Improvement of mechanical properties of cold-rolled commercially pure Ti sheet by high density electropulsing

Specimens cut from the cold-rolled commercially pure （CP） Ti sheet were treated by high density electropulsing （the maximum current density 7.22 kA/mm2, pulse period 110 las）. The deformation behaviors of the CP Ti specimens at different states were determined by the uniaxial tensile test. The microstructure morphologies were observed by the optical microscopy. The results show that the electropulsing induced formation of f＇me equal-axial grains and lamellar microstructures, which leads to the strength of the electropulsed CP Ti higher than that of the conventional annealed CP Ti. After electropulsing, the tensile strength and yield strength are increased by 100 MPa. And the electropulsed CP Ti has a good plasticity. The experimental results demonstrate that the electropulsing provides an effective approach to enhance the strength of cold-rolled CP Ti sheet and retain the required high ductility.

Grain refinement of as-cast superalloy IN718 under action of low voltage pulsed magnetic field

The grain refinement of superalloy IN718 under the action of low voltage pulsed magnetic field was investigated. The experimental results show that fine equiaxed grains are acquired under the action of low voltage pulsed magnetic field. The refinement effect of the pulsed magnetic field is affected by the melt cooling rate and superheating. The decrease of cooling rate and superheating enhance the refinement effect of the low voltage pulsed magnetic field. The magnetic force and the melt flow during solidification are modeled and simulated to reveal the grain refinement mechanism. It is considered that the melt convection caused by the pulsed magnetic field, as well as cooling rate and superheating contributes to the refinement of solidified grains.

Fine-Grain Sleep Transistor Insertion for Leakage Reduction

A fine-grain sleep transistor insertion technique based on our simplified leakage current and delay models is proposed to reduce leakage current. The key idea is to model the leakage current reduction problem as a mixed-integer linear programming （MLP） problem in order to simultaneously place and size the sleep transistors optimally. Because of better circuit slack utilization, our experimental results show that the MLP model can save leakage by 79.75%, 93.56%, and 94.99% when the circuit slowdown is 0%, 3%, and 5%, respectively. The MLP model also achieves on average 74.79% less area penalty compared to the conventional fixed slowdown method when the circuit slowdown is 7%.

Effects of rare earth Ce addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of impure copper containing Pb

The effects of rare earth Ce on the microstructure and mechanical properties of impure copper containing Pb were investigated using OM,SEM,EPMA,TEM and tensile testing.TEM and EDS analysis reveal that spherical CePb3 particles form after Ce addition.CePb3 particles,with average size of^3.6μm,homogenously distribute in the Cu matrix.Due to small lattice misfit(~4.62%)with Cu matrix,CePb3 particles can act as effective nucleation sites beneficial to the grain refinement.Pb at grain boundaries seriously deteriorates the mechanical properties of Cu.The tensile strength and the elongation of Cu-0.1 Pb are decreased by 43.1%and 56.7%compared with those of pure copper,respectively.Ce can purify grain boundaries,cause the precipitation of CePb3 particles and refine grain sizes,which contribute to significant improvement of the mechanical properties of Cu.Compared with Cu-0.1Pb,the tensile strength(179 MPa)and the elongation(38.5%)of Cu-0.1Pb-0.3Ce are increased by 117.6%and 151.6%,respectively.

Effects of grain refinement and residual elements on hot tearing of A713 aluminium cast alloy

Some investigations have been carried out on hot tears in the A713 cast alloy, which is one of the long freezing range alloys, with objective to minimize/prevent hot tears. Experiments were conducted by varying pouring temperatures at 700, 750, and 780 ℃ on the alloy with the addition of grain refiners like Al-2.5Ti-0.5C and Al-3.5Ti-1.5C. It was found that hot tearing was minimized by the addition of Al-3.5Ti-1.5C grain refiner, but grain refinement alone could not prevent hot tearing in A713 cast alloy. This has contradicted the findings of some earlier researchers. Experiments conducted on hot tearing with the addition of iron were found to be interesting. It was found that grain refinement along with iron addition to the A713 alloy has reduced the inter-dendritic separation so that interlocking could take place along the grain boundaries. Thus, iron, which comes as an impurity in commercial aluminum, can prevent hot tearing of A713 alloy.

Effect of soft Bi particles on grain refinement during severe plastic deformation

Two aluminum alloys,Al-8Zn and Al-6Bi-8Zn were subjected to equal channel angular pressing(ECAP)up to5passes at room temperature.The microstructural evolution and the grain refinement behavior of these alloys were systematically studied by electron backscatter diffraction(EBSD).After5passes of ECAP,ultrafine grained microstructures formed in both alloys.However,the grain structure in the Al-6Bi-8Zn alloy is much finer than that of Al-8Zn alloy,showing that the soft Bi particles have a strong influence on enhancing the grain refinement during ECAP.The strengths of the ECAP-processed materials were measured by hardness test and it showed that after5passes of ECAP,the hardness of the Al-6Bi-8Zn alloy was higher than that of the Al-8Zn alloy.The effects of soft Bi particles on the deformation behavior during ECAP and the final strength of the Al-6Bi-8Zn alloy were discussed.

Enhanced mechanical properties of pure aluminium: Experimental investigation of effects of different parameters

In current research,the interactive effects of different parameters such as melt overheating temperature,the location of gating system and incorporation of the grain refiner in bar and micro-powder form on the mechanical and structural characteristics of commercially pure aluminium are examined.Results show that increasing the melt temperature as well as employing a gating system with higher heat transfer rate increases the ultimate tensile strength(UTS)of the pure aluminium by 7%.Also,the introduction of 2wt%Al–5Ti–1B grain refiner in bar form into the overheated melt enhances the UTS values by two times,while incorporating 2wt%Al–5Ti–1B grain refiner in micro-powder form leads to achieving 32%higher UTS compared to the samples with grain refiner in the bar form due to the elimination of Al3Ti brittle phase,as confirmed by XRD patterns and SEM fracture surface images.

Strengthening and stress drop of ultrafine grain aluminum after annealing

Ultrafine grain pure aluminum was produced by equal channel angular pressing and cold rolling, the deformed aluminum was annealed at 200 ℃ for 1 h. The tensile curves of deformed and annealed aluminum show that yield strength of deformed aluminum increases by 100%-300% and its elongation decreases by about 20%. After low temperature annealing, strength of annealed aluminum increases by 20% and elongation decreases by over 50%, the recovery of dislocations may be the main cause of annealing strengthening. In addition, there is an abrupt stress drop in the tensile curves of annealed aluminum and the formation of shear band is responsible for it.

Grain refining action of Ti existing in electrolytic low-titanium aluminum with Al-4B addition for superheated Al melt

The effects of superheating temperature on the grain refining efficiency of Ti existing in electrolytic low-titanium aluminum(ELTA)without and with the Al-4B addition and the Al-5Ti-1B master alloy in pure Al were comparatively investigated. The results show that the Ti existing in ELTA without Al-4B addition exhibits a certain grain refining efficiency when the melt superheating temperature is lower,but the efficiency decreases rapidly when the superheating temperature is higher.The grain refining efficiency of the Al-5Ti-1B master alloy is better than that of the Ti existing in ELTA without Al-4B addition at any superheating temperature,but it also decreases obviously with the increase of the superheating temperature.One important reason is that the TiB2 particles coming from the Al-5Ti-1B master alloy can settle down at the bottom of the Al melt easily when the superheating temperature is increased,thus decrease the number of the potent heterogeneous nuclei retained in the Al melt.If the Al-4B master alloy is added to the ELTA melt,the grain refining efficiency of the Ti existing in ELTA can be improved significantly, and does not decrease with the increase of the superheating temperature.This perhaps provides us a possible method to suppress the effect of the superheated melt on the microstructures of aluminum..