Analysis of the elastic-plastic indentation properties of materials with varying ratio of hardness to Young’s modulus

The elastic-plastic indentation properties of materials with varying ratio of hardness to Young’s modulus(H/E) were analyzed with the finite element method. And the indentation stress fields of materials with varying ratio H/E on the surface were studied by the experiment. The results show that the penetration depth, contact radius, plastic pile-up and the degree of elastic recovery depend strongly on the ratio H/E. Moreover, graphs were established to describe the relationship between the elastic-plastic indentation parameters and H/E. The established graphs can be used to predict the H/E of materials when compared with experimental data.

A comparative study of piezoelectric unimorph and multilayer actuators as stiffness sensors via contact resonance

Piezoelectric bar-shaped resonators were proposed to act as hardness sensors in the 1960 s and stiffness sensors in the 1990 s based on the contact impedance method.In this work, we point out that both multilayer and unimorph（or bimorph） piezoelectric actuators could act as stiffness/modulus sensors based on the principle of mechanical contact resonance. First, the practical design and the performance of a piezoelectric unimorph actuator–based stiffness sensor were presented. Then the working principle of piezoelectric multilayer actuator–based stiffness sensors was given and verified by numerical investigation. It was found that for these two types of resonance-based sensors, the shift of the resonance frequency due to contact is always positive, which is different from that of the contact impedance method. Further comparative sensitivity study indicated that the unimorph actuator–based stiffness sensor is very suitable for measurement on soft materials, whereas the multilayer actuator–based sensor is more suitable for hard materials.

Mechanical Properties and Uniformity of Nanocrystalline Diamond Coating Deposited Around a Sphere by MPCVD

Nanocrystalline diamond coatings were deposited by MPCVD on the spheres used for a ball bearing.The nanocrystalline coatings with a grain size of 50 nm were confirmed by the surface morphology and composition analysis.The hardness of the coating is 20-40 GPa tested by nanoindentation,which is higher than that of tungsten carbide and silicon nitride substrates.The coating around the sphere observed from the Micro CT images is uniform with a thickness of 12 μm.

Mechanical Properties of Interface between U-0.75Ti Alloy and TiC

The microhardness and modulus changes of the interface between U-0.75Ti alloy and TiC before andafter heat treatment were studied by SEM and Nano Indenter II, and the results show that the hardness and modulusof the interface are greatly increased after 820℃, 2 h water quenching and 450℃, 6 h aging. This result probablycomes from much more U2Ti and U6Ni precipitates along the interface.

Effects of Chromium Addition on Preparation and Properties of Bulk Cementite

Bulk cementites with the Cr contents of 0,3.01,6.03,8.22,and 11.51mass% were prepared by mechanical alloying（MA）and spark plasma sintering（SPS）.The results indicated that when the Cr content was low（3.01mass%）,the phases were composed of cementite with a small amount ofα-Fe at a sintering temperature of 1 173 K,but the microstructure became single-phase alloyed cementite as the Cr content was further increased.It showed that microaddition of Cr was beneficial for promoting the formation of cementite.Furthermore,the mechanical performance of cementite can be greatly affected by the variation of Cr content.The hardness,elastic modulus and elastic recovery presented a remarkably increasing tendency with the addition of Cr,and the maximum micro-hardness and elastic modulus values reached 1 070.74 HV and 199.32 GPa,respectively,which were similar to the precipitation phase（cementite）obtained by melting and casting techniques.Moreover,when the Cr content was below 11.51mass%,the crystal structure of Fe3C-type cementite would not change with increasing the Cr content.A Cr atom replaced an Fe atom in the lattice of the cementite,and voids appeared when Cr was doped into the cementite at content of about11.51mass%,causing the relative density to decrease.

Enhanced micro/nano-tribological performance in partially crystallized 60NiTi film

The microstructure,mechanical and micro/nano-tribological properties of the 60NiTi film annealed at different temperature were investigated.The results reveal that annealing as-deposited 60NiTi film at 300,375,and 600℃ for 1 h leads to structural relaxation,partial crystallization and full crystallization,respectively.Compared with the structurally relaxed structure,the partially crystallized structure exhibits increased hardness but decreased elastic modulus.This is because that the elastic modulus is reduced by Voigt model while the hardness is improved by composite effect.Due to the highest hardness and ratio of hardness to elastic modulus(H/E),the partially crystallized 60NiTi film has the lowest penetration depth and residual depth(i.e.,groove depth).Besides,the results also reveal that ductile plowing is the dominant wear mechanism for all the annealed 60NiTi films.Under the condition of the ductile plowing,coefficient of friction and wear resistance are related to penetration depth and residual depth,respectively.Therefore,the partially crystallized 60NiTi film shows the best tribological performance at the micro/nano-scale.The current work not only highlights the important roles of hardness and H/E in improving the micro/nano-tribological properties but also concludes an efficient and simple method for simultaneously increasing hardness and H/E.