Effect of Al_(2)O_(3)on the Mechanical Properties of(B_(4)C+Al_(2)O_(3))/Al Neutron Absorbing Materials

B_(4)C/Al composites are widely utilized as neutron absorbing materials for the storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel.In order to improve the high-temperature mechanical properties of B_(4)C/Al composites,in-situ nano-Al_(2)O_(3)was introduced utilizing oxide on Al powder surface.In this study,the Al_(2)O_(3)content was adjusted by utilizing spheroid Al powder with varying diameters,thereby investigating the impact of Al_(2)O_(3)content on the tensile properties of(B_(4)C+Al_(2)O_(3))/Al composites.It was found that the pinning effect of Al_(2)O_(3)on the grain boundaries could hinder the recovery of dislocations and lead to dislocation accumulation at high temperature.As the result,with the increase in Al_(2)O_(3)content and the decrease in grain size,the high-temperature strength of the composites increased significantly.The finest Al powder used in this investigation had a diameter of 1.4μm,whereas the resultant composite exhibited a maximum strength of 251 MPa at room temperature and 133 MPa at 350℃,surpassing that of traditional B_(4)C/Al composites.

Anisotropy of the Wear Behavior for Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced 6061Al Composites

Carbon nanotube(CNT)-reinforced 6061Al(CNT/6061Al)composites with directionally aligned CNT were fabricated,and their wear behavior was investigated.The results indicate that the wear properties of CNT/6061Al composites exhibited a significant anisotropy.A certain CNT concentrations(1 wt%and 2 wt%)could effectively improve the wear resistance of CNT/6061Al composites along the CNT circumferential and CNT radial directions for the load transfer,grain refinement and self-lubrication effect of CNT.The Brass{011}<211>and{112}<110>textures inhibited the load transfer effect of CNT along the CNT radial direction,resulting in a better wear resistance along CNT circumferential direction than CNT radial direction.Along the CNT axial direction,the weak deformability of composites caused by the intensifying<111>fiber texture was the main reasons for the poor wear resistance of CNT/6061Al composites with increasing CNT concentration.

Efect of Nanometer WC Coating on Thermal Conductivity of Diamond/6061 Composites

Diamond has poor interface tolerance with Al.To enhance interface bonding,in this study,tungsten carbide(WC)nanocoatings on the surface of diamond particles were prepared using sol–gel and in-situ reaction methods.WO_(3) sol–gel with two concentrations,0.2 mol/L,and 0.5 mol/L,was,respectively,coated on diamond particles,then sintered at 1250℃for 2 h to produce WC nanocoatings.The concentration of 0.2 mol/L WO_(3) sol–gel was not enough to cover the surface of the diamond completely,while 0.5 mol/L WO_(3) sol–gel could fully cover it.Moreover,WO_(3) was preferentially deposited on{100}planes of the diamond.WO_(3) converted to WC in-situ nanocoatings after sintering due to the in-situ reaction of WO_(3) and diamond.The diamond-reinforced Al composites with and without WC coating were fabricated by powder metallurgy.The diamond/Al composite without coating has a thermal conductivity of 584.7 W/mK,while the composite with a coating formed by 0.2 mol/L and 0.5 mol/L WO_(3) sol–gel showed thermal conductivities of 626.1 W/mK and 584.2 W/mK,respectively.The moderate thickness of nanocoatings formed by 0.2 mol/L WO_(3) sol–gel could enhance interface bonding,therefore improving thermal conductivity.The nanocoating produced by 0.5 mol/L WO_(3) sol–gel cracked during the fabrication of the composite,leading to Al12W formation and a decrease in thermal conductivity.

Tensile Strength and Electrical Conductivity of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composites Fabricated by Powder Metallurgy Combined with Friction Stir Processing

A route combining powder metallurgy and subsequent friction stir processing was utilized to fabricate carbon nanotube （CNT） reinforced AI （CNT/AI） and 6061AI （CNT/6061AI） composites. Microstructural observations indicated that CNTs were uniformly dispersed in the matrix in both CNT/AI and CNT/6061AI composites. Mg and Si elements tended to segregate at CNT-AI interfaces in the CNT/6061AI composite during artificial aging treatment. The tensile properties of both the AI and 6061AI were increased by CNT incorporation. The electrical conductivity of CNT/AI was decreased by CNT addition, while CNT/6061AI exhibited an increase in electrical conductivity due to the Mg and Si segregation.

Enhanced Mechanical Properties of Friction Stir Welded 5083Al-H19 Joints with Additional Water Cooling

3-mm-thick 5083Al-H19 rolled plates were friction stir welded(FSW) at tool rotation rates of 800 and200 rpm with and without additional water cooling. With decreasing the rotation rate and applying water cooling, softening in the FSW joint was significantly reduced. At a low rotation rate of 200 rpm with additional water cooling, almost no obvious softening was observed in the FSW joint, and therefore a FSW5083Al-H19 joint with nearly equal strength to the base material(BM) was obtained. Furthermore, the grains in the nugget zone were considerably refined with reducing the heat input and ultrafine equiaxed grains of about 800 nm were obtained in the lowest heat input condition. This work provides an effective method to achieve high property FSW joints of precipitate-hardened and work-hardened Al alloys.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of double-side friction stir welded 6082Al ultra-thick plates

In the present work,80 mm thick 6082Al alloy plates were successfully double-side welded by friction stir welding(FSW).The relationship between the microstructures and mechanical properties was built for the double-side FSW butt joint with more attention paid to the local characteristic zones.It was shown that a phenomenon of microstructural inhomogeneity existed in the nugget zone(NZ)through the thickness direction.The grain size presented an obvious gradient distribution from the top to the bottom for each single-pass weld,and the microhardness values decreased from both surfaces to the middle of the NZ.The lowest hardness zone(LHZ)exhibited a"hyperbolical"-shaped distribution extending to the middle of the NZ.Similar tensile properties were obtained in the three sliced specimens of the FSW joint,and the joint coefficient reached about 70%which achieved the same level as the conventional FSW Al alloy joints.Finite element modeling proved that the"hyperbolical"-shaped heat affected zone(HAZ)was beneficial to resisting the strain concentration in the middle layer specimen which helped to increase the tensile strength.Based on the analysis of the hardness contour map,tensile property and microstructural evolution of the joints,an Isothermal Softening Layer(ISL)model was proposed and established,which may have a helpful guidance for the optimization on the FSW of ultra-thick Al alloy plates.

Effects of welding speed on the multiscale residual stresses in frictionstir welded metal matrix composites

The effects of welding speed on the macroscopic and microscopic residual stresses(RSes) in friction stir welded 17 vol.% SiCp/2009 Al-T4 composite plates were studied via neutron diffraction and an improved decoupled hierarchical multiscale modeling methods. Measurements showed that the macroscopic and total RSes had the largest variations in the longitudinal direction(LD). Increasing the welding speed led to higher values of measured LD macroscopic and total RSes in the matrix. The welding speed also significantly influenced the distributions and magnitudes of the microscopic RSes. The RSes were predicted via an improved hierarchical multiscale model, which includes a constant coefficient of friction based thermal model. The RSes in the composite plates before friction stir welding(FSW) were computed and then set as the initial states of the FSW process during modeling. This improved decoupled multiscale model provided improved predictions of the temperature and RSes compared with our previous model.

Effect of heat-input on pitting corrosion behavior of friction stir welded high nitrogen stainless steel

In this study, different welding param eters were selected to investigate the effects of heat-in put on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of the friction stir welded high nitrogen stainless steel joints. The results show ed that, the welding speed had major influence on the duration at elevated tem perature rather than the peak tem perature. The hardness distribution and tensile properties of the nugget zones (NZs) for various joints were very similar while the pitting corrosion behavior of various NZs showed major differences. Large heat-input resulted in the ferrite bands being the pitting location, while tool wear bands were sensitive to pitting corrosion in the low heat-input joints. Cr diffusion and tool wear were the main reasons for pitting. The mechanisms of pitting corrosion in the NZs were analyzed in detail.

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of X80 Pipeline Steel Joints by Friction Stir Welding Under Various Cooling Conditions

X80 pipeline steel plates were friction stir welded(FSW)under air,water,liquid CO2+water,and liquid CO2 cooling conditions,producing defect-free welds.The microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of these FSW joints were studied.Coarse granular bainite was observed in the nugget zone(NZ)under air cooling,and lath bainite and lath martensite increased signifi cantly as the cooling medium temperature reduced.In particular,under the liquid CO2 cooling condition,a dual phase structure of lath martensite and fi ne ferrite appeared in the NZ.Compared to the case under air cooling,a strong shear texture was identifi ed in the NZs under other rapid cooling conditions,because the partial deformation at elevated temperature was retained through higher cooling rates.Under liquid CO2 cooling,the highest transverse tensile strength and elongation of the joint reached 92%and 82%of those of the basal metal(BM),respectively,due to the weak tempering softening.A maximum impact energy of up to 93%of that of the BM was obtained in the NZ under liquid CO2 cooling,which was attributed to the operation of the dual phase of lath martensite and fi ne ferrite.

Simulations of deformation and damage processes of SiCp/Al composites during tension

The deformation, damage and failure behaviors of 17 vol.% SiCp/2009AI composite were studied by micro- scopic finite element （FE） models based on a representative volume element （RVE） and a unit cell. The RVE having a 3D realistic microstructure was constructed via computational modeling technique, in which an interface phase with an average thickness of 50 nm was generated for assessing the effects of interracial properties. Modeling results showed that the RVE based FE model was more accurate than the unit cell based one. Based on the RVE, the predicted stress-strain curve and the fracture morphology agreed well with the experimental results. Furthermore, lower interface strength resulted in lower flow stress and ductile damage of interface phase, thereby leading to decreased elongation. It was revealed that the stress concentration factor of SiC was -2.0： the average stress in SiC particles reached -1200 MPa, while that of the composite reached -600 MPa.

Pinless Friction Stir Spot Welding of Mg-3Al-1Zn Alloy with Zn Interlayer

With the addition of a thin Zn interlayer, 2.4 mm thick Mg-3AI-1Zn alloy sheets were friction stir spot welded （FSSW） using a pinless tool with fiat, convex and concave shoulder shapes. The results showed that an alloying reaction took place between the Mg substrate and Zn interlayer during FSSW, forming a discontinuous intermetallics layer composed of dispersive （α-Mg ＋ MgZn） eutectic structure under- neath the shoulder and a Mg-Zn intermetallics bonding zone at the outside of the joints. This alloying reaction increased the bonded area and eliminated the hook defects, thereby producing sound FSSWjoints with a shallow keyhole without hook defects. The increase of plunge depth was beneficial to the Mg-Zn diffusion, thereby increasing the tensile-shear load of the joints. However, excessive plunge depths re- sulted in a decrease of the effective sheet thickness, reducing the strength of the joints. At a small plunge depth, the convex and concave shoulders were more beneficial to the interface reaction than the fiat shoul- der. The maximum joint load of 6.6 kN was achieved by using the concave shoulder at a plunge depth of 1.0 mm. A post-welding heat treatment promoted the dissolution of the discontinuous reaction layer in the joints; however, it led to the occurrence of void defects, influencing the bonding strength.

Effect of Yttrium Addition on Microstructural Characteristics and Superplastic Behavior of Friction Stir Processed ZK60 Alloy

As-extruded ZK60 and ZK60-Y magnesium alloy plates were successfully processed via friction stir processing （FSP） at a tool rotation rate of 1600 r/rain and a traverse speed of 200 mm/min. FSP resulted in the formation of equiaxed recrystallized microstructures with the average grain sizes of ,-8.5 and -4.7 μm in the ZK60 and ZK60-Y alloys, respectively. Moreover, FSP broke and dispersed the MgZn2 and W-phase （Mg3Zn3Y2） particles and dissolved MgZn2 phase in the FSP ZK60 alloy. With the addition of rare earth element yttrium （Y） into the ZK60 alloy, the ratio of the high angle grain boundaries （HAGBs） in the FSP alloys increased from 64% to 90%, and a certain amount of twins appeared in the FSP ZK60-Y alloy. The maximum elongation of 1200% and optimum strain rate of 3 X 10-3 s-1 achieved at 450 °C in the FSP ZK60-Y alloy were substantially higher than those of the FSP ZK60 alloy. This is attributed to the fine grains with high ratio of HAGBs and the distribution of a large number of dispersed second phase particles with high thermal stability in the FSP ZK60-Y alloy. Grain boundary sliding was identified as the primary deformation mechanism in the FSP ZK60 and ZK60-Y alloys from the superplastic data analyses and surficial morphology observations.

Microstructural Evolution and Mechanical Behavior of Friction-Stir-Welded DP1180 Advanced Ultrahigh Strength Steel

Friction stir lap welding of a DP1180 advanced ultrahigh strength steel was successfully carried out by using three welding tools with different pin lengths. The effects of the welding heat input and material flow on the microstructure evolution of the joints were analyzed in detail. The relationship between pin length and mechanical properties of lap joints was studied. The results showed that the peak temperatures of all joints exceeded A c3, and martensite phases with similar morphologies were formed in the stir zones. These martensite retained good toughness due to the self-tempering effect. The formation of ferrite and tempered martensite was the main reason for the hardness reduction in heat-affected zone. The mechanical properties of the lap joints were determined by loading mode, features of lap interface and the joint defects. When the stir pin was inserted into the lower sheet with a depth of 0.4 mm, the lap joint exhibited the maximum tensile strength of 12.4 kN.

Microscopic stresses in carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composites determined by in-situ neutron diffraction

One of the most desired strengthening mechanisms in the carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composites(CNT/Al)composites is the load transfer strengthening mechanism(LTSM).However,a fundamental issue concerning the LTSM is that quantitative measurements of load partitioning in these composites during loading are very limited.In this study,in-situ neutron diffraction study on the tensile deformation of the 3 vol.%CNT/2009 Al composite and the unreinforced 2009 Al alloy was conducted.The{311}and{220}diffraction elastic constants(DECs)of the 2009 Al alloy were determined.Using those DECs the average stress in the 2009 Al matrix of the composite was calculated.Then the average stress in the CNTs was separated by using the stress equilibrium condition.Computational homogenization models were also applied to explain the stress evolution in each phase.Predicted results agree with experimental data.In the present case,the average stress in the CNTs reaches 1630 MPa at the yield strength of the composite based on linear regression of the measured data,which leads to an increment of yield strength by about 37 MPa.As the result of this work,an approach to quantify load partitioning in the CNTs is developed for the CNT/Al composites,which can be applied to optimize the mechanical properties of the composites.

Evolution of the Microstructure and Strength in the Nugget Zone of Friction Stir Welded SiCp/Al-Cu-Mg Composite

A 6 mm-thick SiCp/2009AI composite plate was successfully joined by friction stir welding （FSW） using an ultrahard material tool to investigate the evolution of the microstructure and the strength in the nugget zone （NZ）. While some SiC particles were broken up during FSW, most of them rotated in the matrix. Large compound particles on the interfaces were broken off during FSW, whereas the amorphous layer and small compound particles remained on the interfaces. The dynamically recrystallized AI grains nucleated on the surface of fractured SiC particles during FSW, forming nano-sized grains around the SiC particles. The yield strength of the NZ decreased slightly due to the variation in the size, shape, and distribution of the SiC particles. The clean interfaces were beneficial to the load transfer between SiC particles and AI matrix and then increased the ultimate tensile strength of the NZ.

Effect of Carbon Nanotube Orientation on Mechanical Properties and Thermal Expansion Coefficient of Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composites

Carbon nanotube-reinforced 2009Al （CNT/2009Al） composites with randomly oriented CNTs and aligned CNTs were fabricated by friction stir processing （FSP） and FSP-rolling, respectively. The CNT/2009A1 composites with aligned CNTs showed much better tensile properties at room temperature and elevated temperature compared with those with the randomly oriented CNTs, which is mainly attributed to larger equivalent aspect ratio of the CNTs and avoidance of preferential fracture problems. However, much finer grain size was not beneficial to obtaining high strength above 473 K. The aligned CNTs resulted in tensile anisotropy, with the best tensile properties being achieved along the direction of CNT aligning. As the off-axis angle increased, the tensile properties were reduced due to the weakening of the load transfer ability. Furthermore, aligned CNTs resulted in much lower coefficient of thermal expansion compared with randomly oriented CNTs.

Achieving a strong polypropylene/aluminum alloy friction spot joint via a surface laser processing pretreatment

Strong metal/non-polar plastic dissimilar joints are highly demanded for the lightweight design in many fields,which,however,are rather challenging to achieve directly via welding.In this study,we designed a laser processing pretreatment on the Al alloy to create a deep porous Al surface structure,which was successfully joined to the polypropylene(PP) via friction spot welding.A maximum joint strength of29 MPa was achieved,the same as that of the base PP(i.e.the joint efficiency reached 100%),much larger than ever reported.The joining mechanism of the Al alloy and the PP was mainly attributed to the large mechanical interlocking effect between the laser processed Al porous structure and the re-solidified PP and the formation of chemical bond at the interface.The deep porous Al surface structure modified by laser processing largely changed the Al-PP reaction feature.The evidence of the C-O-Al chemical bond was first time found at the non-polar plastic/Al joint interface,which was the reaction result between the oxide on the Al alloy surface and thermal oxidization products of the PP during welding.This study provides a new way for enhancing metal-plastic joints via surface laser treatment techniques.

Microstructure evolution and hot deformation behavior of carbon nanotube reinforced 2009Al composite with bimodal grain structure

The hot deformation behaviors of the bimodal carbon nanotube reinforced 2009Al(CNT/2009Al)composite were studied by establishing processing map and characterizing the microstructure evolution.The results indicate that the grain size in the ultra-fine grained zones was stable during hot deformation,while the coarse grained zones were elongated with their long axis directions tending to be perpendicular to the compression direction.Low temperature with high strain rate(LTHR),as well as high temperature with low strain rate(HTLR)could increase the length/width ratio of the coarse grained zones.However,LTHR and HTLR could cause the instable deformation.The instable deformation at LTHR was induced by severe intragranular plastic deformation and the localized shear crack,while the instable deformation at HTLR resulted from the more deformation component at the coarse grained zones,and the micro-pore initiation due to CNT re-agglomeration at the boundaries between the coarse and the ultra-fine grained zones.

Shape Memory Alloy-Reinforced Metal-Matrix Composites:A Review

Metal-matrix composites reinforced with shape memory alloys （SMA, including long fiber, short fiber, and particle） are ＂intelligent materials＂ with many special physical and mechanical properties, such as high damping property, high tensile strength, and fatigue resistance. In this review article, the fabrication method, microstructure, interface reaction, modeling, and physical and mechanical properties of the composites are addressed. Particular emphasis has been given to （a） fabrication and microstructure of aluminum matrix composites reinforced with SMAs, and （b） shape memory effect on the physical and mechanical properties of the composites. While the bulk of the information is related to aluminum matrix composites, important results are now available for other metal-matrix composites.

Achieving ultra-high strength friction stir welded joints of high nitrogen stainless steel by forced water cooling

The microstructure and properties of water-cooled and air-cooled friction stir welded（FSW） ultra-high strength high nitrogen stainless steel joints were comparatively studied. With additional rapid cooling by flowing water, the peak temperature and duration at elevated temperature during FSW were significantly reduced. Compared to those in the air-cooled joint, nugget zone with finer grains（900 nm） and heat affected zone with higher dislocation density were successfully obtained in the water-cooled joint,leading to significantly improved mechanical properties. The wear of the welding tool was significantly reduced with water cooling, resulting in better corrosion resistance during the immersion corrosion test.