Key Engineering Materials Vol. 969

Abstract: The impact of heat treatment on the mechanical characteristics and microstructure of an ultrasonic vibration metal inert gas (MIG) weld is examined in this study. The findings show that the heat treatment method has a significant influence on the mechanical characteristics and structure of the welding specimens. The annealing will increase the grains’ size, thereby reducing the hardness and increasing the ductility of the joint. Due to the impact of ultrasonic during welding, the microstructure in fusion zone of both annealed and non-annealed specimens showed small and fine grain structure (with the grain size being measured at less than 40µm). The result also demonstrates that during annealing, the carbon tended to diffuse from the area of high density to the region of low density, resulting in a reduction in hardness compared to the initial sample. Also, it was discovered that elements that lower weld strength (such as the irregularity of the grain structure and the dendritic structure produced by metal crystallization) significantly decreased.

Abstract: Direct reuse of precast concrete elements is possible if disassembly is considered in the design phase. An unusual way of designing for disassembly is to use “wet” joints as usual but to optimise the mortar to be less strong and, therefore, easier to remove at the end of the life of the building. A method is presented to test mortars with lime content to determine the shear capacity in the connection between mortar and concrete. Tests are performed with and without an applied normal force and with and without steel bars through the interface. The results show that applying a lime content to the mortar reduces the compressive strength, shear strength and flexural strength. Using steel bars in the connections increases the ductility from less than 1 mm to several mm at the point of failure. The results can be used in future checks of mortar joints in buildings, where it is required to have a minimum strength during the service life and a maximum strength when dismantling. The future mortar requirements will depend on the disassembly method.

Abstract: The study investigates LVI testing on woven carbon fiber-reinforced composite laminates at three different energy levels and assesses the specimens for their compressive strengths. X-ray CT scans are used to study the damaged envelopes, which allows better insights into the damage progression and failure mechanisms of the composite. The study investigates how post-impact damage propagation is influenced by alterations in impact energy and stacking orientation. The findings demonstrated that several variables, such as the characteristics of the constituent materials, the stacking order, laminate thickness, and ply orientations, had an impact on the CAI strength of the composite laminate. These findings highlight the importance of considering multiple factors when designing composite materials that can withstand impact loading and maintain their structural integrity. Even in specimens showing barely perceptible surface damage, a considerable drop in compressive strength is seen after the LVI testing. When specimens are struck with 25 J of energy, the compressive strength reduction reached a maximum value of 15.68%. In CAI testing, it is typical for sub-laminates to buckle near the impact-induced damage zone, resulting in failure. The magnitude of impact damage area can significantly affect the CAI strength, as the damaged area may create a stress concentration that can lead to buckling or other types of failure. Therefore, it is important to consider the impact energy and damage size when evaluating the CAI strength of composite materials.

Abstract: In this paper present the effects of 316L steel in the environment of repeated heat load, and the impact of the thermal load on fatigue life. Using thermal fatigue experiments and ABAQUS software, rain flow counting method is used to simplify the strain cycle spectrum of stress load. The Coffin-Manson nonlinear empirical equation was established based on thermal fatigue experiments, and the fatigue life estimation was completed in accordance with the Miner damage accumulation rule and FE-SAFE fatigue software. The test rods were respectively placed at room temperature and heated at 250°C for water cooling for tensile testing. Fatigue tests were performed with 5 strain parameters (0.8%, 0.7%, 0.6%, 0.5% and 0.4%). ABAQUS and FE-SAFE software used to study 316L testing rod fatigue life verification analysis. A composite heat exchange system model made of 316L was designed for the case study. It is found that the fatigue life after heating is reduced by 35% to 12% from the experimental results and numerical simulation calculation. Therefore, when the 316L steel is subjected to thermal fatigue, the fatigue life will be reduced. The research results can provide a reference for the design of heat exchangers using 316 steel in various fields.

Abstract: Non-invasive detection of hidden defects using infrared thermography (IRT) mainly focuses on defects involving material loss. Of equal importance is the detection of hidden defects resulting from corrosion. This study proposes an improved method of detecting hidden defects caused by corrosion through active IRT. Aluminum sheets with or without hidden corrosion were identified using two simple analysis approaches, (1) observing differences in their mean surface temperature and visual thermal contrast and (2) comparing the temperature probability distribution of identified surfaces at a given reference temperature. The developed method only requires heating the region of interest to <66 °C with a portable heat source and monitoring the surface temperature distribution using IRT. This method may aid in building surveys and post-monitoring of metallic building envelopes, especially indoors or when environmental conditions cannot provide the needed thermal contrast for detecting hidden corrosion.

Abstract: The aim of this study is predict tool wear in the fine-blanking process using a tribometer tester with ASTM G99-17 standard. Then, the result of wear volume and tool life were confirmed with finite element simulation and experiment. The punch material used in fine blanking process was selected to be hight speed steel JIS.SKH51 with surface coating thickness 4 µm of TiCN, the work piece material was used as hot-rolled steel JIS.SPHD P/O, with a thickness of 8 mm. The experimented and simulated results were found that the pressure, and sliding velocity were increase in term of linear curve with slope K = 2.09x10^-6 and K = 2.07x10^-6 ,respectively, and the hardness of material was increase in term of power at 1.983 and slope of K = 2.14 x10^-6. These three factors were effect to the wear volume and tool life, simultaneously, the summation of three factors will average as K = 2.10 x10^-6. From comparison of the applied wear equation model with tribology tester the simulated and experimented results were similarly equal with 0.05 by significance at 95% reliability confident. The resulted were precisely confirmed according to the previous research.

Abstract: In this work, the fracture prediction of aluminium alloy sheet, grade AA2024-T3 was investigated using the Fracture Forming Limit Curve (FFLC) and Analytical Fracture Forming Limit Stress Curve (FFLSC) as failure criteria. Initially, the FFLC was experimentally achieved by means of the Nakajima Stretch forming test coupled with GOM strain measurement system, providing the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique. Subsequently, the analytical FFLSC was plastically computed using experimental FFLC data combination with Swift hardening model and anisotropic Hill’48 yield model for representing anisotropic plastic deformation behaviour on examined sheet. Finally, Fukui stretch drawing and Three point bending tests were conducted both experiment and numerical simulation to evaluate the fracture state and verifying an applicability of obtained FFLC and FFLSC. In the simulation, the ABAQUS 2017 element deletion function was employed for directly implementing the fracture criteria regarding the FFLC and FFLSC. It was concluded that the analytical FFLSC could more realistically predict fracture behaviour better than the FFLC based on strain. In term of percentage error, the analytical FFLSC generated an error less than the FFLC.