Comparison of Fe-Ni based alloys prepared by ball milling and rapid solidification

Mechanical alloying (MA) and rapid solidification (RS) are two important routes to obtain amorphous alloys. An Fe-Ni based metal-metalloid alloy (Fe₅₀Ni₃₀P₁₄Si₆) prepared by these two different processing routes was studied by differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy with microanalysis, inductive coupled plasma, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy (TMS). The results were compared with that obtained from other Fe-Ni based alloys of similar compositions. The structural analyses show that the materials obtained by mechanical alloying are not completely disordered after 40 h of milling whereas fully amorphous alloys were obtained by rapid solidification. TMS analyses show that, independent of the composition, after milling for 40 h, about 7% of the Fe remains unreacted. Furthermore, the thermal stability of mechanically alloyed samples is lower than that of the analogous material prepared by rapid solidification. In the MA alloys, a broad exothermic process associated to structural relaxation begins at low temperature. XRD patterns of crystallized alloys indicate that the crystallization products are bcc(Fe,Ni), fcc(Ni,Fe), and (Fe,Ni)-phosphides and -silicides.     

A transport model considering charge adsorption inside pores to describe salts rejection by nanofiltration membranes

In the present work, rejection of mineral salts by nanofiltration membranes is modeled by a new knowledge model considering a charge distribution along the membrane pores. The model is classically based upon the coupling between the extended Nernst–Planck equation of transport within the pores with the Donnan, steric and dielectric interfacial exclusion. In literature, this kind of model is currently being used to describe salt rejections and it requires assessment of the membrane charge density and the dielectric constant of the solution inside the pores or the dielectric constant of the membrane material. Experimental estimation of these parameters, especially the membrane charge density, is difficult. For this reason, these parameters are usually adjusted so as to fit experimental rejections. The novelty of the proposed approach lies with the membrane charge density, which is not considered constant along the pores. Indeed, in this work, the membrane charge density was introduced in the model by means of adsorption isotherms, which were determined beforehand from the streaming potential measurements. In this case, only the dielectric constant inside pores had to be adjusted. The good agreement found between experimental and simulated rejection curves with coherent dielectric constants proves that the model theory is consistent. It has also proved that the estimated membrane charge density was, clearly, not overestimated as it was previously reported and made it possible to foresee a fully predictive model.     

Thermal and structural study of nanocrystalline Fe(Co)NiZrB alloys prepared by mechanical alloying

Three nanocrystalline alloys, Fe_75−x Co _x (Ni₇₀Zr₃₀)₁₅B₁₀ (x = 0, 10, and 20), were synthesized from elemental powders in a planetary high-energy ball mill. Their microstructure, magnetic properties, and thermal stability were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission M?ssbauer spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, induction coupled plasma, vibrating sample magnetometry, and differential scanning calorimetry. After 80 h of milling, the nanocrystallites size of alloys is in the range 6–10 ± 1 nm. The lattice parameter decreases when increasing (decreasing) milling time (Fe content). Furthermore, the thermal stability of the nanocrystalline phase increases when increasing Co concentration. The activation energy of the main crystallization process, between 275 ± 8 and 311 ± 10 kJ mol⁻¹, is associated with grain growth. Slight contamination from milling tools and milling atmosphere was detected. Minor differences were detected after M?ssbauer analysis.     

X-ray studies of structure defects in nanostructured FeAl alloy

The evolution of the microstructure of the mixture iron and aluminium powders during the high energy mechanical alloying process was investigated by X-ray line profile analysis. Analysis of line breadths was carried out to get an insight into the interrelated effects of grain size, lattice strain and dislocations. The final product of the MA process was the nanocrystalline Fe(Al) solid solution with a mean crystallite of 10 nm. On the basic on the modified Williamson-Hall plots, the root-mean squared strains were explained by the presence of dislocations, with a dislocation density of about 6 × 10¹⁶ m^− 2. The identified steady-state saturation values of these parameters can be related to accumulate strain hardening of the powder material during longer milling times.     

Amorphization of Al50(Fe2B)30Nb20 Mixture by Mechanical Alloying

An amorphous Al₅₀(Fe₂B)₃₀Nb₂₀ powder mixture was prepared by mechanical alloying in a high-energy planetary ball-mill under argon atmosphere. Morphologic, microstructural, and structural changes during the milling process were followed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Rietveld analysis of X-ray diffraction patterns was used to follow the solid-state amorphization transformation during the milling process of the prepared powder. The reaction between elemental Al, Fe₂B, and Nb powders leads to the formation of the Al(Fe,B) and Al(Fe,Nb,B) solid solutions after 4 and 6 hours of milling, respectively. An amorphous structure is achieved after 20 of milling. These amorphous powders are crystallized on further milling time (36 hours). The observation by scanning electron microscope shows a phenomenon of fracturing followed by compaction of the powder particles.     

On the use of a priori information for sparse signal approximations

Recent results have underlined the importance of incoherence in redundant dictionaries for a good behavior of decomposition algorithms like matching and basis pursuit. However, appropriate dictionaries for a given application may not be able to meet the incoherence condition. In such a case, decomposition algorithms may completely fail in the retrieval of the sparsest approximation. This paper studies the effect of introducing a priori knowledge when recovering sparse approximations over redundant dictionaries. Theoretical results show how the use of reliable a priori information (which in this paper appears under the form of weights) can improve the performances of standard approaches such as greedy algorithms and relaxation methods. Our results reduce to the classical case when no prior information is available. Examples validate and illustrate our theoretical statements. EDICS: 2-NLSP.     

X-ray line profile analysis of the ball-milled Fe–30Co alloy

This work deals with the microstructural properties of the Fe–30Co alloy prepared by ball milling of elemental iron and cobalt powders. The obtained mixed powder has been characterized by means of scanning electron microscope, X-ray microanalysis, laser diffraction, X-ray diffraction and microhardness measurements. X-ray line profile analysis based on the Rietveld method and adopting two different models has been used for the microstructural study. The refinement of the X-ray patterns shows that after 3 h of high energy milling the Fe(Co) is formed. The obtained Fe(Co) solid solution is characterized by body centered cubic structure with a lattice parameter a = 0.28564 ± 0.00004 nm and an ellipsoidal crystallite and microstrain field. The dissolution of cobalt in iron matrix is accompanied by the compression of the crystalline lattice by 0.37%. The progress of milling process produces an increase of the Debye–Waller factor and the dislocation density leading to the hardening of the powder. The variation of microhardness with milling time shows a change in hardening mechanisms.     

Estimation of local stresses and elastic properties of a mortar sample by FFT computation of fields on a 3D image

This study concerns the prediction of the elastic properties of a 3D mortar image, obtained by micro-tomography, using a combined image segmentation and numerical homogenization approach. The microstructure is obtained by segmentation of the 3D image into aggregates, voids and cement paste. Full-fields computations of the elastic response of mortar are undertaken using the Fast Fourier Transform method. Emphasis is made on highly-contrasted properties between aggregates and matrix, to anticipate needs for creep or damage computation. The representative volume element, i.e. the volume size necessary to compute the effective properties with a prescribed accuracy, is given. Overall, the volumes used in this work were sufficient to estimate the effective response of mortar with a precision of 5%, 6% and 10% for contrast ratios of 100, 1000 and 10,000, resp. Finally, a statistical and local characterization of the component of the stress field parallel to the applied loading is carried out.