Key Engineering Materials Vols. 462-463

Abstract: The main compound of natural fibers is a hydrocarbon. The heating of hydrocarbon in inert gas produces charcoal or carbon. Carbon materials are widely used for several purposes depending on the physical and electric properties, for example for hydrogen storage, conductive or reinforced plastics, catalyst supports, batteries and fuel cells. The main raw material of Gas diffusion Layer (GDL) of the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is a carbon. The properties of GDL are porous and electron-conductive material, because of the function of GDL is to distribute the gas as fuel and electricity conductors. This study aims to analyze the carbon fibers made from coconut fibers for the application of GDL materials. The carbon fiber was made using pyrolysis process in the inert gas (nitrogen) at a certain temperature according to the analysis of Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) 3000C, 4000C, 5000C, 6000C, and 9000C. The crystalstructure, carbon content, powder density and morphology of carbon fibers were observed using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), fixed carbon according to ASTM D 1762-64, Archimedes method (BS 19202 Part 1A), and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), respectively. The results showed that the structure of carbon was amorphous, and content of 51% ̶ 71%, powder density of 0.42g/cm3 ̶ 0.71g/cm3. The morphology having many parallel hollows like a tube that are close to each other with diameters of 2m ̶ 10m, and in the wall of tube there are some porous with sizes around 1m. According to this analysis, the coconut carbon fiber enables to be applied as candidate for a basic material of GDL.

Abstract: Quad Flat No-Lead or QFN is able to provide lighter, thinner and higher performance packaging requirement with its exposed pad and leads at the package bottom for better heat dissipation. However, QFN packages possess certain weaknesses. QFN package failures are related to crack and delaminating, such as die cracking, moulding compound and solder mask interfacial delaminating. From previous projects, the epoxy thickness and die thickness plays an important role in reducing failures in QFN package. The objective of this project is to observe the effects of die and epoxy thickness. The effects on QFN are measured in the die and lead frame part. Stress towards the die is also measured: including thermal, first principle and Von Misses stress. The structural optimization is based on the Finite Element Analysis (FEA). By using ANSYS 10.0, six models were constructed, where three models were built to analyse in thickness of epoxy, and another three to study the effects on die thickness. The effect was measured by the value stress (first principle stress and Von Misses stress) and thermal strain effect, which will lead to a result of how the dimensions of the packaging will give a better tolerance towards stress.

Abstract: In the present work, an experimental campaign on reinforced concrete elements subjected to simultaneous loading and degradation due to corrosion is presented. The specimens are loaded in tension and the cycling action is designed in order to simulate in terms of stress peak and stress variation, the effect of the passage of vehicles under fatigue design situations. The environmental action is simulated by means of corrosion induced with an electrochemical process; the corrosion rate is chosen in order to obtain about 27 years of equivalent carbonation attack within 25 days of test. In the mean time, 6.5·106 loading cycles are achieved. In addition to those standard tests, also other static tests were conducted in order to have a comprehensive analysis of the deterioration processes. Evolution of transversal crack due to loading and of longitudinal cracks due to corrosion is monitored. They can be related to the internal bond condition between steel and concrete. Results highlight the differences in terms of corroded and uncorroded specimens, static and cycling test and also different loading amplitude. Finally it can be observed as the growing of the damage is significantly different when a cycling action, combined with a chemical attack, is present.

Abstract: Three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) is widely used as an effective numerical simulation technique to solve the complex engineering problem. Usually, the more complex engineering problem has more complex structure and shape; the FEM simulation technique is that needs to discrete the structure and shape of the problem by mesh. In addition, the correct generation of mesh is one of the most significant issues that directly affect to the accuracy of the FEM simulation. The hexahedral mesh is better than tetrahedral mesh in solving the complex engineering problem. The common methods of hexahedral automatic mesh generation have been used in some commercial soft already, but its adaptation is not enough to solve for practical applications of the complex engineering problems. A new method of mesh generation technique was proposed by improved waveform mesh generating method, and realized by C++ developing program in Linux OS. The method could generate some effective and smoothly mesh models by quadrilateral element or hexahedron element, and not only generated revolution curve surface meshes, but also generated random meshes according to free functions too. The results shown that the hexahedral mesh models of the complex shapes were generated as the shape function apply to regular mesh side as a waveform constraint.

Abstract: Universal test method to evaluate sheet metal formability was developed using finite element method based on axiomatic design. The newly developed formability test intended to generate the various modes of deformation and to control the onset of failure independently under each mode of deformation. The functional requirements (FRs) and the design parameters (DPs) of the test system were defined on axiomatic design approach and decomposed until the design reaches final stage. The independence axiom was applied throughout the design process to maintain the hierarchical independence of the formability test system. The flow diagram representing the system architecture was introduced after decomposition to give a help to establish the systematic design procedures and to determine the design parameters. Numerical simulation was carried out to determine the specific value of DPs which satisfies the FRs. Numerical results showed that modes of deformation varies accompanying various strain paths and good controllability of sheet forming is obtained for different kinds of materials. Experimental work was finally conducted to validate the proposed design. Stamping results represented that the outcome of the deformed geometry and strains are in good agreement with the numerical results.

Abstract: Microstructure and mechanical properties of heat treated Al-Si alloy containing up to 10 wt% aluminum nitride (AlN) particles were investigate. In this work high purity AlN powder with different weight percentage of 0, 5, 7 and 10 were calculated as reinforced material to the metal matrix composites. The Al-Si matrix was prepared by a bottom pour stir casting technique. Heat treatment was performed by soaking and followed by an aged treatment. It was found that the AlN particles were scattered randomly distributed in the matrix composite. Ageing induced Si grain transformation into to spheroid shapes while Al dendrites tend to become finer. Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) had improved drastically from to 125MPa to 306MPa for un-aged Al-Si alloy and aged AlN 7 wt%. Fracture morphologies showed a pronounced feature with small dimples, tear ridges and micro neck particularly in the aged samples leading to a higher tensile value and increase in ductility. The presence of AlN particles in the alloys had improved the tensile strength by slowing down the plastic deformation during tensile test.

Abstract: Three types of polycrystalline alumina, one pressureless and two hot press sintered Al2O3, were used to examine the effects of the characteristics of microstructure and crack face bridging on fracture toughness. The crack opening displacements and microstructures along the pop-in crack of single edge precracked beam (SEPB) specimens were observed in situ at a constant applied stress intensity factor by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The bridging stress distribution could be determined from the measured crack opening displacement by three-dimensional finite element analysis, and then the stress intensity factor and stress shielding effect at the crack tip could also be determined. Intergranular microcracks of toughened Al2O3 were deflected by a complicated microstructure, and crack closure due to bridging grains was observed near the crack tip. Bridging stress of Al2O3 was compressive perpendicular to the crack face and was distributed behind the crack tip. The maximum bridging stress of two hot press sintered Al2O3 was about twice as large as that of pressureless sintered Al2O3. The fracture toughness of hot press sintered Al2O3 was, therefore, higher than that of pressureless sintered Al2O3, because the total amount of bridging stress and stress shielding effect increased with increasing magnitude of microcrack deflection and the number of interlocking grains.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of ultrasonic nano-crystalline surface modification (UNSM) treatment on rolling contact fatigue (RCF) characteristics of bearing steels. It was found that severe plastic deformation occurred at surface by over 100 µm after UNSM treatment. The micro surface hardness was increased by 18%, and the measured compressive residual stress was as high as -700~-900MPa. The polymet RCF-2 roller type RCF test showed over 2 times longer fatigue lifetime after UNSM treatment under Hertzian contact stress of 425.2kg/mm2 and 8,000 rpm. And SEM study showed a spalling phenomenon at the samples which went through the RCF test after UNSM treatment. Samples before UNSM treatment produced surface initiated spalls and multi shear lips by progressive spalling at the end along the rolling direction, but sub-surface initiated spalls were formed without multi shear lips after UNSM treatment. The spalling occurred at once, and the size and depth of spalls were larger than those before UNSM treatment. And micro cracks were found to form within the spallings after UNSM treatment, and stress distribution at the maximum Herzian shear stress through these micro cracks is thought to improve the fatigue lifetime of bearing materials.

Abstract: In this paper, the fluid solid coupling method is used and the FE (Finite Element) analysis is conducted for the PSSS (Periodic Symmetric Struts Support) of the large scale GT(Gas Turbine), and the overall thermal stress and thermal deformation are obtained. From the structure feature of the gas turbine, the initial boundary conditions of the high-temperature gas flow field and thermal deformation are analyzed at first. Then the coupling relationship between fluid and solid two phases is expressed mathematically, and the thermal conductivity is considered for calculation of heat transfer process, and the overall temperature field is obtained. Finally the thermal boundary condition of PSSS is defined and the structural FE analysis is conducted. At the same time, the thermal stress field and thermal deformation field are discussed for overall PSSS structure.

Abstract: In this paper, the APDL programming language provided by ANSYS software is used to build the parametric modeling of Periodic Symmetric Struts Support (PSSS), which is provide convenience and necessary preparations for the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and save much time and effort during the preprocess analysis. At first, the positional parameters and size parameters of PSSS are analyzed, and find out the relationship between main parameters, and identify the parameter equations. Then, build the struts support model and edit the parameter equations by APDL language. Finally, the producing process of different kind of struts support models are implemented by changing main parameters and provide the necessary conditions for preprocess of FEA.