Effects of Re-B modification on the strength and toughness of 30CrMn2Si cast steel

The effects of multi-modification on the strength and toughness of 30CrMn2Si cast steel were investigated. The mechanical properties tested include tensile strength; Charpy impact toughness from room temperature to –60 °C; hardness and fracture toughness. Microanalyses were carried out by optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction, and included the microstructure and submicrostructure of martensites, residual austenites, the size and distribution of non-metallic inclusions, and the original austenite grain size. It was concluded that, with the hardness unchanged, the fracture toughness of the modified steel was raised to 95 MPa m^1/2, 34% more than that of the un-modified steel, and the impact toughnesses at normal and low temperatures raised to 62 and 61.2 J cm^-2, respectively, 67 and 75% more than those of the un-modified steel. Furthermore, the fracture strength and yield strength of the steel were increased by over 200 MPa.     

Grain size and porosity dependence of ceramic fracture energy and toughness at 22 °C

A review of the fracture energy and toughness data for dense ceramics at 22 °C shows maxima commonly occurring as a function of grain size. Such maxima are most pronounced for non-cubic materials, where they are often associated with microcracking and R-curve effects, especially in oxides, but often also occur at too fine a grain size for association with microcracking. The maxima are usually much more limited, but frequently definitive, for cubic materials. In a few cases only a decrease with increasing grain size at larger grain size, or no dependence on grain size is found, but the extent to which these reflect lack of sufficient data is uncertain. In porous ceramics fracture toughness and especially fracture energy commonly show less porosity dependence than strength and Young's modulus. In some cases little, or no, decrease, or possibly a temporary increase in fracture energy or toughness are seen with increasing porosity at low or intermediate levels of porosity in contrast to continuous decreases for strength and Young's modulus. It is suggested that such (widely neglected) variations reflect bridging in porous bodies. The above maxima as a function of grain size and reduced decreases with increased porosity are less pronounced for fracture toughness as opposed to fracture energy, since the former reflects effects of the latter and Young's modulus, which usually has no dependence on grain size, but substantial dependence on porosity. In general, tests with cracks closer to the natural flaw size give results more consistent with strength behaviour. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Mechanical behaviour of diamond reinforced metals

Diamond reinforced metals with a diamond content of 55–60 vol.% were made by gas driven liquid metal infiltration. They were characterized with regard to their stiffness, strength and fracture toughness as a function of diamond particle size and matrix alloy by means of tensile and Chevron notch tests, respectively. The choice of the metal matrix, i.e. pure Al, Al–Cu, Cu–B and Ag–Si alloys was made in view of their application in thermal management where high thermal conductivity is important. For undamaged material Young's moduli, measured in unloading–reloading cycles necessary to measure static Young's modulus, of 250 GPa for Al-based and 300 GPa for Ag-based composites were obtained. The copper-based composites exhibited much lower values indicating that the small deformation necessary to measure Young's modulus induced already considerable damage. Strain to fracture of the composites was found to be a few tenth of a percent. An ultimate tensile strength of approximately 300 MPa was reached for the silver-based composites compared with roughly 150 MPa for the Al-based and below 50 MPa for the Cu-based composites. The size of the diamond particles had little influence on stiffness and strength of the composites but fracture toughness increased with increasing particle size. The differences in the mechanical behaviour of the configurations investigated can be rationalized by observations made during fractographic investigations by scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, the damage evolution in the composites was observed by the repeated determination of the specimen's stiffness during the tensile tests.     

Mechanical properties of vanadium beryllide,VBe12

The mechanical properties of VBe₁₂, both at room and elevated temperatures (up to 1200°C), have been measured. Room-temperature properties, including Young's modulus, flexural strength, and fracture toughness are reported. The material behaved elastically at room temperature but became plastic at temperatures above 1000°C. Creep properties of VBe₁₂ were also studied in temperature ranges from 1000–1200°C and applied stress ranges from 33–58 MPa. At low strain rates (approximately < 10^–5s^–1), the stress exponent was about 4, suggesting deformation was controlled by dislocation climb. Microstructural examination indicated that fracture was initiated from grain boundaries subjected to tensile stresses. The creep behaviour of VBe₁₂ is briefly compared with that of other intermetallics.     

The effect of ceria co-doping on chemical stability and fracture toughness of Y-TZP

The fracture toughness and ageing resistance of yttria, ceria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y, Ce-TZP) were evaluated as a function of grain size and ceria content. Very fine grained, fully dense materials could be produced by sinter forging at relatively low temperatures (1150–1200 °C). The ageing resistance in hot water (185 °C) of 2 mol% Y₂O₃-stabilized TZP is strongly enhanced by alloying with ceria. The ceria content necessary to avoid degradation completely, decreases with grain size. The toughness of fully dense Y, Ce-TZP is 7–9 MPa m^1/2 for grain sizes down to 0.2 m. No or very little transformation took place during fracturing and no clear variation with grain size was observed for the toughness at grain sizes up to 0.8 m. Reversible transformation and crack deflection may explain the observed toughness values.     

Rate-dependent fracture toughness of pure polycrystalline ice

A series of three-point bend tests using single edge notched testpieces of pure polycrystalline ice have been performed at three different temperatures (–20°C, –30°C and –40°C). The displacement rate was varied from 1 mm/min to 100 mm/min, producing the crack tip strain rates from about 10^–3 to 10^–1 s^–1. The results show that (a) the fracture toughness of pure polycrystalline ice given by the critical stress intensity factor (K _IC) is much lower than that measured from the J—integral under identical conditions; (b) from the determination of K _IC, the fracture toughness of pure polycrystalline ice decreases with increasing strain rate and there is good power law relationship between them; (c) from the measurement of the J—integral, a different tendency was appeared: when the crack tip strain rate exceeds a critical value of 6 × 10^–3 s^–1, the fracture toughness is almost constant but when the crack tip strain rate is less than this value, the fracture toughness increases with decreasing crack tip strain rate. Re-examination of the mechanisms of rate-dependent fracture toughness of pure polycrystalline ice shows that the effect of strain rate is related not only to the blunting of crack tips due to plasticity, creep and stress relaxation but also to the nucleation and growth of microcracks in the specimen.     

Microstructure and mechanical properties of 780 MPa high strength steels produced by direct-quenching and tempering process

Microstructure and mechanical properties of 780 MPa grade steel plate manufactured by conventional reheat-quenching and tempering (RQ-T) and direct-quenching and tempering (DQ-T) processes were investigated. The DQ process was found to enhance the hardenability of steel effectively so that tensile strengths of a range from 780 to 860 MPa have been achieved using DQ-T process, while tensile strength of about 770 MPa has been obtained from the RQ-T sample. In contrast, low temperature toughness of DQ-T samples was generally inferior to that of RQ-T sample, unless hot rolling and cooling processes were optimized in a controlled manner. For example, fracture appearance transition temperature (FATT) of DQ-T samples was varied in a range from –50°C to –120°C, while RQ-T specimens exhibited nearly constant FATT of about –80°C. The finish-rolling temperature (FRT) was one of potential process parameters to determine strength/toughness balance of the steel manufactured by DQ process, while the effect of FRT was closely associated with the cooling rate applied in the process. It has been demonstrated that, for the specimens quenched with a cooling rate higher than 20°C/sec, it may seem to be appropriate to adjust the FRT as low as possible in the non-recrystallization region. In contrast, for the specimens quenched with a low cooling rate of less than 10°C/sec, it may seem to be proper to apply higher FRT to obtain excellent strength/toughness balance of the steel.     

Diphasic mullite gel pressed at 1.5 GPa: Mechanical properties and microstructure of ceramics

Mullite gels containing 72–85 wt% Al2O3 were prepared by mixing commercial boehmite and silica sols and gelled by heating. Powdered gels were either dried at 60°C or calcined at 550°C, and cold isostatically pressed under 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5 GPa. The effect of pressure is greater for the calcined gels than for the dried gels. The bulk density and room-temperature flexural strength of ceramics increased with increasing compacting pressure, while the fracture toughness is independent of the pressure. Mullite containing 75 wt% Al2O3 and sintered at 1500°C for 3 h has a density which is about 99% of the theoretical density, a flexural strength of 523±40 MPa and a fracture toughness of 3.5 MPa m1/2.     

Improvement of mechanical properties of zirconia-toughened alumina by sinter forging

ZTA powder with a composition of 85 wt% alumina/15 wt% zirconia was prepared by a gel precipitation method. Sinter forging was performed with this powder to enhance the mechanical properties of ZTA materials. The influence of processing flaws on mechanical properties of sinter forged materials and pressureless sintered materials was investigated. Sinter forging at 40 MPa effectively decreases process flaw sizes resulting in a homogeneous microstructure and improves the grain boundary structure because of large shear applied in this process. Sinter forging resulted in an increase in strength and toughness by a factor of 1.5–2 when compared with pressureless sintered compacts. The fracture energy is enhanced by a factor of two. The predominate mechanism for improvement of mechanical properties of these sinter-forged ZTA materials is grain boundary strengthening.     

Fabrication and mechanical properties of silicon carbide–silicon nitride nanocomposites

A powder mixture of ultrafine –SiC–35 wt% –Si₃N₄ containing 6 wt% Al₂O₃ and 4 wt% Y₂O₃ as sintering additives were liquid–phase sintered at 1800°C for 30 min by hot–pressing. The hot–pressed composites were subsequently annealed at 1920°C under nitrogen–gas–pressure to enhance grain growth. The average grain–size of the sintered bodies were ranged from 96 to 251 nm for SiC and from 202 to 407 nm for Si₃N₄, which were much finer than those of ordinary sintered SiC–Si₃N₄ composites. Both strength and fracture toughness of fine–grained SiC–Si₃N₄ composites increased with increasing grain size. Such results suggested that a small amount of grain growth in the fine–grained region (250 nm for SiC and 400 nm for Si₃N₄) was beneficial for mechanical properties of the composites. The room–temperature flexural strength and fracture toughness of the 8–h annealed composites were 698 MPa and 4.7 MPa · m^1/2, respectively.     

Strength characterization of MgO-partially stabilized zirconia

The flexural strength of MgO-partially stabilized zirconia was evaluated as a function of temperature (20–1300 °C in air environment), applied stress and time. The indentation-induced-flaw technique did not produce well-defined symmetrical cracks of controlled size, whose length (on the tensile surface) or depth (on the fracture face) can be measured unambiguously, and therefore it should not be used for measuring fracture toughness. The sudden decrease in fracture strength at moderately low temperatures (200–800 °C) is believed to be due to stability of the tetragonal phase and relative decrease in the extent of the stress-induced martensitic phase transformation of the tetragonal to monoclinic phase. Flexural stress rupture testing at 500–800 °C in air indicated the material's susceptibility to time-dependent failure, and outlines safe applied stress levels for a given temperature. Stress rupture testing at 1000 °C and above at low applied stress levels showed bending of specimens, indicating the onset of plasticity or viscous flow of the glassy phase and consequent degradation of material strength.     

Fracture toughness of sea ice

Linear elastic fracture mechanics, which has been applied to fragile substances and successfully used for studying the brittle fracture of metallic materials, was utilized to gain an understanding of the fracture phenomena of sea ice.The present paper reports the first results of investigations into the fracture-toughness value of sea ice, which was analyzed experimentally as a function of strain rate on the basis of the stress-intensity-factor concept.The fracture toughness, K_IC, of sea ice, which was measured by an in-situ three-point bending test on notched specimens, shows almost constant value if the strain rate is less then 10^?3 s^?1 and decreases with increasing strain rate if the strain rate exceeds 10^?3 s^?1. K_IC data show considerably less scatter than existing data such as the compressive, tensile and flexural strengths.It was confirmed in the present study that the linear elastic-fracture-mechanics concept is effective for analyzing the fracture phenomena of sea ice. Moreover, the K_IC value was shown to be closely related to sea-ice structures (e.g. the size of crack-like flaws such as brine cells).It is also suggested that the fracture-toughness test might prove to be a standard testing method to obtain the sea-ice strength, since once K_1C and crack-like flaw sizes are determined, the less-scattered critical-fracture stress can be calculated.     

Mechanical and thermal properties of Si–C–N material from polyvinylsilazane

Commercial polyvinylsilazane was crosslinked and then crushed to powder. The powder was compacted by cold isostatic pressing at 630 MPa and pyrolysed at 1050 °C in flowing argon. Crack-free Si–C–N material was obtained. Bulk density of the material was 1.95 Mg m–3. Open porosity was 9.6%. The material was amorphous as a result of X-ray diffraction analysis. Elastic modulus measured by pulse–echo method was 105 GPa. Vicker's hardness calculated from indentation at 98 MPa was 6.1 GPa. Fracture toughness measured by indentation fracture method was 2.1 MPa m1/2. Average bending strength was 118 MPa. The material shrank 1.9% in length during heating up to 1400 °C in nitrogen. The thermal expansion coefficient of the material heat treated up to 1400 °C increase from 3.08 × 10–6 °C–1 at 100 °C to 3.96 × 10–6 °C–1 at 1200 °C.     

Fracture study of a polyacetal resin

Fracture experiments have been carried out with unnotched and notched tensile specimens of a polyacetal resin at room temperature at various rates of extension. An increase of approximately 13% in yield stress was observed in the unnotched tests with increased deformation rates from 1–1000 mm min^–1, whilst strain to failure was reduced from about 85% to approximately 0.05%. In all specimens, failure appeared to have taken place by initiation of a microscopic flaw upon yielding, and this flaw then slowly grew into a critical size when catastrophic fracture set in. In the slow-growth region, the mechanism of failure was by void growth whereby the lamellar texture was transformed into a fibrillar one. However, on the rapid fracture surface, there was evidence of lamellar texture being retained, but with small voids in the stacks of lamellae, In notched fracture specimens containing sharp razor cut, a fracture toughness, K _lc, of approximately 5 MPa m^1/2 was obtained between crosshead speeds of 0.5 and 50 mm min^–1. At speeds of 500 and 1000 mm min^–1, the K _lc was reduced to 4 MPa m^1/2. In the absence of a starter crack, blunt notch fracture toughness of about 6.3 MPa m^1/2 was observed at all test speeds. In specimens with a razor cut, the slow-growth region decreased as test speed increased; this can be used to construct an R-curve.     

Simulation of porosity by microballoon dispersion in epoxy and urethane: mechanical measurements and models

Effective mechanical properties of microballoon-dispersed epoxy and urethane are studied under quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions. Elastic modulus measurements of these mixtures over a volume fraction range of 0–0.45 are in good agreement with Hashin-Shtrikman lower-bound predictions for two-phase mixtures comprising of randomly distributed spherical pores in an elastic matrix. The measurements have also been predicted accurately by a LEFM based pore-flaw model for a selected flaw size to pore size ratio. These imply that the microballoons offer negligible reinforcement due to extremely small wall thickness to diameter ratio. Accordingly, feasibility of using these materials to simulate controlled porosity for tensile strength and fracture toughness modeling is explored. Measured tensile strength and fracture toughness values decrease monotonically similar to the Young's modulus variation with volume fraction of microballoons. Guided by the measurements linear elastic models for porous materials that predict tensile strength and fracture toughness of these mixtures are proposed and validated. The tensile strength predictions are in very good agreement with measurements for both epoxy and urethane compositions. The quasi-static crack initiation toughness prediction captures the measurement trends rather well in both cases. The agreement between the measurements and predictions are modest for epoxy matrix while they are good for urethane compositions. Based on fracture surface micrography, an empirical corrective procedure is advanced to improve the agreement between the measurements and the model. The dynamic crack initiation toughness measurements for epoxy, on the other hand, are in excellent agreement with the predictions.     

Mechanical properties of polycrystalline diamonds

Abstract

The room temperature mechanical properties of polycrystalline diamonds, i.e. tensile strength, transverse rupture strength, compressive strength, impact strength, fracture toughness, and elastic constants, have been determined. The applied test techniques are described and the results compared with those obtained by other authors. The fracture mode under the present experimental conditions was primarily transgranular. A grain size dependence, where strength increases with decreasing grain size, has been found. Fracture toughness was found to go through a maximum for grain sizes between 10 to 30 μm. The modulus of elasticity increases with increasing grain size. An influence of cobalt content on strength and modulus of elasticity has been found, while no significant influence on toughness could be determined. Increasing the cobalt content increases strength, but has the inverse effect on the modulus of elasticity. The results of strength, toughness, and elastic constants measurements are discussed in terms of available models and theories of polycrystalline ceramic materials. It can be seen from the results that polycrystalline diamonds behave in a manner similar to that of most engineering ceramics, but have the distinct advantage of a higher fracture toughness.

MST/596     

Superior high-temperature resistance of aluminium nitride particle-reinforced aluminium compared to silicon carbide or alumina particle-reinforced aluminium

Aluminium-matrix composites containing AlN, SiC or Al₂O₃ particles were fabricated by vacuum infiltration of liquid aluminium into a porous particulate preform under an argon pressure of up to 41 MPa. Al/AlN had similar tensile strengths and higher ductility compared to Al/SiC of similar reinforcement volume fractions at room temperature, but exhibited higher tensile strength arid higher ductility at 300–400 °C and at room temperature after heating at 600 °C for 10–20 days. The ductility of Al/AIN increased with increasing temperature from 22–400 °C, while that of Al/SiC did not change with temperature. At 400 °C, Al/AlN exhibited mainly ductile fracture, whereas Al/SiC exhibited brittle fracture due to particle decohesion. Moreover, Al/AlN exhibited greater resistance to compressive deformation at 525 °C than Al/SiC. The superior high-temperature resistance of Al/AlN is attributed to the lack of a reaction between aluminium and AlN, in contrast to the reaction between aluminium and SiC in Al/SiC. By using Al-20Si-5Mg rather than aluminium as the matrix, the reaction between aluminium and SiC was arrested, resulting in no change in the tensile properties after heating at 500 °C for 20 days. However, the use of Al-20Si-5Mg instead of aluminium as the matrix caused the strength and ductility to decrease by 30% and 70%, respectively, due to the brittleness of Al-20Si-5Mg. Therefore, the use of AIN instead of SiC as the reinforcement is a better way to avoid the filler-matrix reaction. Al/Al₂O₃ had lower room-temperature tensile strength and ductility compared to both Al/AlN and Al/SiC of similar reinforcement volume fractions, both before and after heating at 600 °C for 10–20 days. Al/Al₂O₃ exhibited brittle fracture even at room temperature, due to incomplete infiltration resulting from Al₂O₃ particle clustering.     

Pressureless sintered ATZ and ZTA ceramic composites

Alumina-20 wt% zirconia (ATZ) and zirconia-20 wt% alumina (ZTA) composites were prepared by conventional sintering of commercial powders, with average particle sizes in the range 0.35–0.70 m. Sintering at 1650 °C for 4 h resulted in final densities up to 96%. Bending strength and hardness increased with the final density. The tetragonal volume fraction was strongly dependent on both the final density and tetragonal grain size. The relatively high fracture toughness of 9 MPa m^1/2 was associated with the highly dense microstructure consisting of tetragonal grains of the critical size.     

Fracture strength and damage resistance of slip cast Y-TZP/Ce-TZP layered composites

Asymmetric, three- and symmetric five-layer Y-TZP/Ce-TZP composites have been prepared by sequential slip casting and pressureless sintering at 1400–1600°C in air. The three-layer material sintered at 1500°C showed the maximum fracture strength (534 MPa), measured by a diametral compression test and failed by the triple-cleft mode of fracture. Contact damage resistance was superior in three-layer composite compared with five-layer, possibly due to the development of relatively large residual compressive stress.     

Preparation of C200 green reactive powder concrete and its static–dynamic behaviors

In this paper, a new type of green reactive powder concrete (GRPC) with compressive strength of 200 MPa (C200 GRPC) is prepared by utilizing composite mineral admixtures, natural fine aggregates, short and fine steel fibers. The quasi-static mechanical properties (mechanical strength, fracture energy and fiber–matrix interfacial bonding strength) of GRPC specimens, cured in three different types of regimes (standard curing, steam curing and autoclave curing), are investigated. The experimental results show that the mechanical properties of the C200 GRPC made with the cementitious materials consisting of 40% of Portland cement, 25% of ultra fine slag, 25% of ultra fine fly ash and 10% of silica fume, 4% volume fraction of steel fiber are higher than the others. The corresponding compressive strength, flexural strength, fracture energy and fiber–matrix interfacial bonding strength are more than 200 MPa, 60 MPa, 30,000 J/m² and 14 MPa, respectively. The dynamic tensile behavior of the C200 GRPC is also investigated through the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) according to the spalling phenomena. The dynamic testing results demonstrate that strain rate has an important effect on the dynamic tensile behavior of C200 GRPC. With an increase of strain rate, the peak stress rapidly increases in the dynamic tensile stress–time curves. The C200 GRPC exhibits an obvious strain rate stiffening effect in the case of high strain rate. Finally, the mechanism of excellent static and dynamic properties gains of C200 GRPC is also discussed.