Densification mechanism and microstructure characteristics of nano- and micro- crystalline alumina by high-pressure and low temperature sintering

Fully dense ceramics with retarded grain growth can be attained effectively at relatively low temperatures using a high-pressure sintering method. However, there is a paucity of in-depth research on the densification mechanism, grain growth process, grain boundary characterization, and residual stress. Using a strong, reliable die made from a carbon-fiber-reinforced carbon (C_f/C) composite for spark plasma sintering, two kinds of commercially pure α-Al₂O₃ powders, with average particle sizes of 220 nm and 3 μm, were sintered at relatively low temperatures and under high pressures of up to 200 MPa. The sintering densification temperature and the starting threshold temperature of grain growth (T_sg) were determined by the applied pressure and the surface energy relative to grain size, as they were both observed to increase with grain size and to decrease with applied pressure. Densification with limited grain coarsening occurred under an applied pressure of 200 MPa at 1050 °C for the 220 nm Al₂O₃ powder and 1400 °C for the 3 μm Al₂O₃ powder. The grain boundary energy, residual stress, and dislocation density of the ceramics sintered under high pressure and low temperature were higher than those of the samples sintered without additional pressure. Plastic deformation occurring at the contact area of the adjacent particles was proved to be the dominant mechanism for sintering under high pressure, and a mathematical model based on the plasticity mechanics and close packing of equal spheres was established. Based on the mathematical model, the predicted relative density of an Al₂O₃ compact can reach ～80 % via the plastic deformation mechanism, which fits well with experimental observations. The densification kinetics were investigated from the sintering parameters, i.e., the holding temperature, dwell time, and applied pressure. Diffusion, grain boundary sliding, and dislocation motion were assistant mechanisms in the final stage of sintering, as indicated by the stress exponent and the microstructural evolution. During the sintering of the 220 nm alumina at 1125 °C and 100 MPa, the deformation tends to increase defects and vacancies generation, both of which accelerate lattice diffusion and thus enhance grain growth.     

Relationships of tensile strength with crosslink density for the high-carbon black-filled EPDM compounds with various softeners

Equilibrium swelling and rheological tests were adopted to systematically investigate the effects of softener type and dosage on the crosslink densities. The results turned out that the chemical crosslink density could be distinguished from the physical crosslink density by comparing the results of equilibrium swelling and rheological tests. The liquid butadiene (LB) as a softener leads to the greatest reduction in crosslink density, followed by polyethylene wax (PW) and paraffinic oil (PO). The tensile strength decreases with increasing PO content while shows peak values with increase of LB and PW contents. The dependencies of chemical crosslink density on the aging time under 150°C are quite different for the three softeners, which can be expected from the double crosslinking networks consisting of small softener and large main crosslinking networks. Further investigation has been performed to correlate the tensile strength with chemical crosslink density of ethylene propylene diene monomer elastomer vulcanizates. Three different linear relationships can be obtained for the softeners independent of the aging time. It can now be expected from this study that the role of some new softeners in rubber compounds is not only confined to plasticization but also forms crosslinking networks in the peroxide-cured rubbers.     

An ultrasonic study on ternary xPbO–(45-x)CuO–55B2O3 glasses

A series of xPbO–(45-x)CuO–55B₂O₃ glasses (5 ≤ x ≥ 40 mol %) were prepared by the melt-quenching technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the prepared glasses are found to have amorphous structure. An extensive ultrasonic study has been made to explore the structural role of PbO and CuO in the borate network. Various elastic properties were calculated from the measured data of density and ultrasonic velocity. Ultrasonic velocity and elastic moduli revealed broad humps at about 20 mol % PbO, which are attributed to the borate anomaly. Below 20 mol % PbO, all Pb²⁺ ions are considered to be entering the borate network as a glass modifier. This results in the transforms the borate network from an open structure to a denser three-dimensional structure due to BO₃ → BO₄ conversion. Beyond 20 mol, addition of PbO results in the formation of metaborate, pyroborate, and orthoborate units with NBOs. This weakness the glass structure and decrease both ultrasonic velocity and elastic moduli. The elastic properties were predicted and quantitatively analyzed by taking into account the effect of boron coordination number on the compositional and structural parameters involved in Makishima–Mackenzie's theory, ring deformation model and bond compression model. An excellent agreement between the computed theoretical and experimental elastic moduli, micro-harness and Poisson's ratio was achieved for majority of samples.     

Phase constitution,microstructure and mechanical properties of a Ni-based superalloy specially designed for additive manufacturing

In this study, a kind of Ni-based superalloy specially designed for additive manufacturing (AM) was investigated. Thermo-Calc simulation and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis were used to determine phases and their transformation temperature. Experimental specimens were prepared by laser metal deposition (LMD) and traditional casting method. Microstructure, phase constitution and mechanical properties of the alloy were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission scanning electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and tensile tests. The results show that this alloy contains two basic phases, γ/γ', in addition to these phases, at least two secondary phases may be present, such as MC carbides and Laves phases. Furthermore, the as-deposited alloy has finer dendrite, its mean primary dendrite arm space (PDAS) is about 30-45 μm, and the average size of γ' particles is 100-150 nm. However, the dendrite size of the as-cast alloy is much larger and its PDAS is 300-500 μm with secondary and even third dendrite arms. Correspondingly, the alloy displays different tensile behavior with different processing methods, and the as-deposited specimen shows better ultimate tensile stress (1,085.7±51.7 MPa), yield stress (697±19.5 MPa) and elongation (25.8%±2.2%) than that of the as-cast specimen. The differences in mechanical properties of the alloy are due to the different morphology and size of dendrites, γ', and Laves phase, and the segregation of elements, etc. Such important information would be helpful for alloy application as well as new alloy development.     

Learning shape and texture progression for young child face aging

Face aging (FA) for young faces refers to rendering the aging faces at target age for an individual, generally under 20s, which is an important topic of facial age analysis. Unlike traditional FA for adults, it is challenging to age children with one deep learning-based FA network, since there are deformations of facial shapes and variations of textural details. To alleviate the deficiency, a unified FA framework for young faces is proposed, which consists of two decoupled networks to apply aging image translation. It explicitly models transformations of geometry and appearance using two components: GD-GAN, which simulates the Geometric Deformation using Generative Adversarial Network; TV-GAN, which simulates the Textural Variations guided by the age-related saliency map. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method has advantages over the state-of-the-art methods in terms of synthesizing visually plausible images for young faces, as well as preserving the personalized features.     

Effect of Bimodal Grain Size Distribution on the Strain Hardening Behavior of a Medium-Entropy Alloy

The evolution of strain hardening behavior of the Fe_(50)(CoCrMnNi)_(50) medium-entropy alloy as a function of the fraction of recrystallized microstructure and the grain size was studied using the Hollomon and Ludwigson equations.The specimens under study were partially recrystallized,fully recrystallized with ultrafine-grained microstructure,and fully recrystallized with coarse grains.The yield strength decreases steadily as the fraction of recry stallized micro structure and grain size increases due to the recovery process and the Hall-Petch effect.Interestingly,the bimodal grain distribution was found to have a significant impact on strain hardening during plastic deformation.For instance,the highest ultimate tensile strength was exhibited by a 0.97 μm specimen,which was observed to contain a bimodal grain distribution.Furthermore,using the Ludwigson equation,the effect of the bimodal grain distribution was established from the behavior of K_2 and n1 curves.These curves tend to show very high values in the specimens with a bimodal grain distribution compared to those that show a homogenous grain distribution.Additionally,the bimodal grain distribution contributes to the extensive L(u|")ders strain observed in the 0.97 μm specimen,which induces a significant deviation of the Hollomon equation at lower strains.     

InSAR技术在矿区地表变形监测中的应用

以禹州市梁北矿为研究区，利用2018年11月—2020年6月间35景5 m×20 m分辨率Sentinel-1A数据，采用InSAR技术，利用SBAS（短基线集InSAR）雷达干涉测量方法对梁北矿进行地面沉降信息提取解译，并通过实地调查成果认为，采用InSAR技术适合在矿区开展地表变形监测。     

Gluten–starch interface characteristics and wheat dough rheology—Insights from hybrid artificial systems

Referring to the total surface existing in wheat dough, gluten–starch interfaces are a major component. However, their impact on dough rheology is largely unclear. Common viewpoints, based on starch surface modifications or reconstitution experiments, failed to show unambiguous relations of interface characteristics and dough rheology. Observing hybrid artificial dough systems with defined particle surface functionalization gives a new perspective. Since surface functionalization standardizes particle–polymer interfaces, the impact on rheology becomes clearly transferable and thus, contributes to a better understanding of gluten–starch interfaces. Based on this perspective, the effect of particle/starch surface functionality is discussed in relation to the rheological properties of natural wheat dough and modified gluten–starch systems. A competitive relation of starch and gluten for intermolecular interactions with the network-forming polymer becomes apparent during network development by adsorption phenomena. This gluten–starch adhesiveness delays the beginning of non-linearity under large deformations, thus contributing to a high deformability of dough. Consequently, starch surface functionality affects the mechanical properties, starting from network formation and ending with the thermal fixation of structure.     

Differences between internal and external hydrogen effects on slow strain rate tensile test of iron-based superalloy A286

To investigate the evaluation method of hydrogen compatibility of A286 superalloy in high pressure hydrogen gas, SSRT tests of hydrogen-charged specimens were conducted at ambient temperature at various strain rates. The relative reduction in area (RRA), one of the ductility parameters, was determined. The hydrogen content in the hydrogen-charged specimen was the same as the equilibrium hydrogen content on the specimen surface at 150 °C in 70 MPa hydrogen gas. The strain rate dependence of RRA was smaller than that of RRA obtained in 70 MPa hydrogen gas at 150 °C. All the hydrogen-charged specimens showed slip-plane fractures in the grains in their cores. However, the specimens in 70 MPa hydrogen gas at 150 °C showed fracture surfaces morphology ranging from dimples to quasi-cleavages and intergranular fractures with decreasing strain rate. These dissimilarities are expected to arise from differences in the hydrogen concentration behaviors of the specimens during the deformation process.     

Experimental study on the deformation and failure mechanism of overburden rock during coal mining using a comprehensive intelligent sensing method

Understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of overburden deformation during coal mining is still a challenge in engineering practice due to the limitation of monitoring techniques. Taking the Yangliu Coal Mine as an example, a similarity model test was designed and conducted to investigate the deformation and failure mechanism of overlying rocks in this study. Distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS), high-density electrical resistivity tomography (HD-ERT) and close-range photogrammetry (CRP) technologies were used in the test for comprehensive analyses. The combined use of the three methods facilitates the investigation of the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of overburden deformation, showing that the mining-induced deformation of overburden strata was a dynamic evolution process. This process was accompanied by the formation, propagation, closure and redevelopment of separation cracks. Moreover, the key rock stratum with high strength and high-quality lithology played a crucial role in the whole process of overburden deformation. There were generally three failure modes of overburden rock layers, including bending and tension, overall shearing, and shearing and sliding. Shear failure often leads to overburden falling off in blocks, which poses a serious threat to mining safety. Therefore, real-time and accurate monitoring of overburden deformation is of great significance for the safe mining of underground coal seams.