Weakening effect of plastic yielding inception in thin hard coating systems

Hard coatings have been widely applied to enhance tribological performance of mechanical components.However,it was predicted that thin hard coatings may have a weakening effect which could reduce the coating/substrate system’s resistance to plastic yielding compared with the uncoated substrate material.In this paper,analytical simulation is utilized to investigate the origin of weakening effect.The functions of material mechanical properties and coating thickness on the weakening effect are theoretically investigated.Partial-unloading spherical nanoindentation tests are performed on tungsten coated single crystalline silicon and copper to acquire the stress-strain curves and compared with the uncoated cases.The experimental results are in consistence with the analytical solutions,demonstrating the presence of weakening effect.

ANALYSIS ON THE MAGNETO-ELASTIC-PLASTIC BUCKLING/SNAPPING OF CANTILEVER RECTANGULAR FERROMAGNETIC PLATES

An analysis of buckling/snapping and bending behaviors of magneto-elastic-plastic interaction and coupling for cantilever rectangular soft ferromagnetic plates is presented. Based on the expression of magnetic force from the variational principle of ferromagnetic plates, the buckling and bending theory of thin plates, the Mises yield criterion and the increment theory for plastic deformation, we establish a numerical code to quantitatively simulate the behaviors of the nonlinearly multi-fields coupling problems by the finite element method. Along with the phenomena of buckling/snapping and bending, or the characteristic curve of deflection versus magnitude of applied magnetic fields being numerically displayed, the critical loads of buckling/snapping, and the influences of plastic deformation and the width of plate on these critical loads, the plastic regions expanding with the magnitude of applied magnetic field, as well as the evolvement of deflection configuration of the plate are numerically obtained in a case study.

Study on magneto-elastic-plastic deformation characteristics of ferromagnetic rectangular plate with simple supports

In this paper, the magnetic-elastic-plastic deformation behavior is studied for a ferromagnetic plate with simple supports. The perturbation formula of magnetic force is first derived based on the perturbation technique, and is then applied to the analysis of deformation characteristics with emphasis laid on the analyses of modes, symmetry of deformation and influences of incident angle of applied magnetic field on the plate deformation. The theoretical analyses offer explanations why the configuration offer- romagnetic rectangular plate with simple supports under an oblique magnetic field is in-wavy type along the x-direction, and why the largest deformation of the ferromagnetic plate occurs at the incident angle of 45°for the magnetic field. A numerical code based on the finite element method is developed to simulate quantitatively behaviors of the nonlinearly coupled multi-field problem. Some characteristic curves are plotted to illustrate the magneto--elastic-plastic deflections, and to reveal how the deflections can be influenced by the incident angle of applied magnetic field. The deformation characteristics obtained from the numerical simulations are found in good agreement with the theoretical analyses.

Rheological Behaviors of Fresh Cement Pastes with Polycarboxylate Superplasticizer

The rheologicalbehaviors of fresh cement paste with polycarboxylate superplasticizer were systematically investigated.Influentialfactors including superplasticizer to cement ratio（Sp/C）,water to cement ratio（w/c）,temperature,and time were discussed.Fresh cement pastes with Sp/Cs in the range of 0 to 2.0% and varied W/Cs from 0.25 to 0.5 were prepared and tested at 0,20 and 40 °C,respectively.Flowability and rheologicaltests on cement pastes were conducted to characterize the development of the rheologicalbehavior of fresh cement pastes over time.The exprimentalresults indicate that the initialflowability and flowability retention over shelf time increase with the growth in superplasticizer dosage due to the plasticizing effect and retardation effect of superplasticizer.Higher temperature usually leads to a sharper drop in initialflowability and flowability retention.However,for the cement paste with high Sp/C or w/c,the flowability is slightly affected by temperature.Yield stress and plastic viscosity show similar variation trends to the flowability under the abovementioned influentialfactors at low Sp/C.In the case of high Sp/C,yield stress and plastic viscosity start to decline over shelf time and the decreasing rate descends at elevated temperature.Moreover,two equations to roughly predict yield stress and plastic viscosity of the fresh cement pastes incorporating Sp/C,w/c,temperature and time are developed on the basis of the existing models,in which experimentalconstants can be extracted from a database created by the rheologicaltest results.

On the homogenization of metal matrix composites using strain gradient plasticity

The homogenized response of metal matrix composites（MMC） is studied using strain gradient plasticity.The material model employed is a rate independent formulation of energetic strain gradient plasticity at the micro scale and conventional rate independent plasticity at the macro scale. Free energy inside the micro structure is included due to the elastic strains and plastic strain gradients. A unit cell containing a circular elastic fiber is analyzed under macroscopic simple shear in addition to transverse and longitudinal loading. The analyses are carried out under generalized plane strain condition. Micro-macro homogenization is performed observing the Hill-Mandel energy condition,and overall loading is considered such that the homogenized higher order terms vanish. The results highlight the intrinsic size-effects as well as the effect of fiber volume fraction on the overall response curves, plastic strain distributions and homogenized yield surfaces under different loading conditions. It is concluded that composites with smaller reinforcement size have larger initial yield surfaces and furthermore,they exhibit more kinematic hardening.

Analysis of diffusion induced elastoplastic bending of bilayer lithium-ion battery electrodes

Bilayer electrode, composed of a current collector layer and an active material layer, has great potential in applications of in-situ electrochemical experiments due to the bending upon lithiation. This paper establishes an elastoplastic theory for the lithiation induced deformation of bilayer electrode with consideration of the plastic yield of current collector. It is found that the plastic yield of current collector reduces the restriction of current collector to an active layer, and therefore, enhances in-plane stretching while lowers down the rate of electrode bending. Key parameters that influence the elastoplastic deformation are identified. It is found that the smaller thickness ratio and lower elastic modulus ratio of current collector to an active layer would lead to an earlier plastic yield of the current collector, the larger in-plane strain, and the smaller bending curvature, due to balance between the current collector and the active layer. The smaller yield stress and plastic modulus of current collector have similar impacts on the electrode deformation.

Effects of creep characteristics of natural gas hydrate-bearing sediments on wellbore stability

Natural gas hydrate(NGH)reservoirs consist of the types of sediments with weak cementation,low strength,high plasticity,and high creep.Based on the kinetics and thermodynamic characteristics of NGH decomposition,herein a heat-fluid-solid coupling model was established for studying the wellbore stability in an NGH-bearing formation to analyze the effects of the creep characteristics of NGH-bearing sediments during long-term drilling.The results demonstrated that the creep characteristics of sediments resulted in larger plastic yield range,thus aggravating the plastic strain accumulation around the wellbore.Furthermore,the creep characteristics of NGH-bearing sediments could enhance the effects induced by the difference in horizontal in situ stress,as a result,the plastic strain in the formation around the wellbore increased nonlinearly with increasing difference in in situ stress.The lower the pore pressure,the greater the stress concentration effects and the higher the plastic strain at the wellbore.Moreover,the lower the initial NGH saturation,the greater the initial plastic strain and yield range and the higher the equivalent creep stress.The plastic strain at the wellbore increased nonlinearly with decreasing initial saturation.

Prediction of Forming Limit Diagrams for Materials with HCP Structure

The forming limit diagram（FLD） is an important tool to be used when characterizing the formability of metallic sheets used in metal forming processes. Experimental measurement and determination of the FLD is timeconsuming and therefore the analytical prediction based on theory of plasticity and instability criteria allows a direct and efficient methodology to obtain critical values at different loading paths, thus carrying significant practical importance.However, the accuracy of the plastic instability prediction is strongly dependent on the choice of the material constitutive model [1–3]. Particularly for materials with hexagonal close packed（HCP） crystallographic structure, they have a very limited number of active slip systems at room temperature and demonstrate a strong asymmetry between yielding in tension and compression [4, 5]. Not only the magnitude of the yield locus changes, but also the shape of the yield surface is evolving during the plastic deformation [4]. Conventional phenomenological constitutive models of plasticity fail to capture this unconventional mechanical behavior [4, 6]. Cazacu and Plunkett [6] have proposed generic yield criteria, by using the transformed principal stress, to account for the initial plastic anisotropy and strength differential（SD） effect simultaneously. In this contribution, a generic FLD MATLAB script was developed based on Marciniak–Kuczynski analytical theory and applied to predict the localized necking. The influence of asymmetrical effect on the FLD was evaluated. Several yield functions such as von Mises, Hill, Barlat89, and Cazacu06 were incorporated into analysis. The paper also presents and discusses the influence of different hardening laws on the formability of materials with HCP crystal structures. The findings indicate that the plastic instability theory coupled with Cazacu model can adequately predict the onset of localized necking for HCP materials under different strain paths.

Effects of Rolling Processes on Yield Ratio and Formability of Hot Rolled Gas Cylinder Steel

Deep drawing properties of hot rolled gas cylinder steel was investigated by using HP295 steel in terms of microstructure, texture, yield ratio, plastic strain ratio （r value） and plastic anisotropy （Ar）. The grains in the hot strip were largely equiaxed, and the texture was weak, containing a- and ？＇fibre. Reheating temperature, finish roll ing temperature and cooling rate after rolling influenced the ferrite-pearlite band formation significantly, and the yield ratio increased steeply with decreasing coiling temperature below 630 ~C. The anisotropy is relatively high due to re- tained severe ferrite-pearlite band. A mechanism of the band formation due to manganese segregation is elaborated and confirmed validly, from which the measures to avoid the band formation are worked out. Rolling parameters have been optimized by the measures, and industrial production of the gas cylinder steel has been made possible with much improved r-and △r-values, while meeting other specifications.