The surface of a titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) implant material was covered with a bioactive calcium alkali phosphate ceramic with the aim to accelerate the healing and to form a stronger bond to living bone tissue. To fix the ceramic powder we used a femtosecond laser, which causes a thin surface melting of the metal. It is a requirement to prove that the laser irradiation would not reduce the lifetime of implants. Here we present the results of mechanical stability tests, determined by the rotating bending fatigue strength of sample rods. After describing the sample surfaces and their modifications caused by the laser treatment we give evidence for an unchanged mechanical stability. This applies not only to the ceramic fixation but also to a comparatively strong laser ablation.
During laser beam welding of aluminum alloys an electromagnetic field may favour pore outgassing through the top oxide layer. High frequencies cause a small penetration depth and thus exert a stabilizing effect on the weld surface. The point at which the laser beam between the two magnetic poles hits the workpiece surface is crucial to the influence of the magnetic field on the weld surface roughness. Using analyzed parameters for different laser points of application cause a change in weld surface roughness could be observed. The weld surface roughness could be reduced by 50%. The outgassing effect in terms of a reduction of pores could be observed for all parameter sets investigated.
Aluminiumlegierungen mit besonders hoher Festigkeit werden vor allem in der Luft- und Raumfahrt sowie der Automobilindustrie eingesetzt. Ein Anwendungsbeispiel im Fahrzeugbereich sind Radialverdichterräder von Abgasturboladern. Der hierfür untersuchte Werkstoff ist die Legierung 2618A. Die hohe Festigkeit wird durch Ausscheidungshärtung erreicht. Es scheiden sich hierbei durch eine entsprechende Wärmebehandlung Al-Cu-Mg-Teilchen in die Aluminium-Matrix aus. Diese Teilchen stellen Hindernisse für die Bewegung von Versetzungen dar und haben im Fall der Legierung 2618A stabförmige Geometrie. Durch Einsatz bei Betriebstemperatur von etwa 160 °C bis 190 °C vergröbern die Teilchen im Verlauf der Einsatzzeit (Ostwaldreifung) und die Festigkeit nimmt ab.
Der Zwischenbericht soll einen Überblick über die bisherigen experimentellen und theoretischen Ergebnisse geben. Es konnten Brinell-Härteverläufe nach Auslagerung bei 160 °C, 180 °C und 190 °C bis 8.760 h Auslagerungszeit gemessen werden. Erste TEM (Transmissionselektronenmikroskopie )-Untersuchungen der Mikrostruktur liegen vor. Anhand dieser Untersuchungen wurden erste Simulationen und Berechnungen der AI-Cu-Mg-Teilchengrößenentwicklung (Vergröberung) durchgeführt. Auswirkungen dieser Vergröberung der AlCu-Mg-Teilchen auf die Fließgrenze bei Raumtemperatur wurden berechnet. Weitere Ergebnisse sind Kriechversuche an Proben im Ausgangszustand T61 der Legierung 2618A bei den Temperaturen 160 °C, 180 °C und 190 °C. Um das zyklische visko-plastische Verhalten des Werkstoffes und den Einfluss der Alterung zu untersuchen, wurden LCF-Ermüdungsversuche an verschiedenen Auslagerungszuständen durchgeführt.
The aluminium alloy 2618A is an Al-Cu-Mg alloy which is part of the 2xxx series of age-hardenable alloys. These materials are designed for long-term Operation in transportation and aerospace industries. The desired properties, e.g. creep behavior, hardness, and damage tolerance, are controlled by the distribution of fine precipitates formed within the matrix. However, the strength of the material declines du ring exposition to elevated temperatures due to the overageing of the S-phase precipitates (AI2CuMg) and the conversion of the S-phase into the stable equilibrium S-phase. A quantitative model of the overageing process at application relevant temperatures would be desirable for accurate predictions of component lifetime made from the 2618A alloy.
Welding is one of the most widely used joining processes in structural applications, like in car body production in the automotive industry. It is well-known that distortions and residual stresses occur during and after the welding process. Many procedures exist to decrease these negative heat effects of welding, but are often coupled with highly cost intensive experiments. For several decades, simulation models have been developed to understand and predict the heat effects of welding and to reduce experimental effort. In the production planning of various Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), some simulation tools are already well established, e.g. for crash test, forming or casting simulations. For welding, the demand is high but the implementation of welding simulation software is still not established yet. Welding is a complex process and the development of a flexible simulation tool, which produces good simulation results without expert knowledge in simulation, is not an easy task. In this paper, a welded assembly from the automotive industry has been simulated and compared to experimental data. Temperature fields and transient distortion distributions have been measured with thermocouples and with an optical 3D deformations analysis tool, respectively. The simulation has been run with a commercially available welding simulation software. The simulated temperature fields match the numerical ones perfectly. The simulated distortions are also qualitatively in best agreement with the experimental ones. Quantitatively, a difference of approximately 20 % between the simulated and the measured distortions is visible; this is acceptable considering the simplifications and assumptions of the simulation model. The global time to solution to get these results without expert knowledge in welding simulation was between 4 and 6 weeks, which is a reasonable time frame for an industrial application of welding simulation.
In the present study, microstructure and texture development during single and multiple pass friction stir processing (FSP) of a strain hardenable wrought AlMg alloy (AA5086) was investigated. Subtle differences were observed while comparing with heat treatable alloys in the nucleation mechanism of the recrystallized microstructure observed in the nugget zone. Strain induced boundary migration was the dominant mechanism of microstructure evolution in the alloy, which influenced the crystallographic texture development by weakening it. Micro-texture measurements reveal variations in the crystallographic texture along the thickness of the sample. Recrystallization texture components were observed in the nugget zone indicative of a pronounced static recrystallization in the alloy as compared to the heat treatable alloys. Bulk texture measurements within the nugget zone of the optimally processed sample reveal a relatively dominant C component of shear texture. Average grain size in the nugget zone remained the same and the bulk crystallographic texture components were retained during multiple-pass FSP. The lower strain energies involved and the enhanced recovery processes due to the high temperature materials processing of the alloy during FSP resulted in a stable microstructure and texture. In summary, FSP could be promoted as a competent and suitable secondary processing technique for the bulk production of ultra-fine-grained materials in strain hardenable aluminium alloys.
In order to provide further evidence of damage mechanisms predicted by the solid-state transformation creep (SSTC) model, direct observation of damage accumulation during creep of Al–3.85Mg was made using synchrotron X-ray refraction (SXRR). X-ray refraction techniques capture the specific surface (i.e. surface per unit volume) with a field of view comparable to the specimen size but with microscopic sensitivity. A significant rise of the internal specific surface with increasing creep time was observed, providing evidence for the creation of a fine grain substructure, as predicted by the SSTC model.
The peak broadening in neutron diffraction experiments on tensile specimens of pure Al (99.8%) and an Al-Mg alloy pre-deformed at different creep strains is analysed. These results are combined with the kernel angular misorientation of electron backscatter diffraction data from the creep-deformed microstructures. It is found that differently oriented grains possess different microstrains. These microstrains vary with creep strain in pure Al, but not in the Al-Mg alloy. It is proposed that this behaviour can explain the power-law breakdown in pure Al and the large creep strain observed in Al-Mg. The present findings further corroborate a description of the creep-induced dislocation structure as a fractal, predicated on previous work.