Papers by Author: Yo Kojima

Abstract: Porous aluminum alloy has been developed by powder metallurgy route using Spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. Sintered material was produced by SPS system after getting the mixture of Al-12Si alloy and titanium hydride powders. Porous materials are prepared under various process conditions, and the pore morphology was investigated. Compression test is performed at crosshead speed of 1mm/min, 10mm/min and 100mm/min with no lubricant. The compression strength, σC i.e. plateau stress was estimated 12MPa at the density of porous materials, 0.7 Mg/m3. Densification strain εD from compression curve is around 0.6. These properties depend on pore morphology of porous materials, and it is possible to control the morphology under specific condition with this process. Plateau stress and absorbed energy of heat treated porous Al-Si alloy were estimated by measurement of a first peak stress and calculated an area up to 0.5 strain from compressive stress-starin curves. Young’s modulus is measured by starin gauge method under compression test. Porous aluminum alloy filled mold die is also produced successfully.

Abstract: An ultrafine-grained (UFG) Mg-5.0wt%Zn-0.9wt%Y-0.2wt%Zr magnesium alloy with a grain size of about 0.8 µm was produced by subjecting the extruded alloy to equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) for 8 passes at 473 K. Compressive testing was performed on the ECAPed alloy in a temperature range from 423 K to 523 K and under strain rates from 1.67×10-3 to 1.67×10-1 s-1. The ultrafine grains of the ECAPed alloy were stable during compression because of the presence of the dispersion of a fine quasicrystal I-phase and of precipitates in the alloy, which restricted grain growth. The activation energy for the compression at the temperature range from 423 K to 523 K is close to the value for grain boundary diffusion in magnesium, indicating that the compressive deformation is mainly controlled by grain-boundary sliding.

Abstract: High resolution transmission electron microscopy（HRTEM）observation was performed to clarify morphology of precipitates at early stage of aging in Mg-Gd-Zr alloy. In the specimen aged at 423K, monolayer was observed on {1100}Mg planes. With increasing aging time, the monolayer and β” phase grew along the <1120>Mg directions. Arrangement of bright dots corresponding to {020}β’ except for the monolayer and β” phase was observed before peak aging stage. β’ phases formed at the same aging stage. Thus, these precipitates co-existed before peak aging stage. The monolayer, β” phase and β’ phase still co-existed in the peak aged specimen. The β’ phase was dominated in the peak hardness. It is revealed that the monolayer lying on {1100}Mg act as precursor of β” phase and β’ phase.

Abstract: Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) was performed on extruded Mg-Zn-Y-Zr (Mg-5.0wt%Zn-0.9wt%Y-0.2wt%Zr) alloy at 300 oC. After 8 ECAP passes, average grain size of the alloy was reduced to about 1.4 μm, and the quasicrystalline phases were broken and dispersed in the matrix. In addition, nano- quasicrystallines were precipitated from the matrix during ECAP processing. After ECAP, the elongation to failure of the extruded material was significantly improved. Only after 2 ECAP passes, the elongation to failure was 29%, and after 8 ECAP passes, it reached 35%, which was three times larger than that of the as-extruded alloy. However, both yield strength and ultimate tensile strength were decreased with the increasing ECAP passes, which was considered to be resulted from the {0002} basal plane texture modification during ECAP.

Abstract: In Mg-Al-Zn and Mg-Al-Mn alloys containing 2.0~6.0mass%Al and 0~1.5mass%Zn, grain refinement in the as-rolled (F) specimens containing large amount of Al and Zn are achieved by both dynamic recrystallization and dynamic precipitation during hot rolling and leads to high strength and high ductility at room temperature. At high temperatures, the tensile strength of the investigated alloys is almost the same, while the elongation of the F-specimens increases with increasing Al and Zn contents, leading to 150% in Mg-4.5%Al-1.5%Zn alloy. High Al and Zn contents alloys significantly accumulate large working strain in grain interiors, and involve large amounts of high angle grain boundaries and fine spherical precipitates, which can become the nucleation sites for recrystallization. Therefore, dynamic recrystallization in such alloys occurs at small strain region during tensile test. This dynamic recrystallization causes reduction of flow stress and large elongation by grain boundary sliding at high temperatures. Furthermore, .fine recrystallized grains contributes to deformation in normal direction, resulting in isotropic deformation behavior. Authors attempt to improve proof stress and its anisotropic property of Mg-Al-Zn wrought alloys by grain size and precipitates controls utilizing dynamic recrystallization and dynamic precipitation during hot extrusion. In the alloy specimens extruded at lower temperatures increasing Al and Zn contents enhance dynamic recrystallization and dynamic precipitation, resulting in grain refinement and large amount of Mg17Al12 precipitates. As a result, the extruded Mg-9%Al-1%Zn alloy specimen shows high tensile strength of 370MPa, 0.2% tensile proof stress of 240MPa and moderate elongation of 20%, which are almost same as standard values of tensile properties of T5-treated 6N01 Al extruded alloy. Furthermore, a ratio of compressive proof stress to tensile proof stress of the as-extruded specimen improves up to a higher ratio of 0.9 than that of Mg-3%Al-1%Zn alloy specimen with no precipitation, 0.5, due to prevention of tensile twin, which easily occurs during compressive deformation even under a low applied stress perpendicular to the extrusion direction, by dynamic precipitation of Mg17Al12 phase.

Abstract: The high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) observation was carried out to investigate the microstructure of precipitates in Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloy. In the early stage of aging at 423K, monoatomic layers were observed along the (1 1 00)Mg plane. After 64h aging at 423K, the contrast of β” phase based on ordered D019 hexagonal super lattice structure was appeared. The monoatomic layers, two layers spaced by (1 1 00) Mg planes and β’ phase based on bco-structure were observed in the specimen aged for 128h. In the peak- aged specimen, the β’ phase and monoatomic layers were observed.

Abstract: Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) was applied to commercial pure magnesium alloy, Mg-1wt%Si alloy and Mg-4.2wt%Zn-0.7wt%Y alloy. With increasing ECAP passes, both tensile strength and ductility of the alloys are increased, which are mainly resulted from the grain refinement. At the same time, for the Mg-Zn-Y alloy with inherent low damping capacity, damping capacity is increased after ECAP passes, however, the damping capacity is still low even after 6-pass ECAP. While for the commercial pure magnesium and Mg-Si alloy with inherent high damping capacity, although the damping capacity is decreased obviously after ECAP, Q-1 is still greater than 0.01. The damping capacity after ECAP processing is mainly influenced by grain size and deformation microstructure. ECAP paves a way for the development of magnesium alloys with high strength and high ductility combined with high damping capacity.

Abstract: The TEM observation was performed to investigate the precipitation hardening in Mg-Gd-Zr alloy. Both the β’ and the β” phase coexist in the specimen aged at 473K for 16h. In the specimen aged at 523K, the β’ phase which has base centered orthorhombic (bco) structure was observed at early stage during aging. The β’ phase has a globular shape and four atomic layer periodicity in the [1100]Mg. The β’ phase grew with increasing aging time mainly along the [0001]Mg and the [1100]Mg.

Abstract: Precipitate microstructures in Mg-2.0Gd-1.2Y-0.75Zn-0.2Zr alloy were investigated and the characteristic and mechanism of microstructure evolution in the alloy were discussed. Specific long-period 14H ordered stacking structure was formed at grain boundary of Mg matrix crystals by solution heat treatment at 773K and metastable β’ phase was formed during subsequent aging treatment at 498K in the Zn-added Mg-Gd-Y alloys. These structure and phase exist simultaneously at the peak-aged condition in the microstructure. Precipitate free zone (PFZ) of β’ phase does not exist at an interface between a 14H structure and Mg matrix inside the grain, however, PFZ exist near the edge of 14H structure at grain boundary. These results strongly suggest that high diffusion rate of solute atoms at grain boundary promotes the nucleation and growth of 14H structure.