Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effect of Pouring Temperature and Fluid Convection on Spherical Grains Formation

Spherical morphology is the typical characteristic of the microstructure in semi-solid slurries, while the formation mechanism of these spherical grains is still unclear, especially the migration of the solid-liquid interface under different process conditions. This study will focus on the effect of pouring temperature and swirling on the morphology of grains. A phase field-lattice-Boltzmann method using parallel computing and adaptive mesh refinement (Para-AMR) was employed to study the FCC α-Al phase evolution in binary Al-Si aluminum alloy. Study results represent that the pouring temperature has a significant influence on the morphology of the α-Al grains. Low pouring temperature is a benefit for the formation of spherical microstructures. And the swirling can refine the microstructure under high pouring temperature.

CHANGE IN THE SURFACE STRUCTURE OF SEMICONDUCTOR POLYMER FILMS DURING REVERSE OXIDATION-REDUCTION

Методом растровой электронной микроскопии исследована морфология поверхности пленок полупроводниковых полимеров: полианилина, поли-о-толуидина, поли- α -нафтиламина. Пленки получены электрохимическим синтезом из подкисленных минеральными кислотами растворов их мономеров методом циклической вольтамперометрии. Пленки сформированы на платиновых подложках, сделанных по принципу биметаллических пластинок. Процессы обратимого окисления и восстановления полученных пленок осуществляли с применением электрического тока в водных растворах соляной кислоты, что приводило к допированию полимеров хлорид анионами. Показано, что поверхность пленок полианилина и поли-о-толуидина имеет схожую структуру, состоящую из многочисленных сферических зерен размером от 1 до 5 мкм. Поверхность пленок поли- α -нафтиламина существенно отличается и состоит из дендронов и крупных пор. При этом, во всех случаях наблюдаемые надмолекулярные образования для пленок в окисленном состоянии имеют несколько больший размер, чем для пленок в восстановленном состоянии, что обусловлено изменением конформации макромолекул. The surface morphology of films of semiconducting polymers: polyaniline, poly-o-toluidine, poly-α-naphthylamine was studied by scanning electron microscopy. The films were obtained by electrochemical synthesis from solutions of their monomers acidified with mineral acids by the method of cyclic voltammetry. The films are formed on platinum substrates made according to the principle of bimetallic plates. The processes of reversible oxidation and reduction of the obtained films were carried out using an electric current in aqueous solutions of hydrochloric acid, which led to the doping of polymers with chloride anions. It was shown that the surface of films of polyaniline and poly-o-toluidine has a similar structure, consisting of numerous spherical grains ranging in size from 1 to 5 pm. The surface of poly-α-naphthylamine films is significantly different and consists of dendrons and large pores. In this case, in all cases, the observed supramolecular formations for films in the oxidized state are somewhat larger than for films in the reduced state, which is due to a change in the conformation of macromolecules.

DECORATING ENAMEL INSERTS WITH ENAMEL GRANULATION

The results of an experimental study of the combined enamelling technique are presented – enamel with enamel granulation. Original enamel inserts, decorated with enamel granules of various colours and sizes, were obtained, the use of which expands the possibilities of decorative enamelling. It is shown that different degrees of fusion of the enamel grain on the prepared base gives different artistic effects. Spherical grains, qualitatively adhered to the enamel ground, give a more explicit, spectacular relief; focus on specific elements of the pictorial composition. Melted hemispherical grains give a light texture to the composition, support and complement the enamel painting. Recommendations are given on the formation of granulation, preparation of enamel soil, drawing of details, firing temperatures of enamels to obtain high-quality granulation and colourful artistic composition, as well as other technological and design aspects of the decorating process.

The Effect of Cu Target Pad Roughness and Solution Flow on the Growth Mode and Void Formation in Electroless Cu Films

The effect of the Cu target pad roughness on the growth mode of electroless Cu from two different Cu baths was investigated, with bath A having a cyanide based, and bath B, a non-cyanide-based stabilizer system. Both baths are commonly used within the PCB industry. In the case of bath B, for an average target pad roughness higher than Ra = 300 nm, two growth modes are observed. The first mode is a copying of the subjacent Cu substrate morphology, whereas the second forms spherical grains (Cu-nodules) predominantly at the exposed sites of the substrate crystals. These Cu nodules typically have a radius comparable to that of the plated electroless Cu thickness and contain a high density of nanovoids toward their base. The related void formation seems relevant to weaken the overall Cu/Cu/Cu interconnection in the blind microvia. Interestingly, the tendency to form nodules with increasing Cu base roughness is widely suppressed for the cyanide-based bath A, where the deposit is nodule free up to a target pad roughness of approximately Ra=1,000 nm. When solution delivery and exchange were investigated, it is apparent that a low exchange rate has a negative impact on the electroless Cu deposition, and results with undesirable nodules and voids, even if the surface roughness values would suggest otherwise, could be expected.

The Sandbow

Several writers in the 19th century, including Florence Nightingale, recorded their impressions of a rainbow-like phenomenon seen in the desert, and assumed to be caused, not by droplets of rain, but by grains of sand. Is it, in fact, possible for spherical grains of sand to exist in a great enough quantity for thisd, for the relatively heavy sand to be lofted into the air, and to be transparent enough to produce what we have to call a “sandbow”? Speculation centered around “oolitic” sand that nucleates around organic matter and is naturally rounded, but which is translucent, rather than transparent.

Microtexture and Rolling Deformation Behavior Analysis of the Formation Mechanism Fe3O4 at the Interface Formed on Hot-Rolled High-Strength Steel

In order to better understand the formation mechanism of tertiary oxide scale in high-strength steel during hot rolling, the microtexture of the oxide layer has been characterized and analyzed by the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) method. The results show that the Fe3O4 phase in the oxide layer has a two-phase heterogeneous morphology, Fe3O4 in the oxide layer comprises columnar grains, and Fe3O4 near the substrate comprises spherical grains. As the reduction rate increases, the Fe2O3 layer is gradually wedged into the surface of the Fe3O4 layer. Fe3O4 forms a <110> fiber texture at a reduction rate of 10%. The inner layer of the oxide scale comprises spherical grains, and Fe3O4 is preferentially nucleated and precipitated in the direction of Fe surface grains <110> texture. With the increase in the reduction rate, the {112}<−1−21> directional slip system shows the lowest Schmidt factor value, so the grains with a low Schmidt factor exhibit higher stored strain energy. The formation of the spherical Fe3O4 seam layer close to the steel matrix is the result of the combined effect of the stress state at the matrix and ion diffusion.

Modelling realistic ballast shape to study the lateral pull behaviour using GPU computing

The use of the Discrete Element Method to model engineering structures implementing granular materials has proven to be an efficient method to response under various behaviour conditions. However, the computational cost of the simulations increases rapidly, as the number of particles and particle shape complexity increases. An affordable solution to render problems computationally tractable is to use graphical processing units (GPU) for computing. Modern GPUs offer up 10496 compute cores, which allows for a greater parallelisation relative to 32-cores offered by high-end Central Processing Unit (CPU) compute. This study outlines the application of BlazeDEM-GPU, using an RTX 2080Ti GPU (4352 cores), to investigate the influence of the modelling of particle shape on the lateral pull behaviour of granular ballast systems used in railway applications. The idea is to validate the model and show the benefits of simulating non-spherical shapes in future large-scale tests. The algorithm, created to generate the shape of the ballast based on real grain scans, and using polyhedral shape approximations of varying degrees of complexity is shown. The particle size is modelled to scale. A preliminary investigation of the effect of the grain shape is conducted, where a sleeper lateral pull test is carried out in a spherical grains sample, and a cubic grains sample. Preliminary results show that elementary polyhedral shape representations (cubic) recreate some of the characteristic responses in the lateral pull test, such as stick/slip phenomena and force chain distributions, which looks promising for future works on railway simulations. These responses that cannot be recreated with simple spherical grains, unless heuristics are added, which requires additional calibration and approximations. The significant reduction in time when using non-spherical grains also implies that larger granular systems can be investigated.

Quasistatic response of loose cohesive granular materials

DEM-simulated model cohesive assemblies of spherical grains of diameter d, with contact tensile strength F0, once prepared in loose states, are quasistatically subjected to growing isotropic pressure P, and then to triaxial compression, maintaining lateral stresses σ2 = σ3 = P while increasing axial stress σ1 = P + q and strain є1. Reduced pressure P* = d2P/F0 varies from 0.1 (cohesion dominated case, for which systems typically equilibrate with solid fraction Ф ≃ 0.35), to large values for which the cohesionless behavior is retrieved. In triaxial compression, while the moderate strain response (є1 ~ 0.1) is influenced by initial coordination numbers and mesoscale heterogeneities, the approach to the critical state, as both q (deviator) and Ф steadily increase, gets slower for smaller P*. Critical ratio q/P strongly increases for decreasing P*, as roughly predicted in an “effective stress” scheme. Anomalously small elastic moduli are observed in the gel-like structures. While extensive geometric rearrangements take place, no shear banding is observed. Loose cohesive granular assemblies are thus capable of large quasistatic stable plastic strains and ductile rupture.