.V. Bryukhovetsky, V.V. Lytvynenko, et al., J. Nano- Electron. Phys. 17 No 4, 04002 (2025)
DOI https://doi.org/10.21272/jnep.17(4).04002
PACS Number(s) 07.05.Tp, 61.80.Fe, 87.63.Hg
Keywords High-current pulsed electron beam, Aluminum alloys, Microhardness (2) , Grain-boundary strengthening.
Annotation

The study features the fact shown on the example of a number of aluminum-based alloys (D16AT, 1933 and AA6111) that irradiation with high-current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB) with particle energy of 0.35 MeV, a beam current of 2.0 kA, a pulse duration of 5 s and a beam diameter of 3 cm leads to the formation of a surface layer with a modified structural-phase state. The formation of submicrocrystalline structure with a grain size of less than 1 µm is one of the main features of this state. The microhardness of the modified layer for all alloys increases by more than 30%. Based on these studies, the contributions of grain-boundary strengthening to the increase in microhardness of the HCPEB-remelted surface layer of the studied alloys were calculated. It is shown that grain-boundary strengthening is the key factor responsible for the higher microhardness of the surface layers of the studied alloys treated with HCPEB.

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