The Structure And Properties of a Thermo‐mechanically Processed Low Carbon High Strength Steel

Research efforts were given towards development of low carbon high strength steels since recent past. The present study deals with the development of a low carbon high strength steel alloyed with Mn, Ni, Mo, Cu and microalloyed with Ti and Nb. The steel was subjected to three stage controlled rolling operation followed by accelerated cooling. The structure and properties of the steel at various processing conditions were evaluated. Microstructural observation reveals predominantly lath martensite along with twinned martensite structure at all processing conditions. High strength values at higher finish rolling temperatures have been obtained due to fine martensitic structure along with tiny precipitates of microalloying carbide and carbonitride. The strength value increases marginally at lower finishing temperature due to comparatively finer lath size of martensite and increased precipitation density of carbides, carbonitrides along with Cu particles. The variation in impact toughness properties at different finish rolling temperatures is found to be negligible at ambient and subambient temperatures. The formation of stable and large TiN/TiCN particles during casting have impaired the impact toughness values at ambient and at ‐40°C temperatures.     

Microstructure-Based Estimation of Strength and Ductility Distributions for $$\alpha +\beta $$ Titanium Alloys

Titanium alloys are processed to develop a wide range of microstructure configurations and therefore material properties. While these properties are typically measured experimentally, a framework for property prediction could greatly enhance alloy design and manufacturing. Here a microstructure-sensitive framework is presented for the prediction of strength and ductility as well as estimates of the bounds in variability for these properties. The framework explicitly considers distributions of microstructure via new approaches for instantiation of structure in synthetic samples. The parametric evaluation strategy, including the finite element simulation package FEpX, is used to create and test virtual polycrystalline samples to evaluate the variability bounds of mechanical properties in Ti-6Al-4V. Critical parameters for the property evaluation framework are provided by measurements of single crystal properties and advanced characterization of microstructure and slip system strengths in 2D and 3D. Property distributions for yield strength and ductility are presented, along with the validation and verification steps undertaken. Comparisons between strain localization and slip activity in virtual samples and in experimental grain-scale strain measurements are also discussed.

     

Pattern synthesis of centre fed linear array using Taylor one parameter distribution and restricted search Particle Swarm Optimization

In this article, a new method of pattern synthesis of centre fed, equal distance linear array having single and multiple synthesis objectives has been proposed and statistically investigated. Single objective of reduced side lobe level (SLL) and first null beamwidth (FNBW) has been considered separately. Consequently, multiple objectives of beamwidth and side lobe level have been investigated. Synthesis of linear array for suitable objectives has been investigated on Taylor one parameter distribution with equal progressive phase. Excitation amplitude of each array element is taken as optimization parameter where distribution has been optimized using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for achieving low SLL. Later the same has been incorporated for obtaining suitable FNBW. In our optimization algorithm conventional PSO has been modified with a restricted search PSO (RSPSO) where search space has been predefined within excitation amplitude range. PSO within the defined range searches for optimum excitation amplitude to achieve the desired objectives. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed RSPSO, simulation results of three significant instances of linear array have been presented for both even and odd number of element. The design results obtained using RSPSO have improved result than those obtained using other state of the art evolutionary algorithms like differential evolution (DE), invasive weeds optimization (IWO) and Conventional particle Swarm optimization (CPSO) in a statistically significant way.     

Mechanical and microstructural investigation of dissimilar joints of Al-Cu and Cu-Al metals using nanosecond laser

Laser beam welding (LBW) has found wide applications in several fields, including electronics, aerospace, and automobile industries, owing to its inherent capabilities over existing welding techniques. Dissimilar laser welding is one of the challenging fabrication processes. However, joining of different materials poses challenging issues because material properties of each material interacts to give rise to hybrid system performance. In present study weld of Al-Cu and Cu-Al has been performed using Ytterbium pulsed fibre laser with a maximum laser power of 300 W. The scanning electron microscope (SEM), and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) has been employed to investigate the microstructural and chemical composition of the welded joints. The EDS analysis showed the presence of possible intermetallic compounds (IMCs) like AlCu and Cu2Al in the fusion zone. The Al-Cu and Cu-Al welded joints had maximum shear strength of 295 N and 84 N, respectively. The results showed the efficacy of Al-Cu joints over Cu-Al joints. The study further demonstrated that the Al-Cu weld had a better microstructure with fewer pores and cracks than the Cu-Al welds by varying the laser powers.

     

A numerical analysis and expository interpretation of thediffraction of light by ultrasonic waves in the Bragg and Raman-Nathregimes using multiple scattering theory

In this paper, we examine some of the fundamental properties of Bragg and Raman-Nath diffraction of light by ultrasonic waves by revisiting the well-known multiple plane wave scattering theory developed by Korpel and Poon in 1980. The purpose is to provide a clear and unambiguous insight into the variety of physical and geometrical configurations associated with the process of optical diffraction from Bragg and Raman-Nath ultrasonic cells, treating each domain separately. Despite well-established theoretical models, there is a tendency to sometimes erroneously associate general Bragg domain diffraction (as opposed to exact Bragg diffraction where the incident angle is Bragg-matched and the interaction width is infinite) with only two diffracted orders that vary sinusoidally with peak phase shift of the light and distance of propagation. In numerical analyses of the coupled equations, there is also a tendency to sometimes limit the number of orders to a few lower ones. With the enthusiasm to arrive at a solution, this truncation is sometimes applied in the Raman-Nath regime as well. In doing so, higher Raman-Nath-scattered orders are implicitly assumed to be progressively weaker and, therefore, negligible. In complex acoustooptic systems, such approximations can lead to serious errors. With an aim toward rectifying these and other common misconceptions, a thorough numerical analysis of uniform plane wave acoustooptic diffraction in the two well-known regimes is presented and the limits of such analysis are examined     

Rough-granular Approach for Impulse Fault Classification of Transformers using Cross-wavelet Transform

A novel approach based on information granulation using Rough sets for impulse fault identification of transformers has been proposed. It is found that the location and type of fault within a transformer winding can be classified efficiently by the features extracted from cross-wavelet spectra of current waveforms, obtained from impulse test. Results show that the proposed methodology can localize the fault within 5% of the winding length with a high degree of accuracy. The basic concepts of feature extraction using cross-wavelet transform and the method of classification of those features by rough-granular method are also explained.     

Chemically deposited zinc oxide thin film gas sensor

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were prepared by a low cost chemical deposition technique using sodium zincate bath. Structural characterizations by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicate the formation of ZnO films, containing 0.05–0.50 m size crystallites, with preferred c-axis orientation. The electrical conductance of the ZnO films became stable and reproducible in the 300–450 K temperature range after repeated thermal cyclings in air. Palladium sensitised ZnO films were exposed to toxic and combustible gases e.g., hydrogen (H₂), liquid petroleum gas (LPG), methane (CH₄) and hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) at a minimum operating temperature of 150 °C; which was well below the normal operating temperature range of 200–400 °C, typically reported in literature for ceramic gas sensors. The response of the ZnO thin film sensors at 150 °C, was found to be significant, even for parts per million level concentrations of CH₄ (50 ppm) and H₂S (15 ppm).     

The phase equilibrium diagram of the system CaO-Al2O3-CaF2

The phase equilibria of the system CaO-Al₂O₃-CaF₂ have been studied by quenching in sealed platinum capsules followed by microscopic and X-ray examination of quenched products. The established phase diagram contains five ternary eutectics, two ternary peritectics and two invariant points of four-phase monotectic transformations. The system Al₂O₃-CaF₂ has been established to be the stable diagonal of the reversible reciprocal system Al₂O₃ + 3CaF₂ = 3CaO + 2AlF₃. In the high-fluoride region a wide zone of liquid immiscibility has been found. The system also shows such rarely noticed but theoretically possible phenomena as the transformation of peritecticals into eutecticals and occurrence of three different primary fields under single continuous zone of liquid immiscibility.