Microstructure and forming mechanism of metals subjected to ultrasonic vibration plastic forming: A mini review

Compared with traditional plastic forming,ultrasonic vibration plastic forming has the advantages of reducing the forming force and improving the surface quality of the workpiece.This technology has a very broad application prospect in industrial manufactur-ing.Researchers have conducted extensive research on the ultrasonic vibration plastic forming of metals and laid a deep foundation for the development of this field.In this review,metals were classified according to their crystal structures.The effects of ultrasonic vibration on the microstructure of face-centered cubic,body-centered cubic,and hexagonal close-packed metals during plastic forming and the mech-anism underlying ultrasonic vibration forming were reviewed.The main challenges and future research direction of the ultrasonic vibra-tion plastic forming of metals were also discussed.

Micro defects formation and dynamic response analysis of steel plate of quasi-cracking area subjected to explosive load

As the protective component,steel plate had attracted extensive attention because of frequently threats of explosive loads.In this paper,the evolution of microstructure and the mechanism of damage in the quasi-cracking area of steel plate subjected to explosive load were discussed and the relationships between micro defects and dynamic mechanical response were revealed.After the explosion experiment,five observation points were selected equidistant from the quasi-cracking area of the section of the steel plate along the thickness direction,and the characteristics of micro defects at the observation points were analyzed by optical microscope(OM),scanning electron microscope(SEM) and electron backscattered diffraction(EBSD).The observation result shows that many slip bands(SBs) appeared,and the grain orientation changed obviously in the steel plate,the two were the main damage types of micro defects.In addition,cracks,peeling pits,grooves and other lager micro defects were appeared in the lower area of the plate.The stress parameters of the observation points were obtained through an effective numerical model.The mechanism of damage generation and crack propagation in the quasicracking area were clarified by comparing the specific impulse of each observation point with the corresponding micro defects.The result shows that the generation and expansion of micro defects are related to the stress area(i.e.the upper compression area,the neutral plane area,and the lower tension area).The micro defects gather and expand at the grain boundary,and will become macroscopic damage under the continuous action of tensile stress.Besides,the micro defects at the midpoint of the section of the steel plate in the direction away from the explosion center(i.e.the horizontal direction) were also studied.It was found that the specific impulse at these positions were much smaller than that in the thickness direction,the micro defects were only SBs and a few micro cracks,and the those decreased with the increase of the distance from the explosion center.

MPI/OpenMP-Based Parallel Solver for Imprint Forming Simulation

In this research,we present the pure open multi-processing(OpenMP),pure message passing interface(MPI),and hybrid MPI/OpenMP parallel solvers within the dynamic explicit central difference algorithm for the coining process to address the challenge of capturing fine relief features of approximately 50 microns.Achieving such precision demands the utilization of at least 7 million tetrahedron elements,surpassing the capabilities of traditional serial programs previously developed.To mitigate data races when calculating internal forces,intermediate arrays are introduced within the OpenMP directive.This helps ensure proper synchronization and avoid conflicts during parallel execution.Additionally,in the MPI implementation,the coins are partitioned into the desired number of regions.This division allows for efficient distribution of computational tasks across multiple processes.Numerical simulation examples are conducted to compare the three solvers with serial programs,evaluating correctness,acceleration ratio,and parallel efficiency.The results reveal a relative error of approximately 0.3%in forming force among the parallel and serial solvers,while the predicted insufficient material zones align with experimental observations.Additionally,speedup ratio and parallel efficiency are assessed for the coining process simulation.The pureMPI parallel solver achieves a maximum acceleration of 9.5 on a single computer(utilizing 12 cores)and the hybrid solver exhibits a speedup ratio of 136 in a cluster(using 6 compute nodes and 12 cores per compute node),showing the strong scalability of the hybrid MPI/OpenMP programming model.This approach effectively meets the simulation requirements for commemorative coins with intricate relief patterns.

Untethered Micro/Nanorobots for Remote Sensing:Toward Intelligent Platform

Untethered micro/nanorobots that can wirelessly control their motion and deformation state have gained enormous interest in remote sensing applications due to their unique motion characteristics in various media and diverse functionalities.Researchers are developing micro/nanorobots as innovative tools to improve sensing performance and miniaturize sensing systems,enabling in situ detection of substances that traditional sensing methods struggle to achieve.Over the past decade of development,significant research progress has been made in designing sensing strategies based on micro/nanorobots,employing various coordinated control and sensing approaches.This review summarizes the latest developments on micro/nanorobots for remote sensing applications by utilizing the self-generated signals of the robots,robot behavior,microrobotic manipulation,and robot-environment interactions.Providing recent studies and relevant applications in remote sensing,we also discuss the challenges and future perspectives facing micro/nanorobots-based intelligent sensing platforms to achieve sensing in complex environments,translating lab research achievements into widespread real applications.

Microscopic defects formation and dynamic mechanical response analysis of Q345 steel plate subjected to explosive load

As the basic protective element, steel plate had attracted world-wide attention because of frequent threats of explosive loads. This paper reports the relationships between microscopic defects of Q345 steel plate under the explosive load and its macroscopic dynamics simulation. Firstly, the defect characteristics of the steel plate were investigated by stereoscopic microscope(SM) and scanning electron microscope(SEM). At the macroscopic level, the defect was the formation of cave which was concentrated in the range of 0-3.0 cm from the explosion center, while at the microscopic level, the cavity and void formation were the typical damage characteristics. It also explains that the difference in defect morphology at different positions was the combining results of high temperature and high pressure. Secondly, the variation rules of mechanical properties of steel plate under explosive load were studied. The Arbitrary Lagrange-Euler(ALE) algorithm and multi-material fluid-structure coupling method were used to simulate the explosion process of steel plate. The accuracy of the method was verified by comparing the deformation of the simulation results with the experimental results, the pressure and stress at different positions on the surface of the steel plate were obtained. The simulation results indicated that the critical pressure causing the plate defects may be approximately 2.01 GPa. On this basis, it was found that the variation rules of surface pressure and microscopic defect area of the Q345 steel plate were strikingly similar, and the corresponding mathematical relationship between them was established. Compared with Monomolecular growth fitting models(MGFM) and Logistic fitting models(LFM), the relationship can be better expressed by cubic polynomial fitting model(CPFM). This paper illustrated that the explosive defect characteristics of metal plate at the microscopic level can be explored by analyzing its macroscopic dynamic mechanical response.

Analysis and Optimization of the Electrohydraulic Forming Process of Sinusoidal Corrugation Tubes

Aluminum alloy thin-walled structures are widely used in the automotive industry due to their advantages related to light weight and crashworthiness.They can be produced at room temperature by the electrohydraulic forming process.In the present study,the influence of the related parameters on the forming quality of a 6063 aluminum alloy sinusoidal corrugation tube has been assessed.In particular,the orthogonal experimental design(OED)and central composite design(CCD)methods have been used.Through the range analysis and variance analysis of the experimental data,the influence degree of wire diameter(WD)and discharge energy(DE)on the forming quality was determined.Multiple regression analysis was performed using the response surface methodology.A prediction model for the attaching-die state coefficient was established accordingly.The following optimal arrangement of parameters was obtained(WD=0.759 mm,DE=2.926 kJ).The attaching-die state coefficient reached the peak value of 0.001.Better optimized wire diameter and discharge energy for a better attaching-die state could be screened by CCD compared with OED.The response surface method in CCD was more suitable for the design and optimization of the considered process parameters.

Method of fabricating artificial rock specimens based on extrusion free forming(EFF)3D printing

Three-dimensional(3D)printing technology has been widely used to create artificial rock samples in rock mechanics.While 3D printing can create complex fractures,the material still lacks sufficient similarity to natural rock.Extrusion free forming(EFF)is a 3D printing technique that uses clay as the printing material and cures the specimens through high-temperature sintering.In this study,we attempted to use the EFF technology to fabricate artificial rock specimens.The results show the physico-mechanical properties of the specimens are significantly affected by the sintering temperature,while the nozzle diameter and layer thickness also have a certain impact.The specimens are primarily composed of SiO_(2),with mineral compositions similar to that of natural rocks.The density,uniaxial compressive strength(UCS),elastic modulus,and tensile strength of the printed specimens fall in the range of 1.65–2.54 g/cm3,16.46–50.49 MPa,2.17–13.35 GPa,and 0.82–17.18 MPa,respectively.It is capable of simulating different types of rocks,especially mudstone,sandstone,limestone,and gneiss.However,the simulation of hard rocks with UCS exceeding 50 MPa still requires validation.

A Hybrid Optimization Approach of Single Point Incremental Sheet Forming of AISI 316L Stainless Steel Using Grey Relation Analysis Coupled with Principal Component Analysiss

We investigated the parametric optimization on incremental sheet forming of stainless steel using Grey Relational Analysis(GRA) coupled with Principal Component Analysis(PCA). AISI 316L stainless steel sheets were used to develop double wall angle pyramid with aid of tungsten carbide tool. GRA coupled with PCA was used to plan the experiment conditions. Control factors such as Tool Diameter(TD), Step Depth(SD), Bottom Wall Angle(BWA), Feed Rate(FR) and Spindle Speed(SS) on Top Wall Angle(TWA) and Top Wall Angle Surface Roughness(TWASR) have been studied. Wall angle increases with increasing tool diameter due to large contact area between tool and workpiece. As the step depth, feed rate and spindle speed increase,TWASR decreases with increasing tool diameter. As the step depth increasing, the hydrostatic stress is raised causing severe cracks in the deformed surface. Hence it was concluded that the proposed hybrid method was suitable for optimizing the factors and response.

Micro LED车灯投影光学系统设计与优化

本文提出了一种基于Micro LED阵列的车灯投影方案,设计了以像素尺寸为80μm×80μm的200×150白光Micro LED阵列作为显示光源,视场角为16°×34°的车灯投影光学系统,并对物面倾斜角度和光学系统结构进行了优化。此外,分别采用反向畸变处理方法和像素灰度调制方法用以解决车灯投影图像的梯形畸变和照度均匀性问题,并搭建了投影实验平台,对图像校正方法进行了验证。实验结果表明:校正后图像梯形畸变系数p1,p2分别从0.0932和0.3680下降至0.0835和0.0373,像面照度均匀性从83.2%提高到93.2%。本文通过对基于Micro LED的倾斜投影车灯光学系统进行优化设计及采用图像校正方法,实现了高光效、低畸变的车灯投影。

Heat-treated microstructure and mechanical properties of laser solid forming Ti-6Al-4V alloy

The effects of heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of laser solid forming （LSF） Ti-6Al-4V alloy were investigated The influences of the temperature and time of solution treatment and aging treatment were analyzed. The results show that the microstructure of LSFed samples consists of Widmanstatten α laths and a little acicular in columnar prior β grains with an average grain width of 300 μm, which grow epitaxiaUy from the substrate along the deposition direction （27）. Solution treatment had an important effect on the width, aspect ratio, and volmne fraction of primary and secondary a laths, and aging treatment mainly affects the aspect ratio and volume fraction of primary α laths and the width and volume fraction of secondary a laths. Globular a phase was first observed in LSFed samples when the samples were heat treated with solution treatment （950℃, 8 h/air cooling （AC）） or with solution treatment （950℃, 1 h/AC） and aging treatment （550℃, above 8 h/AC）, respectively. The coarsening and globularization mechanisms of a phase in LSFed Ti-6Al-4V alloy during heat treatment were presented. To obtain good integrated mechanical properties for LSFed Ti-6Al-4V alloys, an optimized heat treatment regimen was suggested.

Unconventional phase field simulations of transforming materials with evolving microstructures

Transforming materials with evolving microstructures is one of the most important classes of smart materials that have many potential technological applications, and an unconventional phase field approach based on the characteristic functions of transforming variants has been developed to simulate the formation and evolution of their microstructures. This approach is advantageous in its explicit material symmetry and energy well structure, minimal number of ma- terial coefficients, and easiness in coupling multiple physical processes and order parameters, and has been applied successfully to study the microstructures and macroscopic prop- erties of shape memory alloys, ferroelectrics, ferromagnetic shape memory alloys, and multiferroic magnetoelectric crys- tals and films with increased complexity. In this topical re- view, the formulation of this unconventional phase field approach will be introduced in details, and its applications to various transforming materials will be discussed. Some ex- amples of specific microstructures will also be presented.

基于Micro CT的铜导线短路熔痕孔洞特征分析

导线短路是造成电气火灾的重要原因之一。现行国家标准中将导线短路熔痕分为起火前发生的一次短路熔痕和起火后造成的二次短路熔痕,然而现行国家标准中的鉴定仅停留在定性判断的阶段。火灾现场铜导线短路熔痕特征的量化分析研究是国内外研究人员主要关注的重点。本文应用Micro CT技术对铜导线短路熔痕进行断层扫描检测并重构铜导线短路熔痕的3D图像数据,在此基础上统计、归纳、总结铜导线短路熔痕内部孔洞形态及分布等孔洞特征。研究表明,Micro CT能够全面采集铜导线短路熔痕的整体形态和内部孔洞特征,一次短路熔痕与二次短路熔痕内部孔洞半径、表面积、紧密度的特征数据存在差别,可为短路熔痕定性和定量分析判据研究提供新的理论依据。

Superplastic Microforming of Zn-A122 Alloy Ribs

Research on microforming of fine-grained superplastic Zn-AI22 alloy was carried out in this paper by means of superplastic forming. With the selected material, microformability tests have been carried out with the specially developed evaluation method by using two kinds of stainless steel dies. With these dies, micro-extrusion tests have been carried out and the characteristics of microformability of the material have been clarified. Effects of processing parameters and die structure on forming have been analyzed. SEM and metallographic microscope have been used to analyze the formed specimens. Through analysis of flow lines of the formed specimen, behavior of material could be understood well.

Simulation and prediction of microstructure in hot forming of metals

The evolution of microstructure seriously influences the forming processes and the quality of forgings in metal hot forming processes, it is therefore desirable to gain information on the microstructure evolution of a process by means of computer simulation, not by conventional trial and error method that is time consuming, expensive and does not always lead to optimum results. Models for microstructural simulation and prediction were set up according to the evolution of microstructure during hot forming and cooling processes. The expanding extrusion complex hot forming and cooling processes, as an example, were simulated.

Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Process Modeling for Hydro-forming Micro-tubular Components

Micro-tubes manufactured by hydro-forming techniques have now been widely used in medical and microelectronics applica- tions. One of the difficulties in forming such parts is the control of localized necking in the initial stages of the deformation/forming process. A lack of microstructural information causes conventional macro-mechanics finite element（FE） tools to break down when used to investigate the localized microstructure evolution and necking encountered in micro-forming. An effort has been made to create an integrated crystal plasticity finite element（CPFE） system that enables micro-forming process simulations to be carried out easily, with the important features in forming micro-parts captured by the model. Based on Voronoi tessellation and probability theory, a virtual GRAIN（VGRAIN） system is created for generating grains and grain boundaries for micro-materials. Numerical procedures are devel- oped to link the physical parameters of a material to the control variables in a Gamma distribution. A script interface is developed so that the virtual microstructure can be input to the commercial FE code, ABAQUS, for mesh generation. A simplified plane strain CPFE modeling technique is developed and used to capture localized thinning and failure features for hydro-forming of micro-tubes. Grains within the tube workpiece, their distributions and orientations are generated automatically by using the VGRAIN system. A set of crystal viscoplasticity constitutive equations are implemented in ABAQUS/Explicit by using the user-defined material subroutine, VUMAT. Lo- calized thinning is analyzed for different microstructures and deformation conditions of the material using the CPFE modeling technique. The research results show that locations of thinning in forming micro-tubes can be random, which are related to microstructure and grain orientations of the material. The proposed CPFE technique can be used to predict the locations of thinning in forming micro-tubes.

Prediction and Verifcation of Forming Limit Diagrams Based on a Modifed Shear Failure Criterion

The forming limit diagram plays an important role in predicting the forming limit of sheet metals.Previous studies have shown that,the method to construct the forming limit diagram based on instability theory of the original shear failure criterion is efective and simple.The original shear instability criterion can accurately predict the left area of the forming limit diagram but not the right area.In this study,in order to improve the accuracy of the original shear failure criterion,a modifed shear failure criterion was proposed based on in-depth analysis of the original shear failure criterion.The detailed improvement strategies of the shear failure criterion and the complete calculation process are given.Based on the modifed shear failure criterion and diferent constitutive equations,the theoretical forming limit of TRIP780 steel and 5754O aluminum alloy sheet metals are calculated.By comparing the theoretical and experimental results,it is shown that proposed modifed shear failure criterion can predict the right area of forming limit more reasonably than the original shear failure criterion.The efect of the pre-strain and constitutive equation on the forming limits are also analyzed in depth.The modifed shear failure criterion proposed in this study provides an alternative and reliable method to predict forming limit of sheet metals.

Modeling and Simulation of the Microstructure Evolution of the Gas-atomized Alloy Droplets during Spray Forming

In order to understand the solidification process of an atomized droplet and predict the fraction solidification of droplets with flight distance during spray forming, a numerical model based on the population dynamics approach is developed to describe the microstructure evolution under the common action of the nucleation and growth of grains. The model is coupled with droplets heat transfer controlling equations and solved for AI-4.5 wt pct Cu alloy. It is demonstrated that the numerical results describe the solidification process well.

Deformation Behavior and Microstructure Evolution of AA2024-H18 Aluminum Alloy by Hot Forming with Synchronous Cooling Operations

Hot forming with synchronous cooling(HFSC)is a novel technique for heat-treatable,high-strength aluminum alloys,which allows the alloys to acquire good formability,negligible springback,rapid processing and better mechanical properties.However,the deformation behavior and microstructure evolution of the alloys during HFSC are complex and need to be studied due to the temperature and strain rate effects.Uniaxial tensile tests in a temperature range of 250—450℃and a strain rate range of 0.01—1 s-1 for AA2024-H18 aluminum alloy sheet are conducted with a Gleeble-3500 Thermal-Mechanical Simulation Tester.And based on metallography observation and analysis,AA2024-H18 aluminum alloy sheet in HSFC process exhibits hardening and dynamic recovery behaviors within the temperature range of 250—450 ℃.Strain rate shows different effects on ductility at different temperatures.Compared with traditional warm/hot forming methods,AA2024-H18 aluminum alloy achieves a better work-hardening result through HFSC operations,which promises an improved formability at elevated temperature and thus good mechanical properties of final part.After HSFC operations,the microstructure of the specimens is composed of elongated static recrystallization grain.

Local Buckling-Induced Forming Method to Produce Metal Bellows

A novel buckling-induced forming method is proposed to produce metal bellows.The tube billet is firstly treated by local heating and cooling,and the axial loading is applied on both ends of the tube,then the buckling occurs at the designated position and forms a convolution.In this paper,a forming apparatus is designed and developed to produce both discontinuous and continuous bellows of 304 stainless steel,and their characteristics are discussed respectively.Furthermore,the influences of process parameters and geometric parameters on the final convolution profile are deeply studied based on FEM analysis.The results suggest that the steel bellows fabricated by the presented buckling-induced forming method have a uniform shape and no obvious reduction of wall thickness.Meanwhile,the forming force required in the process is quite small.

Micro/nano-wrinkled elastomeric electrodes enabling high energy storage performance and various form factors

Stretchable elastomer-based electrodes are considered promising energy storage electrodes for next-generation wearable/flexible electronics requiring various shape designs.However,these elastomeric electrodes suffer from the limited electrical conductivity of current collectors,low charge storage capacities,poor interfacial interactions between elastomers and conductive/active materials,and lack of shape controllability.In this study,we report hierarchically micro/nano-wrinkle-structured elastomeric electrodes with notably high energy storage performance and good mechanical/electrochemical stabilities,simultaneously allowing various form factors.For this study,a swelling/deswelling-involved metal nanoparticle(NP)assembly is first performed on thiol-functionalized polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)elastomers,generating a micro-wrinkled structure and a conductive seed layer for subsequent electrodeposition.After the assembly of metal NPs,the conformal electrodeposition of Ni and NiCo layered double hydroxides layers with a homogeneous nanostructure on the micro-wrinkled PDMS induces the formation of a micro/nano-wrinkled surface morphology with a large active surface area and high electrical conductivity.Based on this unique approach,the formed elastomeric electrodes show higher areal capacity and superior rate capability than conventional elastomeric electrodes while maintaining their electrical/electrochemical properties under external mechanical deformation.This notable mechanical/electrochemical performance can be further enhanced by using spiral-structured PDMS(stretchability of~500%)and porous-structured PDMS(areal capacity of~280μAh cm^(-2)).