Finite Element Simulations on Failure Behaviors of Granular Materials with Microstructures Using a Micromechanics-Based Cosserat Elastoplastic Model

This paper presents a micromechanics-based Cosserat continuum model for microstructured granular materials.By utilizing this model,the macroscopic constitutive parameters of granular materials with different microstructures are expressed as sums of microstructural information.The microstructures under consideration can be classified into three categories:a medium-dense microstructure,a dense microstructure consisting of one-sized particles,and a dense microstructure consisting of two-sized particles.Subsequently,the Cosserat elastoplastic model,along with its finite element formulation,is derived using the extended Drucker-Prager yield criteria.To investigate failure behaviors,numerical simulations of granular materials with different microstructures are conducted using the ABAQUS User Element(UEL)interface.It demonstrates the capacity of the proposed model to simulate the phenomena of strain-softening and strain localization.The study investigates the influence of microscopic parameters,including contact stiffness parameters and characteristic length,on the failure behaviors of granularmaterials withmicrostructures.Additionally,the study examines themesh independence of the presented model and establishes its relationship with the characteristic length.A comparison is made between finite element simulations and discrete element simulations for a medium-dense microstructure,revealing a good agreement in results during the elastic stage.Somemacroscopic parameters describing plasticity are shown to be partially related to microscopic factors such as confining pressure and size of the representative volume element.

Structural Engineering of Anode Materials for Low-Temperature Lithium-Ion Batteries:Mechanisms,Strategies,and Prospects

The severe degradation of electrochemical performance for lithium-ion batteries(LIBs)at low temperatures poses a significant challenge to their practical applications.Consequently,extensive efforts have been contributed to explore novel anode materials with high electronic conductivity and rapid Li^(+)diffusion kinetics for achieving favorable low-temperature performance of LIBs.Herein,we try to review the recent reports on the synthesis and characterizations of low-temperature anode materials.First,we summarize the underlying mechanisms responsible for the performance degradation of anode materials at subzero temperatures.Second,detailed discussions concerning the key pathways(boosting electronic conductivity,enhancing Li^(+)diffusion kinetics,and inhibiting lithium dendrite)for improving the low-temperature performance of anode materials are presented.Third,several commonly used low-temperature anode materials are briefly introduced.Fourth,recent progress in the engineering of these low-temperature anode materials is summarized in terms of structural design,morphology control,surface&interface modifications,and multiphase materials.Finally,the challenges that remain to be solved in the field of low-temperature anode materials are discussed.This review was organized to offer valuable insights and guidance for next-generation LIBs with excellent low-temperature electrochemical performance.

MIDNet:Deblurring Network for Material Microstructure Images

Scanning electron microscopy(SEM)is a crucial tool in the field of materials science,providing valuable insightsinto the microstructural characteristics of materials.Unfortunately,SEM images often suffer from blurrinesscaused by improper hardware calibration or imaging automation errors,which present challenges in analyzingand interpretingmaterial characteristics.Consequently,rectifying the blurring of these images assumes paramountsignificance to enable subsequent analysis.To address this issue,we introduce a Material Images DeblurringNetwork(MIDNet)built upon the foundation of the Nonlinear Activation Free Network(NAFNet).MIDNetis meticulously tailored to address the blurring in images capturing the microstructure of materials.The keycontributions include enhancing the NAFNet architecture for better feature extraction and representation,integratinga novel soft attention mechanism to uncover important correlations between encoder and decoder,andintroducing newmulti-loss functions to improve training effectiveness and overallmodel performance.We conducta comprehensive set of experiments utilizing the material blurry dataset and compare them to several state-of-theartdeblurring methods.The experimental results demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of MIDNet in thedomain of deblurring material microstructure images,with a PSNR(Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio)reaching 35.26 dBand an SSIM(Structural Similarity)of 0.946.Our dataset is available at:https://github.com/woshigui/MIDNet.

Elliptical vibration chiseling:a novel process for texturing ultra-high-aspect-ratio microstructures on the metallic surface

High-aspect-ratio metallic surface microstructures are increasingly demanded in breakthrough applications,such as high-performance heat transfer enhancement and surface plasmon devices.However,the fast and cost-effective fabrication of high-aspect-ratio microstructures on metallic surfaces remains challenging for existing techniques.This study proposes a novel cutting-based process,namely elliptical vibration chiseling(EV-chiseling),for the high-efficiency texturing of surface microstructures with an ultrahigh aspect ratio.Unlike conventional cutting,EV-chiseling superimposes a microscale EV on a backward-moving tool.The tool chisels into the material in each vibration cycle to generate an upright chip with a high aspect ratio through material deformation.Thanks to the tool’s backward movement,the chip is left on the material surface to form a microstructure rather than falling off.Since one microstructure is generated in one vibration cycle,the process can be highly efficient using ultrafast(>1 kHz)tool vibration.A finite element analysis model is established to explore the process mechanics of EV-chiseling.Next,a mechanistic model of the microstructured surface generation is developed to describe the microstructures’aspect ratio dependency on the process parameters.Then,surface texturing tests are performed on copper to verify the efficacy of EV-chiseling.Uniformed micro ribs with a spacing of 1–10μm and an aspect ratio of 2–5 have been successfully textured on copper.Compared with the conventional EV-cutting that uses a forward-moving tool,EV-chiseling can improve the aspect ratio of textured microstructure by up to 40 times.The experimental results also verify the accuracy of the developed surface generation model of microstructures.Finally,the effects of elliptical trajectory,depth of cut,tool shape,and tool edge radius on the surface generation of micro ribs have been discussed.

A review of classical hydrogen isotopes storage materials

Hydrogen storage alloys(HSAs)are attracting widespread interest in the nuclear industry because of the generation of stable metal hydrides after tritium absorption,thus effectively preventing the leakage of radioactive tritium.Commonly used HSAs in the hydrogen isotopes field are Zr2M(M=Co,Ni,Fe)alloys,metallic Pd,depleted U,and ZrCo alloy.Specifically,Zr2M(M=Co,Ni,Fe)alloys are considered promising tritium-getter materials,and metallic Pd is utilized to separate and purify hydrogen isotopes.Furthermore,depleted U and ZrCo alloy are well suited for storing and delivering hydrogen isotopes.Notably,all the aforementioned HSAs need to modulate their hydrogen storage properties for complex operating conditions.In this review,we present a comprehensive overview of the reported modification methods applied to the above alloys.Alloying is an effective amelioration method that mainly modulates the properties of HSAs by altering their local geometrical/electronic structures.Besides,microstructural modifications such as nano-sizing and nanopores have been used to increase the specific surface area and active sites of metallic Pd and ZrCo alloys for enhancing de-/hydrogenation kinetics.The combination of metallic Pd with support materials can significantly reduce the cost and enhance the pulverization resistance.Moreover,the poisoning resistance of ZrCo alloy is improved by constructing active surfaces with selective permeability.Overall,the review is constructive for better understanding the properties and mechanisms of hydrogen isotope storage alloys and provides effective guidance for future modification research.

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.

Studies of Characterization of Microstructures for Low Dimensional Materials

The characterization of microstructure for three kinds of typical low dimensional materials,such as ultrafine particle(zero- dimension),whisker(one- dimension)and thin film(two-dimensions),has been carried out.The methods and criteria for the characterization are investigated and introduced.Some interesting results of the characterization are reported.

ORIENTATION DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS FOR MICROSTRUCTURES OF HETEROGENEOUS MATERIALS (Ⅱ)──CRYSTAL DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS AND IRREDUCIBLE TENSORS RESTRICTED BY VARIOUS MATERIAL SYMMETRIES

The explicit representations for tensorial Fourier expansion of 3_D crystal orientation distribution functions (CODFs) are established. In comparison with that the coefficients in the mth term of the Fourier expansion of a 3_D ODF make up just a single irreducible mth_order tensor, the coefficients in the mth term of the Fourier expansion of a 3_D CODF constitute generally so many as 2m+1 irreducible mth_order tensors. Therefore, the restricted forms of tensorial Fourier expansions of 3_D CODFs imposed by various micro_ and macro_scopic symmetries are further established, and it is shown that in most cases of symmetry the restricted forms of tensorial Fourier expansions of 3_D CODFs contain remarkably reduced numbers of mth_order irreducible tensors than the number 2m+1 . These results are based on the restricted forms of irreducible tensors imposed by various point_group symmetries, which are also thoroughly investigated in the present part in both 2_ and 3_D spaces.

ORIENTATION DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS FOR MICROSTRUCTURES OF HETEROGENEOUS MATERIALS (Ⅰ) ──DIRECTIONAL DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS AND IRREDUCIBLE TENSORS

In this two_part paper, a thorough investigation is made on Fourier expansions with irreducible tensorial coefficients for orientation distribution functions (ODFs) and crystal orientation distribution functions (CODFs), which are scalar functions defined on the unit sphere and the rotation group, respectively. Recently it has been becoming clearer and clearer that concepts of ODF and CODF play a dominant role in various micromechanically_based approaches to mechanical and physical properties of heterogeneous materials. The theory of group representations shows that a square integrable ODF can be expanded as an absolutely convergent Fourier series of spherical harmonics and these spherical harmonics can further be expressed in terms of irreducible tensors. The fundamental importance of such irreducible tensorial coefficients is that they characterize the macroscopic or overall effect of the orientation distribution of the size, shape, phase, position of the material constitutions and defects. In Part (Ⅰ), the investigation about the irreducible tensorial Fourier expansions of ODFs defined on the N_dimensional (N_D) unit sphere is carried out. Attention is particularly paid to constructing simple expressions for 2_ and 3_D irreducible tensors of any orders in accordance with the convenience of arriving at their restricted forms imposed by various point_group (the synonym of subgroup of the full orthogonal group) symmetries. In the continued work -Part (Ⅱ), the explicit expression for the irreducible tensorial expansions of CODFs is established. The restricted forms of irreducible tensors and irreducible tensorial Fourier expansions of ODFs and CODFs imposed by various point_group symmetries are derived.

Effects of silver powder particle size on the microstructure and properties of Ag-Yb_2O_3 electrical contact materials prepared by spark plasma sintering

mg-Yb203 electrical contact materials were fabricated by spark plasma sintefing （SPS）. The effects of silver powder particle size on the microstructure and properties of the samples were investigated. The surface morphologies of the sintered samples were examined by optical microscope （OM）, and the fracture morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. The physical and mechanical properties such as density, electrical resistivity, microhardness, and tensile strength were also tested. The results show that the silver powder particle size has evident effects on the sintered materials. Comparing with coarse silver powder （5 ktm）, homogeneous and fme microstmcture was obtained by fine silver powder （_〈0.5-1am）. At the same time, the electrical conductivity, microhardness, and tensile strength of the sin- tered samples with fine silver powder were higher than those of the samples with coarse silver powder. However, silver powder particle size has little influence on the relative densities, which of all samples （both by free and coarse silver powders） is more than 95%. The fracture characteristics are ductile.

Solution-based Chemical Strategies to Purposely Control the Microstructure of Functional Materials

Micro/nanostructured crystals with controlled architectures are desirable for many applications in optics, electronics, biology, medicine, and energy conversions. Low-temperature, aqueous chemical routes have been widely investigated for the synthesis of particles, and arrays of oriented nanorods and nanotubes. In this paper, based on the ideal crystal shapes predicted by the chemical bonding theory, we have developed some potential chemical strategies to tune the microstructure of functional materials, ZnS and Nb205 nanotube arrays, MgO wiskers and nestlike spheres, and cubic phase Cu2O microcrystals were synthesized here to elucidate these strategies. We describe their controlled crystallization processes and illustrate the detailed key factors controlling their growth by examining various reaction parameters. Current results demonstrate that our designed chemical strategies for tuning microstructure of functional materials are applicable to several technologically important materials, and therefore may be used as a versatile and effective route to the controllable synthesis of other inorganic functional materials.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of additive manufactured steel-Al structure materials with nickel gradient layers

The microstructure and mechanical properties of steel/Al structure material produced by additive manufacturing （AM） was investigated in this work based on the cold metal transfer welding. The results show that the microstructure gradually changed from the steel side to the aluminum side. The microstructure in the steel layer consisted of vermiform like ferrite and anstenite structure, while in the aluminum layer the microstructure was constituted by c^-A1 grains and typical reticulate distributive Al-Si eutectic structure. Besides, a 7 y.m thickness Ni-Al intermetallic compound layer was emerged at the interface of nickel and aluminum layer. The maximum room-temperature tensile strength of the Steel-Al structure materials was found to be 54 MPa, the rupture morphology showed a brittle fracture characteristic.

Microstructure and physical properties of steel-ladle purging plug refractory materials

Three different castables were prepared as steel-ladle purging-plug refractory materials： corundum-based low-cement castable （C-LCC）, corundum-spinel-based low-cement castable （C-S-LCC）, and no-cement corundum-spinel castable （C-S-NCC） （hydratable alu- mina p-A1203 bonded）. The properties of these castables were characterized with regard to water demand/flow ability, cold crushing strength （CCS）, cold modulus of rupture （CMoR）, permanent linear change （PLC）, apparent porosity, and hot modulus of rupture （HMoR）. The re- sults show the CCS/CMoR and HMoR of C-LCC and C-S-LCC are greater than those of the castable C-S-NCC. According to the micro- structure analysis, the sintering effect and the bonding type of the matrix material differ among the three castables. The calcium hexaluminate （CA6） phase in the matrix of C-LCC enhances the cold and hot mechanical strengths. In the case of C-S-LCC, the CA6 and 2CaO·2MgO·14A12O3（C2MEA14） ternary phases generated from the matrix can greatly increase the cold and hot mechanical strengths. In the case of the no-cement castable, sintering becomes difficult, resulting in a lower mechanical strength.

Laguerre Simulation and Visualization for Microstructure of Metal Materials

Simulation method was designed to divide Laguerre diagram for right circle group with different weight; out-of-core incremental algorithm for Laguerre diagram was constructed; simulation program development and visualization was done and simulation was realized in user-specified arbitrary area for simulation of metal materials microstructure, which facilitated the practical application and secondary development of Laguerre diagram in the field of material science engineering. Finally, the utilization of a developed software package exemplified the simulation application of microstructure about metal materials and proved its validity.

Effect of Rare Earths on Microstructure and Properties of TiC-based Cermet/Cu Alloy Composite Wear Resistant Materials

The effect of rare earth (RE) oxide on the microstructure and properties of TiC based cermet/Cu alloy composite hardfacing materials was investigated by using scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), impact test and wear test. The mechanism of RE oxide for improving the phase structure and the impact toughness was also discussed. The experimental results indicate that the microstructure of the matrix can be refined, and the micro-porous defects can be eliminated by adding RE oxide into the composite materials. The polycrystalline and amorphous phase structure is formed at the interface of cermet and matrix metal. The formed structure enhances the conjoint strength of interface. The frictional wear resistance can be improved obviously, although the microhardness of the matrix metal can not be effectively increased by adding RE oxide.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of butt joints of QCr0.8/1Cr21Ni5Ti equal-thickness dissimilar materials by electron beam welding

Butt joints of QCr0.8/1Cr21Ni5Ti equal-thickness dissimilar materials were obtained by electron beam welding with fixed accelerating voltage 60 kV and focus current ~1.99 A , changed electron beam current and welding velocity. Microstructure and composition of the EBW joint were investigated by means of optical micrography and EDX analysis, mechanical properties of the joint were also tested. The results show that joint’s macrostructure was divided into three zones: top weld zone near QCr0.8 and bottom weld zone consisting of Cu(ss.Fe) with a certain amount of dispersedly distributed (α+ε) mixed microstructure, middle weld zone consisting of (α+ε) microstructure with a small amount of Cu(ss.Fe) particles. Morphological inhomogeneous macrostructure and uneven chemical compostion of QCr0.8/1Cr21Ni5Ti joint by EBW are the most important factor to result in decreasing joining strength.

Analysis of Hydration Mechanism and Microstructure of Composite Cementitious Materials for Filling Mining

To obtain the compositions and microstructure of hydration products of cementitious material in different hydration ages and its growth law of filling strength, the optimal proportion of composite cementitious material was determined according to the chemical composition of cement clinker which was composed of the Portland cement 32.5R, CSA 42.5 sulphoaluminate cement and two gypsum（CS）. The characterization of composite cementitious materials in different hydration ages was conducted by NMR, XRD and SEM techniques. The mechanism of hydration was explored. It is shown that the compressive strength of the test block increases gradually with the increase of hydration age. The microstructure of composite cementitious material can be changed from Al-O octahedron into Al-O tetrahedron in the hydration process. The hydrated alkali alumi niumsilicate formed with Si-O tetrahedron and Al-O tetrahedron. The degree of polymerization of Si-O tetrahedron gradually increased, and the structural strength of cementitious materials continued to increase. The diffraction peak of clinker minerals gradually decreased with the extension of hydration age. The CaSO4 completely hydrated to produce Aft during hydration which resulted in high early strength of cementitious material. The early hydration product of composite cementitious materials was Aft with a needle bar structure. The main middle and last hydration products were CSH gel and CH gel with dense prismatic shape. The microscopic pore of composite cementitious material gradually decreased and improved the later strength of filling block. The strong support was provided for mined-out area.

Microstructure and frictional properties of 3D needled C/SiC brake materials modified with graphite

The 3D needled C/SiC brake materials modified with graphite were prepared by a combined process of the chemical vapor infiltration,slurry infiltration and liquid silicon infiltration process.The microstructure and frictional properties of the brake materials were investigated.The density and open porosity of the materials as-received were about(2.1±0.1)g/cm3and(5±1)%,respectively.The brake materials were composed of 59%C,39%SiC,and 2%Si(mass fraction).The content of Si in the C/SiC brake materials modified with graphite was far less than that in the C/SiC brake materials without being modified with graphite,and the Si was dispersed.The braking curve of the 3D needled C/SiC modified with graphite was smooth,which can ensure the smooth and comfortable braking.The frictional properties under wet condition of the 3D needled C/SiC modified with graphite showed no fading.And the linear wear rate of the C/SiC modified with graphite was lower than that of the C/SiC unmodified.

Investigation of Microstructure, Microhardness and Thermal Properties of Ag-In Intermetallic Alloys Prepared by Vacuum Arc Meltings

Ag-In intermetallic alloys were produced by using vacuum arc furnace. Differential Scanning Calorimetry(DSC) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry(EDX) were used to determine the thermal properties and chemical composition of the phases respectively. Microhardness values of Ag-In intermetallics were calculated with Vickers hardness measurement method. According to the experimental results, Ag-34 wt%In intermetallic system generated the best results of energy saving and storage compared to other intermetallic systems. Also from the microhardness results, it was observed that intermetallic alloys were harder than pure silver and Ag-26 wt%In system had the highest microhardness value with 143.45 kg/mm^(2).

Effects of Rare Earths on Properties and Microstructure of Automotive Friction Materials

Rare earth compounds as modifiers used widely in modern friction materials can enhance the interfacial binding of constituents of materials and improve the comprehensive properties of materials evidently. However, there are still few reports on application of rare earth in automotive friction materials. In order to study the effect mechanism of rare earths in friction materials, a rare earth compound was selected as additive and the effects of materials doped with or without rare earth on friction and wear properties of materials were studied. The microstructure and worn surface morphology were observed by scanning electron microscopy and the macro performance was discussed. Worn surface element constitution of materials was analyzed by energy dispersive spectroscopy. Effect mechanism of rare earths on friction and wear behaviors of friction materials were discussed. The results show that doping rare earths in friction materials can stabilize friction coefficient, lower the wear rate of materials and increase the impact strength of materials. The flexibility and fracture resistance of materials is greatly improved. Worn surface of materials doped with rare earth is compact and the surface adhesion is greatly enhanced.