Characterization and Failure Analysis of Plastics

Volume 11B serves as a reference and guide to help engineers determine the causes of failure in plastic components and make corrective adjustments through design and manufacturing modifications. It contains seven major divisions, covering polymer science and processing, material selection and design, chemical, thermal, and physical analysis, mechanical behavior and testing, degradation mechanisms, systematic failure analysis, and life assessment and optimization. It examines a wide range of factors that contribute to the properties and behaviors of engineering plastics and the effect of thermal and mechanical stresses, impact loading, fatigue, wear, weathering, moisture and chemical exposure, photochemical aging, microbial degradation, and elevated temperatures. It addresses issues such as flammability, environmental stress cracking, crazing, and stress whitening and describes the unique characteristics of polymer fracture and how to assess and predict service life using fracture mechanics. It also presents and analyzes numerous examples of failure, including design and manufacturing related failures, wear failures of reinforced plastics, and failures due to creep and yielding.

The Effect of Salinized Nano ZrO2 Particles on the Microstructure, Hardness, and Wear Behavior of Acrylic Denture Tooth Nanocomposite

The wear of acrylic denture teeth is a serious problem that can change the vertical dimensions of dentures. This study evaluates the effect of adding salinized nano ZrO2 particles on the microstructure, hardness, and wear resistance of acrylic denture teeth. Heat polymerizing polymethyl methacrylate resin was mixed with salinized ZrO2 at concentrations of 5 wt% and 10 wt%. Acrylic resin specimens without filler addition were used as a control group. SEM/EDS analyses were performed and the Vickers’ hardness was evaluated. Two-body wear testing was performed using a chewing simulator with a human enamel antagonist. After subjecting the samples to 37,500 cycles, both height loss and weight loss were used to evaluate the wear behavior. The microstructural investigation of the reinforced-denture teeth indicates sound nanocomposite preparation using the applied regime without porosity or macro defects. The addition of zirconium oxide nanofillers to PMMA at both 5% and 10% increased the microhardness, with values of up to 49.7 HV. The wear mechanism in the acrylic base material without nanoparticle addition was found to be fatigue wear; a high density of microcracks were found. The addition of 5 wt% ZrO2 improved the wear resistance. Increasing the nanoparticles to 10 wt% ZrO2 further improved the wear resistance, with no microcracks found.

Tribological Properties of Solid Solution Strengthened Laser Cladded NiCrBSi/WC-12Co Metal Matrix Composite Coatings

NiCrBSi, WC-12Co and NiCrBSi with 30, 40 and 50 wt.% WC-12Co coatings were produced on low carbon steel by laser cladding with an Nd:YAG laser with a multi-jet coaxial cladding-nozzle. The microstructure properties after WC-12Co alloying were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and Vickers hardness tests. The resulting microstructures consisted of a γ-Ni and Ni3B matrix, strengthened with Co and W, Ni3Si, CrB, Cr7C3, Cr23C6, WC/W2C phases. In coatings with 30, 40 and 50 wt.% WC-12Co, a solid solution, strengthened multi-matrix NiCrWCo phase formed, which yielded a higher matrix hardness. Wear tests that monitored the friction coefficients were performed with a tribometer that contained a ball-on-disc configuration, Al2O3 counter-body and reciprocal sliding mode at room temperature. The major wear mode on the NiCrBSi coatings without the WC-12Co was adhesive with a high wear rate and visible material loss by flaking, delamination and micro-ploughing. The addition of WC-12Co to the NiCrBSi coating significantly increased the wear resistance and changed the major wear mechanism from adhesion to three-body abrasion and fatigue wear.

Experimental and Numerical Studies of Tool Wear Processes in the Nibbling Process

The work concerns an analysis of the wear mechanisms of punches in the nibbling process. The nibbling process is the multiple punching of holes or external contours using circular punches, the diameter of which is much smaller than the size of the punched shapes. Analytical, numerical and experimental studies were carried out. In the analytical solution, formulas for determining the pressures in the contact zone were developed, thus enabling a simple estimation of the designed nibbling tools. In numerical studies, the influence of the punch rounding radius on the fatigue wear was investigated. It has been shown that the change in the punch cutting edge radius from r = 0 mm to r = 0.5 mm enables a seven-fold increase in the fatigue wear resistance. It was found that the change in the punch cutting edge rounding radius has an impact on the quality of the product (the greater the radius r, the worse the technological quality of the product). In experimental studies, the abrasive wear process was primarily investigated. For this purpose, the nibbling process was tested on S235JR + AR steel sheets with tools made of NC11LV/1.2379 steel without any coating and with an AlCrTiN layer. It was found that the special AlCrTiN layer used allowed for an increase in the resistance to abrasive wear, and thus increased the service life by approx. three times. The last element of the work is an assessment of the technological quality of the product after nibbling depending on the degree and type of stamp wear (quantitative and qualitative assessment).

Corrosive-wear behavior of LSP/MAO treated magnesium alloys in physiological environment with three pH values

A laser shock peening (LSP) layer, a micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coating, and an LSP/MAO composite coating were fabricated on the surface of AZ80 magnesium alloy by laser shock and micro-arc oxidation process. The ball-disc grinding method was used to perform wear test on the three treated specimens in simulated body fluids (SBF) with pH values of 4, 7.4 and 9. The morphology and element content of worn surface were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The results indicated that the wear rates of the three treated specimens in three pH environment in numerical order were pH 4 > pH 7.4 > pH 9, respectively. The wear rates of the three treated specimens in the same pH environment were arranged in the order of MAO > LSP > LSP/MAO, respectively. The main wear mechanisms of the LSP specimen in pH 4 environment were fatigue wear and corrosion wear, while it were corrosion wear and adhesive wear in pH 7.4 and pH 9 environments. Abrasive wear, fatigue wear and corrosion wear were the main wear mechanisms of the MAO specimen in pH 4 environment, while abrasive wear, adhesive wear and corrosion wear were the main wear mechanisms of that in pH 7.4 and pH 9 environments. The corrosion wear resistance of the LSP/MAO specimen in SBF solution with three pH values was improved due to the synergism of LSP fine crystal layer and MAO coating.

Evaluation of tribotechnical properties of modified surfaces after plasma electrolytic treatment

The article considers the study of the effect of plasma electrolytic processing on the tribotechnical characteristics of medium-carbon steel. Friction tests were carried out in dry friction mode. Electron microscope and profilometer were used to study the friction tracks. For a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the modified surface layer, the Kragelsky-Kombalov complex parameter was calculated. It was found that plasma electrolytic treatment leads to a decrease in the coefficient of friction and weight wear in comparison with hardened and untreated steel. It has been determined that the mechanism of wear of samples after plasma electrolytic treatment is fatigue wear at boundary friction and plastic contact.

Ultrasonic Surface Rolling Process: Properties, Characterization, and Applications

Ultrasonic surface rolling process (USRP) is a novel surface severe plastic deformation (SPD) method that integrates ultrasonic impact peening (UIP) and deep rolling (DR) to enhance the surface integrity and surface mechanical properties of engineering materials. USRP can induce gradient nanostructured surface (GNS) layers on the substrate, providing superior mechanical properties, thus preventing premature material failure. Herein, a comprehensive overview of current-state-of-the art USRP is provided. More specifically, the effect of the USRP on a broad range of materials exclusively used for aerospace, automotive, nuclear, and chemical industries is explained. Furthermore, the effect of USRP on different mechanical properties, such as hardness, tensile, fatigue, wear resistance, residual stress, corrosion resistance, and surface roughness are summarized. In addition, the effect of USRP on grain refinement and the formation of gradient microstructure is discussed. Finally, this study elucidates the application and recent advances of the USRP process.

Multi-Objective Optimization of Deep Groove Ball Bearings Using Fatigue-Wear-Thermal Considerations Through Genetic Algorithms

Bearings are the key components in a wide range of machines used in different sectors of industries. Consequently, any improvement in the performance of bearings would be a step forward to extract better performance from those machines. With this motivation in mind, we selected the most common type of bearing, the Deep Groove Ball Bearing (DGBB), for optimizing its performance. Obviously, the first and foremost performance characteristic would be the dynamic load carrying capacity (CD), whose improvement directly leads to the increased service life of the bearing. We have considered two more characteristics of bearings, which we thought would have an impact on the bearings’ performance. They are elasto-hydrodynamic film thickness (hmin) and maximum temperature developed (Tmax) inside the bearing. Maximization of the lubricant thickness decreases the damage to the rolling elements and the raceways due to metal-metal contact. And minimization of temperature is desirable in every machine element. Later, we would also see that the three objective functions chosen are conflicting in nature and hence mutually independent. For the current optimization problem, a genetic algorithm, Elitist Non-dominating Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) is chosen. And the bearing dimensions, which could be controlled during manufacturing are chosen as the design variables. Multiple constraints are chosen based on the design space and strength considerations. The optimization algorithm is used on a set of commercially available bearings. Pareto fronts are drawn to give the designer a multitude of optimal solutions to choose from. However, in this paper, the knee-point solution is presented, which is one of the optimum solutions. When compared with the commercial bearings, the bearings with optimized dimensions have higher dynamic load carrying capacities and hence longer life. Also, the sensitivity analysis is done to check the robustness of the bearings to manufacturing tolerances in the design variables. Finally, for visualization and as a check for physical plausibility, the radial dimensions of one of the optimized bearings have been shown.

Effect of Carbon Partition and Precipitation on Wear Resistance of Carburized Layer in Heavy-Duty Gear

The carburizing–quenching–tempering process is generally conducted on heavy-duty gear in order to obtain favorable comprehensive mechanical performance. Different mechanical properties could be produced by carbon partition and precipitation. In this study, the carburizing–quenching–tempering process was carried out on low-carbon alloy steel in order to investigate the influence of microstructure evolution and precipitate transition on mechanical behavior and wear resistance under different carburizing/tempering durations. Favorable comprehensive mechanical property and wear resistance could be obtained in favor of long durations of carburizing/tempering. A fatigue-wear model was proposed to describe fatigue crack evolution and damage mechanism on the basis of wear features.