Bilinear damage evolution in AA2011 wire drawing processes

This paper presents an experimental and numerical analysis of damage evolution in AA2011 aluminum alloy wires drawn under different scenarios. To this end, load-unload tensile tests were firstly carried out in order to characterize the degradation of the mechanical response in every cycle where the experimental results show a bilinear damage relationship in terms of the effective plastic strain. Therefore, a modification of the classical Lemaitre model is proposed in this work in order to reproduce bilinear paths of damage with the addition of only two parameters that can be directly obtained from the material characterization. Then, the damage predictive capability of this new experimental-based model is assessed in numerical simulations of the drawing process in one and two passes (considering for this last case the sequential and tandem configurations) where the computed predictions are compared with the corresponding experimental data showing a good agreement between them.

The Influence of Layer Thickness on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of M300 Maraging Steel Additively Manufactured by LENS® Technology

This work investigates the effect of layer thickness on the microstructure and mechanical properties of M300 maraging steel produced by Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS®) technique. The microstructure was characterized using light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mechanical properties were characterized by tensile tests and microhardness measurements. The porosity and mechanical properties were found to be highly dependent on the layer thickness. Increasing the layer thickness increased the porosity of the manufactured parts while degrading their mechanical properties. Moreover, etched samples revealed a fine cellular dendritic microstructure; decreasing the layer thickness caused the microstructure to become fine-grained. Tests showed that for samples manufactured with the chosen laser power, a layer thickness of more than 0.75 mm is too high to maintain the structural integrity of the deposited material.

Superplastic Forming and Reaction Diffusion Bonding Process of Hollow Structural Component for Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Zr Rare Earth Magnesium Alloy

This work fabricated a double hollow structural component of Mg-8.3Gd-2.9Y-0.8Zn-0.2Zr alloy by superplastic forming (SPF) and reaction-diffusion bonding (RDB). The superplastic characteristic and mechanical properties of Mg-8.3Gd-2.9Y-0.8Zn-0.2Zr alloy sheets at 250–450 °C were studied. Tensile tests showed that the maximum elongation of tensile specimens was about 1276.3% at 400 °C under a strain rate of 1 × 10−3 s−1. Besides, the effect of bonding temperature and interface roughness on microstructure and mechanical properties of the reaction diffusion-bonded joints with a Cu interlayer was investigated. With the increase of temperature, the diffusion coefficient of Cu increases, and the diffusion transition region becomes wider, leading to tightening bonding of the joint. However, the bonding quality of the joint will deteriorate due to grain size growth at higher temperatures. Shear tests showed that the highest strength of the joints was 152 MPa (joint efficiency = 98.7%), which was performed at 460 °C.

Effect of Thermomechanical Treatment of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu with Minor Amount of Sc and Zr on the Mechanical Properties

In this study, the mechanical and microstructural properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr cast alloy with 0.1% Sc under homogeneous, dissolution, and T6 and thermomechanical treatments with the aim of increasing the volume fraction of MgZn2. Al3(Sc,Zr) reinforcing precipitates were examined by hardness, microscopic examinations, tensile tests and software analysis. The results showed that, firstly, the hardness results are well proportional to the results of the tensile properties of alloys and, secondly, the strength of the alloy with thermomechanical treatments compared to T6 treatments increased from 492 MPa to 620 MPa and the elongation increased from 8% to 17% and was 100% upgraded. Microstructural and fracture cross section investigations showed that Al3(Sc,Zr) nanosize dispersoids were evenly distributed among MgZn2 dispersoids and the alloy fracture was of semi-ductile type and nanosize dispersoids less than 10 nm were observed at the end of the dimples in the fracture section. The volume fraction of nanosize dispersoids in the whole microstructure of thermomechanical treatment samples was also much higher than that of T6 heat treated samples, so that the percentage of Al3(Sc,Zr) precipitates arrived from less than 1% in T6 operation to 8.28% in the quench-controlled thermomechanical operation (with 50% deformation). The quality index (QI) in thermomechanical treatment samples is 19% higher than T6 samples, so that this index has increased from 641 in T6 operation to 760 in samples under thermomechanical treatment due to precipitate morphology, volume fraction of precipitates, their uniform distribution in the matrix, and nano sized precipitates in samples under thermomechanical treatment.

Simulating intergranular hydrogen enhanced decohesion in aluminium using density functional theory

Materials modelling at the atomistic scale provides a useful way of investigating the widely debated fundamental mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement in materials like aluminium alloys. Density functional theory based tensile tests of grain boundaries (GBs) can be used to understand the hydrogen enhanced decohesion mechanism (HEDE). The cohesive zone model was employed to understand intergranular fracture from energies obtained in electronic structure calculations at small separation increments during ab initio tensile tests of an aluminium Σ11 GB supercell with variable coverages of H. The standard rigid grain shift test and a quasistatic sequential test, which aims to be faster and more realistic than the rigid grain shift method, were implemented. Both methods demonstrated the effects of H on the cohesive strength of the interface. The sequential method showed discrete structural changes during decohesion, along with significant deformation in general compared to the standard rigid approach. H was found to considerably weaken the GB, where increasing H content led to enhanced embrittlement such that, for the highest coverages of H, GB strength was reduced to approximately 20% of the strength of a pure Al GB - it is proposed that these results simulate HEDE. The possibility of finding H coverages required to induce this effect in real alloy systems is discussed in context by using calculations of the heat of segregation of H.

Role of Iron-Rich Phases and Porosity on the Ductility of Rheocast Al-Mg-Si-Alloys

Treatment of the slurry is important during RheoMetalTM casting. In this work, semi-solid slurries were prepared under different stirring intensities, using two types of stirrers: a naked rod (for regular stirring) and a rod with two blades (for intensified stir). Tensile tests were performed, investigating fracture surfaces, as well as metallographic samples. The results show that intensified stir produces castings with finer primary particles and a more homogeneous microstructure. On the other hand, more faceted Fe-rich phases are found along the α-Al grains boundary as well, due to the dissolution of Fe from the stirrers. Moreover, for intensified stir castings, the porosity found on the fracture surfaces are smaller, while more brittle eutectic phases and second (intermetallic) phases, especially Fe-rich phases, are observed. Consequently, the castings with intensified stir show worse ductility. Finally, a quantitative analysis was made regarding ductility, affected both by porosity and the presence of Fe-rich phases.

Experimental Investigation of Polypropylene Composite Drawn Fibers with Talc, Wollastonite, Attapulgite and Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Isotactic polypropylene (PP) composite drawn fibers were prepared using melt extrusion and high-temperature solid-state drawing at a draw ratio of 7. Five different fillers were used as reinforcement agents (microtalc, ultrafine talc, wollastonite, attapulgite and single-wall carbon nanotubes). In all the prepared samples, antioxidant was added, while all samples were prepared with and without using PP grafted with maleic anhydride as compatibilizer. Material characterization was performed by tensile tests, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Attapulgite composite fibers exhibited poor results in terms of tensile strength and thermal stability. The use of ultrafine talc particles yields better results, in terms of thermal stability and tensile strength, compared to microtalc. Better results were observed using needle-like fillers, such as wollastonite and single-wall carbon nanotubes, since, as was previously observed, high aspect ratio particles tend to align during the drawing process and, thus, contribute to a more symmetrical distribution of stresses. Competitive and synergistic effects were recognized to occur among the additives and fillers, such as the antioxidant effect being enhanced by the addition of the compatibilizer, while the antioxidant itself acts as a compatibilizing agent.

Low Cycle Fatigue Performance of Additively Processed and Heat-Treated Ti-6Al-7Nb Alloy for Biomedical Applications

In biomedical engineering, laser powder bed fusion is an advanced manufacturing technology, which enables, for example, the production of patient-customized implants with complex geometries. Ti-6Al-7Nb shows promising improvements, especially regarding biocompatibility, compared with other titanium alloys. The biocompatible features are investigated employing cytocompatibility and antibacterial examinations on Al2O3-blasted and untreated surfaces. The mechanical properties of additively manufactured Ti-6Al-7Nb are evaluated in as-built and heat-treated conditions. Recrystallization annealing (925 °C for 4 h), β annealing (1050 °C for 2 h), as well as stress relieving (600 °C for 4 h) are applied. For microstructural investigation, scanning and transmission electron microscopy are performed. The different microstructures and the mechanical properties are compared. Mechanical behavior is determined based on quasi-static tensile tests and strain-controlled low cycle fatigue tests with total strain amplitudes εA of 0.35%, 0.5%, and 0.8%. The as-built and stress-relieved conditions meet the mechanical demands for the tensile properties of the international standard ISO 5832-11. Based on the Coffin–Manson–Basquin relation, fatigue strength and ductility coefficients, as well as exponents, are determined to examine fatigue life for the different conditions. The stress-relieved condition exhibits, overall, the best properties regarding monotonic tensile and cyclic fatigue behavior.