Phase field and room-temperature mechanical properties of C15 Laves phase in Nb–Hf–Cr and Nb–Ta–Cr alloy systems

Response to Comment on “Effects of X (V, W, Mo, Hf, Ta, Zr) additions on the ideal cleavage fracture of Cr2Nb: First-principles determination”

“…We are very sorry to miss Ref. [21] in our paper [2]. Here, we compare our calculated results [2] with the experimental ones of Ref.…”

“…[21] is about the mechanical properties of C15 Laves phase in Nb-Hf-Cr and Nb-Ta-Cr alloy systems. It presents some experimental results about the site occupancy of Ta and Hf in Cr 2 Nb and the effect of Ta and Hf on the fracture toughness of Cr 2 Nb.…”

Comments on “Effects of X (V, W, Mo, Hf, Ta, Zr) additions on the ideal cleavage fracture of Cr2Nb: First-principles determination” [Intermetallics 18(2010)65–69]

“…In fact, there are some experimental results on the site occupancy of Ta and Hf, such as Ref. [11]. The phase field, the alloying behavior and the room temperature fracture toughness of the C15 Laves phase in the NbeHfeCr and the NbeTaeCr ternary alloy systems were investigated by X-ray diffraction, density measurement and Vickers indentation.…”

“…According to Ref. [11], it was found that Nb and Hf (or Ta) atoms randomly substituted over the entire compositions along the pseudo-binary line between Cr 2 Nb and HfCr 2 (or TaCr 2 ) and suggested that the anti-site defect primarily dominated in the (Nb, Hf)-rich region of the C15 Laves phase along the pseudo-binary line between Cr 2 Nb and HfCr 2 . The fracture toughness of the ternary NbeHfeCr and NbeTaeCr Laves phase alloys was higher than those of the binary Cr 2 Nb, HfCr 2 and TaCr 2 Laves phase alloys, and decreased in the (Nb,Hf)-rich region of the C15 Laves phase.…”

“…In fact, as we have mentioned above there are some fracture experimental results on the site occupancy of Ta and Hf, such as Ref. [11]. However, the paper of Ref.…”