Dissociation of edge and screw pyramidal Ⅰ and Ⅱ dislocations in magnesium

Pyramidal dislocations in magnesium (Mg) and other hexagonal close-packed metals play an important role in accommodating plastic strains along the c-axis.Bulk single crystal Mg only presents very limited plasticity in c-axis compression,and this behavior was attributed to out-of-plane dissociation of pyramidal dislocations onto the basal plane and resulted in an immobile dislocation configuration.In contrast,other simulations and experiments reported in-plane dissociation of pyramidal dislocations on their slip planes.Thus,the core structure and mode of dissociation of pyramidal dislocations are still not well understood.To better understand the dissociation behavior of pyramidal dislocations in Mg at room temperature,in this work,atomistic simulations were conducted to investigate four types of pyramidal dislocations at 300 K:edge and screw Py-Ⅰ on{1011},edge and screw Py-Ⅱ on{1122}by using a modified embedded atom method (MEAM) potential for Mg and anisotropic elasticity dislocation model.The results show that when energy minimization was performed before relaxation,in-plane dissociation of edge dislocations on respective pyramidal plane could be obtained at room temperature for all four types of dislocation.Without energy minimization,the edge dislocations dissociated out-of-plane onto the basal plane.Calculations of potential energy and hydrostatic stress of individual atoms at the edge dislocation core show that the extraordinarily high energy and atomic stresses in the as-constructed dislocation structures caused the out-of-plane dissociation onto the basal plane.The core structures of all four types of pyramidal dislocation after in-plane dissociation were analyzed by computing the distribution of the Burgers vector.

In situ study of the mechanical properties of airborne haze particles

Particulate pollution has raised serious concerns regarding its potential impacts on human health in developing countries. However, much less attention has been paid to the threat of haze particles to machinery and industry. By employing a state-of-the-art in situ scanning electron microscope compression testing technique, we demonstrate that iron-rich and fly ash haze particles, which account for nearly 70% of the total micron-sized spherical haze particles, are strong enough to generate abrasive damage to most engineering alloys, and therefore can generate significant scratch damage to moving contacting surfaces in high precision machineries. Our finding calls for preventive measures to protect against haze related threat.

A new approach of using Lorentz force to study single-asperity friction inside TEM

Taking advantage of the magnetic field inside transmission electron microscope(TEM),a unique Lorentzforce-actuated method for quantitative friction tests was developed via a commercial electromechanical holder.With this approach,a submicron-sized silver asperity sliding on a tungsten flat punch was actuated by Lorentz force due to electrical current through the punch,with the normal force imposed by the built-in transducer of the holder.The friction force was determined by tracking the elastic deflection of the fabricated cantilever from in situ video.Through correlating the friction behavior with the microstructural evolution near the silver-tungsten interface,we revealed that even when the relative motion commenced with the plastic deformation of the silver asperity,the interface can still sustain the further increasing static friction force.Exactly following the arrival of the maximum static friction force,the sliding occurred at the interface,indicating the transition from static to dynamic friction.This work enriches our understanding of the underlying physics of the dynamic friction process for metallic friction behavior.