Damage mechanism in weldment of 2.25Cr-1Mo steel under creep-fatigue loading

The purpose of this study is to clarify damage process of “Type IV cracking” in weldment of a 2.25Cr-1Mo steel and to propose a micro damage prediction method. From continuous observation under a creep-fatigue test, it was found that spherical shape voids initiated and grew on grain boundaries in fine grain region and these voids grow continuously by changing their shape to crack-like. Both spherical and crack-like void growth rate equations were derived from the proposed void growth model. It was indicated that measured void growth rate under the creep-fatigue loading was well predicted by the growth rate equations.     

Thermal stability of silver thin films on zirconia substrates

The thermal stability of silver thin films between 100 nm and 820 nm thick deposited onto single crystal yttria-stabilised zirconia (YSZ) substrates by evaporation was investigated by annealing the films between 250 °C and 550 °C for different durations. Films approximately 100 nm thick were thermally unstable at temperatures as low as 250 °C. A dewetting process occurred in which grain boundaries ruptured, to uncover the substrate and reduce the overall energy of the system, by a combination of grain boundary grooving at the outer surface and void growth at the Ag-YSZ interface. The surface self diffusion coefficient of Ag was determined from the kinetics of the process to be 2.6 ± 0.3 × 10^− 5 cm²s^− 1 at 500 °C. The resulting silver morphology ranged from ‘self-organised’ interconnected silver network structures to completely isolated silver islands. A structure predominance map of the rearrangement process is presented.     

Morphology and properties of nylon6 and high density polyethylene blends in absence and presence of nanoclay

The morphology and properties of nylon6/HDPE blends without and with nanoclay has been reported. Scanning electron microscopy study of the (70/30 w/w) nylon6/HDPE blends with small amount (0.1 phr) of nanoclay indicated a reduction in the average domain sizes (D) of dispersed HDPE phase and hence better extent of mixing compared to the blend without any nanoclay. X‐ray diffraction study and transmission electron microscopy revealed that nanoclay layers were mostly located in nylon6 matrix of the (70/30 w/w) nylon6/HDPE blend. However, the same effect of nanoclay on the morphology was not observed in (30/70 w/w) nylon6/HDPE blend where HDPE became the matrix. In (30/70 w/w) nylon6/HDPE blend, addition of nanoclay increased the D of dispersed nylon6 domains by preferential location of the clays in side the nylon6 domains. Thus, the clay platelets in the matrix phase acted as barrier that restricted the coalescence of dispersed domains during melt‐mixing. Addition of PE‐g‐MA in both the compositions of nylon6/HDPE blend effectively reduced the D of dispersed phases. Storage modulus and thermal stability of the blend were improved in presence of small amount of clay, whereas addition of PE‐g‐MA lowered the mechanical and thermal properties of the blends. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Bubble and Froth Stabilizing Agents in Froth Flotation

The mineral processing industry relies heavily on froth flotation to beneficiate complex minerals. The performance of the process depends on a multitude of chemical reagents affecting the solid mineral particles as well as the air bubbles used to collect the valuable mineral particles. In flotation, bubbles and froths are transiently stable by the use of a frothing agent or the presence of inorganic electrolytes in the process water. This review presents the primary stages characterizing bubble coalescence. The effect of flotation reagents and inorganic electrolytes on the stability of bubbles and the mechanisms which delay the coalescence of bubbles are discussed. Recently it had been proposed that solid particles external to the flotation system may be intentionally added to stabilize the froth phase, which has attracted attention from the flotation community. This gave rise to additional studies on the topic. The final section of the paper was therefore designed to capture the progress made on this particular subject. The use of solid flotation aids offers a promising future to increase the recovery of valuable particles as these external particles may be customized. The advantage of solid particles over soluble reagents is that they may be recovered and re-used making them environmentally and economically attractive.     

Numerical modeling of damage evolution of DP steels on the basis of X-ray tomography measurements

In order to couple the damage evolution and the stress state of DP steel grades, a new advanced GTN (Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman) model was developed and implemented into a finite element code. This model is an extension of the original one. It takes into account the plastic anisotropy and the mixed (isotropic + kinematic) hardening of the matrix. Two different methods to compute the void volume fraction were developed and used within the constitutive equations. The first method is new and allows the accurate modeling of the observations of damage initiation and growth in DP steels measured using high-resolution X-ray absorption tomography ( [Bouaziz et al., 2008] and [Maire et al., 2008]). The second method is classic and assumes the additive decomposition of the total void volume fraction into a nucleation and a growth part. A parametric study is carried out to assess the effect of the kinematic hardening on some mechanical parameters such as the equivalent plastic strain, the triaxiality and the porosity. The numerical predictions are favorably compared to the experimental results.     

“虚空之辨”关于西班牙雕塑家爱德华·奇伊达（1924～2002）

文章以现代雕塑史上两种类型的“虚空”为主要线索,简要回顾了西班牙雕刻大师爱德华·奇伊达的艺术历程,并着重介绍了其对空间和材料的认识。这为我们理解其作品与思想能够赋予建筑师以原创力的原因提供了依据。     

Mechanical property analysis of Nitinol defective stent under uniaxial loading/unloading

The vascular stents are important medical devices introduced into a vessel to protect the lumen from unfriendly stenosis. However, Nitinol stent is easy to fail in practice. The present paper focuses on the influence of defects on its mechanical behavior by finite element analysis. The essential stent cell is used with two different type of defects, which includes the face bulge defect resulted from laser burrs or TiC inclusion arises and C‐contained particle voids. Auricchio’s super‐elastic consititutive equations are used in the finite element simulations. It is found that the stress distribution is not only related to the defect type but also to the defect position. With the increasing distance from the TiC defect to the knot’s notch, the influence of defects on stress distribution of stents becomes small. For void defects, those near both the inner fillet and the outer fillet have grand influence on the stent’s global stress distribution. In particular, the higher stress concentrations are undergone near knot’s defects. For all models, the maximum Martensite Volume Fraction is near knots. The finite element analysis shows that cracks/fractures can easily appear near knots. A stent with a TiC inclusion or void defect is likely to fail. All obtained conclusions can be useful to design against stent premature mechanical failure.     

Phase field computations for surface diffusion and void electromigration in {\mathbb{R}^3}

We consider a finite element approximation of a phase field model for the evolution of voids by surface diffusion in an electrically conducting solid. The phase field equations are given by a degenerate Cahn–Hilliard equation with an external forcing induced by the electric field. We describe the iterative scheme used to solve the resulting nonlinear discrete equations and present some numerical experiments in three space dimensions. The first author was supported by the EPSRC grant EP/C548973/1.     

Growth and coalescence of two collinear indentation cracks in glass

Subcritical growth and coalescence of two collinear cracks of different lengths were investigated using small Knoop indentation cracks in glass. Indentation cracks subjected to bending in water showed anomalous crack growth in terms of the stress intensity factor, K_I. The crack growth velocity, dc/dt, was initially high, decreased and thereafter increased with increasing K_I. The effective stress intensity factor, K_I,eff, was calculated by adding a term describing the state of residual stress to explain this anomalous growth. Before crack coalescence, a large crack showed a crack velocity higher than expected from the coalescent crack. The coalescent crack velocity increased with K_I,eff and the slope of dc/dt−K_I,eff curves differed from that for a single crack, depending on the crack length.     

Critical linkages of coalescing microcracks under stress loading

ABSTRACT The fracture process of brittle materials with randomly orientated microcracks critically depends on strong interactions among microcracks and the coalescence path that leads to a fatal crack. In this paper, a model based on the coalescence process for planar orientated microcracks is presented. An energy ratio is defined as the competition between the potential energy release and the new crack surface energy in each coalescence step, which is a token of the excessive driving force for microcrack propagation. A critical linkage dictates the coalescence of microcracks under stress loading. Probabilities of microcrack coalescence dominated by the first linkage and subsequent linkages are analysed for collinear and wavy microcrack arrays in detail.