Key Engineering Materials Vols. 417-418

Abstract: The shapes and types of containers for foods, drugs and medicines, and cosmetics and detergent refills are diverse: glass bottles, cans, PET bottles and laminate-film liquid packaging bags are examples. In recent years, to increase the ease of pouring out the contents of laminate-film liquid packaging bags, the shape of the heat seal has been changed from a flat seal to a bottleneck seal. However, the large number of bottleneck seal ruptures of liquid packaging bags due to impact load during the transport, loading and unloading of packaged products has been a problem. In our previous study, we investigated impact peel strength in the heat-sealed area of a laminate film; however, the effects of the bottleneck seal shape and heat-sealed area width on impact peel strength and rupture occurrence have not yet been clarified. In this study, experiments were carried out to clarify the effects of the flat and bottleneck seal shapes, as well as heat-sealed area width, on impact peel strength and bag rupture occurrence. The following two films were used : (1) a multilayered laminate film with barrier characteristics against oxygen and water vapor, which is frequently used for liquid packaging bags owing to its high efficacy in food quality preservation, and (2) a multilayered laminate film without barrier characteristics. On the basis of the results obtained, we established, for the first time, a new standard regarding bottleneck seal shape and heat-sealed area width.

Abstract: Thermal Barrier Coatings have existed for over 40 years, and with in the last 15 years their use in industrial applications has dramatically increased. Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) are currently used in gas turbines, diesel engines, throughout aerospace and nuclear power industries. The purpose of TBC is to reduce temperature and thermal stresses, and, as a result, increase the reliability and life of load-bearing components subjected to high temperature or temperature flux. However, TBCs often fail under thermal cyclic loading with reliability still being the major issue impeding their wide-spread applications. The focus of this work is on experimental investigations of zirconia/nickel graded TBC system, subject to thermal shock loading. The graded TBC systems were fabricated utilising a recently developed slurry spray manufacturing technique. This is a robust technique, and is able to cover large and curved surfaces at low cost, and provides many advantages in comparison with its alternatives. This paper describes the developed technique and presents selected results of thermo-mechanical and fracture testing of the TBCs including graded coatings fabricated using this new technique.

Abstract: A new theoretical approach is presented for investigating fatigue crack growth in plates of finite thickness. The developed approach utilizes a modified strip-yield analysis and the concept of plasticity-induced crack closure. A number of typical fatigue crack growth phenomena are investigated including the thickness effect on constant amplitude fatigue crack growth, retardation due to a tensile overload cycle, and short crack growth from sharp notches. Theoretical predictions are compared with experimental data and are found to be in very good correlation.

Abstract: In order to investigate the effect of nitriding on the crack initiation and propagation behavior of Ni-base super alloy, Alloy 718, rotating bending fatigue tests were carried out until 108 cycles at room temperature. By nitriding at 500°C for 12h, compound layer of about 5μm in thickness was formed and the initiation of a fatigue crack was strongly suppressed causing the increase in fatigue strength. A crack initiated in brittle manner at the compound layer in all of fractures. However the crack propagated in ductile manner controlled by the property of the base alloy. That is, there is no or little influence of nitriding on the crack growth rate of the alloy.

Abstract: Ultrasonic and rotating bending fatigue tests were carried out for aged and nitrided Ni-base super alloys to investigate the effects of loading frequency and nitriding on fatigue strength. Loading frequencies were 19.5 kHz under ultrasonic and 50 Hz under rotating bending, respectively. Fatigue strength under ultrasonic was higher than that under rotating bending in both alloys. Moreover, in both tests, fatigue strength was improved by nitriding. The increase in fatigue strength by nitriding was large in ultrasonic fatigue. These results were discussed through the successive observation of fatigue process at specimen surface and fracture surface observation.

Abstract: This paper deals with the ballistic properties of two kinds of hybrid composites: Kevlar/Carbon laminates and S-Glass/Carbon laminates. Twelve kinds of combinations of samples were made including various fibers; various fiber orientations and various target thickness. Air-gun tests were carried out to determine the response of these combinations of hybrid laminates subject to impact loading. Compared with the test, an explicit finite element (FE) model was built with Pam-crash Code to simulate the impact process. The bullet was considered as a deformable body in contact with the composite shells. The Ladevèze model was used to describe the unidirectional properties of Carbon plies and Ladevèze fabric model was used to describe the homogeneous properties of the S-glass and Kevlar laminates. The influence of different parameters on the impact behavior of the two kinds of hybrid laminates was considered analytically. Results show very good agreement with the experimental data. Suggestions are also presented for the better hybrid mode to improve the ballistic properties.

Abstract: The paper deals with the buckling instability of long interface cracks subjected to shear and tensile (compressive) loading parallel to the interface. A simplified mathematical model is developed within the Kirchhoff’s plate bending theory; and a general semi-analytical solution is obtained based on the classical strategy for solving for the Euler buckling load. Asymptotic solutions are derived for extreme cases of the applied shear to tensile (compressive) load ratios. The obtained results correlate well with previous numerical studies and can be used to analyze many traditional problems in composite as well as many others, for example, the problem of triggering snow avalanches.

Abstract: In this paper the challenges associated with the determination of within section macrostresses in the non-metallic materials porous reactor core graphites, glasses and thermally grown oxides, will be considered, with respect to the length-scale over which such measurements are required. Examples are briefly presented to demonstrate the capability of the methods selected, which include deep hole drilling and photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. These techniques span the length-scale from micro-metres to tens of millimetres. The measured values will be discussed with respect to the confidence with which these techniques may be applied and hence benefits for life/integrity evaluation.

Abstract: High cycle fatigue behavior of the representative cold forging die steel, YXR3 with Rockwell C scale hardness number of 60.0 is investigated. Axial fatigue strength of plane and notched bar specimens with stress concentration factor, Kt of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 is presented. The emphasis is placed upon the subsurface crack initiation observed on notched specimens failed at number of cycles over than 106 cycles. Crack initiation and propagation mode of cold forging die steel is discussed with respect to fracture surface morphology.

Abstract: Shape memory alloy is a good candidate for realizing the passive control of structural vibration due to its excellent characteristic of energy dissipation. In this paper, the damping characteristic of shape memory alloy is quantitatively described based on Liang’s phase transformation model and thermo-mechanical constitutive equation for shape memory alloy. The vibration performances of a beam structure with shape memory alloy damper are investigated based on basic knowledge of vibration theorem. Numerical calculations show that the vibration of beam structure is well reduced by using the shape memory alloy damper.