Achieving superior hydrogen storage properties via in-situ formed nanostructures: A high-capacity Mg–Ni alloy with La microalloying

Mg-based hydride is a promising hydrogen storage material, but its capacity is hindered by the kinetic properties. In this study, Mg–Mg₂Ni–LaH_x nanocomposite is formed from the H-induced decomposition of Mg₉₈Ni_1·67La_0.33 alloy. The hydrogen capacity of 7.19 wt % is reached at 325 °C under 3 MPa H₂, attributed to the ultrahigh hydrogenation capacity in Stage I. The hydrogen capacity of 5.59 wt % is achieved at 175 °C under 1 MPa H₂. The apparent activation energies for hydrogen absorption and desorption are calculated as 57.99 and 107.26 kJ/mol, which are owing to the modified microstructure with LaH_x and Mg₂Ni nanophases embedding in eutectic, and tubular nanostructure adjacent to eutectic. The LaH_2.49 nanophase can catalyze H₂ molecules to dissociate and H atoms to permeate due to its stronger affinity with H atoms. The interfaces of these nanophases provide preferential nucleation sites and alleviate the “blocking effect” together with tubular nanostructure by providing H atoms diffusion paths after the impingement of MgH₂ colonies. Therefore, the superior hydrogenation properties are achieved because of the rapid absorption process of Stage I. The efficient synthesis of nano-catalysts and corresponding mechanisms for improving hydrogen storage properties have important reference to related researches.     

积分中值屈服准则解析厚板轧制椭圆速度场

为解决非线性Mises比塑性功率积分困难以及由此导致的轧制功率解析式难以获得的问题,本文通过建立并利用线性比塑性功率表达式对提出的椭圆速度场进行能量分析,得到了轧制力能参数的解析解.文中通过对变角度屈服函数求积分中值,构建了一个新的屈服准则,它是主应力分量的线性组合,在π平面上的轨迹是逼近Mises圆的等边非等角的十二边形,其基于Lode参数表达式的理论结果也与实验数据吻合较好.同时,根据厚板轧制时金属流动速度从入口到出口逐渐增大的特点,提出了水平速度分量满足椭圆方程的速度场,该速度场满足运动许可条件.通过相应的轧制能量分析,获得了基于线性屈服准则的内部变形功率以及基于应变矢量内积法上的摩擦功率与剪切功率.在此之上,通过泛函的极值变分导出了轧制力矩、轧制力以及应力状态系数的解析解,并与现场实测数据进行了对比,结果表明利用本文提出的屈服准则与速度场所建立的轧制力矩与轧制力模型与实测值吻合较好,其中轧制力误差小于5.3%,轧制力矩误差在6%左右.     

Producing fully-lamellar microstructure for wrought beta-gamma TiAl alloys without single α-phase field

Fine-grained fully-lamellar (FL) microstructure is desired for TiAl components to serve as compressor/turbine blades and turbocharger turbine wheels. This study deals with the process and phase transformation to produce FL microstructure for Mo stabilized beta-gamma TiAl alloys without single α-phase field. Unlike the α + γ two-phased TiAl or beta-gamma TiAl with single α-phase field, the wrought multi-phase TiAl–4/6Nb–2Mo–B/Y alloys exhibit special annealing process to obtain FL microstructure. Short-term annealing at temperatures slightly above β-transus is recommended to produce the desired FL microstructure. The related mechanism is to guarantee the sufficient diffusion homogenization of β stabilizers during single β-phase annealing, and further avoid α decomposition by α → γ + β when cooling through α + β + γ phase field. The colony boundary β phase contributes to fine-grained nearly FL microstructure, by retarding the coarsening of the α phase grains.     

Synthesis and properties of bulk nanocrystalline Mg2Si through ball-milling and reactive hot-pressing

1 Introduction The intermetallic compound Mg2Si is useful as strengthening phase in the metal matrix composites (MMC) due to its low density (1.99 g/cm3) and high strength-to-mass ratio[1?5]. It is also promising as a basic material for thermoelectric ene…     

Insights into the long-term stability of the magnesia modified H-ZSM-5 as an efficient solid acid for steam reforming of dimethyl ether

The long-term performance of the bifunctional catalyst composed of MgO-modified H-ZSM-5 and Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ for steam reforming of dimethyl ether (SRD) is studied under the same conditions. Although the surface chemical state and acid property of 1.55–2.47 wt% MgO modified H-ZSM-5 are almost the same, a significant impact of MgO contents on the stability of the bifunctional catalyst is observed from the 50 h SRD results. The initial dimethyl ether conversion (around 100%) and H₂ yield (∼95%) over the optimal bifunctional catalyst with 2.17 wt% MgO modified H-ZSM-5 is still kept over 90% at 50 h. Combining the characterization data of spent catalysts and SRD results, the synergetic effect between the MgO-modified H-ZSM-5 and Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ is rigorously revealed as the key factor in determining the stability of the bifunctional catalyst for SRD. These results demonstrate that MgO-modified H-ZSM-5 is a promising and efficient solid acid for SRD.     

Heating characterization of the thickness-through fatigue crack in metal plate using sonic IR imaging

In sonic IR imaging, a major problem is exploring the heating characteristics of crack vicinity to guide the optimization of the test conditions. In this paper, the crack's heating characteristics of the metallic plate with an artificial fatigue crack has been studied. Experimental results showed that the during ultrasonic excitation the temperature rise of crack vicinity at the plate's excitation side is higher than that at its opposite side, whereas the total heating efficiency of the crack face appears to be stable. Through the profile mapping of the crack face, the frictional heating is mainly concentrated near the excitation side. Based on this phenomenon, we built a mathematical heat transfer model to calculate the temperature distribution of the crack vicinity and investigated the heating features of crack faces. Additionally, the mathematical model gives a quantitative relation between the depth of the heat source and the ratio of the temperature distribution of the crack vicinity at opposite side to that at the front side. This study aims to provide a quantitative evaluation method for locating the frictional heating areas in sonic IR imaging.     

Microstructure characterization of W-Ni-Fe heavy alloys with optimized metallographic preparation method

Tungsten heavy alloys (WHA) have been widely adopted in many engineering applications due to their excellent physicochemical properties. Microstructure characterization is a very powerful method ranging from testing materials properties to detecting material failures and defects. However, the microstructure of WHA was not well characterized with the sample prepared by conventional method of etching with strong acids, bases or oxidant after polishing for the coarse surface. To solve the problem, the exact characterization of W-Ni-Fe heavy alloys microstructure was conducted using the sample prepared by optimized polishing method. A series of experiments were conducted to find the suitable polishing conditions including polishing pad, abrasive slurry and slurry pH. The results show that a smooth and clear microstructure sample was obtained by polishing with alkaline colloidal silica and IC polishing pad, which contained few defects compared with that obtained by conventional method of etching after polishing. The microstructure of W-Ni-Fe heavy alloys was analyzed by XRD, EDS tests and EPMA detection. The slipping phenomenon was observed in nanoindentation test using the prepared sample for the first time and the mechanism of satisfactory microstructure sample preparation was illustrated.     

The effect of microstructure and texture evolution on mechanical properties of low carbon steel in a non-circular drawing sequence

In this study, a new process sequence of non-circular and circular drawing is designed using finite element simulations and is proposed to produce strengthened wires in a simple continuous way for industrial applications. The developed non-circular drawing (NCD) sequence was experimentally applied to low carbon steel at room temperature. Mechanical properties, microstructure and texture evolution of the specimen processed by the newly proposed process and conventional wire drawing (WD) were investigated by tension test, electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) for comparison. According to the present investigation, the specimen processed by the NCD sequence achieved 10.7% higher ultimate tensile strength (UTS) with slightly higher reduction of area at fracture than the one processed by the WD for the two-pass with the same area reductions. Furthermore, the UTS value (612 MPa) of the drawn wire by the two-pass NCD sequence was equivalent to the level of 602 MPa processed by the three-pass WD. From the EBSD results, the areal fraction of the low angle grain boundaries (1.12 μm⁻¹) of the specimen processed by the NCD was higher than that (0.78 μm⁻¹) of the specimen processed by the WD for the two-pass. The pole figures and ODFs of the specimen processed by the NCD sequence showed typical drawing and rolling textures. It is demonstrated that the non-circular drawing sequence could be beneficial in producing high-strength wires with comparable ductility through grain refinement according to the observations made in the present work.     

Effect of swaging on microstructure and mechanical properties of liquid-phase sintered 93W-4.9(Ni,Co)-2.1Fe alloy

The effect of swaging on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 93W-4.9Ni-2.1Fe alloy was investigated. The alloy was prepared by liquid-phase sintering under hydrogen atmosphere followed by vacuum heat treatment and swaging at 600 °C with different area reductions (ranging from 15.0% to 84.8%). The as-swaged alloy with area reduction 84.8% exhibits the highest ultimate tensile strength (about 1490 MPa) and the lowest elongation (about 2.5%), which has been attributed to higher fraction of tungsten cleavage. For the as-sintered alloys, the fracture modes are a combination of the ductile rupture of W-Ni-Fe-Co matrix, transgranular cleavage of the tungsten particles, W-W interfacial segregation and W-M interfacial debonding, whereas transgranular cleavage of the tungsten particles is the main characteristic in the as-swaged alloy. Transmission electron microscopy images indicate that tungsten grains and W-Ni-Fe-Co matrix phase are composed of high-density dislocations. Based on the results, when running the swaging of 93W-4.9(Ni, Co)-2.1Fe alloy at 600 °C, the strengthening mechanism can be mainly due to the working-hardening.