The influence of electrical/thermal fields on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti₂AlNb alloy from the view of molecular dynamics

Abstract The mechanism of the electrical non-thermal effects on metals is still unclear. Simulations at the atomic level are used to obtain some causes of non-thermal electroplasticity. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the change of defects including vacancies, edge dislocations and screw dislocations in B2, α 2 and O phases of Ti 2 AlNb alloy in static or dynamic situations under pure thermal field and continuous/pulsed electric fields. External energy fields can restore most of these defects. Moreover, different energy input methods have the same restoration effect on defects in the same phase. Thus, the restoration of defects in Ti 2 AlNb alloy by an electric field is mainly based on the thermal effect. However, the uneven distribution of electro-induced atomic kinetic energy in uniaxial tension simultaneously reduces its deformation resistance. Non-thermal effects in the electrically-assisted processing of industrial-grade materials consist of the instantaneous atomic kinetic distribution imbalance induced by electrical pulses.