Microstructure,mechanical properties,and fracture behaviour of Ti(C,N)-based cermets with a composite structure

Ti(C,N)-based cermets with a composite structure were designed to maintain the balance between strength and toughness. The cermets with the composite structure comprised coarse particles and the matrix, and the coarse particles included fine hard phases compounded in the matrix. A new hard phase grain with a four-layered structure was found. The composite structure of the cermet can contribute to high toughness, and the grain with the four-layered structure in the composite structure imparts high strength and toughness. As the granule size increases, the fracture toughness of the cermets increased, but the hardness and transverse rupture strength (TRS) showed the opposite trend. The toughening mechanisms of the cermet were crack branching, crack bridging, crack deflection, and formation of tear ridges.     

Reversible,repeatable and low phase transition behaviour of spin coated nanostructured vanadium oxide thin films with superior mechanical properties

Smooth, uniform and crystalline vanadium oxide thin films were deposited on quartz by spin coating technique with four different rpm i.e., 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 and subsequently post annealed at 350, 450 and 550?°C in vacuum. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques were utilized for microstructural characterizations and phase analysis, respectively, for vanadium oxide powder and deposited film. Nanorods were observed to be grown after vacuum annealing. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique was utilized to study the elemental oxidation state of deposited vanadium oxide films. Thermo-optical and electrical properties such as solar transmittance (τ_s), reflectance (ρ_s), absorptance (α_s), infrared (IR) emittance (ε_ir) and sheet resistance (R_s) of different thin films were evaluated. Based on the optical characteristics the optimized condition of the film processing was identified to be spin coated at 3000?rpm. Subsequently, the nanoindentation technique was utilized to measure hardness and Young's modulus of the optimized film. The measured nanomechanical properties were found to be superior to those reported for sputtered vanadium oxide films. Finally, temperature dependent phase transition characteristics of optimized vanadium oxide films were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique. Reversible and repeatable phase transition was found to occur in the range of 44–48?°C which was significantly lower than the phase transition temperature (i.e., 68?°C) of bulk VO₂.     

Mechanical properties and microstructure of Yb2SiO5 environmental barrier coatings under isothermal heat treatment

Yb₂SiO₅ (ytterbium monosilicate) top coatings and Si bond coat layer were deposited by air plasma spray method as a protection layer on SiC substrates for environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) application. The Yb₂SiO₅-coated specimens were subjected to isothermal heat treatment at 1400 °C on air for 0, 1, 10, and 50 h. The Yb₂SiO₅ phase of the top coat layer reacted with Si from the bonding layer and O₂ from atmosphere formed to the Yb₂Si₂O₇ phase upon heat treatment at 1400 °C. The oxygen penetrated into the cracks to form SiO₂ phase of thermally grown oxide (TGO) in the bond coat and the interface of specimens during heat treatment. Horizontal cracks were also observed, due to a mismatch of the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the top coat and bond coat. The isothermal heat treatment improves the hardness and elastic modulus of Yb₂SiO₅ coatings; however, these properties in the Si bond coat were a little bit decreased.     

Evaluation of surface properties of epoxy–nanodiamonds composites

Epoxy–matrix reinforced with nanodiamond (ND) particles, with ND content up to 5 wt%, were synthesized. Characterization of NDs by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and Raman spectroscopy was conducted, while composites were characterized through contact angle, nanoindentation, nanoscratch and scanning probe microscopy. The assessed properties evaluated were hardness, elastic modulus, contact angle, deformation mechanisms, creep deformation, coefficient of friction and adhesion, namely. Results showed that even small additions of ND lead to significant enhancement in the hardness and elastic modulus of epoxy matrix, while properties of composites present a switch in behavior after passing a concentration threshold; this threshold was identified and discussed.     

Nanomechanical characterization of RB-SiC ceramics based on nanoindentation and modelling of the ground surface roughness

Reaction bonded silicon carbide (RB-SiC) ceramics are the primary structure and mold materials for the optical industry and mostly are machined by means of ultra-precision grinding to achieve a satisfactory surface quality. However, it is not easy to attain the theoretical prediction of surface quality, particularly surface roughness, because of different mechanical characterization of Si/SiC phases inside the RB-SiC ceramics. In this work, the nanoindentation tests were performed to investigate the nanomechanical characterization of individual phase inside the RB-SiC ceramics. On the basis of the nanoindentation results of RB-SiC, a theoretical model was established to predict surface roughness in the ultra-precision grinding process, which considered the different removal mechanisms of Si matrix and SiC particles. The comparison of the prediction results of existing and novel models and single-factor experimental results shows that the novel model was well consistent with the experiment.     

Binder jetting additive manufacturing of aluminum nitride components

In this work, we report on the novel fabrication of aluminum nitride (AlN) components using Binder Jetting (BJT) additive manufacturing (AM). The AlN constructs were subjected to post-fabrication thermal treatment by hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) for 8 hours at a pressure of 206 MPa and temperature of 1900 °C. This treatment resulted in a 60.1% relative density maximum densification for AlN. The BJT printed AlN specimens were analyzed using various characterization techniques. The purity, microstructure, and polycrystallinity of the AlN phase formed were confirmed by techniques that included x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy showed polarization dependence and second harmonic signal at 470 nm, indicating the potential to produce thermal and optical-mechanical devices. Mechanical properties obtained by nanoindentation resulted in an elastic modulus of ~251 GPa when measured in fully dense, contiguous crystalline regions, corresponding to an apparent, porous bulk stiffness of ~90 GPa for the final, 60.1 % dense products. Finally, the laser flash method (LFM) was used to measure the thermal conductivity of the material as a function of temperature resulting in values from 4.82 W/mK to 3.17 W/mK for the temperature range from 23 °C to 500 °C, respectively.     

Revealing the relationships between alloy structure,composition and plastic deformation in a ternary alloy system by a combinatorial approach

A high-throughput approach based on magnetron co-sputtering of alloy libraries is employed to inves-tigate mechanical properties of crystalline and amorphous alloys in a ternary palladium(Pd)-tungsten(W)-silicon(Si)system with the aim to reveal the difference in plastic deformation response and extract the relevant structure-property relationships of the alloys in the system.It was found that in contrast to crystalline alloys,the amorphous ones,i.e.,metallic glasses,exhibited a much smaller fluctuation range in the plasticity parameters(Er2/H and Wp/Wt),indicating a significant difference in the plastic deformation mechanism controlling the mechanical properties for the respective alloys.We propose that the inho-mogeneous deformation of amorphous alloys localized in thin shear bands is responsible for the weaker compositional dependence of both plasticity parameters,while dislocation gliding in crystalline materials is significantly more dependent on the exact structure,thus resulting in a larger scattering range.Based on the representative efficient cluster packing model,a set of composition-dependent atomic structural models is proposed to figure out the structure-property relationships of amorphous alloys in Pd-W-Si alloy system.     

Preparation and elastic–plastic indentation response of MgAlON transparent ceramics

MgAlON transparent ceramic was prepared via pressureless sintering and post hot isostatic pressing. The in-line transmittance of MgAlON ceramic exceeds 80% in the range 0.39–4.67 μm, and the ceramic was fully dense with average grain sizes ～55 μm. The mechanical properties at the grain boundary (GB) and the center of the grain (CG) of MgAlON ceramic was investigated by nanoindentation at forces of 1 × 10²–3 × 10⁵ μN. The results indicated that the hardness values of MgAlON ceramic were sensitive to the testing forces and measurements position. The hardness at GB zone was lower than that at CG zone, which was probably ascribed to weaker interatomic bonding force in GB area. The Meyer's index of the hardness in GB and CG regions is 1.87 and 1.82, respectively. There is a weaker ISE in GB area of MgAlON as a result of larger plasticity and smaller elasticity. The hardness values of GB and CG regions are ～13.36 GPa and ～13.58 GPa, respectively.     

Predictions of frame compliance and apex morphology in sharp nanoindentations

If all components in a nanoindentation system are well calibrated and a reference material has unique hardness, H and reduced modulus, E_r independent of the indentation depths, the load, L and the penetration depth, h in the indentation loading curve of the reference material can be correlated by L=Kh². Here the constant K is expressed by H, E_r and indenter geometry constants. By using H and E_r of a fused silica and the Berkovich geometry, an analytical expression for the indentation loading curve could be derived. To compare with this analytical loading curve, experimental indentation data were measured with two commercial nanoindenters. The experimental loading curves shifted leftward or rightward from the analytical loading curve and this depth deviation was attributed to improper calibration of the nanoindenters. Quantitative calibrations of frame compliance and indenter bluntness were tried for the raw nanoindentation data and this resulted in consistent nanoindentation data regardless of the used nanoindenters.     

Alternative methods to determine the elastoplastic properties of sintered hydroxyapatite from nanoindentation testing

This study introduces alternative methods to determine the elastoplastic properties of bovine-derived Hydroxyapatite (HA) porous bone graft through a set of nanoindentation tests with a Berkovich indenter. Generally, experimental data obtained from nanoindentation tests are force displacement, hardness and elastic modulus. However, to determine plastic properties such as strength coefficient and work hardening exponent of bovine HA, analytical or inverse finite element models are required. In this paper, the effect of sintering temperature on these properties of HA is studied for the range of 1000–1400 °C. The direct and inverse Finite Element (FE) simulation models for nanoindentation tests were written in MSC, MARC^® software. A special algorithm for the inverse technique was developed to infer the most suitable elastoplastic material model for HA. A semi-empirical method was adapted to calculate the elastoplastic material properties of HA. The numerical results of harder hydroxyapatite showed better agreement with the experiments while the work hardening exponent, or n-value, and strength coefficient k of hard HA were found to be 0.23 and 8.05 GPa respectively. A comparison between the experimental and predicted load–displacement curves showed that the proposed inverse technique is effective in predicting the elastoplastic material properties from the nanoindentation test with error below 4% at maximum load.