Effect of indentation size and grain/sub-grain size on microhardness of high purity tungsten

Hardness of materials depends significantly on the indentation size and grain/sub-grain size via microindentation and nanoindentation tests of high-purity tungsten with different structures.The grain boundary effect and indentation size effect were explored.The indentation hardness was fitted using the Nix-Gao model by considering the scaling factor.The results show that the scaling factor is barely correlated with the grain/sub-grain size.The interaction between the plastically deformed zone（PDZ） boundary and the grain/sub-grain boundary is believed to be the reason that leads to an increase of the measured hardness at the specific depths.Results also indicate that the area of the PDZ is barely correlated with the grain/sub-grain size,and the indentation hardness starts to stabilize once the PDZ expands to the dimension of an individual grain/sub-grain.

Microstructure and Nano-Hardness of 10 MeV Cl-Ion Irradiated T91 Steel

Hardening and elemental segregation of T91 martenstic steel irradiated by 10 MeV Cl ions to doses from 0.06 dpa to 0.83 dpa were investigated with the nanoindentation technique and transmission electron microscopy（TEM）.The results demonstrated that the irradiation hardening was closely related with irradiation dose.By increasing the dose,the hardness increased rapidly at first from the initial value of 3.15 GPa before irradiation,and then tended to saturate at a value of 3.58 GPa at the highest dose of 0.83 dpa.Combined with TEM observation,the mechanism of hardening was preliminary attributed to the formation of M（Fe,Cr）23C6 carbides induced by the high energy Cl-ion irradiation.

Experimental investigation on hard rock fragmentation of inserted tooth cutter using a newly designed indentation testing apparatus

This investigation aims to explore the effects of stress conditions and rock cutting rates on hard rock fragmentation through indentation tests on a newly designed triaxial testing apparatus.This apparatus was designed to realize a triaxial loading and indentation test of cylindrical specimens using inserted tooth cutter.The boreability and crushing efficiency of granite rock was investigated by analyzing the change rules of the thrusting force,penetration depth,characteristics of chippings and failure patterns.Several quantitative indexes were used to evaluate rock boreability in this investigation.The granite rock samples all had a chiselled pit and a crushed rock core.Under initial stress conditions,only flat-shape chippings were stripped from the rock surface when the thrusting force reached 20 kN.The rock cutting special energy had a close correlation with the initial stress conditions and inserted tooth shape.Moreover,a thrusting force prediction model was proposed in this paper.The contribution of this study is that for the first time the influence mechanism of the initial triaxial stress conditions on rock fragmentation is investigated using an inserted tooth and the newly designed testing apparatus.This study has a crucial importance for practical underground hard rock crushing in geoengineering.

Fabrication of a Gradient Nano-/Micro-structured Surface Layer on an Al–Si Casting Alloy by Means of Ultrasonic–Electropulsing Coupling Rolling Process

By using a novel surface modification technique named ultrasonic-electropulsing coupling rolling （UECR） process on an Al-Si casting alloy rod, the surface of material was smoothened significantly. Meanwhile, a strengthened layer with agradient change in hardness was obtained in the outer surface, corresponding to a homogeneous gradient nano-/micro-structure. The thickness of nanometer-thick laminated structures was at least 40 μm, which was much thicker thanconventional ultrasonic rolling process. During UECR, the formation of the well-defined nanocrystalline structure wasattributed to the high strain rate and simultaneous annealing process realized by ultrasonic impact and electropulsingtreatment.

Brittleness and fracture mechanism of sintered Dy-doped NdFeB magnets

The brittleness and fracture behaviors of the sintered and the two-stage aged Dy-doped NdFeB magnets were studied by a unique method of acoustic emission testing and Vickers hardness indentation method in this paper.A detailed analysis on the crack propagation mechanism along the grain boundary of the main grain phase(Nd,Dy)_(2)Fe_(14)B was done.By comparing the acoustic emission energy count value(E_(n))with the Vickers hardness indentation load(P),it is shown that there is a linear relationship between En and P for both the sintered and the two-stage aged Dy-doped NdFeB magnets.According to the slope of En versus P linear lines,it can be found that the two-stage aged Dy-doped NdFeB magnet is more brittle than the sintered one.It is due to that the Ndrich grain boundary phase of the two-stage aged Dy-doped NdFeB magnet is formed as thin film and uniformly distributes around the main grain phase,which plays a significant role in increasing the intrinsic coercive force of the magnet,but decreasing its interface binding strength.Therefore,the resistance of crack propagation along the grain boundary decreases and the brittleness increases.