Die structure optimization of equal channel angular extrusion for AZ31 magnesium alloy based on finite element method

Three-dimensional（3D） geometric models with different comer angles （90° and 120°） and with or without inner round fillets in the bottom die were designed. Some important process parameters were regarded as the calculation conditions used in DEFORMTM-3D software, such as stress--strain data of compression test for AZ31 magnesium, temperatures of die and billet, and friction coefficient. Influence of friction coefficient on deformation process was discussed. The results show that reasonable lubrication condition is important to plastic deformation. The change characteristics for distributions of effective stress and strain during an equal channel angular extrusion （ECAE） process with inner angle of 90° and without fillets at outer comer were described. Inhomogeneity index （C） was defined and deformation heterogeneity of ECAE was analyzed from the simulation and experiment results. The deformation homogeneity caused by fillets at outer comer increased compared with the die without fillets. The cumulated maximum strains decrease with increasing the fillets of outer comer in ECAE die and the inner comer angle. The analysis results show that better structures of ECAE die including appropriate outer comer fillet and the inner comer angle of 90° for the die can improve the strain and ensure plastic deformation homogenization to a certain extent. The required extrusion force drops with increasing the fillet made at outer comer in ECAE die. It is demonstrated that the prediction results are in good agreement with experiments and the theoretical calculation and the research conclusions in literatures.

A new method of characterizing equivalent strain for equal channel angular processing

In order to establish the quantitative relationship between equivalent strain and the performance index of the deformed material within the range of certain passes for equal channel angular processing （ECAP）, a new approach to characterize the equivalent strain was proposed. The results show that there exists better accordance between mechanical property （such as hardness or strength） and equivalent strain after rolling and ECAP in a certain range of deformation amount, and Gauss equation can be satisfied among the equivalent strain and the mechanical properties for ECAP. Through regression analysis on the data of hardness and strength after the deformation, a more generalized expression of equivalent strain for ECAP is proposed as：ε=k0exp[-（k1M-k2）^2], where M is the strength or hardness of the material, k1 is the modified coefficient （k1∈ （0, 1））, ko and k2 are two parameters dependent on the critical strain and mechanical property that reaches saturation state for the material, respectively. In this expression the equivalent strain for ECAP is characterized novelly through the mechanical parameter relating to material property rather than the classical geometry equation.

Signal-to-noise ratio comparison of angular signal radiography and phase stepping method

Grating-based x-ray phase contrast imaging has the potential to be applied in future medical applications as it is compatible with both laboratory and synchrotron source. However, information retrieval methods are important because acquisition speed, scanning mode, image quality, and radiation dose depend on them. Phase-stepping （PS） is a widely used method to retrieve information, while angular signal radiography （ASR） is a newly established method. In this manuscript, signal-to-noise ratios （SNRs） of ASR are compared with that of PS. Numerical experiments are performed to validate theoretical results. SNRs comparison shows that for refraction and scattering images ASR has higher SNR than PS method, while for absorption image both methods have same SNR. Therefore, our conclusions would have guideline in future preclinical and clinical applications.

Noise reduction methods in the analysis of near infrared lunar occultation light curves for high angular resolution measurements

A lunar occultation （LO） technique in the near-infrared （NIR） provides angular resolution down to milliarcseconds for an occulted source, even with ground- based 1 m class telescopes. LO observations are limited to brighter objects because they require a high signal-to-noise ratio （S/N ~40） for proper extraction of angular diameter values. Hence, methods to improve the S/N ratio by reducing noise using Fourier and wavelet transforms have been explored in this study. A sample of 54 NIR LO light curves observed with the IR camera at Mt Abu Observatory has been used. It is seen that both Fourier and wavelet methods have shown an improvement in S/N compared to the original data. However, the application of wavelet transforms causes a slight smoothing of the fringes and results in a higher value for angular diameter. Fourier transforms which reduce discrete noise frequencies do not distort the fringe. The Fourier transform method seems to be effective in improving the S/N, as well as improving the model fit, particularly in the fainter regime of our sample. These methods also provide a better model fit for brighter sources in some cases, though there may not be a significant imorovement in S/N.

Measurement of the g Factor of the 3.1232 MeV 19/2^(-) Level in ^(43)Sc by Perturbed Angular Distribution Method

The g-factor hence the magnetic moment,of the isomeric state 43Sc（|9/2-,3.1232 MeV）has been measured by the time differential perturbed angular distributionmethod.The measured values are g=0.3279（19）and μ=3.108（18）nm.

Equal channel angular extrusion of NiTi shape memory alloy tube

As a new attempt, equal channel angular extrusion （ECAE） of nickel-titanium shape memory alloy （NiTi SMA） tube was investigated by means of process experiment, finite element method （FEM） and microscopy. NiTi SMA tube with the steel core in it was inserted into the steel can during ECAE of NiTi SMA tube. Based on rigid-viscoplastic FEM, multiple coupled boundary conditions and multiple constitutive models were used for finite element simulation of ECAE of NiTi SMA tube, where the effective stress field, the effective strain field and the velocity field were obtained. Finite element simulation results are in good accordance with the experimental ones. Finite element simulation results reveal that the velocity field shows the minimum value in the corner of NiTi SMA tube, where severe shear deformation occurs. Microstructural observation results reveal that severe plastic deformation leads to a certain grain orientation as well as occurrence of substructures in the grain interior and dynamic recovery occurs during ECAE of NiTi SMA tube. ECAE of NiTi SMA tube provides a new approach to manufacturing ultrafine-grained NiTi SMA tube.

Simultaneous estimation of aerosol optical constants and size distribution from angular light-scattering measurement signals

The angular light-scattering measurement（ALSM） method combined with an improved artificial bee colony algorithm is introduced to determine aerosol optical constants and aerosol size distribution（ASD） simultaneously. Meanwhile, an optimized selection principle of the ALSM signals based on the sensitivity analysis and principle component analysis（PCA）is proposed to improve the accuracy of the retrieval results. The sensitivity analysis of the ALSM signals to the optical constants or characteristic parameters in the ASD is studied first to find the optimized selection region of measurement angles. Then, the PCA is adopted to select the optimized measurement angles within the optimized selection region obtained by sensitivity analysis. The investigation reveals that, compared with random selection measurement angles, the optimized selection measurement angles can provide more useful measurement information to ensure the retrieval accuracy. Finally,the aerosol optical constants and the ASDs are reconstructed simultaneously. The results show that the retrieval accuracy of refractive indices is better than that of absorption indices, while the characteristic parameters in ASDs have similar retrieval accuracy. Moreover, the retrieval accuracy in studying L-N distribution is a little better than that in studying Gamma distribution for the difference of corresponding correlation coefficient matrixes of the ALSM signals. All the results confirm that the proposed technique is an effective and reliable technique in estimating the aerosol optical constants and ASD simultaneously.

Equivalent low-order angular flux nonlinear finite difference equation of MOC transport calculation

The key issue in accelerating method of characteristics(MOC)transport calculations is in obtaining a completely equivalent low-order neutron transport or diffusion equation.Herein,an equivalent low-order angular flux nonlinear finite difference equation is proposed for MOC transport calculations.This method comprises three essential features:(1)the even parity discrete ordinates method is used to build a low-order angular flux nonlinear finite difference equation,and different boundary condition treatments are proposed;(2)two new defined factors,i.e.,the even parity discontinuity factor and odd parity discontinuity factor,are strictly defined to achieve equivalence between the low-order angular flux nonlinear finite difference method and MOC transport calculation;(3)the energy group and angle are decoupled to construct a symmetric linear system that is much easier to solve.The equivalence of this low-order angular flux nonlinear finite difference equation is analyzed for two-dimensional(2D)pin,2D assembly,and 2D C5G7 benchmark problems.Numerical results demonstrate that a low-order angular flux nonlinear finite difference equation that is completely equivalent to the pin-resolved transport equation is established.

Quasi Dynamic Calculation of Local Stiffness of Angular Contact Ball Bearings

In order to describe the performance of thin wall bearing on rotor system more accurate,the simplified model of bearing local stiffness was proposed. The load distribution and local contact deformation in angular contact ball bearings were calculated using quasi dynamic calculation method. Based on the relationship of local load to contact deformation,the calculation model of local bearing stiffness was subsequently built to get radial and axial components of local stiffness. Effects of external loads on the local bearing stiffness were analyzed. The results showed that local stiffness in bearings is symmetric to the axis of radial load,and its value has a maximum on the symmetry axis along the radial load direction. External radial and axial load have different effects on local bearing stiffness.

MEAM Potential with Angular Dependence for TiAl

The modified embedded atom method (MEAM) is an empirical extension of the embedded atom method (EAM) that includes angular forces. By fitted to the lattice constants, the cohesive energy, the APE (anti-phase boundary) energy, and the vacancy formation energy of TiAl, an accurate MEAM potential is obtained for the TiAl system with L10 structure. The calculation results of the properties of TiAl are in good agreement with experiments and the results of first principle (F.P.) calculations.

Adaptive discontinuous finite element quadrature sets over an icosahedron for discrete ordinates method

The discrete ordinates(S N)method requires numerous angular unknowns to achieve the desired accu-racy for shielding calculations involving strong anisotropy.Our objective is to develop an angular adaptive algorithm in the S N method to automatically optimize the angular distribution and minimize angular discretization errors with lower expenses.The proposed method enables linear dis-continuous finite element quadrature sets over an icosahe-dron to vary their quadrature orders in a one-twentieth sphere so that fine resolutions can be applied to the angular domains that are important.An error estimation that operates in conjunction with the spherical harmonics method is developed to determine the locations where more refinement is required.The adaptive quadrature sets are applied to three duct problems,including the Kobayashi benchmarks and the IRI-TUB research reactor,which emphasize the ability of this method to resolve neutron streaming through ducts with voids.The results indicate that the performance of the adaptive method is more effi-cient than that of uniform quadrature sets for duct transport problems.Our adaptive method offers an appropriate placement of angular unknowns to accurately integrate angular fluxes while reducing the computational costs in terms of unknowns and run times.

Dynamic Analysis of Flexible Cage of High-speed Angular Contact Ball Bearing

A dynamics formula was established for the flexible cage of high-speed angular contact ball bearing. A modified Craig-Bampton component mode synthetic method was used to establish the formula with regard to the flexibility of cage and based on a dynamic analysis of angular contact ball bearing,and a rigid-flexible multi-body dynamic analysis program was developed using ADAMS,which is verified by a computation example of Gupta. The results show that it's not likely to keep the rotation smoothness of cage when the ratio of pocket clearance to guiding clearance and the ratio of radial load to axial load become too large or too small. By comparison,the flexible cage runs more smoothly than the rigid cage.

Finite Element Analysis for Multi-pass Equal Channel Angular Pressing

Equal channel angular pressing （ECAP） is an attractive process method to produce bulk uhra-fine grained materials. There are many experiment evidences showing that the nature of the microstructural evolution in multi-pass ECAP depends on process routes. Isothermal three dimensional FEM simulations for muhi-pass ECAP were performed using DEFORM3D finite element code. The material model of 6061A1-T6 was employed. Flow nets, effective strain distribution in the workpiece and loads during multi-pass ECAP using different routes were analysed respectively, The simulations show process routes influence material flow and effective strain distri- bution in the workpiece obviously but have few influence on loads.

Effect of extrusion wheel angular velocity on continuous extrusion forming process of copper concave bus bar

The continuous extrusion forming process for producing large section copper concave bus bar under different extrusion wheel angular velocities was studied by three-dimensional finite element technology based on software DEFORM-3D. The rigid-viscoplastic constitutive equation was employed in the model. The numerical simulation results show that the deformation body flow velocity in the die orifice increases gradually with the increase of the extrusion wheel angular velocity. But slippage between the rod and extrusion wheel occurs when the extrusion wheel angular velocity is high. The effective stress near the die orifice enhances gradually with increasing extrusion wheel angular velocity. High stress is concentrated in adjacent regions of the flash gap. The effective strain gradient is greater near the abutment than that near the die orifice. The effective strain of the product increases gradually with increasing extrusion wheel angular velocity. In the deformation process, the deformation body temperature increases remarkably due to friction and deformation. So the cooling is necessary in the region of the die and tools.

Preparation of AZ91D magnesium alloy semi-solid billet by new strain induced melt activated method

New strain induced melt activated (new SIMA) method for preparing AZ91D magnesium alloy semi-solid billet is introduced by applying equal channel angular extrusion into strain induced step in SIMA method, by which semi-solid billet with fine spheroidal grains and average grain size of 18 μm can be prepared. Furthermore, average grain size of semi-solid billet is reduced with increasing extrusion pass of AZ91D magnesium alloy obtained in ECAE process. By using semi-solid billet prepared by new SIMA, thixoforged magazine plates component with high mechanical properties such as yield strength of 201.4 MPa, ultimate tensile strength of 321.8 MPa and elongation of 15.3%, can be obtained.

An accelerated direct demodulation method for image reconstruction using spherical data from the hard X-ray modulation telescope

The hard X-ray modulation telescope （HXMT） mission is mainly devoted to performing an all-sky survey at 1- 250 keV with both high sensitivity and high spatial resolution. The observed data reduction as well as the image reconstruction for HXMT can be achieved by using the direct demodulation method （DDM）. However the original DDM is too computationally expensive for multi-dimensional data with high resolution to be employed for HXMT data. We propose an accelerated direct demodulation method especially adapted for data from HXMT. Simulations are also presented to demonstrate this method.

Effect of friction on equal channel angular extrusion process

The influence of the friction between deformed material and die wall during equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) was studied. Because of the special design of the extrusion die, the direction of the frictional force has been altered and the distribution of the strain field has been uniformed. The results of the finite element analysis(FEA) indicate that the homogeneity of the finial deformation has been greatly enhanced with this method provided. The ratio of maximum strain to minimum strain along the width is reduced from 6.39 to 1.03. Along the billet length, the strain homogeneity region increases more obviously and the strain is uniformed more greatly than that of common extrusion. The lubrication before extrusion reduces greatly or even it is ignored, which has a great significance for the industrial application of ECAE.

Direct Ion Beam Figuring Process and Rotational Measurement Method for Ultra-smooth Aspherical Surfaces of a 46.5 nm Telescope

This paper describes a fabrication process for the hyperboloidal concave mirror of a 46.5 nm telescope. The180 mm aperture hyperboloidal concave mirror and 70 mm aperture compensator are machined directly from chemical mechanical polishing of a spherical surface to a high-accuracy aspherical surface by ion beam figuring.The aspherical measurement method is the Dall null test. To minimize system errors in the measurement process,the rotational measurement method with six rotations is used in the null test. The results of the analysis for the ME(first solve the machined surface profile, then solve the system errors) and EM(first solve the system errors, then solve the machined surface profile) methods of calculation in the measurement are given. The ME method is a more accurate rotational test method, and the six rotations are appropriate for rotational measurements. After the figuring process, the hyperboloidal concave mirror surface profile reached 8.27 nm rms and the compensator surface profile is approximately 4 nm rms. The roughness of the hyperboloidal concave mirror is smooth to0.160 nm rms.

Improving the Angular Resolution of Coded-Mask Telescopes by Direct Demodulation

We develop a new procedure to improve the angular resolution of coded-mask telescopes by the Direct Demodulation Method （DDM）. DDM has been applied to both real and simulated data of INTEGRAL/IBIS. The angular resolution of IBIS/ISGRI has been improved from about 13＇ to 2＇.