Variations of properties across plate thickness for Al alloy 7010

The variations of electrical conductivity and hardness across the thickness of an Al alloy 7010 plate under the temper condition T7651 were investigated. The electrical conductivity and hardness respond in a reciprocal manner. Cross-sectional slices of the plate subjected to re-solutionising/natural ageing and re-solutionising/artificial ageing show the similar tendencies in property changes as in the as-received raw material. This clearly suggests that the property inhomogeneity across the plate thickness is inherent of the manufacturing route. The differences in properties through the plate thickness are due to the changes in the concentrations of the strengthening alloying elements in the solid solution and the associated changes in microstructure; these are believed to be mainly due to the nature of plate solidification and prolonged high temperature during the rolling operation. The combination of electrical conductivity and hardness can be used as an integral quality property indicator for assessing inhomogeneity of thick products.

Comparison of Cellular Automaton and Phase Field Models to Simulate Dendrite Growth in Hexagonal Crystals

A cellular automaton （CA）-finite element （FE） model and a phase field （PF）-FE model were used to simulate equiaxed dendritic growth during the solidification of hexagonal metals. In the CA-FE model, the conservation equations of mass and energy were solved in order to calculate the temperature field, solute concentration, and the dendritic growth morphology. CA-FE simulation results showed reasonable agreement with the previously reported experimental data on secondary dendrite arm spacing （SDAS） vs cooling rate. In the PF model, a PF variable was used to distinguish solid and liquid phases similar to the conventional PF models for solidification of pure materials. Another PF variable was considered to determine the evolution of solute concentration. Validation of both models was performed by comparing the simulation results with the analytical model developed by Lipton-Glicksman-Kurz （LGK）, showing quantitatively good agreement in the tip growth velocity at a given melt undercooling. Application to magnesium alloy AZ91 （approximated with the binary Mg-8.9 wt% AI） illustrates the difficulty of modeling dendrite growth in hexagonal systems using CA-FE regarding mesh-induced anisotropy and a better performance of PF-FE in modeling multiple arbitrarily-oriented dendrites growth.

Influence of graphene nanoplatelet incorporation and dispersion state on thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of biodegradable matrices

Graphene nanoplatelets （GNPs） were used as multifunctional nanofiller to enhance thermal and mechanical properties as well as electrical conductivity of two different biodegradable thermoplastics： poly lactide （PLA） and poly （butylene adipate-co-terephthalate） （PBAT）. Morphological investigations showed different levels of GNP dispersion in the two matrices, and consequently physical properties of the two systems exhibited dissimilar behaviours with GNP incorporation. Crystallinity of PLA, determined from differential scanning calorimetry, was observed to increase markedly with addition of GNPs in contrast to the decrease in crystallinity of PBAT. Isothermal and non-isothermal thermogravimetric analyses also revealed a more significant delay in thermal decomposition of PLA upon addition of GNPs compared to that of PBAT. Furthermore, results showed that increasing GNP content of PLA and PBAT nanocomposites influenced their Young＇s modulus and electrical conductivity in different ways. Modulus of PBAT increased continuously with increasing GNP loading while that of PLA reached a maximum at 9wt% GNPs and then decreased. Moreover, despite the higher conductivity of pure PBAT compared to pure PLA, conductivity of PLA/GNP nanocomposites overtook that of PBATIGNP nanocomposites above a certain GNP concentration. This demonstrated the determining effect of nanoplatelets dispersion state on the matrices properties.

Surface exsolution and local atomic structure of amorphous CeTiO_x

We made precipitated nano-ceria(~5 nm) on the surface of the catalyst by heat treatment of Cesupersaturated amorphous CeTiOxto improve the oxygen storage properties of CeO_2. The catalysts were prepared by sol-gel methods and TiO_2 nanoparticles were preferentially generated as a core material to form selective Ce-supersaturated structure on the catalyst surface. Reaction temperature and amount of doping element are optimized to induce selective crystallization of CeO_2. Cee Ce(2 nd shell)bond around 0.38 nm of Ce L3-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure is reduced and nanostructure of precipitated ceria on the surface is observed by HREM. The catalyst is present as amorphous with precipitated nano-CeO_2 on the surface. The de-NOxefficiency of the catalyst, which has precipitated CeO_2, improves by ~50% owing to the simultaneous reactions of the nano CeO_2 and the amorphous CeTiO_x.