Interdiffusion behavior between Cr and Zr and its effect on the microcracking behavior in the Cr-coated Zr-4 alloy

High-temperature chromium(Cr)-zirconium(Zr)interdiffusion commonly occurs in Cr-coated zircaloys applied for enhanced accident-tolerant fuel(ATF)claddings.Such interdiffusion changes the interfacial microstructure and thus the fracture mechanism of the coating under external loading.In this study,the interdiffusion behavior in a magnetron sputtered Cr coating deposited on a Zr-4 alloy was studied in a vacuum environment at 1160C.In addition,the effect of interdiffusion on the microcracking behavior of the Cr coating was determined by in situ three-point bending tests.The experimental results show that the interdiffusion behavior resulted in the formation of a ZrCr2 layer,accompanied by the consumption of Cr coating and interfacial roughening.The growth of the diffusion layer followed a nearly parabolic law with respect to annealing time,and the residual stress of the annealed coating decreased with increasing annealing time.Under external loading,a large number of cracks were generated in the brittle interlayer,and some interfacial cracks were formed and grew at the ZrCr2/Zr-4 interface.Despite the remarkable microcracks in the ZrCr2 layer,the vacuum-annealed Cr coating has significantly fewer cracks than the original coating,mainly because of the recrystallization of the coating during annealing.

Gigacycle fatigue behaviors of two SNCM439 steels with different tensile strengthes

Gigacycle fatigue behaviors of two SNCM439 steels with different tensile strengthes were experimentally studied by rotating bending tests,to investigate the effects of the tensile strength obtained by different heat treatment processes on very high cycle fatigue failure mechanisms.The material with higher tensile strength of 1 710 MPa exhibited typical gigacycle fatigue failure characteristics,whereas one with lower tensile strength of 1 010 MPa showed only traditional fatigue limit during the tests and no gigacycle failure could be found even when the specimen ran up to more than 10 8 cycles.Metallographic and fractographic analysis were carried out by an optical microscope （OM） and scanning electron microscope （SEM）.It showed two different crack initiation mechanisms that for the specimen with lower tensile strength the crack prefers surface initiation and for that with higher strength the crack initiates from subsurface inclusions revealed by a fish-eye like microstructure.

Effect of thermal annealing on the microstructure, mechanical properties and residual stress relaxation of pure titanium after deep rolling treatment

The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of thermal annealing on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and residual stress relaxation of deep rolled pure titanium. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the surface modified layer were analyzed by metallographic microscopy, transmission electron microscope and in-situ tensile testing. The results showed that the annealed near-surface layer with fine recrystallized grains had increased ductility but decreased strength after annealing below the recrystallization temperature, where the tensile strength was still higher than that of the substrate. After annealing at the recrystallization temperature, the recrystallized near-surface layer had smaller grain size,similar tensile strength, and higher proportional limit, comparable to those of the substrate. Moreover, the residual stress relaxation showed evidently different mechanisms at three different temperature regions:low temperature(T≤ 0.2 Tm), medium temperature(T≈(0.2–0.3) Tm), and high temperature(T≥ 0.3 Tm).Furthermore, a prediction model was proposed in terms of modification of Zener-Wert-Avrami model,which showed promise in characterizing the residual stress relaxation in commercial pure Ti during deep rolling at elevated temperature.

Experimental Investigation on the LCF Behavior Affected by Manufacturing Defects and Creep Damage of One Selective Laser Melting Nickel-Based Superalloy at 815℃

Uniaxial tensile tests and stress-controlled low-cycle fatigue(LCF) and creep-fatigue interaction(CFI) tests of Inconel 625 alloy manufactured by selective laser melting(SLM) were performed at 815℃ in air environments.The microstructure was characterized by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy after testing.The results confirmed that significant embrittlement and large scatter in LCF life are resulted from manufacturing defects.The CFI life is decreased sharply to approximately dozens of cycles with the accumulated creep strain;however,the selected dwell time(i.e.,60 s and 300 s)exhibits low sensitivity to the fracture time and elongation to failure.The embrittlement of SLM Inconel 625 was proposed to be due to the low grain uniformity and precipitation of carbides at the grain boundaries.Due to the quality of the SLM process,the accelerated initiation and propagation of fatigue crack are caused by the present unmelted powder particles,which result in the large dispersion of LCF life.Meanwhile,due to the accumulation of creep damage,cracks in the CFI test are initiated along the grain boundaries and then linked together,contributing to a significant decline in fatigue life.

Fatigue and fracture behavior of nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718 up to the very high cycle regime

The fatigue and fracture behavior of nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718 was investigated up to the very high cycle regime under rotary bending tests at room temperature. It was found that this superalloy can still fracture after exceeding 107 cycles. Fractographic analysis revealed that there was a transition from fatigue crack initiation at multi-sites to single initiation with decreasing stress levels. The fracture surface can be divided into four areas according to the appearance, associated with fracture mechanics analysis of the corresponding stress intensity factors. The fracture mechanism dominant in each area was disclosed by scanning electron microscope examination and analyzed in comparison with those obtained from the crack growth tests. Subsequently, life prediction modeling was proposed by estimating the crack initiation and propagation stage respectively. It was found that Chan (2003)'s model for initiation life and the Paris law for growth life can provide comparable predictions against the experimental life.

PAPP2C Interacts with the Atypical Disease Resistance Protein RPW8.2 and Negatively Regulates Salicylic Acid-Dependent Defense Responses in Arabidopsis

Many fungal and oomycete pathogens differentiate a feeding structure named the haustorium to extract nutrition from the plant epidermal cell. The atypical resistance （R） protein RPW8.2 activates salicylic acid （SA）-dependent, haustorium-targeted defenses against Golovinomyces spp., the causal agents of powdery mildew diseases on multiple plant species. How RPW8.2 activates defense remains uncharacterized. Here, we report that RPWS.2 interacts with the phytochrome-associated protein phosphatase type 2C （PAPP2C） in yeast and in planta as evidenced by co- immunoprecipitation and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays. Down-regulation of PAPP2C by RNA interfer- ence （RNAi） in Col-0 plants lacking RPWS.2 leads to leaf spontaneous cell death and enhanced disease resistance to powdery mildew via the SA-dependent signaling pathway. Moreover, down-regulation of PAPP2C by RNAi in the RPW8.2 background results in strong HR-like cell death, which correlates with elevated RPWS.2 expression. We further demonstrate that hemagglutinin （HA）-tagged PAPP2C prepared from tobacco leaf cells transiently transformed with HA-PAPP2C possesses phosphatase activity. In addition, silencing a rice gene （Os04g0452000） homologous to PAPP2C also results in spontaneous cell death in rice. Combined, our results suggest that RPW8.2 is functionally connected with PAPP2C and that PAPP2C negatively regulates SA-dependent basal defense against powdery mildew in Arabidopsis.