Materials Science Forum Vols. 706-709

Abstract: Blades are key part of hydro turbines, which often distorts during heat treatment process for their special structures. In this paper, thermal fluid finite element simulation of the forced air cooling process of a blade casting was carried out under a variety of distances between fans and blades, air speeds, groups of fans and circumstance temperatures. The temperature fields of blade castings were obtained. A novel parameter, temperature difference between surfaces of castings along thickness direction, was proposed to analyze the distortion of blade castings. The distortion behavior of blade castings with martensitic stainless steel were discussed, which is in good agreement with distortion regularity of the experimental ones. The temperature differences between blade casting surfaces are always greater than zero, resulting in distortion which could be divided into three stages. Finally, we focused on discussing the control methods of distortion behavior of blade castings which could be operated in actual production.

Abstract: In the present work, the precipitation behavior of a V-microalloyed, quenched and tempered steel with 0.3wt % C is investigated experimentally and by computer simulation. The specimens are analyzed by means of transmission electron microscopy using selected area diffraction (SAD) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The analysis is done on electropolished foils and on extraction replica. The numerical simulation is performed with the thermokinetic software package MatCalc, where the precipitation kinetics is examined for the experimentally applied thermo-mechanical cycles. Good agreement between experiment and simulation is obtained and the experimentally observed precipitate microstructure can be well explained on the basis of these simulations.

Abstract: 2-D cellular automaton model was developed to simulate the dynamic strain-induced transformation (DSIT) from austenite (γ) to ferrite (α) and the post-dynamic kinetic behavior in a low carbon steel with the purpose of developing a methodology of mesoscopic computer simulation for an improved understanding of the formation of ultra-fine ferrite (UFF) in DSIT and the conservation of this microstructure during the post-deformation period. The predicted microstructure obtained after DSIT was compared with a quenched dual-phase steel. Its microstructure, consisting of fine-grained ferrite and fine islands of retained austenite dispersed in the matrix, were found to be in good agreement with the predictions. The simulated results indicate that the refinement of ferrite grains produced via DSIT can be interpreted in terms of unsaturated nucleation and limited growth mechanisms. It is also revealed that continuing transformation from retained austenite to ferrite and the reverse transformation both could take place simultaneously during the post-deformation isothermal holding. A competition between them exists at the early stage of the post-dynamic transformation.

Abstract: An analysis of grain-size dependent structure-sensitivity of various physical and mechanical properties of nickel is presented, covering the crystal size range from 10 nm to 10 μm. It is shown that the well established general trends regarding defect-sensitivity observed for conventional polycrystalline materials also apply to porosity-free nanomaterials with grain sizes less than 100 nm produced by the electrodeposition process.

Abstract: Nanocrystalline metals are often produced in a state of stress which can adversely affect certain properties, e.g. corrosion resistance, wear, fatigue strength, etc. This stress is referred to as internal or “intrinsic” stress since it is not directly caused by applied loads. The structural causes of these stresses in nanocrystalline materials are not fully understood and are therefore an area of particular interest. The internal stresses of nanocrystalline Ni and Ni-16wt%Fe were measured and found to increase with the addition of iron. Characterization using HR-TEM revealed no signs of porosity, second phase particles, or a high density of dislocations. Both materials possessed well defined high-angle grain boundaries. The main structural difference between the two materials was found to be grain size and correspondingly, a decrease in grain size resulted in an increase in internal stress which supports the applicability of the coalescence theory. The current study also provides evidence to rule out the effect of voids (or porosity), dislocations, and second phases as possible causes of internal stress.

Abstract: The C-type orbital-ordered (CTOO), and charge-and orbital-ordered (COO) states are present in the simple perovskite manganite Ca_1-xLa_xMnO₃, which has a three-dimensional highly-correlated electronic system. In this study, the crystallographic features of the CTOO and COO states have been investigated mainly by transmission electron microscopy to understand responses of a lattice system to these orderings. Of these two states, the cooling from the disordered orthorhombic Pnma (DO) state around x = 0.20 resulted in the CTOO state with the monoclinic P2₁/m symmetry. As a result of the monoclinic distortion as a response of the lattice system, the CTOO state consisted of a banded structure that was characterized by an alternating array of two monoclinic domains with different β values. In 0.30 < x < 0.50, on the other hand, the appearance of the COO state from the DO state on cooling accompanied a transverse lattice modulation with q = []_DO as a response to orbital ordering in the COO state. The subsequent cooling in the COO state led to the antiferromagnetic ordering with a large lattice dilatation. In other words, no change in the crystal symmetry occurs in the appearance of the antiferromagnetic ordering.

Abstract: The microstructure of a Ni–18 wt.% Fe electrodeposits having a banded structure is described in detail. The aim is to investigate the influence of the banded structure on grain growth behaviour and texture and to elucidate if there are other mechanisms operative in the stabilization of nanocrystalline electrodeposits. Spectroscopy techniques have been used to characterize the variations in alloy/impurity concentration perpendicular to the growth direction. The influence of these chemical variations on the microstructural evolution has been monitored by in-situ annealing treatments in the TEM. Local texture of the annealed material has been determined by use of the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique. SEM and TEM investigations have shown that the banded structure is not related to phase changes and that grain growth is not affected by the banded structure, i.e. there is no preferred growth along bands. The first grown grains have <100>, <112> and <111> orientations with the growth direction and upon further grain growth a <111> fibre texture with respect to the growth direction of the electrodeposits is formed. The banded structure seems not to affect the general behaviour of nanocrystalline electrodeposits.

Abstract: In this paper we have investigated the possibility of increasing the complex mechanical properties of steel strength category X90 by refinement the structure of hot and warm deformation. Were carried out tests to determine the critical points of recrystallization and built thermokinetic curves of austenite decomposition. After that, for produce disperse ferrite in samples has been applied to the processing mode, which is exactly the same mode of controlled rolling, then, to obtain nanoscale state of the metal deformed at temperatures of bainite transformation with varying degrees of deformation at different temperatures. It was shown that the dispersion and morphology of the structure and, consequently, the mechanical properties vary depending on temperature and strain, and samples show satisfactory ductility at high strength.

Abstract: Inspired by “lotus-effect”, a superhydrophobic surface, in general, is prepared via two steps: (i) creating a surface roughness and then (ii) lowering the surface energy via a self-assembly of organic molecules or via low surface energy coatings. Superhydrophobicity cannot result if one of these two essential factors does not coexist. In the present work, it has been shown that superhydrophobic properties can be achieved on silver surfaces both via two-steps and a novel and simple one-step process. In the two step-processes a fractal-structured silver film deposited on copper surface by galvanic exchange reactions was passivated using stearic acid organic molecules to reduce the surface energy resulting in the superhydrophobicity. In the one-step process, however, the copper substrates were simply immersed in the silver nitrate solution containing fluoroalkylsilane (FAS-17) molecules resulting in superhydrophobicity. The silver films prepared both via two-steps and one-step processes were found to be highly water repellant with the water drops rolling off those surfaces. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were utilized to understand the morphology, molecular bonding, and chemical properties of the superhydrophobic silver surfaces.

Abstract: Fluorene-thiophene copolymers having chiral and azobenzene substituents, PAzB4-T, were synthesized by the Pd-catalyzed Suzuki coupling method. We studied the aligning organization of the main chain of PAzB4-T with the activation of the attached functional groups by thermal annealing and photo-annealing processes. Circular dichroism (CD) measurements revealed that the thermally annealed PAzB4-T spin-coated films exhibited bisignate Cotton effects over the absorption regions of the polymer main chains and the azobenzene side chains due to the formation of chiral assemblies. After the photo-annealing process, which means linearly polarized light irradiation accompanied by thermal annealing, the PAzB4-T spin-coated films showed linear dichroism over the absorption region of the main chains, due to the alignment of azobenzene side chains against the electric field of the linearly polarized light. These results suggested that rigid conjugated polymers were successfully aligned by the alignment of functional groups with the external stimuli.