Reactive wear protection through strong and deformable oxide nanocomposite surfaces

Wear-related energy and material loss cost over 2500 Billion Euro per year. Traditional wisdom suggests that high-strength materials reveal low wear rates, yet, their plastic deformation mechanisms also influence their wear performance. High strength and homogeneous deformation behavior, which allow accommodating plastic strain without cracking or localized brittle fracture, are crucial for developing wear-resistant metals. Here, we present an approach to achieve superior wear resistance via in-situ formation of a strong and deformable oxide nanocomposite surface during wear, by reaction of the metal surface with its oxidative environment, a principle that we refer to as ‘reactive wear protection’. We design a TiNbZr-Ag alloy that forms an amorphous-crystalline oxidic nanocomposite surface layer upon dry sliding. The strong (2.4 GPa yield strength) and deformable (homogeneous deformation to 20% strain) nanocomposite surface reduces the wear rate of the TiNbZr-Ag alloy by an order of magnitude. The reactive wear protection strategy offers a pathway for designing ultra-wear resistant alloys, where otherwise brittle oxides are turned to be strong and deformable for improving wear resistance.

Preparation of Ti/Al composite plates by differential temperature rolling with induction heating

In the current study, we proposed a method of differential temperature rolling with electromagnetic induction heating to prepare Ti/Al composite plates in a protective atmosphere to realize the homogeneous deformation of Ti/Al bonding rolling and improve the interfacial bonding strength of the composite plates. The temperature field required for homogeneous deformation rolling of titanium and aluminum was constructed through finite element simulation by adjusting the parameters of electromagnetic induction heating, which made a temperature difference of about 632°C between titanium and aluminum, and the temperature of each plate was relatively uniform. The induction heating experiment was designed based on the finite element simulation, and the accuracy of the simulation results was verified by the experiment. The effects of rolling temperature and reduction rate of homogeneous deformation and bonding strength of Ti/Al composite plates were studied by rolling experiments. When the heating temperature of the Ti plate is 750–850°C, and the reduction rate is 30%-48%, with the increase of rolling temperature and reduction rate of titanium, the reduction rate of Ti plate and Al plate gradually tend to be the same. When the temperature of titanium plate and aluminum plate is 850°C and 188°C, respectively, with the rolling reduction rate of 48%, the deformation rate of Ti plate and Al plate is 46.8% and 48.6%, respectively, and the bonding strength of the composite plate reaches 77MPa.

Nanoindentation of Nanoglasses Tested by Molecular Dynamics Simulations: Influence of Structural Relaxation and Chemical Segregation on the Mechanical Response

We present molecular dynamics simulations of nanoindentation in order to investigate the effects of segregation and structural relaxation on the mechanical properties of Cu64Zr36 nanoglasses prepared by particle consolidation and long-time annealing. Our analysis of load-displacement curves shows that the effective elastic modulus of nanoglasses is lower than that of their homogeneous metallic glass counterpart. This is mainly because of the defective short-range order present in the glass-glass interface, but to a lesser extend due to chemical inhomogeneities. Structural relaxation obtained by long-time annealing (500 ns) at 0.8 Tg leads to a shift from a homogeneous deformation to a mix of homogeneous deformation and shear bands. The obtained hardness values of annealed nanoglass are comparable to those of homogenous glass samples, but significantly higher as compared to juvenile as-prepared nanoglass samples. The results are discussed in the context of recent nanonindentation experiments.

Evaluation of the survivability of CFRP honeycomb-cored panels in compression after impact tests

This paper is oriented to the experimental research of the mechanics of the CFRP sandwich plates, glass and carbon fiber sample panels with a large-cell honeycomb core. The method for testing polymer composite sample plates in compression after impact (CAI) tests with joint use of a testing machine and a video system for deformation field registration was tested. Analysis of the experimental data obtained highlighted the impactive sensitivity zone for the test specimens. A quantitative assessment of the load-bearing capacity of glass and carbon fiber sample panels in CAI tests with the different levels of the drop weight impact energy was performed. Photos of samples after impact have been provided. Vic-3D non-contact three-dimensional digital optical system was used to register the displacement and deformation fields on the surface of the samples. The video system was used to evaluate various damage mechanisms, including matrix cracking, delaminations, and rupture of the damaged fibers. The paper studied the evolution of non-homogeneous deformation fields on the surface of the composite samples during the post-impact compression tests and analyzed the configuration of non-homogeneous deformation fields.

Effect of Hydrogen Charging on Pop-in Behavior of a Zr-Based Metallic Glass

In this work, structural and mechanical properties of hydrogen-charged metallic glass are studied to evaluate the effect of hydrogen on early plasticity. Hydrogen is introduced into samples of a Zr-based (Vit 105) metallic glass using electrochemical charging. Nanoindentation tests reveal a clear increase in modulus and hardness as well as in the load of the first pop-in with increasing hydrogen content. At the same time, the probability of a pop-in occurring decreases, indicating that hydrogen hinders the onset of plastic instabilities while allowing local homogeneous deformation. The hydrogen-induced stiffening and hardening is rationalized by hydrogen stabilization of shear transformation zones (STZs) in the amorphous structure, while the improved ductility is attributed to the change in the spatial correlation of the STZs.

Bone Orientation and Position Estimation Errors Using Cosserat Point Elements and Least Squares methods: Application to Gait

The aim of this study was to analyze the accuracy of bone pose estimation based on sub-clusters of three skin-markers characterized by triangular Cosserat point elements (TCPEs) and to evaluate the capability of four instantaneous physical parameters, which can be measured non-invasively in-vivo, to identify the most accurate TCPEs. Moreover, TCPE pose estimations were compared with the estimations of two least squares minimization methods applied to the cluster of all markers, using rigid body (RBLS) and homogeneous deformation (HDLS) assumptions. Analysis was performed on previously collected in-vivo treadmill gait data composed of simultaneous measurements of the gold-standard bone pose by bi-plane fluoroscopy tracking the subjects' knee prosthesis and a stereophotogrammetric system tracking skin-markers affected by soft tissue artifact. Femur orientation and position errors estimated from skin-marker clusters were computed for 18 subjects using clusters of up to 35 markers. Results based on gold-standard data revealed that instantaneous subsets of TCPEs exist which estimate the femur pose with reasonable accuracy (median root mean square error during stance/swing: 1.4/2.8 deg for orientation, 1.5/4.2 mm for position). A non-invasive and instantaneous criteria to select accurate TCPEs for pose estimation (4.8/7.3 deg, 5.8/12.3 mm), was compared with RBLS (4.3/6.6 deg, 6.9/16.6 mm) and HDLS (4.6/7.6 deg, 6.7/12.5 mm). Accounting for homogeneous deformation, using HDLS or selected TCPEs, yielded more accurate position estimations than RBLS method, which, conversely, yielded more accurate orientation estimations. Further investigation is required to devise effective criteria for cluster selection that could represent a significant improvement in bone pose estimation accuracy.