A Phase-Field Study of Microstructure Evolution in Tungsten Polycrystalline under He/D Irradiation

Analyses in the present study focus on understanding the evolution of the tungsten microstructure under He/D irradiation. A fractal dimension analysis was utilized to characterize the structural pattern of the microstructure irradiated by both low (10–80 eV) and high (8–30 keV) irradiation energy. All examined W microstructures show a direct correlation between the fractal dimension and irradiation energy. Analyses establish an empirical relation expressing a change in the microstructure as a function of the irradiation energy based on the changes in the fractal dimension of the microstructures. The proposed relation was implemented in the phase-field model formulation with an account of the interfacial energy induced by the crystallographic mismatch between grains under irradiation. The current phase-field model captures the evolution of the void under irradiation, including nucleation and the growth of voids, and sink efficiency for vacancy annihilation in the vicinity of grain boundaries.

Sensitivity analysis of the GTN damage parameters at different temperature for dynamic fracture propagation in X70 pipeline steel using neural network

In this paper, the initial and maximum load was studied using the Finite Element Modeling (FEM) analysis during impact testing (CVN) of pipeline X70 steel. The Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) constitutive model has been used to simulate the growth of voids during deformation of pipeline steel at different temperatures. FEM simulations results used to study the sensitivity of the initial and maximum load with GTN parameters values proposed and the variation of temperatures. Finally, the applied artificial neural network (ANN) is used to predict the initial and maximum load for a given set of damage parameters X70 steel at different temperatures, based on the results obtained, the neural network is able to provide a satisfactory approximation of the load initiation and load maximum in impact testing of X70 Steel.

Micromechanics-based damage model for liquid-assisted healing

This work presents a damage evolution framework including liquid-assisted healing. The model incorporates contributions from void size, void pressure, surface tension and liquid pressure. Experimental motivation for the damage-healing model is provided with in-situ melting experiments, where the evolution of the void distribution under monotonic tension is illustrated. The damage evolution is based on nucleation and growth of voids, which are modeled in a unified creep and plasticity framework. The proposed damage formulation introduces a void collective, which computes the void distribution in the material and allows to describe void collapse using the Rayleigh-Plesset equation. The necessary conditions for healing are discussed with use of model results. Particularly, the role of external load during healing, the dependence on liquid viscosity and surface tension are investigated.

An improved procedure for acquiring yield curves over a large range of strains

Acquiring a full range of yield curves is a long-standing challenge in material science and engineering. Such curves are extremely important for stress analysis using finite element simulation. In this article, we proposed an improved procedure integrating finite element analysis and hybrid particle swarm optimization to extract a post-necking yield curve from a smooth tensile round bar. The investigated material was 3Cr1MoV. The strain range of the yield curve was extended from 0.0681 mm/mm before necking to 1.5 mm/mm. The results revealed that curves obtained through this procedure are reliable and unique. Three notched round bars were designed to investigate the effects of stress triaxiality on the yield curves. We found that stress triaxiality has a significant influence on curves at large plastic strains (strain > 0.3 mm/mm) and has a negligible effect at low plastic strains (strain < 0.3 mm/mm). Studies revealed that the stress triaxiality-dependent yield curves are related to dilatational plasticity arising from nucleation and growth of voids.

Failure through expanding voids in bacterial streamers

We investigate the failure of thick bacterial floc-mediated streamers in a microfluidic device with micro-pillars. We found that streamers could fail due to the growth of voids in the biomass that originate near the pillar walls. The quantification of void growth was made possible by the use of 200 nm fluorescent polystyrene beads. The beads get trapped in the extra-cellular matrix of the streamer biomass and act as tracers. Void growth time-scales could be characterized into short-time scales and long time-scales and the crack/void propagation showed several instances of fracture-arrest ultimately leading to a catastrophic failure of the entire streamer structure. This mode of fracture stands in strong contrast to necking-type instability observed before in streamers.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Hydrogen-Activated Coalescence and Growth of Nano-Voids

The understanding of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is of significant importance and fundamental interest owing to its negative effects on industrial metallic materials. The effect of solute H on the void coalescence and growth needs to be clarified. Using molecular dynamics simulation, the evolution of preexisting nano voids is studied in the presence of H atoms. As the per unit area concentration of trapped H atom on void surface reaches 0.45 /Å2, the movement of void is observed. It proceeds along with the interdiffusion of H and Fe atoms around the voids. Strain-mediated diffusion of H atoms from void surface to the zone between nearest voids occurs at first. Then the Fe atoms are affected by migrated H and diffuse in the opposite direction following the principle of energy minimization. Such mechanism can help us understand the formation of high pressure bubble at nano scale. Based on this useful information, some methods could be obtained to prevent the growth of voids further, such as strengthening the stability of metal lattice around voids by dopant etc.