Environmental effects on the strength and impact damage resistance of alumina based oxide/oxide ceramic matrix composites

In this study the effects of high temperature and moisture on the impact damage resistance and mechanical strength of Nextel 610/alumina silicate ceramic matrix composites were experimentally evaluated. Composite laminates were exposed to either a 1050°C isothermal furnace-based environment for 30 consecutive days at 6 h a day, or 95% relative humidity environment for 13 consecutive days at 67°C. Low velocity impact, tensile and short beam strength tests were performed on both ambient and environmentally conditioned laminates and damage was characterized using a combination of non-destructive and destructive techniques. High temperature and humidity environmental exposure adversely affected the impact resistance of the composite laminates. For all the environments, planar internal damage area was greater than the back side dent area, which in turn was greater than the impactor side dent area. Evidence of environmental embrittlement through a stiffer tensile response was noted for the high temperature exposed laminates while the short beam strength tests showed greater propensity for interlaminar shear failure in the moisture exposed laminates. Destructive evaluations exposed larger, more pronounced delaminations in the environmentally conditioned laminates in comparison to the ambient ones. External damage metrics of the impactor side dent depth and area directly influenced the post-impact tensile strength of the laminates while no such trend between internal damage area and residual strength could be ascertained.     

Tuning of shear thickening behavior and elastic strength of polyvinylidene fluoride via doping of ZnO-graphene

ZnO rice like nonarchitects are grafted on the graphene carbon core via a rapid microwave synthesis route. The prepared grafted systems are characterized via XRD, SEM, RAMAN, and XPS to examined the structural and morphological parameters. Zinc oxide grafted graphene sheets (ZnO-G) are further doped in β-phase of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to prepare the polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) via mixed solvent approach (THF/DMF). β-phase confirmation of PVDF PNCs is done by FTIR studies. It is observed that ZnO-G filler enhances the β-phase content in the PNCs. Non-doped PVDF and PNCs are further studied for rheological behavior under the shear rate of 1–100 s⁻¹. Doping of ZnO-G dopant to the PVDF matrix changes its discontinuous shear thickening (DST) behavior to continues shear thickening behavior (CST). Hydrocluster formation and their interaction with the dopant could be the reason for this striking DST to CST behavioral change. Strain amplitude sweep (10⁻³% -10%) oscillatory test reveals that the PNCs shows extended linear viscoelastic region with high elastic modulus and lower viscous modulus. Effective shear thickening behavior and strong elastic strength of these PNCs present their candidature for various fields including mechanical and soft body armor applications.     

巨型水轮发电机剪断销研发与质量控制

为获得设计需要的巨型水轮发电机剪断销的剪切力,得到剪切力波动受控的批量剪断销,通过拉伸试验、冲击试验、硬度试验和剪断销剪切试验等讨论了全尺寸剪断销剪切试验的可行性,分析了剪切试验时正常剪断和非正常剪断的剪断销材料性能差异,探究了剪断销的剪切力质量稳定性控制方法。结果表明:控制剪断销料坯的布氏硬度波动,可实现间接控制剪断销剪切强度的波动;通过试验总结的六步法可达到控制批量剪断销质量和剪切力波动的目的。     

Use of CFD-DEM to evaluate the effect of intermediate stress ratio on the undrained behaviour of granular materials

This study investigates the effect of intermediate stress ratio (b) on the mechanical behaviour of granular soil in true triaxial tests. A CFD-DEM solver with the ability to model compressible fluid and moving mesh has been developed and calibrated based on existing experimental test results on Nevada sand. The effect of b on the undrained true triaxial test, which has been neglected in the literature, was investigated using a reasonable number of models. The effects of the initial confining stress and initial void ratio also have been studied. The developed model was used to calculate the hydrodynamic forces on the particles and evaluate the ratio of the particle–fluid interaction force to the resultant force on the particles. It has been demonstrated that, in numerical studies, the effect of these forces cannot be neglected.     

Predictive process mapping for laser powder bed fusion: A review of existing analytical solutions

One of the main challenges in the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process is making dense and defect-free components. These porosity defects are dependent upon the melt pool geometry and the processing conditions. Power-velocity (PV) processing maps can aid in visualizing the effects of LPBF processing variables and mapping different defect regimes such as lack-of-fusion, under-melting, balling, and keyholing. This work presents an assessment of existing analytical equations and models that provide an estimate of the melt pool geometry as a function of material properties. The melt pool equations are then combined with defect criteria to provide a quick approximation of the PV processing maps for a variety of materials. Finally, the predictions of these processing maps are compared with experimental data from the literature. The predictive processing maps can be computed quickly and can be coupled with dimensionless numbers and high-throughput (HT) experiments for validation. The present work provides a boundary framework for designing the optimal processing parameters for new metals and alloys based on existing analytical solutions.     

The effect of biomass feeding location on rice husk gasification for hydrogen production

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of biomass feeding location on rice husk gasification for hydrogen production. By comparing the results between top-feed and bottom-feed of the feedstock of the fluidized bed biomass gasification at the reaction temperature between 600～1000 °C and ER = 0.2, 0.27, and 0.33 without steam, the optimum low heating value was increase by 2.35 kJ/g-rice husk by the top-feed to gasifier. Although the yield of hydrogen was decreased by 42% for the rice husk gasification by the top-feed operation, the yield of CO, CO2, and CH4 were highly increased, which enhancing the heating value of the effluent gas. The study results suggested the potential route of the biomass gasification at the different feeding location.     

Additive manufacturing of bipolar plates for hydrogen production in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis cells

Water electrolysis is a process that can produce hydrogen in a clean way when renewable energy sources are used. This allows managing large renewable surpluses and transferring this energy to other sectors, such as industry or transport. Among the electrolytic technologies to produce hydrogen, proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis is a promising alternative. One of the main components of PEM electrolysis cells are the bipolar plates, which are machined with a series of flow distribution channels, largely responsible for their performance and durability. In this work, AISI 316L stainless steel bipolar plates have been built by additive manufacturing (AM), using laser powder bed fusion (PBF-L) technology. These bipolar plates were subjected to ex-situ corrosion tests and assembled in an electrolysis cell to evaluate the polarization curve. Furthermore, the obtained results were compared with bipolar plates manufactured by conventional machining processes (MEC). The obtained experimental results are very similar for both manufacturing methods. This demonstrates the viability of the PBF-L technology to produce metal bipolar plates for PEM electrolyzers and opens the possibilities to design new and more complex flow distribution channels and to test these designs in initial phases before scaling them to larger surfaces.     

Chemistry enhanced shear thickening polishing of Ti–6Al–4V

To obtain the great surface quality of Ti–6Al–4V and achieve high efficiency in the polishing process, the chemistry enhanced shear thickening polishing (C-STP) was proposed, and the polishing performance of different pH slurry was studied. The results show that the material removal rate gradually increases as the pH value decreases from 10 to 1, and the best surface quality is obtained at pH 2. The corrosion current density and potential were measured by potentiodynamic polarization under three typical pH values. It is confirmed that the most massive corrosion rate presents at pH 2, and the passive film is most susceptible to be produced at pH 10. The reaction resistance was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to clarify the polishing mechanism. Under acidic conditions, the chemical reaction product on the surface can be quickly removed by mechanical action of the abrasive. On the contrary, the passive film formed on the surface under the alkaline condition is difficult to be removed. The corrosion reaction products were determined by X-ray photoelectron, and the chemical reaction under acid-base environment was derived. MRR reached 107.3 nm/min under the selected process parameters, and the surface roughness (S_a) is reduced from 124 nm to 8.6 nm within 15 min.     

Effect of carbon nanotubes grown temperature on the fracture behavior of carbon fiber reinforced magnesium matrix composites: Interlaminar shear strength and tensile strength

The design of an interfacial structure is particularly important for load transfer in composites. In this paper, different amounts of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were grafted onto the carbon fiber (CF) surface by adjusting grown temperature using injection chemical vapor deposition (ICVD). The prepared CF preform grafted with CNTs (CNTs-CF) were used to reinforce magnesium alloy by squeeze casting process. The microstructures were analyzed by means of optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and tensile strength of the composites were determined by double-notch shear test and tensile test. The results indicated that moderate ILSS was more conducive to improving the tensile properties of carbon fiber reinforced magnesium matrix (C_f/Mg) composites. Compared with C_f/Mg, the tensile strength of composite with CNTs increased by about 80%. For C_f/Mg composites grafted with CNTs, CNTs had the effects of delaying crack propagation and increasing energy consumption by the pull-out and bridging mechanism, which were the main reasons for improving the strength. The analysis of shear fracture surface showed that the crack propagation path can be optimized by adjusting the amounts of grafted CNTs. The presence of CNTs affects the stress distribution and consequently the crack initiation as well as the crack propagation.