Effect of Quenching on the Grain Boundary Relaxation in PM2000 ODS Alloy

Grain boundary relaxation in a Fe-based ODS alloy is studied by internal friction measurements. It is found that a grain-boundary peak appears at a lower temperature in the quenched specimens than that in the annealed specimens. The activation energy of the peak is H = 2.82±0.11 eV for the former while H = 2.53±0.08 eV for the latter. In addition, a new relaxation peak is observed at the high temperature side of the grain boundary peak in the quenched specimens with an activation energy of 4.41±0.25 eV. The height of the peak increases with increasing quenching temperature. The results suggest that both the shift of the grain-boundary peak and the appearance of the new peak are due to increasing vacancies by quenching that are favourable for the motion of the grain boundaries.