Simultaneously improving mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of as-cast AZ91 Mg alloy by ultrasonic surface rolling

Mg alloy casting parts commonly suffer from drawbacks of low surface properties,high susceptibility to corrosion,unsatisfactory absolute strength,and poor ductility,which seriously limit their wide application.Here,a surface nanocrystallization technique,i.e.,ultrasonic surface rolling(USR),was applied on an as-cast AZ91 Mg alloy sheet to improve its corrosion resistance and mechanical properties.The USR produces double smooth surfaces with Ra 0.036μm and gradient nanostructured surface layers on the sheet.Due to this special microstructure modification,the USR sheet exhibits 55%and 50%improvements in yield strength and ultimate tensile strength without visibly sacrificed ductility comparable to its untreated counterpart,as well as a 24%improvement in surface hardness.The USR sheet also shows good corrosion resistance in 3.5wt%NaCl aqueous solution.The corrosion current density of the USR sheet reduces by 63%after immersion for 1 h,and 25%after immersion for 24 h compared to that of the untreated counterpart.The enhanced strength and hardness are mainly related to the gradient nanostructure.The improved corrosion resistance is mainly ascribed to the decreased surface roughness,nanostructured surface,and residual compressive stress.The present results state that USR is an effective and attractive method to improve the multiple properties of Mg alloy cast-ing parts,and thus can be used as an additional and last working procedure to achieve high-performance Mg alloy casting parts.

Influence of Ultrasonic Surface Rolling Process and Shot Peening on Fretting Fatigue Performance of Ti-6Al-4V

At present,there are many studies on the residual stress field and plastic strain field introduced by surface strengthening,which can well hinder the initiation of early fatigue cracks and delay the propagation of fatigue cracks.However,there are few studies on the effects of these key factors on fretting wear.In the paper,shot-peening(SP)and ultrasonic surface rolling process(USRP)were performed on Ti-6Al-4V plate specimens.The surface hardness and residual stresses of the material were tested by vickers indenter and X-ray diffraction residual stress analyzer.Microhardness were measured by HXD-1000MC/CD micro Vickers hardness tester.The effects of different surface strengthening on its fretting fatigue properties were verified by fretting fatigue experiments.The fretting fatigue fracture surface and wear morphology of the specimens were studied and analyzed by means of microscopic observation,and the mechanism of improving fretting fatigue life by surface strengthening process was further explained.After USRP treatment,the surface roughness of Ti-6Al-4V is significantly improved.In addition,the microhardness of the specimen after SP reaches the maximum at 80μm from the surface,which is about 123%higher than that of the AsR specimen.After USRP,it reaches the maximum at 150μm from the surface,which is about 128%higher than that of AsR specimen.It is also found that the residual compressive stress of the specimens treated by USRP and SP increases first and then decreases with the depth direction,and the residual stress reaches the maximum on the sub surface.The USRP specimen reaches the maximum value at 0.18 mm,about−550 MPa,while the SP specimen reaches the maximum value at 0.1 mm,about−380 MPa.The fretting fatigue life of Ti-6Al-4V effectively improved after USRP and SP.The surface integrity of specimens after USRP is the best,which has deeper residual compressive stress layer and more refined grain.In this paper,a fretting wear device is designed to carry out fretting fatigue experiments on specimens with different surface strengthening.

Contribution of ultrasonic surface rolling process to the fatigue properties of TB8 alloy with body-centered cubic structure

The effect of ultrasonic surface rolling process(USRP) as a severe plastic deformation technology was investigated on the evolution of microstructure, residual stress and surface morphology of TB8 alloys with body-centered cubic structure. Stress-controlled rotating-bending fatigue tests indicated increased fatigue strength in USRP samples prepared using different number of passes compared to the base material, which was attributed to the presence of gradient structure surface layers. Five subsequent USRP passes resulted in the highest fatigue strength, due to the optimal surface properties including higher extent of grain refinement, larger compressive residual stresses, "smoother" surface morphology and increased micro-hardness. However, the effect of USRP technology on improving fatigue strength of TB8 alloy was not significant in comparison with that of other titanium alloys(for example, Ti6 Al4 V), which was attributed to the notable surface residual stresses relaxation revealed from measurements on postfatigued USRP samples. Electron backscatter diffraction analysis confirmed that fatigue crack initiation occurred in the larger grains on the surface with high Schmid factor. Small cracks were found to propagate into the core material in a mixed transgranular and intergranular mode. Further analysis indicated that grain growth existed in post-fatigued USRP-treated TB8 samples and that the average geometrically necessary dislocations value reduced after fatigue loading.

Enhanced Surface Mechanical Properties and Microstructure Evolution of Commercial Pure Titanium Under Electropulsing-Assisted Ultrasonic Surface Rolling Process

The effects of electropulsing-assisted ultrasonic surface rolling process on surface mechanical properties andmicrostructure evolution of commercial pure titanium were investigated. It was found that the surface mechanical prop-erties were significantly enhanced compared to traditional ultrasonic surface rolling process （USRP）, leading to smallersurface roughness and smoother morphology with fewer cracks and defects. Moreover, surface strengthened layer wasremarkably enhanced with deeper severe plastic deformation layer and higher surface hardness. Remarkable enhancementsof surface mechanical properties may be related to the gradient refined microstructure, the enhanced severe plasticdeformation layer and the accelerated formation of sub-boundaries and twins induced by coupling effects of USRP andelectropulsing. The primary intrinsic reasons for these improvements may be attributed to the thermal and athermal effectscaused by electropulsing treatment, which would accelerate dislocation mobility and atom diffusion.

Active and passive compliant force control of ultrasonic surface rolling process on a curved surface

Ultrasonic surface rolling process(USRP)is one of the effective mechanical surface enhancement techniques.During the USRP,unstable static force will easily do harm to the surface quality.In order to achieve a higher surface quality on the part with a curved surface,an active and passive compliant USRP system has been developed.The compliant USRP tool can produce the natural obedience deformation along the part surface.Force control based on the fuzzy Proportional-integral-derivative(PID)method is then designed to maintain the static force during the USRP.Experiments have been performed on a real aero-engine blade with curved surface.It is proved that the deigned active and passive compliant USRP system can significantly reduce the force variation from 42.2 N to 4.2 N,and achieve a uniform surface quality after processing.

Deformation mechanism and in-situ TEM compression behavior of TB8βtitanium alloy with gradient structure

Severe plastic deformation is known to induce grain refinement and gradient structure on metals’surfaces and improve their mechanical properties.However,the fundamental mechanisms behind the grain refinement and micromechanical properties of materials subjected to severe plastic deformation are not still well studied.Here,ultrasonic surface rolling process(USRP)was used to create a gradient microstructure,consisting of amorphous,equiaxed nano-grained,nano-laminated,ultrafine laminated and ultrafine grained structure on the surface of TB8βtitanium alloy.High energy and strain drove element co-segregation on sample surface leading to an amorphous structure during USRP processing.In situ transmission electron microscope compression tests were performed in the submicron sized pillar extracted from gradient structure and coarse grain,in order to reveal the micromechanics behavior of different grain morphologies.The ultrafine grained layer exhibited the lowest yield stress in comparison with single crystal and amorphous-nanocrystalline layers;the ultrafine grained layer and single crystal had an excellent strain hardening rate.The discrepancy among the grain sizes and activated dislocation sources led to the above mentioned different properties.Dislocation activities were observed in both compression test and microstructure evolution of USRP-treated TB8 alloy.An evolution of dislocation tangles and dislocation walls into low angle grain boundaries and subsequent high angle grain boundaries caused the grain refinement,where twinning could not be found and no phase transformation occurred.