Enhanced Reversible Magnetic-Field-Induced Strain in Ni-Mn-Ga Alloy

A phase-field model was developed to simulate the ferromagnetic domain structure and martensite variant microstructure of Ni-Mn-Ga shape-memory alloy. The evolution of reversible magnetic-field-induced strain (MFIS) and associated magnetic domain/martensite variant structure were modeled under an external magnetic field. It was found that MFIS increased significantly from 0.2% to 0.28% as the temperature increased from 265 K to 285 K. In addition, compressive pre-stress efficiently enhanced the MFIS of the alloy, while tensile stress reduced MFIS. Furthermore, it was proved that there was possibility of achieving similar enhancement of MFIS by replacing compressive stress with perpendicular biaxial tensile stress. The results revealed that the residual variant induced by stress plays an important role in the reversible MFIS effect.

Development of an experimental approach to study preforming mesoscopic defects of woven fabrics

Composite materials can be produced by several technologies, such as Liquid Composite Manufacturing (LCM). In this technology, a fabric can be formed by highly double curved punch geometries. During its forming, the fabric is submitted to several deformations and mechanical stresses, like biaxial tensile stress, shear, bending, compaction and friction. The cumulative effect of these stresses leads to the appearance of different types of defects such as wrinkles, buckles, sliding, etc. These defects may have a significant influence on the mechanical properties of the final composite materials. In order to understand the forming mechanisms of these defects, as well as their effect on the behavior of composite materials, an experimental machine was designed and built. The aim of this machine is to generate different types of defects with controlled and adjusted amplitudes (calibrated defects), in samples of a fabric. These samples are then used to manufacture composite samples with calibrated defects, by an LCM process. The defected composite samples are then tested and compared with composite samples without defects. The obtained results have identified the experimental parameters corresponding to the appearance of different types of defects.

Determination of the Biaxial Anisotropy Coefficient Using a Single Layer Sheet Metal Compression Test

Numerical process design leads to cost and time savings in sheet metal forming processes. Therefore, a modeling of the material behavior is required to map the flow properties of sheet metal. For the identification of current yield criteria, the yield strength and the hardening behavior as well as the Lankford coefficients are taken into account. By considering the anisotropy as a function of rolling direction and stress state, the prediction quality of anisotropic materials is improved by a more accurate modeling of the yield locus curve. According to the current state of the art, the layer compression test is used to determine the corresponding Lankford coefficient for the biaxial tensile stress state. However, the test setup and the test procedure is quite challenging compared to other tests for the material characterization. Due to this, the test is only of limited suitability if only the Lankford coefficient has to be determined. In this contribution, a simplified test is presented. It is a reduction of the layer compression test to one single sheet layer. So the Lankford coefficient for the biaxial tensile stress state can be analyzed with a significantly lower test effort. The results prove the applicability of the proposed test for an easy and time efficient characterization of the biaxial Lankford coefficient.

Effects of Pre-Crack Depth and Hydrogen Absorption on the Failure Strain of Zircaloy-4 Cladding Tubes Under Biaxial Strain Conditions

Fuel cladding may be subjected to biaxial tensile stress in axial and hoop directions during pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI) of a reactivity-initiated accident (RIA). Incipient crack in the hydride rim assisted by the scattered hydrides in the metal phase may lead to failure of the cladding at small hoop strain level during PCMI. To get insight of such phenomenon, biaxial-EDC tests under axial to hoop strain ratios ranging from 0 to 1 were performed with pre-cracked (outer surface) and uniformly hydrided Zircaloy-4 cladding tube samples with final heat-treatment status of cold worked (CW), stress relieved (SR) and Recrystallized (RX). Results showed dependencies of failure hoop strain on pre-crack depth, strain ratio, hydrogen content and final heat-treatment status on fabrication, but no apparent dependencies were observed on the distribution pattern of hydrides (with similar hydrogen contents and hydrides predominantly precipitated in hoop direction) and the heat-treatment process for hydrogen charging. J integral at failure seems to be available to unify the effect of pre-crack depth.

Black silicon – correlation between microstructure and Raman scattering

Black silicon layers were formed on silicon substrate by the surface structure chemical transfer method and by anodic etching method. Properties of microstructure of formed layers were experimentally studied by the electron microscopy methods (TEM) and characterized by statistical, Fourier and multifractal methods. Theoretical structures with defined fractal properties and surface roughness were generated and their microstructure properties were evaluated. Obtained results were used for the explanation of the real structure development during the forming procedure. By using of this approach, we study the correlation of roughness and fractality with optical properties. Black silicon layers were also investigated by using of Raman scattering method. Optimized theoretical model describing the 1st order of black Si Raman scattering profile was constructed and used for evaluation of the biaxial tensile stress introduced during etching procedure.

Computational prediction of two-dimensional monolayer B6C2P2 by the global optimization method

Exploring new two-dimensional (2D) materials is becoming a peculiarly important task due to their potential applications in future nanoelectronics and optoelectronics. In this paper, we propose a stable 2D monolayer B6C2P2 based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) methodology for crystal structure prediction. The monolayer B6C2P2 is an indirect semiconductor with the band gap of about 1.05 eV. We further find that under a biaxial tensile stress with its strain ratio altering from 6% to 9%, B6C2P2 can be transferred from an indirect semiconductor to a quasi-direct semiconductor. Moreover, it can be transferred to metal until the strain ratio goes up to 15%. These properties promote the monolayer B6C2P2 to be a potential 2D material for future applications in optoelectronic devices and nanodevices.

Structural and Stress Properties of AlGaN Epilayers Grown on AlN-Nanopatterned Sapphire Templates by Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy

In this paper, we report the epitaxial growth and material characteristics of AlGaN (Al mole fraction of 10%) on an AlN/nanopatterned sapphire substrate (NPSS) template by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). The crystalline quality, surface morphology, microstructure, and stress state of the AlGaN/AlN/NPSS epilayers were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicate that the crystal quality of the AlGaN film could be improved when grown on the AlN/NPSS template. The screw threading dislocation (TD) density was reduced to 1.4 × 109 cm−2 for the AlGaN epilayer grown on the AlN/NPSS template, which was lower than that of the sample grown on a flat c-plane sapphire substrate (6.3 × 109 cm−2). As examined by XRD measurements, the biaxial tensile stress of the AlGaN film was significantly reduced from 1,187 MPa (on AlN/NPSS) to 38.41 MPa (on flat c-plane sapphire). In particular, an increase of the Al content in the overgrown AlGaN layer was confirmed by the TEM observation. This could be due to the relaxation of the in-plane stress through the AlGaN and AlN/NPSS template interface.