Microstructure and mechanical properties of isothermal multi-axial forging formed AZ61 Mg alloy

Microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ61 Mg alloy during isothermal multi-axial forging （MAF） were studied. The mechanisms of grain refinement and relationship between the microstructures and mechanical properties were discussed. The results show that the average grain size decreases with increasing the number of MAF passes. The grains are significantly refined at the 1st and 2nd MAF passes, and gradually refined at higher MAF passes. The initial grain size of 148 lam decreases to about 14 gm after 6 MAF passes. The grain refinement occurs mainly by continuous dynamic recrystallization. With increasing the MAF passes, both the tensile strength and the elongation to failure of the alloy are significantly enhanced.

Experimental Study on Non-proportional Multiaxial Strain Cyclic Characteristics and Ratcheting of U71Mn Rail Steel

An experimental study was carried out on the strain cyclic characteristics and ratcheting of U71Mn rail steel subjected to non-proportional multiaxial cyclic loading. The strain cyclic characteristics were researched under the strain-controlled circular load path. The ratcheting was investigated for the stress-controlled multiaxial circular, elliptical and rhombic load paths with different mean stresses, stress amplitudes and their histories. The experiment shows that U71Mn rail steel features the cyclic non-hardening/softening, and its strain cyclic characteristics depend greatly on the strain amplitude but slightly on its history. However, the ratcheting of U71Mn rail steel depends greatly not only on the values of mean stress and stress amplitude, but also on their histories. In the meantime, the shape of load path and its history also apparently influence the ratcheting. The ratcheting changes with the different loading paths.

VISCO-PLASTIC CONSTITUTIVE MODEL FOR UNIAXIAL AND MULTIAXIAL RATCHETING AT ELEVATED TEMPERATURES

Based on the experimental results of the ratcheting for SS304 stainless steel, a new visco-plastic cyclic constitutive model was established to describe the uniaxial and multiaxial ratcheting of the material at room and elevated temperatures within the framework of unified visco-plasticity. In the model, the temperature dependence of the ratcheting was emphasized, and the dynamic strain aging occurred in the temperature range of 4 00-600℃ for the material was taken into account particularly. Finally, the prediction capability of the developed model was checked by comparing to the corresponding experimental results.

Fractional-order visco-plastic constitutive model for uniaxial ratcheting behaviors

This paper proposes a novel unified visco-plastic constitutive model for uniaxial ratcheting behaviors. The cyclic deformation of the material presents remarkable time-dependence and history memory phenomena. The fractional(fractional-order)derivative is an efficient tool for modeling these phenomena. Therefore, we develop a cyclic fractional-order unified visco-plastic(FVP) constitutive model. Specifically, within the framework of the cyclic elasto-plastic theory, the fractional derivative is used to describe the accumulated plastic strain rate and nonlinear kinematic hardening rule based on the Ohno-Abdel-Karim model. Moreover, a new radial return method for the back stress is developed to describe the unclosed hysteresis loops of the stress-strain properly.The capacity of the FVP model used to predict the cyclic deformation of the SS304 stainless steel is verified through a comparison with the corresponding experimental data found in the literature(KANG, G. Z., KAN, Q. H., ZHANG, J., and SUN, Y. F. Timedependent ratcheting experiments of SS304 stainless steel. International Journal of Plasticity, 22(5), 858–894(2006)). The FVP model is shown to be successful in predicting the rate-dependent ratcheting behaviors of the SS304 stainless steel.

Uniaxial Time-Dependent Ratcheting of SS304 Stainless Steel at High Temperatures

The uniaxial time-dependent strain cyclic behaviors and ratcheting of SS304 stainless steel were studied at high temperatures （350 ℃ and 700 ℃）. The effects of straining and stressing rates, holding time at the peak and/or valley of each cycle in addition to ambient temperature on the cyclic softening/hardening behavior and ratcheting of the material were discussed. It can be seen from experimental results that the material presents remarkable time dependence at 700 ℃, and the ratcheting strain depends greatly on the stressing rate, holding time and ambient temperature. Some significant conclusions are obtained, which are useful to build a constitutive model describiog the time-dependent cyclic deformation of the material.

Ratcheting Behavior of T225NG Titanium Alloy under Uniaxial Cyclic Stressing: Experiments and Modeling

In order to investigate the ratcheting behavior of T225NG alloy, a series of ratcheting tests under uniaxial long-cyclic stressing were performed. The results show that the ratcheting strain of this alloy can get into shakedown after tens （or hundreds） of thousand cycles. After the ratcheting strain is saturated under the condition that stress amplitude is half of peak stress, it will bring about subsequent fatigue failure, and relationship between fatigue life and one of peak stress and saturated ratcheting （SR） strain meets power law. As the alloy is under stress jiggling with stress amplitude that is 1%-2.5% of peak stress, the ratcheting strain still become remarkable and goes into shakedown after several hundreds of thousand cycles but there exists little accessional strain caused by creep effect. It is notable that, when the peak stress is 85%-100% of yield stress, the long-cyclic stressing will lead SR strain to be from 1.4% to 2.5% even if the initial ratio of ratcheting strain is zero. Based on ratcheting threshold property of peak stress and monotonicity of relationship between the peak stress and SR strain, a saturated ratcheting model （SRM） is developed to predict SR strain and to estimate saturated creep strain also. In addition, the classes of ratcheting evolutions of metals are discussed.

THE STRAIN CYCLIC CHARACTERISTICS AND RATCHETING OF U71Mn RAIL STEEL UNDER UNIAXIAL LOADING

An experimental study was carried out of the cyclic behavior of U71Mn rail steel subjected to uniaxial strain and stress. The effects of cyclic struin amplitude, mean struin,strain loading rate and their histories on the strain cyclic characteristics were studied.Under the asymmetrical stress cycling, the effects of stress amplitude, mean stress,stress loading rate and their histories on the ratcheting were analyzed. The interaction between strain cycling and stress cycling was also discussed. It is shown that either the cyclic characteristics under strain cycling or the ratcheting under asymmetrical stress cycling depends not only on the cumnt loading state, but also on the previous loading history. Some significant results are obtained.

Ratcheting Behavior of Weld Joints Under Uniaxial Cyclic Loading Using Miniature Specimen

Because of the size limitation of weld joints in different regions, the traditional standard bar specimen is not suitable to investigate the mechanical properties of weld joints. In this study, miniature specimens were extracted from specific regions(base metal, weld metal, and three heat-affected zones) of API X80 and X70 weld joints. Uniaxial tensile tests were conducted to obtain the mechanical properties of different regions, and then uniaxial ratcheting tests were conducted to investigate the ratcheting behaviors of the different regions under the same peak and nominal stresses. Under both the tensile tests and ratcheting tests, the weld joints exhibit heterogeneous results, such as different mechanical properties and ratcheting behaviors, which were region dependent. Furthermore, the yield strength and yield-to-tensile strength ratio contribute differently to the ratcheting response.

Ratcheting led surface failure of medium carbon bainitic steel under mild operation conditions

The behavior of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) of medium carbon bainitic back-up roll steel was investigated under its actual work conditions. A kind of asperity-scale surface originated cracks, which is lying parallel or at an acute angle to the surfaces, initiated after unidirectional plastic flow of the material in thin surface layer had occurred. Theoretical analysis indicates that they nucleate due to plastic ratcheting induced by asperity contact stresses, and consequently are named as ratcheting cracks. After nucleating and initially propagating, they arrest at some depth and resume propagating till about 70%-80% of the RCF failure life by initially turning parallel to contact surfaces. Their behavior of initiation and propagation is confined to a thin layer prior to the formation of surface distress. According to the critical principle of the preventive grinding strategy, removing the asperity influenced surface layer at about 70%-80% of the RCF failure life can effectively prevent the ratcheting cracks from developing into surface distress, which can lead to the formation of macro-RCF failure soon.

Fatigue limit assessment of a 6061 aluminum alloy based on infrared thermography and steady ratcheting effect

To quickly predict the fatigue limit of 6061 aluminum alloy,two assessment methods based on the temperature evolution and the steady ratcheting strain difference under cyclic loading,respectively,were proposed.The temperature evolutions during static and cyclic loadings were both measured by infrared thermography.Fatigue tests show that the temperature evolution was closely related to the cyclic loading,and the cyclic loading range can be divided into three sections according to the regular of temperature evolution in different section.The mechanism of temperature evolution under different cyclic loadings was also analyzed due to the thermoelastic,viscous,and thermoplastic effects.Additionally,ratcheting strain under cyclic loading was also measured,and the results show that the evolution of the ratcheting strain under cyclic loading above the fatigue limit undergone three stages:the first increasing stage,the second steady state,and the final abrupt increase stage.The fatigue limit of the 6061 aluminum alloy was quickly estimated based on transition point of linear fitting of temperature increase and the steady value of ratcheting strain difference.Besides,it is feasible and quick of the two methods by the proof of the traditional S-N curve.

Dynamic precipitation during multi-axial forging of an Mg-7Gd-5Y-1Nd-0.5Zr alloy

The dynamic precipitation behavior during multi-axial forging in an Mg-7Gd-5Y-1Nd-0.5Zr alloy has been investigated and compared with that in static precipitation treatment. The results indicated that dynamic precipitation does occur during multi-axial forging. The dynamic precipitate can be deduced as β phase with face-centered cubic crystal structure (a = 2.22 nm). Most of the β precipitates locate at the dynamic recrystallization grain boundaries. The morphology and orientation relationship is different from that of the β phase formed in the static precipitation treated alloys, although the crystal structure is the same. The precipitation temperature of β phase during MAF is higher than that in the static precipitation treatment.

Experimental Study on Uniaxial and Multiaxial Strain CyclicCharacteristics and Ratcheting of 316L Stainless Steel

An experimental study was carried out on the strain cyclic characteristics and ratcheting of 316L stainless steel subjected to uniaxial and multiaxial cyclic loading. The strain cyclic characteristics were researched under the strain-controlled uniaxial tension-compression and multiaxial circular paths of loading. The ratcheting tests were conducted for the stress-controlled uniaxial tension-compression and multiaxial circular, rhombic and linear paths of loading with different mean stresses, stress amplitudes and histories. The experiment results show that 316L stainless steel features the cyclic hardening, and its strain cyclic characteristics depend on the strain amplitude and its history apparently. The ratcheting of 316L stainless steel depends greatly on the Values of mean stress, stress amplitude and their histories. In the meantime, the shape of load path and its history also apparently influence the ratcheting.

Constitutive Model for Multiaxial Ratcheting Predictions of Cyclic Softening Weld Metal

A series of fully reversed axial, torsional strain-controlled cyclic tests and two multiaxial ratcheting tests were conducted on weld metal specimens using an Instron8521 tension-torsional servo-controlled testing machine. The weld metal showed clear cyclic softening under axial, torsional and multiaxial loading. A modified kinematic hardening rule was proposed in which a multiaxial-loading-dependent parameter incorporated the radial evanescence term of the Burlet-Cailletaud mode with the Ohno-Wang kinematic hardening rule to predict the multiaxial ratcheting effects. The introduction of yield stress evolved with accumulated plasticity strain enables the model to predict cyclic plasticity behavior of cyclic softening or cyclic hardening materials. Thus modified model considers the isotropic hardening as well as kinematic hardening of yield surface, and it can present description of plasticity behavior and ratcheting of cyclic softening and cyclic hardening materials well under multiaxial loading.

Modeling of ratcheting accumulation of secondary deformation due to stress-controlled high-cyclic loading in granular soils

An objective of this work is to develop a validated computational model that can be used to estimate ratcheting accumulation behavior of granular soils due to high-cyclic loading. An accumulation model was proposed to describe only the envelope of the maximum plastic deformations generated during the cyclic loading process, which can calculate the accumulated deformation by means of relatively large load cycle increments. The concept of volumetric hardening was incorporated into the model and a so-called overstress formulation was employed to describe the evolution of the accumulated volumetric deformation as a state parameter. The model accounted for ratcheting shakedown and accumulation such as a pseudo-yield surface(a shakedown surface) associated with loading inside the current virgin yield surface which was implemented into the well-known modified Cam-clay model. Finally, the model was calibrated using data from the stress-controlled drained cyclic triaxial tests on homogeneous fine grained sands. It is seen that the model can successfully represent important features of the ratcheting accumulation of both volumetric and deviatoric deformation caused by repeated drained loading over a large number of cycles.

The Ratcheting Behaviour of Plain Carbon Steel Pressurized Piping Elbows Subjected to Simulated Seismic In-Plane Bending

In this paper, cyclic loading behavior of carbon steel pressurized piping elbows are described. Effects of internal pressure and bending moment amplitude on the ratcheting rate are investigated. The AF kinematic hardening model is used to predict the plastic behavior of the elbows. Material parameters and stress-strain data have been obtained from several stabilized cycles of specimens that are subjected to symmetric strain cycles. The results show that the maximum ratcheting strain occurred mainly in the hoop direction at flanks. Hoop strain ratcheting was found at intrados for individual specimen. Ratcheting strain rate increases with increase of the bending loading level at the constant internal pressure. The results show that the initial rate of ratcheting is large and then it decreases with the increasing cycles. The FE model predicts the hoop strain ratcheting rate to be near that found experimentally in all cases that M/Ml≤1..

Multi-axial strain-stiffening elastic potentials with energy bounds:explicit approach based on uniaxial data

According to the well-known models for rubberlike elasticity with strain- stii^ening effects, the unbounded strain energy is generated with the unlimitedly growing stress when the stretch approaches certain limits. Toward a solution to this issue, an explicit approach is proposed to derive the multi-axial elastic potentials directly from the uniaxial potentials. Then, a new multi-axial potential is presented to characterize the strain-stiffening effect by prescribing suitable forms of uniaxia] potentials so that the strain energy is always bounded as the stress grows to infinity. Numerical examples show good agreement with a number of test data.

The Ratcheting Behaviour of Stainless Steel Pressurized Piping Elbows Subjected to Dynamic Out-of-Plane Moments

In this paper the ratcheting behavior of four pairs of stainless steel elbows is studied under conditions of steady internal pressure and dynamic conditions that induced out-of-plane external moments at frequencies typical of seismic excitations. The finite element analysis with the nonlinear kinematic hardening model has been used to evaluate ratcheting behavior of the piping elbows under mentioned loading condition. Material parameters have been obtained from several stabilized cycles of specimens that are subjected to symmetric strain cycles. The direction of maximum strain is at about 45° between the hoop and axial directions. The results show that the direction of highest ratcheting is along the hoop direction rather than the direction of maximum principal strain. Also, the initial rate of ratcheting is large and then it decreases with the increasing cycles. Also, the FE method gives over estimated values compared with the experimental data.

Experimental observations on the nonproportional multiaxial ratchetting of cast AZ91 magnesium alloy at room temperature

The nonproportional multiaxial ratchetting of cast AZ91 magnesium (Mg) alloy was examined by performing a sequence of axial-torsional cyclic tests controlled by stress with various loading paths at room temperature (RT).The evolutionary characteristics and path dependence of multiaxial ratchetting were discussed.Results illustrate that the cast AZ91 Mg alloy exhibits considerable nonproportional additional softening during cyclic loading with multiple nonproportional multiaxial loading paths;multiaxial ratchetting presents strong path dependence,and axial ratchetting strains are larger under nonproportional loading paths than under uniaxial and proportional45°linear loading paths;multiaxial ratchetting becomes increasingly pronounced as the applied stress amplitude and axial mean stress increase.Moreover,stress-strain curves show a convex and symmetrical shape in axial/torsional directions.Multiaxial ratchetting exhibits quasi-shakedown after certain loading cycles.The abundant experimental data obtained in this work can be used to develop a cyclic plasticity model of cast Mg alloys.

Path Planning of Multi-Axis Robotic Arm Based on Improved RRT*

An improved RRT∗algorithm,referred to as the AGP-RRT∗algorithm,is proposed to address the problems of poor directionality,long generated paths,and slow convergence speed in multi-axis robotic arm path planning.First,an adaptive biased probabilistic sampling strategy is adopted to dynamically adjust the target deviation threshold and optimize the selection of random sampling points and the direction of generating new nodes in order to reduce the search space and improve the search efficiency.Second,a gravitationally adjustable step size strategy is used to guide the search process and dynamically adjust the step-size to accelerate the search speed of the algorithm.Finally,the planning path is processed by pruning,removing redundant points and path smoothing fitting using cubic B-spline curves to improve the flexibility of the robotic arm.Through the six-axis robotic arm path planning simulation experiments on the MATLAB platform,the results show that the AGP-RRT∗algorithm reduces 87.34%in terms of the average running time and 40.39%in terms of the average path cost;Meanwhile,under two sets of complex environments A and B,the average running time of the AGP-RRT∗algorithm is shortened by 94.56%vs.95.37%,and the average path cost is reduced by 55.28%vs.47.82%,which proves the effectiveness of the AGP-RRT∗algorithm in improving the efficiency of multi-axis robotic arm path planning.

基于Ratchet效应的平面纳米二极管

采用二维系综蒙特卡罗方法对平面纳米结构的电响应特性进行了详细地研究。计算结果表明纳米结构加工过程所带来的表面电荷能够用来改变纳米沟道中的电场分布,从而使得纳米沟道中的电势分布呈现出空间不对称。由于Ratchet效应,此时通过纳米沟道的电子输运将体现出方向性,这使得该器件具有类似于二极管的电流电压特性曲线。通过优化结构,还可以获得开启电压为零的器件。由于该器件为纳米量级,因此具有很快的响应速度。模拟结果表明在亚太赫兹波段,该器件有不为零的整流信号输出。