Nanostructured materials exhibit attractive mechanical properties that are often superior to the performance of their coarse-grained counterparts. However, one major drawback is their low ductility, which limits their potential applications. In this paper, different strategies to obtain both high strength and enhanced ductility in nanostructured materials are reported for Ti-base and Zr-base alloys. The first approach consists of designing an in-situ composite microstructure containing ductile bcc or hop dendrites that are homogeneously dispersed in a nanostructured matrix. The second approach is related to refining the eutectic structure of a Ti-Fe-Sn alloy. For all these materials, the microstructure, mechanical properties, deformation and fracture mechanisms will be discussed.

Nanostructured or partially amorphous Al-and Zr-based alloys are attractive candidates for advanced high-strength lightweight materials. Such alloys can be prepared by quenching from the melt or by powder metallurgy using mechanical attrition techniques. This work focuses on mechanically attrited powders and their consolidation into bulk specimens. Selected examples of mechanical deformation behavior are presented, revealing that the properties can be tuned within a wide range of strength and ductility as a function of size and volume fraction of the different phases.

Nanostructured high strength metastable Al-, Mg- and Ti-based alloys containing different amorphous, quasicrystalline and nanocrystalline phases are synthesized by non-equilibrium processing techniques. Such alloys can be prepared by quenching from the melt or by powder metallurgy techniques. This paper focuses on one hand on mechanically alloyed and ball milled powders containing different volume fractions of amorphous or nano-(quasi)crystalline phases, consolidated bulk specimens and, on the other hand. on cast specimens containing different constituent phases with different length-scale. As one example. - based metallic glass matrix composites are produced by mechanical alloying of elemental powder mixtures containing up to 30 vol.% particles. The comparison with the particle-free metallic glass reveals that the nanosized second phase oxide particles do not significantly affect the glass-forming ability upon mechanical alloying despite some limited particle dissolution. A supercooled liquid region with an extension of about 50 K can be maintained in the presence of the oxides. The distinct viscosity decrease in the supercooled liquid regime allows to consolidate the powders into bulk samples by uniaxial hot pressing. The additions increase the mechanical strength of the composites compared to the metallic glass. The second example deals with Al-Mn-Ce and Al-Cu-Fe composites with quasicrystalline particles as reinforcements, which are prepared by quenching from the melt and by powder metallurgy. (x =5,6,7) melt-spun ribbons containing a major quasicrystalline phase coexisting with an Al-matrix on a nanometer scale are pulverized by ball milling. The powders are consolidated by hot extrusion. Grain growth during consolidation causes the formation of a micrometer-scale microstructure. Mechanical alloying of leads to single-phase quasicrystalline powders. which are blended with different volume fractions of pure Al-powder and hot extruded forming (x = 40,50,60,80) micrometer-scale composites. Compression test data reveal a high yield strength of 700 MPa and a ductility of 5% for than the Al-Mn-Ce bulk samples. The strength level of the Al-Cu-Fe alloys is 550 MPa significantly lower. By the addition of different amounts of aluminum, the mechanical properties can be tuned to a wide range. Finally, a bulk metallic glass-forming Ti-Cu-Ni-Sn alloy with in situ formed composite microstructure prepared by both centrifugal and injection casting presents more than 6% plastic strain under compressive stress at room temperature. The in situ formed composite contains dendritic hcp Ti solid solution precipitates and a few -(Cu, Sn) grains dispersed in a glassy matrix. The composite micro- structure can avoid the development of the highly localized shear bands typical for the room temperature defor-mation of monolithic glasses. Instead, widely developed shear bands with evident protuberance are observed. resulting in significant yielding and homogeneous plastic deformation over the entire sample.