Vacancy effects on the mechanical behavior of B2-FeAl intermetallics

The present work addresses the impact of quenched-in thermal vacancies on the mechanical properties of B2 iron aluminides. For this reason different binary Fe-Al alloys with different histories of heat treatment were indented at room temperature. The contributions of mono- and bi-vacancies in addition to triple defects on the elastic, plastic and elastic-plastic transition were evaluated using nanoindentation technique. In the samples containing bi-vacancies, the increase of the hardness was much more pronounced compared to the mono-vacancies.