Microstructure Morphologies of Asphalt Binders using Atomic Force Microscopy

We investigated microstructure morphologies of three asphalts（SK, Karamay, and Esso） used in China using atomic force microscopy（AFM）. The topography and phase contrast images were obtained. Topographic profile and three dimensional images were described. Roughnesses of microstructure were calculated. And the chemical compositions of asphalt were tested to explain the microstructural mechanism of the asphalt. The results show that the topography and phase image in atomic force microscopy are appropriate to evaluate the microstructure of the asphalt binder. There are significant differences in microstructural morphologies including bee-like structure, topographic profile, 3D image, and roughness for three asphalts in this study. There are three different phases in microstructure of asphalt binder. The oil source and chemical composition of asphalt, especially asphaltenes content have a great influence on the microstructure.

Prediction of vulnerable zones based on residual stress and microstructure in CMT welded aluminum alloy joint

Numerical simulation and experimental results were employed for the identification of the most vulnerable zones in three-pass cold-metal-transferring （CMT） welded joint. The residual stress distribution in the joint was predicted by finite element （FE） method, while the structural morphology of distinctive zones was obtained through metallographic experiments. The highest principal stress made the symmetric face of the joint most sensitive to tensile cracks under service conditions. Whereas, the boundaries between the weld seam and the base plates were sensitive to cracks because the equivalent von Mises stress was the highest when the first interpass cooling was finished. The third weld pass and the inter-pass remelted zones exhibited the modest mechanical performances as a result of the coarse grain and coarse grain boundary, respectively. The most vulnerable zones were regarded to be the crossed parts between the zones identified by numerical and experimental methods.

Comparison of Morphological Microstructure of Vitrified and Normal Shoots of Aronia melanocarpa Elloit

The Aronia melanocarpa El oit was used as test material. The microstruc-ture of normal and vitrified shoots and the characteristics of their stomas on leaf surface were compared by paraffin section and leaf epidermis-tearing method. The results showed the palisade tissue of Aronia melanocarpa El oit consists of 2-3 lay-ers of cells. The stomas on lower epidermis cave in, and are smal and dense. There are abundant vessels and sieve tubes in stems. ln contrast, the main veins of vitrified shoots are unobvious, messy and irregular. The boundary between pal-isade tissue and spongy tissue is not obvious. The stomas open circularly and bigly. The stems are swel ing and thick, but the pith parenchyma cells are broken.

Properties,Microstructures and Precipitate Morphology of Hot-rolled Interstital-Free(IF)Steel Sheets

In order to simplify production process and to decrease production cost of thicker cold-rolled iF steel sheets for deep drawing applications, a new hot-rolled IF steel sheet is developed through hot-rolling in or region. In this paper, properties, microstructures and precipitate morphology of hot-rolled iF steel sheets are described..

NEAR RAPID DIRECTIONAL SOLIDIFICATION AND ITS SUPERFINE MICROSTRUCTURE

This paper briefly reviews the recent research on the near rapid directional solidification and microstructure superfining. The morphology transitions and the corresponding mechanical properties are presented. The critical velocities relevant to the morphology transitions are comprehensively given. Meanwhile the solidification characteristics near absolute stability limit are studied.It can be clearly seen that the superfine microstructures possess extremely better properties compared with the conventional microstructures.

Microstructure evolution of Al-4Cu-Mg alloy during semi-solid treatment

The microstructure of a cold-deformed Al-4Cu-Mg alloy during semi-solid treatment was investigated, which shows that grain detachment and grain spheroidization processes during the semi-solid treatment are very important to control the fabricated semi-solid microstructures. For the two different processes, the driving force comes from the external heat source and the reduction in total interfacial area, respectively. The evolution models of microstructure morphology in the two processes were presented based on microstructure observations. It can be found that these models are useful to provide a reasonable estimated critical time of the evolution of microstructure during the semi-solid treatment.

Morphology development of elongated α phases in hot working of large-scale titanium alloy plate

The role of subtransus hot working on microstructure morphology of TA15 titanium alloy plate with elongatedαphases was studied by quantitative metallography on different sections. The results show that the microstructure morphology is mainly affected by loading direction. When the sample is compressed along normal direction, microstructure on the section vertical to normal direction has equiaxed primaryαphase but microstructure on the section vertical to rolling direction has strip primaryαphase with long axis along tangential direction. When the sample is compressed along rolling direction, microstructure on the section vertical to normal direction has strip primaryαphase elongated along tangential direction but microstructure on the section vertical to rolling direction consists of strip and irregular broad-band primaryαphase. The strip primaryαphase aspect ratio is smaller at lower temperature due to the dynamic break-down ofαphase. The difference on primaryαphase aspect ratio between different sections decreases after compression along distinct directions in two loading passes, suggesting the improvement of equiaxity of primaryαphase.

Microstructural morphology of the semi-solid high carbon steel T12 before and after rheo-rolling

The semi-solid high carbon steel T12 was rolled in a closed box groove under a certain condition by the rheo-rolling equipment, and the microstructural morphology of the semi-solid T12 before and after deformation was investigated by optical mi- croscope to analyze and summarize the microstructure evolution law of T12 deformed in semi-solid state. The experiment results show that the grain shape before deformation of the semi-solid T12 steel displays globule or ellipse by the electromagnetic stirring, the distribution of solid and liquid phases is homogeneous. But the microstructure of semi-solid product after rheo-rolling exhibits macrosegregation that the distribution of liquid and solid phases changes, the liquid phases divorce from the solid phases. In the transverse section, most of the solid phases get together in the center of the specimen, the liquid phases flow to the surface or the edge of the specimen, and the grains occur plastic deformation while reduction increased. In longitudinal section, the middle micro- structure of the specimen is more homogeneous than that at the head or tail, the head microstructure is similar to the tail and the size of the grains is not homogeneous.

Morphological and Microstructural Evolution and Related Impurity Incorporation in Non-Polar a-Plane GaN Grown on r-Sapphire Substrates

Effects of the growth temperature on morphological and microstructural evolution of a-plane GaN films grown on r-plane sapphires by metal organic chemical vapor deposition are investigated by atomic force microscopy and secondary ion mass spectroscopy （SIMS）. Surface morphology, structural quality and related impurity incorpora- tion are very sensitive to the growth temperature. A significant difference of yellow luminescence is observed and attributed to the incorporation of carbon into GaN films, which is confirmed by SIMS analysis. Our results show that the sample with triangular-pit morphology has sample with pentagon-like pit morphology, which is significantly higher concentrations of oxygen than the other induced by the existence of an N-face in triangular pits.

Composites of sodium manganese oxides with enhanced electrochemical performance for sodium-ion batteries: Tailoring properties via controlling microstructure

Composites of Na_(0.44)Mn O_2, Na_(0.7)Mn O_(2.05), and Na_(0.91) Mn O_2 were synthesized by facile solid-state reaction, ball milling, and annealing methods. Two different composites of identical overall composition but drastically different morphologies and microstructures were synthesized. A composite of a hierarchical porous microstructure with primary and secondary particles(i.e., a "meatball-like" microstructure) achieved an excellent stable capacity of 126 m A h g^(-1) after 100 cycles. The rate capability of the composite could be dramatically enhanced by another round of high-energy ball milling and reannealing; subsequently, a composite that was made up of irregular rods was obtained, for which the capacity was improved by more than 230% to achieve ~53 m A h g^(-1) at a particularly high discharge rate of 50 C. This study demonstrated the feasibility of tailoring the electrochemical performance of electrode materials by simply changing their microstructures via facile ball milling and heat treatments, which can be particularly useful for optimizing composite electrodes for sodium-ion batteries.

Mechanical Anisotropy of Selective Laser Melted Ti-6Al-4V Using a Reduced-order Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Model

In this study,a reduced-order crystal plasticity finite element(CPFE)model was developed to study the effects of the microstructural morphology and crystallographic texture on the mechanical anisotropy of selective laser melted(SLMed)Ti-6Al-4V.First,both hierarchical and equiaxed microstructures in columnar prior grains were modeled to examine the influence of the microstructural morphology on mechanical anisotropy.Second,the effects of crystallographic anisotropy and textural variability on mechanical anisotropy were investigated at the granular and representative volume element(RVE)scales,respectively.The results show that hierarchical and equiaxed CPFE models with the same crystallographic texture exhibit the same mechanical anisotropy.At the granular scale,the significance of crystallographic anisotropy varies with different crystal orientations.This indicates that the present SLMed Ti-6Al-4V sample with weak mechanical anisotropy resulted from the synthetic effect of crystallographic anisotropies at the granular scale.Therefore,combinations of various crystallographic textures were applied to the reduced-order CPFE model to design SLMed Ti-6Al-4V with different mechanical anisotropies.Thus,the crystallographic texture is considered the main controlling variable for the mechanical anisotropy of SLMed Ti-6Al-4V in this study.

Effects of heating rate on the alloy element partitioning and mechanical properties in equiaxedα+βTi-6Al-4V alloy

The effects of heating rate on the alloy element partitioning and mechanical properties during the phase transformation ofα→βin Ti-6Al-4 V alloy under solution treatment have been investigated by the experiments and phase field simulations,which reveal the evolutions of microstructure and compositions at the non-equilibrium state and well verify the experimental results.The specific results indicate that the compositions measured through electron probe micro-analysis(EPMA)under a lower heating rate are close to the equilibrium ones corresponding to the solution temperature.Heating up to the target solution temperature,as the heating rate increases,the Al content decreases and V increases in the primaryα(α_(p))grain with a larger size,the volume fraction ofα_(p)increases and the composition gradient betweenα_(p)andβphases gets steeper.The interrelated relationship among the diffusion,compositions,solution temperature and free energy of the system has been discussed in detail.Moreover,increasing the heating rate(~20.0 K/min)may help to improve the mechanical properties of the alloy by mainly adjusting theα_(p)/β;volume fractions,α_(p)particle size and secondaryα(α_(p))size during the process of heating up to the solution temperature.These results may shed some light on the optimization of the knowledge-based heat treatment route.