Papers by Author: Zheng Yi Jiang

Abstract: In order to make micro composite drills (Fig. 1), cemented tungsten carbide (WC-10Co) and high strength (AISI 4340) steel were successfully bonded by hot compaction diffusion bonding at a low temperature. The effects of holding time, pressure and temperature on microstructure and mechanical properties of the sintered carbides and bonding strengths of the bimetallic composites were examined, and a transitional layer was found at the interface as a result of elemental inter-diffusion. The optimal bonding parameters were determined to achieve the maximum bonding strength of 226 MPa of the WC-10Co/AISI 4340 steel joints, which is helpful in producing micro composite drills. Microforming is introduced to produce lighter and more energy effective products. In this study, Magnesium-Lithium (Mg-Li) alloy, new material in microscale, was chosen to superior formed micro-cup due to its ultralight weight with outstanding ductility. The dry and oil lubrication conditions were chosen as benchmarks to investigate effects of a novel oil-based nanoparticle lubricant in micro deep drawing (MDD) process of Mg-Li alloy. Finite Element (FE) modelling was conducted and the simulation results of the drawing force were in a good agreement with the experimental results. The formed cup quality with consideration on the surface roughness has been extensively evaluated and the results illustrated the quality improvement was substantial.

Abstract: High-strength steel is widely applied due to its excellent mechanical properties. However, its high strength in turn brings great difficulties to production and processing such as hot strip rolling owing to the high rolling force, which results in large elastic deformation of roll stack and poses a huge challenge to the control of strip crown and flatness. In this paper, A three-dimensional (3D) elastic-plastic coupled thermo-mechanical finite element (FE) model for hot strip rolling of high-strength steel is developed and then verified experimentally. This model not only calculates the elastic deformation of rolls and plastic deformation of strip simultaneously, but also considers the effect of temperature variation during hot strip rolling. Based on this valid model, the effects of bending force and shifting value of work roll (WR), back-up roll (BR) size, entrance strip crown and rolling force on strip crown have been investigated quantitatively. The results obtained provide valuable guidelines for industrial strip production.

Abstract: Pure titanium TA1 foil with a thickness of 0.05mm under different grain sizes were carried out by the DT-C539 micro-stamping machine in the laboratory. The size effect of the pure titanium TA1 foil with grain sizes of 3, 7, 9 and 23 microns respectively on surface morphology of the microstamping sample were studied. It is found that the stamping samples with good surface quality can be obtained on the condition that the grain size is 23 microns and the stamping speed is 1mm/s. VORONOI model was established by using ABAQUS, NEPER and MATLAB software. Heterogeneous finite element simulation was carried out for the micro-stamping process under the same conditions. The results showed that the simulation results were more consistent with the experimental results.

Abstract: High-strength steel is a type of alloy steel that provides better mechanical properties or greater resistance to corrosion than carbon steel. Strip shape is an important factor affecting the strip quality significantly for the rolled products. Because of the complex influence factors of plate shape and profile, shape detection and control technology have not been solved, especially for high strength steel rolling. In this paper, a novel three dimensional finite element simulation of the strip shape and flatness of high strength steel has been proposed. The material constitutive model has been built up based on experimental results through the Gleeble 3800 Thermal Simulator under different temperatures and stain rates. The modelling of roll elastic deformation system, roll gap profile and edge drop has been set up systematically considering the influence of the work roll transverse shifting and roll bending. Results have shown that both higher bending force and more roll shifting will significantly reduce the strip crown, and obtain improved edge drop distribution as well. The proposed numerical model has been validated through hot rolling experiments in 4-high rolling mills.

Abstract: Graphene has been proved to be an excellent enhancer in metal matrix composites. Core-shell structured SiC nanoparticles and graphene nanosheets (GNSs) were fabricated and incorporated into aluminum matrix using ball milling in the current study. Graphite powder was exfoliated into thin GNSs, which are flexible to wrap SiC nanoparticles. The ductile aluminum particles were firstly flattened and then repeatedly welded and fractured into equalized particles during the ball milling of Al alloy-SiC-GNSs composite powder, which were observed using scanning electron microscopy and X-Ray diffraction. SiC-GNSs were embedded and dispersed into the aluminum matrix during the milling process.

Abstract: Tooling feature size to minimum thickness becomes small in micro scale products and its ratio affects the deformation behavior in micro sheet forming significantly. In this study, the effect of this relative tooling feature size on drawing characteristics and effects to improve the drawability, such as friction holding effect, hydrodynamic lubrication effect and compression effect by blank edge radial pressure, in micro hydromechanical deep drawing (MHDD) are investigated using plasticity theory and numerical simulation. The results show that the micro drawing characteristics in MHDD can be improved by applying counter pressure. However, the required fluid pressures for friction holding and hydrodynamic lubrication effects increase as the relative punch diameter and/or die shoulder radius to thickness decrease, although the compression effect by radial pressure on the blank edge is independent of the relative tooling feature size.

Abstract: Micro hydro deep drawing is a promising technology to fabricate micro metal products with complex 3D shapes. However, the size effects in the micro hydro deep drawing become considerable and significantly influence shape accuracy of drawn cups. In this study, a Voronoi micro scale simulation model was developed to consider the size effects of SUS304 foils. A surface layer model was additionally applied in the simulation to further explain the size effects. The micro hydro deep drawing experiments were conducted with annealed SUS304 foils and the drawn cups were examined. The wrinkling phenomenon was generally aggravated with the hydraulic pressure. Simulation results also show that the high hydraulic pressure does not improve the shape accuracy of the drawn cups as that in the normal scale hydro deep dawning process does. The simulation results are in accordance with the experimental results.

Abstract: Optimisation of the physical and mechanical properties of cold rolled thin strips is achieved by controlling the rolling parameters. In this paper, the factors affecting the low carbon steel thin strip profile of asymmetrical cold rolling have been studied at a speed ratio of 1.3 without lubricant applied. The effect of rolling parameters on the resulting microstructure was also investigated. It was found that under dry condition, work roll shifting and work roll cross angle can improve the strip profile, and the improvement is more significant with an increase of work roll cross angle rather than that of work roll shifting. A slight change in microstructure was evident with increasing work roll shifting values. In addition, effects of rolling parameters on the strip profile and microstructure have also been discussed.

Abstract: In hot rolling, metal oxides formed on steel surface can generally be classified as primary, secondary and tertiary oxide scales, corresponding to the reheating stages, the roughing stages and the finishing passes of continuous mills, respectively. The tertiary oxide scale grows into the final products on the hot-rolled steel strip during the finishing rolling and the subsequent cooling down to ambient temperature. We provide here a systematic overview of the oxidation mechanism, microstructure and microtexture development of the tertiary oxide scale. Mechanism of oxidation and Fe₃O₄ precipitation in tertiary oxide has been given as the fundamental theory. Three main sections has been divided in this review. The first section includes experimental investigations on microstructure evolution from the formation of oxide scale during hot rolling, then through continuous cooling, to Fe₃O₄ precipitation behaviour in storage cooling of hot-coiled strip. By using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to characterise both the steel substrate and the oxide scale concurrently, the second section has further dealed with the texture-based analysis of oxide scale: phase identification, orientation analysis and coincident site lattice (CSL) boundaries. The third section has provided the general type of crystallographic texture and its evolutions in deformed Fe₃O₄ and steel substrate. Finally, the upcoming challenges have been addressed in this intriguing and promising research field.

Abstract: Oxide scale formed on the steel surface during hot rolling affects the tribological property of nanoTiO₂ additive oil-in-water (O/W) lubricant, resulting in changes of roll forces, torques and power consumption, as well as the wear and the surface quality of the work roll and workpiece in hot rolling. The nanoparticle additive O/W emulsion is a novel lubricant and has a great potential to be used in hot rolling process. However, little research has focused on the nanoparticle additive O/W emulsion. In this study, oxidation, tribological and hot rolling tests were conducted to investigate the tribological behaviour of nanoTiO₂ additive O/W lubricant. The results indicate that the surface morphology of the oxide scale plays an important role in tribological behaviour of nanoTiO₂ additive O/W lubricants. The coefficient of friction (COF) and rolling force are reduced with the addition of nanoTiO₂ particles into the 1.0% (mass %, oil concentration) O/W lubricant. This study is helpful in applying the nanoTiO₂ additive O/W lubricant during hot rolling to realise reduction of rolling force and power consumption.