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Following the new paradigm of materials development, design and optimization, the digitalization of materials and processes is the main goal which imposes a huge challenge. In this respect, the quality assurance of processes and output data as well as the interoperability between applications following FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, reusability) principles are to be ensured. This includes storage, processing and querying of data in a preferably standardized form, also addressing the incorporation of standardization bodies. To meet the challenge to contextualize material data in a way that is consistent with all stakeholders, all necessary information on the condition of the material including production and application-related changes have to be made available via a uniform, machine-readable description. For this purpose, ontologies are to be used since they allow for machine-understandable knowledge representations and semantic conceptualizations that are needed for data management and the digitalization in the field of materials science.
With respect to this currently ever-growing topic of integration and reuse of data and knowledge from synthesis, production and characterization of materials, this presentation shows the efforts taken within the project Platform MaterialDigital (PMD, materialdigital.de) to store tensile test data in accordance with a standard-compliant ontological representation. The includes the path from developing an ontology in accordance with the respective standard, converting ordinary and arbitrarily selected data gained from standard tests into the interoperable RDF format, up to connecting the ontology and data, respectively. Finally, such data can be queried from a triple store.
In the field of material science and engineering (MSE), most mechanical test methods are standardized which serves as a valid basis for ontology development. Therefore, the well-known tensile test of metals at room temperature (DIN EN ISO standard 6892-1:2019-11) was selected to be considered as one of the first use cases in PMD. This consideration within the PMD features both, the ontological representation of such a tensile test in accordance with the standard as well as exemplary data generation. The semantic connection of the ontology and data leads to interoperability and an enhanced ability of querying.
The mechanical strength of wrought high-strength aluminum alloys is essentially based on precipitation hardening, possibly in combination with prior forming, e. g. by stretching. Important parameters for achieving an optimum combination of hardness, strength, ductility, toughness, and further properties such as corrosion resistance are age-hardening temperature and time.
During thermal (mechanical) treatment, nucleation and growth of precipitates takes place, leading to the desired degree of hardening. In aluminum alloys, precipitation sequences are usually passed through, i. e. a sequence of metastable precipitates is formed before the stable phase can precipitate. The optimum combination of properties is therefore based on a certain (optimum) microstructure, which can, however, change during the use of a component, since the microstructure is not stable. This happens in particular when the operating temperatures are close to the aging temperature and/or the operating times are sufficiently long. An external mechanical load may accelerate the processes. The presentation gives some examples for this.
The presentation shows the results of high cycle fatigue (HCF) tests from the aluminium alloy EN AW-2618A. This study investigates the mean stress influence in the T61 condition and the effect of overaging. For this purpose, axial HCF tests were carried out at room temperature and different stress ratios (R=-1, R=0.1) as well as with overaged conditions (T61+10h@230°C, T61+1000h@230°C). After completion of the tests, the fracture surfaces were examined to study crack initiation.
Thermal spraying enables a fast and propelling way to additively deposit various ceramics as electric insulators, which are used in conditions where polymers are not suitable. Alumina (Al2O3) is among the most employed materials in the coating industry since it exhibits good dielectric properties, high hardness, high melting point while still being cost-effective. Various parameters (e.g. feedstock type, plasma gas mixture, plasma power) significantly influence the resulting coating in terms of microstructure, porosity, crystallinity, and degree of un-or molten particles. As a consequence, these parameters need to be investigated to estimate the impact on the electrical insulating properties of thermally sprayed alumina. This study focuses on the development of a novel electric insulation coating from Al2O3 feedstock powders deposited via atmospheric plasma spray (APS). The microstructure, porosity, and corresponding crystallographic phases have been analyzed with optical microscopy, XRD, and SEM images. To achieve an understanding of the parameters influencing the electrical insulation performance of the manufactured coatings, an in-depth analysis of the fundamental dielectric parameters e.g., DC resistance, breakdown strength, dielectric loss tangent, permittivity is presented.
Multilayer thermoelectric generators are a promising perspective to the conventional π-type generators. Ceramic multilayer technology is well established for production of microelectronics and piezo-stacks. Key features of ceramic multilayer technology are full-automation, cost-effectiveness, and the co-firing of all materials in one single step. This requires similar sintering temperatures of all used materials. The development of multilayer thermoelectric generators is a subject of current research due to the advantages of this technology. One of the challenges is the compatibility of the different materials with respect to the specific design.
The presented study compares three different designs of multilayer generators based on a given set of material properties. Dualleg, unileg and transverse multilayer generators are compared to conventional π-type generators., the designs are evaluated regarding the expected maximum output power and power density using analytical calculations and FEM simulations. Additionally, the complexity of the production process and material requirements are assessed and design optimizations to simplify production are discussed.
Besides the theoretical aspects, unileg multilayer generator prototypes were produced by tape-casting and pressure-assisted sintering. These prototypes are compared to other multilayer generators from literature regarding the power factors of the used material system and the power density. Improvements of the power output by design optimizations are discussed
The interest to additively manufacture Nickel-based superalloys has substantially grown within the past decade both academically and industrially. More specifically, additive manufacturing processes such as laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) offer the ability to produce dense parts within a single manufacturing step. In fact, the exceptional freedom in design associated with the layer-based nature of the processes is of particular interest for the complex shapes typically required in turbine applications. In certain cases, the overall part performance can be achieved by tailoring the microstructure and the crystallographic texture to the specific application. However, these advantages must be paid at a price: the large local temperature gradients associated with the rapid melting and solidification produce parts that inherently contain large residual stress in the as-manufactured state. In addition, the presence of pores in the final part may further affect the in-service part failure. As among Nickel-based alloys Inconel 718 exhibits excellent weldability, this alloy has been widely studied in open research in the domain of LPBF. However, significant microsegregation of the heavier alloying elements such as Niobium and Molybdenum accompanied by dislocation entanglements may preclude the application of conventional heat treatment schedules. Therefore, different post processing heat treatments are required for laser powder bed fused Inconel 718 as compared to conventional variants of the same alloy.
In this study, we investigated two different heat treatment routes for LPBF Inconel 718. In a first routine, the samples were stress relieved and subsequently subjected to hot isostatic pressing (HIP) followed by a solution heat treatment and a two-step age (referred to as FHT). In a second routine, the samples were subjected to a single-step direct age post stress relieving heat treatment (referred to DA). We investigated the consequences of such heat treatment schedules on the microstructure, texture, and mechanical behavior. We show that by applying a DA heat treatment the typical columnar microstructure possessing a crystallographic texture is retained, while an equiaxed untextured microstructure prevails in case of an FHT heat treatment. We further evaluate how these heat treatments affect the mechanical behaviour on the macroscopic and microscopic scale.
The fracture surface of slow and continuous crack propagation during environmental stress cracking of a semicrystalline polyethylene exhibits isotropic roughness exponents at the local scale but resolved across the macroscopic fracture surface a clear position dependence is found. The spatially resolved roughness exponent admits values in the range between 0.1 and 0.4, demonstrating nontrivial exponents in the small length-scale regime. Instead, they vary across the fracture surface according to the stress-state distribution, which suggests that the exponents are intimately linked to the locally dominating dissipation processes during craze cracking.
Currently, calcium manganate CaMnO3 and calcium cobaltite Ca3Co4O9 are being investigated as n-type resp. p-type semiconducting materials as oxidation- and temperature-resistant thermoelectric materials for oxide multilayer thermoelectric generators (TEGs). In order to manufacture multilayer TEGs, pressure-assisted sintering processes at high temperatures are necessary to achieve optimal thermoelectric material properties. To realize TEGs in planar film technology, another method to obtain dense ceramic layers directly from the synthesized starting powders without a subsequent high temperature step is emerging recently: the powder aerosol deposition (PAD) method. In the present work, it is investigated whether PAD is suitable to produce dense ceramic films from Sm-doped CaMnO3 and Ca3Co4O9 powders. The resulting thermoelectric properties are characterized as a function of temperature.
CaMnO3 powder could successfully be processed by PAD with resulting layer thicknesses of 5- 6 µm without any high-temperature sintering steps of the films. The electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient of the films were determined in-plane from room temperature to 600 °C in air. The results show a Seebeck coefficient of around -200 µV/K, which is comparable to results of pressed and sintered bars. At 400 °C, the electrical conductivity corresponds to the conductivity of the bar. At higher temperatures the conductivity is better than with the reference. Below 400°C, the electrical conductivity is somewhat lower than that of the reference sample, a mild thermal treatment of the PAD layer improves it. It is expected that the thermal conductivity of the PAD film will be lower compared to the bars due to the nano-crystalline film morphology. This should result in a significantly increased ZT value for the PAD layers and a higher efficiency of the TEG.
The work shows that both CaMnO3 and Ca3Co4O9 can be successfully processed by PAD, and the PAD films show comparable thermoelectric properties.
Melting of Na2CO3-ZnO-B2O3 batches containing up to 16.8 wt% AgNO3 (5 mol% Ag2O in the target glass composition) was observed in situ by means of hot stage microscopy. In all batches metallic silver precipitation took place as most of the silver nitrate was reduced to metallic silver before Ag+ ions could be dissolved in the evolving borate melts. In turn, only traces of Ag+ (<300 ppmw) were dissolved in the sodium zinc borate glass melts under study. It is assumed that the oxidation to Ag+ was limited due to poor availability of reducible oxygen in the glass melts and presence of Na2O being a stronger base than Ag2O. Thus, the precipitated metallic silver formed droplets of different sizes. The larger droplets (d > 20 µm) were already settled at the bottom of the container and remained constant in size upon dwelling for 1 h at 1050 °C of about one hour and the subsequent cooling (45 K/min) to room temperature, whereas the smaller droplets (d < 20 µm) were mobile in the borate melt due to Marangoni and Stokes motion. For the latter droplets, coalescence was observed in situ. A growth of larger droplets at the expense of smaller ones, i.e., Ostwald ripening was also expected but could not be studied with the used experimental equipment.
Liquid phase sintering of glass bearing silver pastes used in photovoltaics and microelectronics is poorly understood. In particular, the role of different network modifiers acting in the glass component and the question of the most suitable atmospheric oxygen level during sintering are still under considerable debate. To tackle these issues, low-melting and lead-free X2O-ZnO-B2O3 glasses with X = Li, Na, K and Rb (LZB, NZB, KZB and RZB) were prepared. Infrared spectroscopy showed that the glass structure was similar to each other, while an increase of tetrahedrally coordinated boron with increasing field strength of the alkali was evident. In turn, the glass transition temperature (from differential thermal analysis) increased in the order: RZB (449 °C) < KZB (460 °C) < NZB (465 °C) < LZB (472 °C). Powders of each glass were mixed with organics to receive silver-glass-pastes containing 30 vol% glass and these were subjected to heating microscopy in air. Although similar onset temperatures of sintering were recorded for Ag-NZB and Ag-LZB glass pastes, and for Ag-RZB paste and KZB-Ag-paste, respectively, differences in the crystallization behavior and final densification were observed between the former and the latter group. These were translated in terms of differences in silver dissolution and reprecipitation among the two groups. Further, running the experiments in nitrogen gas showed that sintering of all pastes was considerably hampered. The slow-down of the sinter kinetics was found to be in line with the assumed lower oxidation and dissolution of silver ions into the glass-forming liquid.
To reveal the corrosion resistance of casing steel/mortar interface in CO2 injection condition, sandwich samples were prepared and exposed up to 20 weeks in aquifer fluid under 10 MPa and 60 °C. Cross section analysis revealed the crevice corrosion as main mechanism instead of pitting corrosion, which would be expected to happen in the extremely high Chloride concentration. Detailed analysis using EDS line scan shown the slow diffusion of Chloride, suggesting why pitting did not happen after 20 weeks. To mimic the passivated steel surface, the steel coupon was passivated in simulated pore solution having pH 13.5 for 42 days. The passivated coupon was further exposed to NGB solution for 28 days. Electrochemical characterization was performed along the exposure processes to reveal the change in impedance, indicating the corrosion resistance of steel casing/mortar interface.
Fully-reversed fatigue behavior of scarf joint repairs for wind turbine blade shell applications
(2022)
Due to manufacturing imperfections which can propagate to damage under in-service loads, wind turbine rotor blades, made primarily of glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP), often fail significantly before their design life. To enable a quick and cost-effective return to service, localized repairs can be executed by technicians in the field, directly accessing the blades by suspended roping. Scarf joint repairs, shown to be highly efficient with a smooth load transition across angled joint walls and a restored aerodynamic profile, are the focus of this study. The damage mechanisms of these structures were examined under fully-reversed mechanical cyclic loading with a load ratio R = -1, which was made possible on the coupon scale by a custom designed anti-buckling support. The number of cycles to failure were compared across load levels. While the scarf joint ratio was held constant at 1:50, known from industry and literature to be a good compromise between restored mechanical properties and repair size, the layup sequence was varied between small-to-large and large-to-small. Hereby the effect of the presence of resin pockets and fiber orientation mismatch between the parent and repair structure on the failure mechanism as well as fatigue strength of ±45° GFRP scarf joint repair structures was studied. Strain development across the joint length was measured to assess stiffness degradation in addition to the fatigue strength recovery of scarf joint structures with respect to pristine reference specimens. Grayscale analysis was used to monitor the damage state leading to fracture across the specimens. Post-mortem fractography analysis with light microscopy described the global failure mechanisms as well as local damage distribution within the structure, all of which provided insight to critical variables in scarf joint GFRP structures under fully-reversed mechanical cyclic loading, allowing for the tailoring of such repairs on wind turbine blade shells for maximum restoration of service life.
To reveal the corrosion resistance of casing steel/mortar interface in CO2 injection condition, sandwich samples were prepared and exposed up to 20 weeks in aquifer fluid under 10 MPa and 60 °C.
Cross section analysis revealed the crevice corrosion as main mechanism instead of pitting corrosion despite very high concentration of Cl in NGB.
EDS element line scan analysis of the 20-week-exposed metal/mortar coupon showed Chloride distribution, which still not reached the metal/mortar interface, explaining no pitting was observed.
It was confirmed that FeCO3 cannot protect the steel surface in CO2 saturated NGB.
To verify the protective possibility of passivation happened on casing steel/mortar interface, simulated pore solution was synthesized and used to passivate the steel for 42 days. OCP and EIS confirmed the formation of passive layer.
The 42 day passivated layer was broken during the first minute of exposure in CO2 saturated NGB.
However, due to high concentration of Ca2+, a new carbonate CaCO3 dense layer was formed, increased the corrosion resistance of steel surface.
Glasses in the systems Me2O-ZnO-B2O3 with Me = Li, Na, K, Rb (MeZB), Na2O-ZnO-CuO-B2O3 (NZCuB), CaO-ZnO-B2O3 (CaZB), and Li2O-PbO-B2O3 (LPbB) as a reference, were studied by differential thermal analysis, dilatometry, rotational viscometry, and heating microscopy. A decrease of viscosity and sintering range was found with decreasing number of fourfold coordinated boron. The viscosity of the alkali zinc borate glasses varies only slightly. LPbB and CaZB stand out by their reduced and increased viscosities, respectively. Sodium, potassium, and calcium zinc borate glasses possess a fragility above 76. All glasses were sintered to full density before crystallization. Mostly binary zinc borate phases govern crystallization. A ternary crystalline phase was detected only in the potassium containing sample. The Weinberg glass stability parameter ranges between 0.07 and 0.12. This is caused by the presence of several crystalline phases and varying melting points of even the same crystalline phase in different glass matrices.
Low melting Li2O-PbO-B2O3, Me2O-ZnO-B2O3, Me = Li, Na, K, Rb and CaO-ZnO-B2O3 glasses were studied with Raman and infrared spectroscopies to advance the structural understanding of zinc borate glasses as potential candidates for substitution of lead containing glasses. Although the effect of type of alkali ions on the number (N4) of fourfold coordinated boron (B4) in the glasses is small, the alkali ions direct the type of borate groups, i.e., pentaborate in lithium, sodium, and calcium zinc borate glasses, as well as diborate in potassium and rubidium containing ones. Both groups were simultaneously found in Li2O-PbO-B2O3. Alkali ions are mainly responsible for the formation of B4-units and metaborate. Zinc ions favorably compensate non-bridging oxygen and partially form ZnO4. With decreasing N4 and field strength of the alkali ions the atomic packing density, glass transition temper ature and Young’s Modulus also decrease. The coefficient of thermal expansion increases with decreasing N4.
BAM is currently building up a platform of novel nanoRMs relying on iron oxide nanoparticles of different shape, size and surface chemistry. Iron oxide was chosen as a core material because of its relevance to the material and life sciences.
As a first candidate of this series, we present cubic iron oxide nanoparticles with a nominal edge length of 8 nm. These particles were synthesized by thermal decomposition of iron oleate in high boiling organic solvents adapting well-known literature procedures. After dilution to a concentration suitable for electron microscopy (TEM and SEM) as well as for small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements, the candidate nanoRM was bottled and assessed for homogeneity and stability by both methods following the guidelines of ISO 17034 and ISO Guide 35.
The particle sizes obtained by both STEM-in-SEM and TEM are in excellent agreement with a minimum Feret of 8.3 nm ± 0.7 nm. The aspect ratio (AR) of the iron oxide cubes were extracted from the images as the ratio of minimum Feret to Feret resulting in an AR of 1.18 for TEM to 1.25 for SEM. Alternatively, a rectangular bounding box was fitted originating from the minimum Feret and the longest distance through the particle in perpendicular direction. This led to AR values of 1.05 for TEM and 1.12 for SEM, respectively. The results confirm the almost ideal cubic shape.
The manufacturability of metallic alloys using laser-based additive manufacturing methods such as laser powder bed fusion has substantially improved within the last decade. However, local melting and solidification cause hierarchically structured and crystallographically textured microstructures possessing large residual stress. Such microstructures are not only the origin of mechanical anisotropy but also pose metrological challenges for the diffraction-based residual stress determination. Here we demonstrate the influence of the build orientation and the texture on the microstructure and consequently the mechanical anisotropy of as-built Inconel 718. For this purpose, we manufactured specimens with [001]/[011]-, [001]- and [011]/[111]-type textures along their loading direction. In addition to changes in the Young’s moduli, the differences in the crystallographic textures result in variations of the yield and ultimate tensile strengths. With this in mind, we studied the anisotropy on the micromechanical scale by subjecting the specimens to tensile loads along the different texture directions during in situ neutron diffraction experiments. In this context, the response of multiple lattice planes up to a tensile strain of 10% displayed differences in the load partitioning and the residual strain accumulation for the specimen with [011]/[111]-type texture. However, the relative behavior of the specimens possessing an [001]/[011]- and [001]-type texture remained qualitatively similar. The consequences on the metrology of residual stress determination methods are discussed.
This study combines three different approaches to lower the sintering temperature of Sm-doped CaMnO3 to save energy in production and facilitate co-firing with other low-firing oxides or metallization. The surface energy of the powder was increased by fine milling, sintering kinetics were enhanced by additives, and uniaxial pressure during sintering was applied. The shrinkage, density, microstructure, and thermoelectric properties were evaluated. Compared to micro-sized powder, the use of finely ground powder allows us to lower the sintering temperature by 150 K without reduction of the power factor. By screening the effect of various common additives on linear shrinkage of CaMnO3 after sintering at 1100 ○C for 2 h, CuO is identified as the most effective additive. Densification at sintering temperatures below 1000 ○C can be significantly increased by pressure-assisted sintering. The power factor at room temperature of CaMnO3 nano-powder sintered at 1250 ○C was 445 μW/(m K2). Sintering at 1100 ○C reduced the power factor to 130 μW/(m K2) for CaMnO3 nano-powder, while addition of 4 wt.% CuO to the same powder led to ∼290 μW/(m K2). The combination of fine milling, CuO addition, and pressureassisted sintering at 950 ○C resulted in a power factor of ∼130 μW/(m K2). These results show that nano-sized powder and CuO addition are successful and recommendable strategies to produce CaMnO3 with competitive properties at significantly reduced temperatures and dwell times.
Influence of the dispersant on the parts quality in slurry-based binder jetting of SiC ceramics
(2022)
Binder jetting is establishing more and more in the ceramic industry to produce large complex shaped parts. A parameter with a great impact on the quality of the parts is the binder–powder interaction. The use of ceramic slurries as feedstock for this process, such as in the layerwise slurry deposition–print technology, allows a great flexibility in the composition. Such slurries are typically composed of ceramic powder, water, and small amounts of various additives. The understanding of the effect of these components on the printing quality is thus essential for the feedstock development. Four models were developed regarding the impact of additives, such as dispersants on printing. These models were confirmed or rebutted by experiments performed for an SiC slurry system with two different concentrations of a dispersant and a commercial phenolic resin used as a binder. It is shown that for this system the influence of the dispersant on the curing behavior and the clogging of the pores by dispersant can be neglected. The redispersion of the dispersant after the curing of the resin has no or only a minor effect. However, the wetting behavior determined by the surface energies of the system seem to be most crucial. In case the surface energy of the slurry additive is significantly lower than the surface energy of the binder, the strength of the green parts and the printing quality will be low. This was shown by inverse gas chromatography, contact angle measurement, rheological characterization, and mechanical tests with casted samples.
Powder bed technologies are amongst the most successful Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques. Powder bed fusion and binder jetting especially are leading AM technologies for metals and polymers, thanks to their high productivity and scalability.
The application of these techniques to most ceramics has been difficult so far, because of the challenges related to the deposition of homogeneous powder layers when using fine powders.
In this context, the "layerwise slurry deposition" (LSD) has been developed as a layer deposition method which enables the use of powder bed AM technologies also for advanced ceramic materials. The layerwise slurry deposition consists of the layer-by-layer deposition of a ceramic slurry by means of a doctor blade, in which the slurry is deposited and dried to achieve a highly packed powder layer. This offers high flexibility in the ceramic feedstock used, especially concerning material and particle size.
The LSD technology can be combined with binder jetting to develop the so-called “LSDprint” process for the additive manufacturing of ceramics.
The LSDprint technology combines the high-speed printing of binder jetting with the possibility of producing a variety of high-quality ceramics with properties comparable to those achieved by traditional processing.
In this presentation, the LSD process will be introduced and several examples of application ranging from silicate to high-performance ceramics will be shown.
Recent developments towards the scale-up and industrialization of this process will be discussed, alongside future perspectives for the multi-material additive manufacturing.
A global transition towards more sustainable, affordable and reliable energy systems is being stimulated by the Paris Agreement and the United Nation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This poses a challenge for the corrosion industry, as building climate‐resilient energy systems and infrastructures brings with it a long‐term direction, so as a result the long‐term behaviour of structural materials (mainly metals and alloys) becomes a major prospect. With this in mind “Corrosion Challenges Towards a Sustainable Society” presents a series of cases showing the importance of corrosion protection of metals and alloys in the development of energy production to further understand the science of corrosion, and bring the need for research and the consequences of corrosion into public and political focus. This includes emphasis on the limitation of greenhouse gas emissions, on the lifetime of infrastructures, implants, cultural heritage artefacts, and a variety of other topics.
The phenomenon of environmental stress cracking is still a major issue in materials engineering as well as from a scientific perspective. Especially in the case of packaging materials made of high-density polyethylene, assessing the potential of premature damage due to environmental stress cracking is complex because of the large number of components in possible liquid filling goods. As a first guideline, the well-known effect of detergents and dispersants is usually considered, but the interplay with other components, such as organic solvents is often unknown. Particularly challenging in this respect are crop protection products, consisting of several different admixtures in addition to the biologically active ingredients. This study is based on two model liquids representing these admixtures that were established for testing in this context. The model liquids as well as their constituting components were used as liquid media in the Full Notch Creep Test to characterize the environmental stress cracking behavior of a typical high-density polyethylene. Complementary to the time-to failure of a notched specimen obtained from these tests, the crack opening was monitored optically, and the fracture surface was analyzed post-failure by laser scanning microscopy as well as scanning electron microscopy. Based on the results, the effect of various surfactants as well as the influence of organic solvents on environmental stress cracking are discussed.
Early Material Damage in Equimolar CrMnFeCoNi in Mixed Oxidizing/Sulfiding Hot Gas Atmosphere
(2022)
The use of more and more varied fuels implies an increased list of criteria that need to be addressed when choosing a material for a combustion chamber and its supply pipes. The materials must be very resistant against corrosion, especially when the process takes place at temperatures above 500°C. In this work the influence of SO2 on the surface of the “Cantor alloy” is investigated.
Early Material Damage in Equimolar CrMnFeCoNi in Mixed Oxidizing/Sulfiding Hot Gas Atmosphere
(2022)
The challenges to use more varied fuels at medium and high temperatures above 500 °C need to be addressed by tuning the materials towards a better resistance against increased corrosion. As a first step the corrosion processes need to be better understood, especially in the case of the unavoidable and highly corrosive sulfur-based gases. In this work oxidation/sulfidation of an equimolar CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy is studied at an early stage after hot gas exposure at 600 °C for 6 h in 0.5% SO2 and 99.5% Ar. The oxidation process is studied by means of x-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy and supported by thermodynamic calculations. It is found that the sulfur does not enter the bulk material but interacts mainly with the fast-diffusing manganese at grain boundary triple junctions at the alloy surface. Sub-micrometer scaled Cr-S-O rich phases close to the grain boundaries complete the sulfur-based phase formation. The grains are covered in different Fe, Mn and Cr based spinels and other oxides.
Hierarchical microstructures are created when additional γ particles form in γ’ precipitates and they are linked to improved strength and creep properties in high-temperature alloys. Here, we follow the formation and evolution of a hierarchical microstructure in Ni86.1Al8.5Ti5.4 by in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction at 1023 K up to 48 h to derive the lattice parameters of the γ matrix, γ’ precipitates and γ particles and misfits between phases. Finite element method-based computer simulations of hierarchical microstructures allow obtaining each phase's lattice parameter, thereby aiding peak identification in the in situ X-ray diffraction data. The simulations further give insight into the heterogeneous strain distribution between γ’ precipitates and γ particles, which gives rise to an anisotropic diffusion potential that drives the directional growth of γ particles. We rationalize a schematic model for the growth of γ particles, based on the Gibbs-Thomson effect of capillary and strain-induced anisotropic diffusion potentials. Our results highlight the importance of elastic properties, elastic anisotropy, lattice parameters, and diffusion potentials in controlling the behavior and stability of hierarchical microstructures.
BAM! This issue of Advanced Engineering Materials celebrates 150 years of scientific and technical research at the interface between academia, industry and politics. Rooted in 1871 at the birth of the German Empire and at that time located in simple basements and barracks, the institutional development began around mechanical metallurgy of iron and steel and represents today a diverse portfolio of fore-front research that orients itself along tomorrow's societal challenges and long-term research horizons.
We demonstrate the gradual shift from scale-free intermittent microplasticity to a scale-dependent behavior via the introduction of a variety of microstructural features within the Al-Cu binary alloy system. As long as the obstacles to dislocation motion remain shearable, the statistics of intermittent microplasticity has fat-tailed contributions. The introduction of incoherent precipitates leads to a complete transition from scale-free powerlaw scaling to an exponential and scale-dependent distribution. These results demonstrate how non-Gaussian interactions survive across different microstructures and further suggest that characteristic microstructural length scales and obstacle pinning-strengths are of secondary importance for the intermittency statistics, as long as dislocations can shear their local environment.
The pore geometry of bone scaffolds has a major impact on their cellular response; for this reason, 3D printing is an attractive technology for bone tissue engineering, as it allows for the full control and design of the porosity. Calcium phosphate materials synthesized from natural sources have recently attracted a certain interest because of their similarity to natural bone, and they were found to show better bioactivity than synthetic compounds. Nevertheless, these materials are very challenging to be processed by 3D printing due to technological issues related to their nanometric size. In this work, bone scaffolds with different pore geometries, with a uniform size or with a size gradient, were fabricated by binder jetting 3D printing using a biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) nanopowder derived from cuttlebones. To do so, the nanopowder was mixed with a glass-ceramic powder with a larger particle size (45–100 µm) in 1:10 weight proportions. Pure AP40mod scaffolds were also printed. The sintered scaffolds were shown to be composed mainly by hydroxyapatite (HA) and wollastonite, with the amount of HA being larger when the nanopowder was added because BCP transforms into HA during sintering at 1150 ◦C. The addition of bio-derived powder increases the porosity from 60% to 70%, with this indicating that the nanoparticles slow down the glass-ceramic densification. Human mesenchymal stem cells were seeded on the scaffolds to test the bioactivity in vitro. The cells’ number and metabolic activity were analyzed after 3, 5 and 10 days of culturing.
The cellular behavior was found to be very similar for samples with different pore geometries and compositions. However, while the cell number was constantly increasing, the metabolic activity on the scaffolds with gradient pores and cuttlebone-derived powder decreased over time, which might be a sign of cell differentiation. Generally, all scaffolds promoted fast cell adhesion and proliferation, which were found to penetrate and colonize the 3D porous structure.
Thermoelectric generators can be used for energy harvesting by directly transforming a temperature gradient into a voltage. Multilayer generators based on ceramic multilayer technology are an interesting alternative to conventional π-type generators. They exhibit several advantages like high filling factor, possibility of texturing, co-firing of all materials in one single-step, and reduction of production costs due to the high possible degree of automation. But, co-firing of promising oxide thermoelectric materials, Ca3Co4O9 (p-type) and CaMnO3 (n-type), is very challenging due to the large difference in sintering temperature (300 K).
In this work we show the material development of Ca3Co4O9, CaMnO3, and insulation for multilayer generators co-fired under uniaxial pressure at 900 °C. The materials are tailored regarding their sintering behavior, electrical performance and coefficients of thermal expansion. Tape-casting and pressure assisted sintering are applied to fabricate textured Ca3Co4O9. Compared to conventional sintering, pressure assisted sintering increases the strength by the factor 10 and the power factor by the factor of 20. The combination of sintering additives and uniaxial pressure is used to decrease the sintering temperature of CaMnO3 to 900 °C while maintaining acceptable thermoelectric properties.
Different generator designs (unileg and pn-type) were fabricated and analyzed regarding microstructure and thermoelectric performance. A lower level of complexity is beneficial for co-firing and performance. The unileg demonstrators reach 80% of the simulated output power and the power output is highly reproducible between the different demonstrators (99%).
Turbine blades often contain cylindric holes used to generate an air film that protects the blade alloy from the hot gases. These cooling holes of diameter around one mm are drilled by laser through the thickness of the blades. Unfortunately, the resulting stress concentration and the drilling-induced damage are known to favor crack initiation from the holes. It is thus necessary to assess the impact of these cooling holes on the structural integrity of the blades. Since cracks initiate very readily, the fatigue life of the components is mainly controlled by the propagation of the cracks in the stress gradient induced by the holes.
For this purpose, displacement controlled high-temperature LCF (Low-Cycle-Fatigue) tests were performed with center hole specimens of a coarse-grained Nickel base Superalloy. The tests were stopped after a defined load drop. In addition, crack propagation tests with Double Edge Notch specimens were performed. Moreover, specimens with different hole surface finishes were investigated, which showed a detrimental effect of the hole surface roughness. In parallel, an evaluation of the LCF tests based on a fracture mechanics-based model (Madia et al., Eng. Fract. Mech., 2018) has been applied. Thereby, the specimen life is controlled by the crack propagation time until failure. Crack growth is controlled by a modified NASGRO equation accounting for large-scale yielding and a progressive build-up of crack closure. The initial crack size has been derived from the measurements of defects around the borehole. A reasonable agreement between predicted and measured lifetimes is observed if one keeps in mind the large uncertainty regarding the effective shape of the cracks.
Thermal spraying provides a rapid method for additive deposition of various ceramics as electrical insulation in applications where polymers are not suitable. New applications in complex shaped additive manufactured metal parts are emerging for example in large scale electrical devices. Microstructural and dielectric evaluation of coatings is crucial to the employment of such free-form processes. The properties and microstructure of the plasma sprayed alumina coatings are compared with dense reference samples of the same powder produced by spark plasma sintering (SPS). To obtain dense bulk samples from the coarse alumina powder for spray coating, SPS is used.
Samples are fabricated by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) of commercially available alumina powder (d50 = 33 µm) on copper substrates and by SPS of the same powder. Microstructure and porosity were analyzed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Phase compositions were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Dielectric properties such as DC resistance, dielectric strength, dielectric loss, and relative permittivity were determined according to the standards. The microstructure and dielectric properties of the coating and bulk material are compared to assess whether the coating is suitable for use in electrical insulation application.
The scatter of fatigue crack growth data can become significant for coarse grained materials. By using a probabilistic description of crack propagation as the foundation of a lifetime prediction model, lifetime scatter of laboratory specimens can be reproduced. However, the lifetime of real components is subjected to additional scattering factors such as surface condition or uncertainty regarding direction and shape of emerging cracks. These factors need to be addressed in order to exploit the advantages of probabilistic description, i.e. the reduction of unnecessary conservatisms.
High temperature LCF (Low-Cycle-Fatigue) tests were performed with center hole specimens of a coarse-grained Nickel base Superalloy. In addition, crack propagation tests with Double Edge Notch specimens were performed. A procedure to detect the shape of the starting crack that combines the potential drop method and induction thermography was developed. The geometry and the number of notches were varied. Moreover, specimen with different hole surface finishes were investigated, which showed a detrimental effect of the roughness of the hole surface.
The results have been compared to predictions of a probabilistic tool for the estimation of lcf lifetime that has been calibrated beforehand on laboratory specimens with and without notches. In parallel, a fracture mechanics-based lifetime model was developed, which includes the initial crack size as a critical parameter. Thereby, the influence of the large grain size (>1mm), and the shape of the starting crack at the notch were considered.
Acknowledgements
The investigations are conducted as part of the joint research program COOREFLEX-Turbo in the frame of AG Turbo. The work is supported by Siemens AG and the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi) as per resolution of the German Federal Parliament under grant number 03ET7071E.
Dielectric breakdown of insulators is a combined electrical, thermal, and mechanical failure. The exact breakdown mechanism in ceramics and the formulation of useful models are still subject of investigation. Recent studies highlighted that several experimental aspects of dielectric breakdown strength testing affect the test results, and thus impede the recognition of fundamental principles.
Excess field strength near the electrode can lead to premature breakdown in the insulating liquid. This would cause superficial damage to the test specimen and thus falsify the measurement results.
The field strength distribution is influenced by the ratio of permittivity of the sample and the surrounding insulating liquid. Premature breakdown depends on the breakdown strength of the liquid and the actual test voltage. The test voltage again depends on the specimen thickness.
To systematically investigate these relations, a numerical simulation study (FEM) of the electric field distribution in a typical testing rig with cylindrical electrodes was performed. The permittivity of the sample and the insulating liquid was parameterized, as well as the sample thickness. The electric field distribution was calculated for increasing test voltage. Field strength maxima are compared to experimental breakdown strength of typical insulating liquids and experimental breakdown locations on alumina. Strategies are discussed to adjust the insulation liquid and the sample thickness to reduce the influence of the testing setup on the dielectric breakdown strength results.
Artificial bone replacement by individual customized three-dimensional resorbable bioactive glass has not yet been widely established in the clinical use. This is mainly due to the antagonism of sintering ability and suitable bioactivity. Competitive crystallization often prevents the generation of dense sintered bodies, especially for additive manufactured 3D structures. Previous studies of the fluoride-containing glass F3 have shown its potential to combine both sintering ability and suitable bioactivity. Furthermore, the occurring sintering blockade by surface crystallization of Na2CaSi2O6 was tunable by glass particle size.
In this study the glasses F3, F3-Cu with 1 mol% CuO added at the expense of CaO and the well-known 13-93 were chosen to determine the influence of surface crystallization on 3D printed sinter bodies. For this purpose, grain size fractions in range of smaller 32 µm to 315 µm in fraction size of 6-20 µm were sieved from jaw crushed glass frit as well as glass cubes were cut from casted blocks for all glasses. Sintering behavior of both pressed and printed powder compacts was observed via heating microscopy. Crystallization was determined by DTA and crystallization progress was monitored on fractured sinter bodies and polished cubes via electron and laser scanning microscopy as well as with diffractometry.
Depending on grain size the formation of crystalline support framework along former grain boundaries shows the capability to stabilize fully densified sinter bodies before softening. Beside of this, the generation of complex hierarchic porosity was possible as well.
Sintering, crystallization, and foaming of 44.8SiO2–2.5P2O3–36.5CaO–6.6Na2O–6.6K2O–3.0CaF2 (F3) and 54.6SiO2–1.7P2O3–22.1CaO–6.0Na2O–7.9K2O–7.7MgO (13–93) bioactive glass powders milled in isopropanol and CO2 were studied via heating microscopy, differential thermal analysis, vacuum hot extraction (VHE), Infrared spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. Full densification was reached in any case and followed by significant foaming.
VHE studies show that foaming is driven by carbon gases and carbonates were detected by Infrared spectroscopy to provide the major foaming source. Carbonates could be detected even after heating to 750◦C, which hints on a thermally very stable species or mechanical trapping. Otherwise, dark gray compact colors for milling in isopropanol indicate the presence of residual carbon as well. Its significant contribution to foaming, however, could not be proved and might be
limited by the diffusivity of oxygen needed for carbon oxidation to carbon gas.
A new patented dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) is presented, where the tensile, bending- or torsional stiffness of a media can be characterized in-situ during the phase transition from liquid to solid. An epoxy system, e.g. Hexion L285/H287, is filled into an elastomer container, such as a silicone tube. This can be mounted into a conventional DMA and, based on a linear viscoelastic approach, the storage modulus (E’;G’), the loss modulus (E’’;G’’) and the loss angle tan(delta) can be measured at constant temperature as a function of time in order to investigate the liquid to sol-gel to solid transition. With this new method, the stiffness increase as a result of the cure process can be directly measured more precisely than with a rheometer in a shear plate set-up, because using an elastomer container gives a defined cross section for calculating the Young’s modulus.
The large surface-to-volume ratio of nanoparticles is understood to be the source of many interesting phenomena. The melting temperature of nanoparticles is shown to dramatically reduce compared to bulk material. Yet, at temperatures below this reduced melting point, a liquid-like atomic arrangement on the surface of nanoparticles is still anticipated to influence its properties. To understand such surface effects, here, we study the coalescence of Au nanoparticles of various sizes using molecular dynamics simulations. Analysis of the potential energy and Lindemann index distribution across the nanoparticles reveals that high-energy, high-mobility surface atoms can enable the coalescence of nanoparticles at temperatures much lower than their corresponding melting point. The smaller the nanoparticles, the larger the difference between their melting and coalescence temperatures. For small enough particles and/or elevated enough temperatures, we found that the coalescence leads to a melting transition of the two nominally solid nanoparticles, here discussed in relation to the heat released due to the surface reduction upon the coalescence and the size dependence of latent heat. Such discontinuous melting transitions can lead to abrupt changes in the properties of nanoparticles, important for their applications at intermediate temperatures.
The steam side oxidation of ferritic–martensitic VM12-SHC steel was investigated under thermo-cyclic conditions in water steam at 620/320 °C and 30 bar with a focus on assessing the influence of pre-oxidation time, specimen geometry and surface finish. The specimens were pre-oxidized under isothermal conditions in water steam at 620 °C and 30 bar for 500 h or 1500 h. After pre-oxidation treatment, all specimens were subjected up to 258 thermal cycles. Three different geometries—rectangular coupons, U-shaped ring segments and ring samples—were investigated to evaluate the influence of open/closed shape, and flat/curved surface on corrosion rate. At the same time, two types of surface finish were considered: “as received” and “ground.” The formation of a protective scale by pre-oxidation was investigated. EBSD and ESMA analyses revealed that the Cr-content of the alloy appeared to be insufficient for obtaining a protective oxide scale under studied conditions, at the same time the anayses confirmed that initial oxidation depends on presence of minor alloying elements as Si and Mn, strong oxide formers which can alter the kinetics and morphology of the corrosion reaction. Moreover, rectangular coupons with small wall thickness and flat surface exhibited the highest corrosion rate, while “ground” curved samples showed only local oxidation. This indicates that for same pre-oxidation time, oxidation kinetics is controlled by curvature.
In typical material oriented research projects numerous types and sources of data need to get connected to form the final outcome. The data-structures have to be described in a manner semantically concise enough so that all participants share the meaning and at the same time flexible enough to allow connecting findings and facts that have not been connected before.
The present contribution describes the approach that is being taken in a public funded research project with two cooperating research institutes. The aim of the data-management solution is to describe and interlink three main entity types: material entities like a test specimen that is under observation, immaterial entities like a fatigue life model and processes that generate and transform the immaterial and material entities.
The shared understanding of what is described by the data is achieved by referring to existing linked data resources. In addition a common thesaurus that is subject to ongoing discussion is used for concepts and terms that need precision beyond publicly available concept descriptions. The data associated with the entities and processes and entities is rather small and well structured. The entities and processes covered by the vocabularies are typical to laboratories performing fatigue testing and microstructure analysis. Through the interlinking of the entities and processes it becomes possible to intuitively understand the knowledge that is accumulating in the database. For example it is easy to trace the history of a creep test specimen starting from the chemical composition that has been analyzed for the heat, continuing with the heat treatment of the material, going into the creep test itself with the associated creep data and finally finding the transmission electron microscopy images that have been taken from the crept sample.
The presented approach is prototypical way to tackle the sustainable management of structured open research data. Open questions remain for example with the management of attributions, the acceptance of an increased effort in data creation and the access control to specific regions of the data. On the other hand the approach sketches what added value can be created, if the community adopts and contributes to the linked data principles.
A nickel-based eutectic alloy with a γ/γ'-NbC structure was directionally solidified with a planar front. The specimens were tested for creep under sawtooth thermal cycling in the temperature range from 600 to 1100°C. It has been established that the lifetime under the conditions of thermal cycling is about five times shorter than it is predicted by the linear damage accumulation rule on the basis of results of isothermal creep tests. Faster creep under thermal cycling is caused by the rapid coarsening of the γ/γ' microstructure due to the periodic partial dissolution and reprecipitation of the γ' phase in heating and cooling half-cycles.
The dataset provided in this repository comprises data obtained from a series of characterization tests performed to a sheet of typical S355 (material number: 1.0577) structural steel (designation of steel according to DIN EN 10025-2:2019). The tests include methods for the determination of mechanical properties such as, e.g., tensile test, Charpy test and sonic resonance test. This dataset is intended to be extended by the inclusion of data obtained from further test methods. Therefore, the entire dataset (concept DOI) comprises several parts (versions), each of which is addressed by a unique version DOI.
The data were generated in the frame of the digitization project Innovationplatform MaterialDigital (PMD) which, amongst other activities, aims to store data in a semantically and machine understandable way. Therefore, data structuring and data formats are focused in addition to aspects in the field of material science and engineering (MSE). Hence, this data is supposed to provide reference data as basis for experimental data inclusion, conversion and structuring (data management and processing) that leads to semantical expressivity as well as for MSE experts being generally interested in the material properties and knowledge.
Tempered martensite-ferritic steels, such as the grade P92 steel studied in this contribution, exhibit pronounced macroscopic cyclic softening under isothermal low-cycle fatigue (LCF) and non-isothermal thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) conditions, which is considered to be the predominant degradation mechanism in high-temperature fatigue in this and other material groups. However, such softening processes are highly complex since microscopic (e.g., recovery) and macroscopic (e.g., crack initiation and growth), as well as global and local effects superimpose, especially under creep-fatigue conditions. In this contribution, we discuss the cyclic deformation and softening behavior of P92 in strain-controlled LCF, in-phase (IP) TMF, and out-of-phase (OP) TMF tests with and without dwell times in the temperature range from 300 °C to 620°C. EBSD-based dislocation analysis on various fatigued material states confirms the continuous redistribution and annihilation of geometrically necessary dislocations in all studied states, which can be quantitatively correlated with macroscopic softening despite different damage mechanisms for different test types. Deviations from this correlation are observed for OP TMF and LCF with dwell times, i.e., for conditions where optical microscopy reveals pronounced crack-oxidation interactions at the specimen surfaces.
In this study, the influence of aging and mean stress on fatigue of the aluminium-alloy EN AW-2618A is investigated. Therefore axial fatigue tests are carried out on smooth specimens. The experiments show that the fatigue life decreases with increasing mean stress. Furthermore, the tests with the overaged specimens demonstrate that the number of cycles to failure is decreasing with increasing aging time.
Laser powder-based directed energy deposition (DED-L) is a technology that offers the possibility for 3D material deposition over hundreds of layers and has thus the potential for application in additive manufacturing (AM). However, to achieve broad industrial application as AM technology, more data and knowledge about the fabricated materials regarding the achieved properties and their relationship to the manufacturing process and the resulting microstructure is still needed. In this work, we present data regarding the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior of Ti-6Al-4V. The material was fabricated using an optimized DED-L process. It features a low defect population and excellent tensile properties. To assess its LCF behavior two conventionally manufactured variants of the same alloy featuring different microstructures were additionally tested. The strain-controlled LCF tests were carried out in fully reversed mode with 0.3 % to 1.0 % axial strain amplitude from room temperature up to 400°C. The LCF behavior and failure mechanisms are described. For characterization, optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and micro-computed tomography (µCT) were used. The low defect population allows for a better understanding of the intrinsic material’s properties and enables a fairer comparison against the conventional variants. The fatigue lifetimes of the DED-L material are nearly independent of the test temperature. At elevated test temperatures, they are similar or higher than the lifetimes of the conventional counterparts. At room temperature, they are only surpassed by the lifetimes of one of them. The principal failure mechanism involves multiple crack initiation sites.
This is the final report on the proficiency test (PT) „Measurement of the particle size distribution of ceramic powders by laser diffraction”. The PT was organized by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), division 5.5 “Advanced technical ceramics”. The measurements took place from 12/2021 to 03/2022. The aim of the interlaboratory comparison was the proficiency assessment of the participating laboratories.
Management and realization of PT were performed in accordance with DIN EN ISO/IEC 17043:2010.
The basis of the harmonized measuring procedure and the instructions for the interlaboratory comparison was the standard ISO 13320:2020.
The statistical analysis was performed in accordance with DIN ISO 13528:2020 by use of the software PROLab Plus (QuoData GmbH, Dresden, Germany).
A group of 44 laboratories from 17 countries participated in the PT. Laser diffraction analyzers produced by 7 different manufacturers were used. The three test materials were commercial products. Overall, the measured characteristic values of the particle distributions (d10, d50 and d90) were in the size range between 0.5 and 25 μm. The final report contains all individual results in an anonymous way.
The crack propagation rate of environmental stress cracking was studied on high-density polyethylene compact tension specimens under static loading. Selected environmental liquids are distilled water, 2 wt% aqueous Arkopal N100 solution, and two model liquid mixtures, one based on solvents and one on detergents, representing stress cracking test liquids for commercial crop protection products. The different surface tensions and solubilities, which affect the energetic facilitation of void nucleation and craze development, are studied. Crack growth in surface-active media is strongly accelerated as the solvents induce plasticization, followed by strong blunting significantly retarding both crack initiation and crack propagation. The crack propagation rate for static load as a function of the stress intensity factor within all environments is found to follow the Paris–Erdogan law. Scanning electron micrographs of the fracture surface highlight more pronounced structures with both extensive degrees of plasticization and reduced crack propagation rate, addressing the distinct creep behavior of fibrils. Additionally, the limitations of linear elastic fracture mechanisms for visco-elastic polymers exposed to environmental liquids are discussed.
Poly (ether ether ketone) (PEEK) has a high continuous service temperature, excellent mechanical properties, and good solvent and abrasion resistance, which can be further improved through the addition of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). CNT-PEEK nanocomposites are promising matrices for continuous carbon fibre composites; powder processing can mitigate the high melt viscosities in these systems. In this study, model single fibre (hierarchical) composites were produced by embedding sized and desized carbon fibres in nanocomposite CNTPEEK powders followed by single fibre pull-out tests to assess interfacial characteristics. Carbon fibre-PEEK interfacial shear strength is typically 40–45 MPa. Increasing CNT loadings increased fibre-matrix interfacial shear strength linearly up to ~70 MPa at 5.0 wt%, which was attributed to the CNT-based mechanical modification of the PEEK matrix. Apparent interfacial shear strength was inversely correlated with the embedded fibre length irrespective of carbon fibre sizing or CNT loading, indicating brittle fracture of the fibre-matrix interface.
Pulled out carbon fibres were still coated with the matrix, which indicated strong adhesion at the interface in all samples, likely related to a transcrystalline region. Adhesion was, however, negatively affected by the presence of epoxy sizings. Frictional shear strength was independent of embedded fibre length and CNT content for all samples.
Recently, additive manufacturing of ceramics has achieved the maturity to be transferred from scientific laboratories to industrial applications. At the same time, research is progressing to expand the boundaries of this field into the territory of novel materials and applications. This feature issue addresses current progress in all aspects of additive manufacturing of ceramics, from parts design to feedstock selection, from technological development to characterization of printed components.
Instead of foreseeing and preparing for all possible scenarios of machine failures, accidents, and other challenges arising in space missions, it appears logical to take advantage of the flexibility of additive manufacturing for “in-space manufacturing” (ISM). Manned missions into space rely on complicated equipment, and their safe operation is a great challenge. Bearing in mind the absolute distance for manned missions to the Moon and Mars, the supply of spare parts for the repair and replacement of lost equipment via shipment from Earth would require too much time. With the high flexibility in design and the ability to manufacture ready-to-use components directly from a computer-aided model, additive manufacturing technologies appear to be extremely attractive in this context. Moreover, appropriate technologies are required for the manufacture of building habitats for extended stays of astronauts on the Moon and Mars, as well as material/feedstock. The capacities for sending equipment and material into space are not only very limited and costly, but also raise concerns regarding environmental issues on Earth. Accordingly, not all materials can be sent from Earth, and strategies for the use of in-situ resources, i.e., in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), are being
envisioned. For the manufacturing of both complex parts and equipment, as well as for large infrastructure, appropriate technologies for material processing in space need to be developed.
The studied aluminium alloy is EN AW-2618A (2618A). It is very widely used for exhaust gas turbo-charger compressor wheels. Due to long operating times, high cycle fatigue (HCF) and material aging under the influence of temperatures up to 230 °C is particularly relevant for the wheels. The wheels are typically milled from round wrought blanks. From such round blanks, different testpieces are extracted and a comprehensive series of HCF tests is conducted at room temperature. The tests investigate the materials fatigue performance in the T61 state for two load-ratios, namely R = -1 and R = 0.1. Additionally, two overaged material states are tested, accounting for the aging process the material undergoes during long operating times at high temperatures. The experimental results are evaluated and compared to each other.
Furthermore, the design process of notched specimens is presented. With the notched specimens, it is aimed to quantify the notch sensitivity of the material. Relating thereto, two potential model parameters for the fatigue lifetime model are introduced.
We present an easy-to-apply method to predict structural trends in the internal nucleation tendency of oxide glasses. The approach is based on calculated crystal fracture surface energies derived from easily accessible diatomic bond energy and crystal lattice data. The applicability of the method is demonstrated on literature nucleation data for isochemically crystallizing oxide glasses.
Commercially available carbon steels are suitable for compression and pipelines as long as moisture content and impurities are limited. (water 50 to 100 ppmv, SO2 and NO2 ca. 100 ppmv) Corrosion rates increase with increasing water content. (0.2 – 20 mm/a) Condensation of acids and therefore droplet formation is always possible, even at low water contents. A low SO2 content within the CO2-stream might be more important than a low water content. Cr13-steels showed a general susceptibility to shallow pitting and pitting. So, they seem to be not suitable for CCUS applications. Low alloyed steels showed better corrosion behavior (predictable uniform corrosion). For direct contact with saline aquifer fluids only high alloyed steels shall be used.
Additive manufacturing (AM) of metallic alloys has gained momentum in the past decade for industrial applications. The microstructures of AM metallic alloys are complex and hierarchical from the macroscopic to the nanometer scale. When using laser-based powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process, two main microstructural features emerge at the nanoscale: the melt pool boundaries (MPB) and the solidification cellular substructure.
Here, details of the MPB are revealed to clearly show the three-dimensional nature of MPBs with changes of cell growth of direction and their relation to their surrounding cellular substructure, as investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for L-PBF 316L austenitic stainless steel (cf. Figure 1). A hitherto unknown modulated substructure with a period of 21 nm is further discovered within cells as the result of a partial Ga+-focused ion beam-induced ferritic transformation of the austenite. Cell cores and cell boundaries differ notably regarding the modulated substructure.
In the current study, the 3D nature of the melt pool boundaries (MPBs) in a 316 L austenitic steel additively manufactured by laser-based powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is investigated. The change of the cell growth direction and its relationship to the MPBs is investigated by transmission electron microscopy. A hitherto unreported modulated substructure with a periodicity of 21 nm is further discovered within the cell cores of the cellular substructure, which results from a partial transformation of the austenite, which is induced by a Ga+ focused ion beam. While the cell cores show the modulated substructure, cell boundaries do not. The diffraction pattern of the modulated substructure is exploited to show a thickness ≥200 nm for the MPB. At MPBs, the cell walls are suppressed, leading to continuously connecting cell cores across the MPB. This continuous MPB is described either as overlapping regions of cells of different growing directions when a new melt pool solidifies or as a narrow planar growth preceding the new melt pool.
The typical experimental conditions inside a transmission electron microscope (TEM), such as ultra-high vacuum, high-energy electron irradiation, and surface effects of ultrathin TEM specimens, can be the origin of unexpected microstructural changes compared with that of bulk material during in situ thermal-annealing experiments. In this paper, we report on the microstructural changes of a Fe–15%Si alloy during in situ TEM annealing, where, in its bulk form, it exhibits an ordering transformation from D03 to B2 at 650 °C. Using a heating-pot type double tilt holder with a proportional–integral–differential control system, we observed the precipitation of α-Fe both at the sample surface and inside the sample. Surface precipitates formed via surface diffusion are markedly large, several tens of nm, whereas precipitates inside the specimen, which are surrounded by Fe-poor regions, reach a maximum size of 20 nm. This unexpected microstructural evolution could be attributed to vacancies on Si sites, which are induced due to high-energy electron irradiation before heating, as well as enhanced thermal diffusion of Fe atoms.
Metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies such as Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) are characterized by layer wise construction, which enable advancements of component design, with associated potential gains in performance and efficiency. However, high magnitude residual stresses (RS) are often a product of the rapid thermal cycles typical of the layerwise process. Therefore, a deep understanding of the formation of RS, the influence of process parameters on their magnitude and the impact on mechanical performance is crucial for widespread application. The experimental characterisation of these RS is essential for safety related engineering application and supports the development of reliable numerical models. Diffraction-based methods for RS analysis using neutrons and high energy X-rays enable non-destructive spatially resolved characterisation of both surface and bulk residual stresses in complex components. This presentation will provide an overview of recent research by the BAM at large scale facilities for the characterization of residual stresses in LPBF metallic alloys as a function of process parameters. In addition, the challenges posed by the textured and hierarchical microstructures of LPBF materials on diffraction-based RS analysis in AM materials will be discussed. This will include the question of the d0 reference lattice spacing and the appropriate choice of the diffraction elastic constants (DECs) to calculate the level of RS in LPBF manufactured alloys.
The amount of data generated worldwide is constantly increasing. These data come from a wide variety of sources and systems, are processed differently, have a multitude of formats, and are stored in an untraceable and unstructured manner, predominantly in natural language in data silos. This problem can be equally applied to the heterogeneous research data from materials science and engineering. In this domain, ways and solutions are increasingly being generated to smartly link material data together with their contextual information in a uniform and well-structured manner on platforms, thus making them discoverable, retrievable, and reusable for research and industry. Ontologies play a key role in this context. They enable the sustainable representation of expert knowledge and the semantically structured filling of databases with computer-processable data triples.
In this perspective article, we present the project initiative Materials-open-Laboratory (Mat-o-Lab) that aims to provide a collaborative environment for domain experts to digitize their research results and processes and make them fit for data-driven materials research and development. The overarching challenge is to generate connection points to further link data from other domains to harness the promised potential of big materials data and harvest new knowledge.
The studied aluminium alloy is EN AW-2618A (2618A). It is very widely used for exhaust gas turbo-charger compressor wheels. Due to long operating times, high cycle fatigue (HCF) and material aging under the influence of temperatures up to 230 °C is particularly relevant for the wheels. The wheels are typically milled from round wrought blanks. From such round blanks, different testpieces are extracted and a comprehensive series of HCF tests is conducted at room temperature. The tests investigate the materials fatigue performance in the T61 state for two load-ratios, namely R = -1 and R = 0.1. Additionally, two overaged material states are tested, accounting for the aging process the material undergoes during long operating times at high temperatures. The experimental results are evaluated and compared to each other.
Furthermore, the design process of notched specimens is presented. With the notched specimens, it is aimed to quantify the notch sensitivity of the material. Relating thereto, two potential model parameters for the fatigue lifetime model are introduced. Finally, the extended research data management in this project is highlighted and its advantages for sustainable use in material science and engineering applications are shown.
Predicting nonlinear physical aging of glasses from equilibrium relaxation via the material time
(2022)
The noncrystalline glassy state of matter plays a role in virtually all fields of materials science and offers complementary properties to those of the crystalline counterpart. The caveat of the glassy state is that it is out of equilibrium and therefore exhibits physical aging, i.e., material properties change over time. For half a century, the physical aging of glasses has been known to be described well by the material-time concept, although the existence of a material time has never been directly validated. We do this here by successfully predicting the aging of the molecular glass 4-vinyl-1,3-dioxolan-2-one from its linear relaxation behavior. This establishes the defining property of the material time. Via the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, our results imply that physical aging can be predicted from thermal-equilibrium fluctuation data, which is confirmed by computer simulations of a binary liquid mixture.
Detailed microstructural characterization of the AlMo0.5NbTa0.5TiZr refractory high entropy superalloy in the as-cast state is reported for first time and compared with the state annealed at 1400 oC for 24 h. The former shows a dendritic structure, with a mixture of A2/B2 phases < 20 nm in both the dendritic and interdendritic regions. A mostly amorphous phase, rich in Al and Zr, is found within the interdendritic region. The annealed state reproduced the combination of A2/B2/Al-Zr-rich phases reported previously. Calculations from two relevant ThermoCalc databases were compared with the experimental results. Equilibrium calculations were compared with results for the annealed alloy, whereas solidification paths calculated using Scheil-Gulliver model were used for comparison with the as-cast alloy. A previously hypothesized spinodal decomposition during cooling as the mechanism responsible for the patterned A2/B2 microstructure is confirmed via the CALPHAD calculations, pointing to its use as an efficient design tool for such alloys. Finally, the comparison between the experimental and computational findings allowed better understanding the solidification path and equilibrium stability of this alloy, giving a base to make better decisions on the field of new refractory superalloy design.
In this paper, columnar cellular growth with kinetic effects including kinetic undercooling and solute trapping in rapid directional solidification of alloys was investigated by using a recent quantitative phase-field model for rapid solidification. Morphological transition and primary spacing selection with and without kinetic effects were numerically investigated. Numerical results show that doublon structure is an intermediate state in the primary spacing adjustment of cellular arrays. It was found that the inclusions of kinetic effects result in the increase of the solute in the solid phase and the solute enrichment in the interdendritic liquid channel. Moreover, predicted results indicate that the growth directions of the cellular arrays in rapid directional solidification with and without kinetic effects are independent of the Péclet number. Therefore, the kinetic effects play important roles in numerical simulations of the growth pattern selection and solute distribution during rapid solidification. Neglecting them will result in the inaccurately predicted results.
To mitigate carbon dioxide emissions CO2 is compressed and sequestrated into deep geological layers (Carbon Capture and Storage CCS). The corrosion of injection pipe steels is induced when the metal is in contact with CO2 and at the same time the geological saline formation water. Stainless steels X35CrMo17 and X5CrNiCuNb16-4 with approximately 17% Cr show potential as injection pipes to engineer the Northern German Basin geological onshore CCS-site. Static laboratory experiments (T = 60 ◦C, p = 100 bar, 700–8000 h exposure time, aquifer water, CO2-flow rate of 9 L/h) were conducted to evaluate corrosion kinetics. The anomalous surface corrosion phenomena were found to be independent of heat treatment prior to exposure. The corrosion process is described as a function of the atmosphere and diffusion process of ionic species to explain the precipitation mechanism and better estimate the reliability of these particular steels in a downhole CCS environment.
Abstract of the event: 'The area of New Space is a vastly growing and dynamic field with a high innovative potential and many exciting ideas. After decades where activities in space were dominated and funded mainly by governmental agencies, a new industry is forming and new business models are being developed around ideas like satellite-based internet, space travel, space mining, geo-monitoring etc. For space applications, lightweight design is crucial to keep the costs at a minimum. This Innovation Day will introduce the field of New Space and present the variety of exciting opportunities that arise for composites based on their excellent lightweight potential.' Another research area is now arising in the field of 3D printing or additive manufacturing of fiber composite materials in space. At the event, we presented on the opportunities and our experiences of using a powder based additive manufacturing process for in-space manufacturing applications.
The temperature dependences of the periods of the crystal lattices of the γ and γ' phases, their dimensional mismatch (misfit), and volume fraction of the γ' phase of an experimental single-crystal hightemperature nickel-based alloy have been determined by X-ray diffraction analysis in the temperature range of 18–1150°C. The temperature ranges in which intense changes in the structural and phase characteristics of the alloy under study take place have been determined.
Roughening of zirconia dental implants is a common clinical practice to improve ingrowth behavior. It depends on the manufacturer of the implant at which stage of the manufacturing process and by which method the surface is roughened. Systematic studies on this topic are rarely found in the literature. Therefore, the influence of surface treatment on the strength of a dental zirconia was investigated as part of a research project on the development of ceramic implants. The material under test was a commercial zirconia consisting of a Y-TZP matrix and Ce-TZP inclusions in the sintered state. This material is characterized by a slightly higher fracture toughness and slightly reduced strength compared to typical 3Y-TZP. Sets of samples were sandblasted in the white-fired or sintered condition. The ball-on-three-ball-strength of these samples was measured and compared to the strength of as-fired samples and polished samples. The complete study was performed two times for validation of the results. It is found that the average strength of TZP ceramics differs by almost 500 MPa depending on the surface treatment. Conventionally sintered specimens with as-fired surface exhibit a strength of 880 MPa. Sandblasting in the white fired state reduces the strength to 690 MPa. Both polishing and sandblasting in the sintered condition result in an increase in strength to about 1180 MPa. Comparative microstructural investigations, roughness measurements and X-ray phase analyses were carried out to determine the causes of these huge differences in strength. These findings may challenge the practice of white body surface treatment and give reason for further investigations on other commercial dental TZP materials.
In-space manufacturing (ISM) provides the opportunity to manufacture and repair critical components on future human spaceflight missions. For explorations to Mars and beyond, ISM is a key strategy not only due to the long travel distances and high costs of supply from earth but also to be able to safely work in space for years. Human spaceflight is still dependent on shipments from earth that can fail for several reasons. ISM is a valuable alternative to ensure the timely and safe resupply of space missions.
With additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, components are built directly from a 3D computer-aided-design (CAD) model which offers the advantages of freedom of design and the production of complex and ready-to-use parts. A virtual tool box with 3D models in space or the supply of information instead of components from earth to space can strongly benefit future missions. For industrial use, most research has focused on laser based additive manufacturing processes such as laser beam melting (LBM) where metallic powder particles are spread into a uniform powder bed and melted by a laser to the desired shape.
In the absence of gravity, the handling of metal powders, which is essential for the process, is challenging. We present an evolution of an AM system, where a gas flow throughout the powder bed is applied to stabilize the powder bed. This is needed to compensate for the missing gravitational forces in microgravity experiments on parabolic flight campaigns. The system consists of a porous building platform acting as a filter for the fixation of metal particles in a gas flow. It is driven by reduced pressure established by a vacuum pump underneath the platform. The system creates a drag force that directs the particles towards the porous building platform, similar to the effect of the gravitational force.
The AM system with its gas-flow-assisted powder deposition has been tested in several parabolic flight campaigns, and stainless-steel powder has successfully been processed during microgravity conditions. Different powder recoating mechanisms have been investigated to assess the homogeneous distribution of the powder as well as the attachment of the next layer to the powder bed. These mechanisms included different container designs with parallel double blades and with a V-shape at the bottom, and a roller recoating system. The samples presented are the first metal parts ever manufactured using LBM in μ-gravity. In addition to manufacturing in a μ-gravity environment, the experiments have shown the feasibility to manufacture components at different accelerations during the parabolic flight: hyper gravity (1.8 g), μ-gravity (< 0.01 g) and 1 g. Recent results will also be presented describing the application of this LBM setup in a parabolic flight campaign with mixed lunar, martian and µ-gravity acceleration, during which the processing of a lunar regolith simulant powder was tested.
For ISM, the development and testing of the proposed AM system demonstrates that LBM can be considered a viable technology for the manufacturing of metal and ceramic parts in a μ-gravity or reduced-gravity environment.
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are opening new design possibilities for large scale electrical devices such as power generators. Conventional manufacturing methods use copper rods which are wrapped, vacuum impregnated, bend and welded. These processes are labor-intensive and time-consuming. The introduction of AM methods for manufacturing the copper conductor and electrical insulation can reduce the size of the generator head, the most complex part of the generator.
In this study, the electrical and dielectrical properties of additively deposited ceramic layers are investigated and compared with the properties of conventionally fabricated bulk ceramics. The ceramic layers are thermally deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying of a commercially available alumina powder. Bulk ceramics are fabricated by dry pressing and sintering of the same powder. Microstructure and porosity were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrical and dielectrical properties such as DC resistance, dielectric strength, dielectric loss, and relative permittivity were determined according to the standards.
The microstructures of sprayed and sintered alumina show significant differences with respect to grain form and porosity. The density of the bulk ceramic is lower than the density of the sprayed layer due to the coarse particle size (d50 = 33 μm). Therefore, data from dense samples of the same chemical composition but lower particle size alumina powder were used for comparison.
Low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) are used to fabricate multilayer circuits which are robust in harsh environments. Thick-film technology is well established for the metallization of circuit boards and microsystems. For specific sensor applications, the combination of LTCC and thin-film technology is advantageous to reach higher structure resolutions. Due to the high roughness of as-fired LTCC surfaces compared with silicon-wafers, the deposition of low-defect- films with narrowly specified properties is challenging. There is spare literature about thin films on commercial LTCC comparing different material systems or sintering techniques. For developing thin film sensors on multilayer circuits it is crucial to identify thin-film-compatible commercial LTCC material as well as the crucial surface properties. In this work we evaluate the thin-film capability of different LTCC surfaces.
The as-fired surfaces of free-sintered, constrained-sintered (sacrificial tape), and pressure-assisted sintered commercial LTCCs (DP951, CT708, CT800), as well as respective polished surfaces, were analyzed by tactile and optical roughness measurements and scanning electron microscopy. The thin-film capability of the LTCC surfaces was assessed by sheet resistance and temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of deposited Ni thin-film layers. Contrary to the expectations, no correlation between roughness and thin-film capability was found. Ni thin films on constrained sintered DP951 show the lowest sheet resistance and highest TCR within the experimental framework of the as-fired surfaces. The influence of surface morphology on the film properties is discussed.
The finite element software ProCrackPlast is developed for the automated simulation of fatigue crack growth in arbitrarily loaded three-dimensional components with large scale plastic deformations, in particular under cyclic thermomechanical (TMF) loading.
ProCrackPlast is developed by extending the software Procrack, created at TU Freiberg for linear-elastic crack growth simulations. The pre-processing, FEM analysis, and the post-processing in ProCrackPlast are done by the commercial software ABAQUS. ProCrackPlast resorts to a crack growth procedure which adaptively updates the crack in finite increments based on the fracture-mechanical parameter, cyclic crack tip opening displacement ΔCTOD . Features of this software along with two application examples of fatigue crack growth in a typical cast steel, Ni-Resist, are presented in this paper to show its capability and performance.
Uniaxial mechanical properties of face‑centered cubic singleand multiphase high‑entropy alloys
(2022)
Since the high entropy concept was proposed at the beginning of the millennium, the research focus of this alloy family has been wide ranging. The initial search for single-phase alloys has expanded with the aim of improving mechanical properties. This can be achieved by several strengthening mechanisms such as solid-solution hardening, hot and cold working and precipitation hardening. Both single- and multiphase high- and medium-entropy alloys can be optimized for mechanical strength via several processing routes, as is the case for conventional alloys with only one base element, such as steels or Ni-based superalloys.
Plastic deformation in crystals is mediated by the motion of line defects known as dislocations.
For decades, dislocation activity has been treated as a homogeneous, smooth continuous process. However, it is now recognized that plasticity can be determined by longrange correlated and intermittent collective dislocation processes, known as avalanches. Here we demonstrate in body-centered cubic Nb how the long-range and scale-free dynamics at room temperature are progressively quenched out with decreasing temperature, eventually revealing intermittency with a characteristic length scale that approaches the Burgers Vector itself. Plasticity is shown to be bimodal across the studied temperature regime, with conventional thermally-activated smooth plastic flow (‘mild’) coexisting with sporadic Bursts (‘wild’) controlled by athermal screw dislocation activity, thereby violating the classical Notion of temperature-dependent screw dislocation motion at low temperatures. An abrupt increase of the athermal avalanche component is identified at the critical temperature of the material.
Our results indicate that plasticity at any scale can be understood in terms of the coexistence of these mild and wild modes of deformation, which could help design better alloys by suppressing one of the two modes in desired temperature Windows.
An analytical model for forecasting the temperature dependence of γ/γ' misfit in heat-resistant nickel alloys is proposed. The model accounts for the concentration dependences of the periods of crystalline lattices of the γ and γ' phases (Vegard law), thermal expansion of the γ and γ' lattices, and dissolution of the γ' phase at high temperatures. Adequacy of calculations of misfit is confirmed by comparison with the results of measurements using methods of X-ray and neutron diffraction. The model is applied for development of a nickel alloy with positive misfit.
Early material damage in equimolar CrMnFeCoNi in mixed oxidizing/sulfiding hot gas atmosphere
(2022)
The challenges to use more varied fuels at medium and high temperatures above 500 °C need to be addressed by tuning the materials toward a better resistance against increased corrosion. As a first step the corrosion processes need to be better understood, especially in the case of the unavoidable and highly corrosive sulfur-based gases. Herein, oxidation/sulfidation of an equimolar CrMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloy is studied at an early stage after hot gas exposure at 600 °C for 6 h in 0.5% SO2 and 99.5% Ar. The oxidation process is studied by means of X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and supported by thermodynamic calculations. It is found that the sulfur does not enter the bulk material but interacts mainly with the fast-diffusing manganese at grain boundary triple junctions at the alloy surface. Submicrometer scaled Cr–S–O-rich phases close to the grain boundaries complete the sulfur-based phase formation. The grains are covered in different Fe-, Mn-, and Cr-based spinels and other oxides.
High‐temperature corrosion was studied under multiple chemical loads on ferritic‐austenitic model alloys (Fe–13Cr, Fe–18Cr–12Ni, and Fe‐25Cr–20Ni) with KCl deposit under 0.5% SO2/99.5% Ar gas atmosphere at 560°C. Postexposure characterization was done by X‐ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. In a pure SO2/Ar environment a protective Cr2O3 scale was formed by all samples. The introduction of KCl deposits causes the scale to be nonprotective and multilayered, consisting of CrS, FeS, Cr2O3, Fe3O4, and Fe2O3. The impact of the microstructure and alloying elements is discussed.
Grain boundaries (GBs) are planar lattice defects that govern the properties of many types of polycrystalline materials. Hence, their structures have been investigated in great detail. However, much less is known about their chemical features, owing to the experimental difficulties to probe these features at the atomic length scale inside bulk material specimens. Atom probe tomography (APT) is a tool capable of accomplishing this task, with an ability to quantify chemical characteristics at near-atomic scale. Using APT data sets, we present here a machine-learning-based approach for the automated quantification of chemical features of GBs. We trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) using twenty thousand synthesized images of grain interiors, GBs, or triple junctions. Such a trained CNN automatically detects the locations of GBs from APT data. Those GBs are then subjected to compositional mapping and analysis, including revealing their in-plane chemical decoration patterns. We applied this approach to experimentally obtained APT data sets pertaining to three case studies, namely, Ni-P, Pt-Au, and Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys. In the first case, we extracted GB specific segregation features as a function of misorientation and coincidence site lattice character. Secondly, we revealed interfacial excesses and in-plane chemical features that could not have been found by standard compositional analyses. Lastly, we tracked the temporal evolution of chemical decoration from early-stage solute GB segregation in the dilute limit to interfacial phase separation, characterized by the evolution of complex composition patterns. This machine-learning-based approach provides quantitative, unbiased, and automated access to GB chemical analyses, serving as an enabling tool for new discoveries related to interface thermodynamics, kinetics, and the associated chemistry-structure-property relations.
To set up recommendations on how to define “reasonable minimum composition thresholds” for CO2 streams to access CO2 pipeline networks, we investigated potential impacts of CO2 streams with different and temporally variable compositions and mass flow rates along the CCS chain. All investigations were based on a generic “CCS cluster scenario” in which CO2 streams captured from a spatial cluster of eleven emitters (seven fossil-fired power plants, two cement plants, one refinery and one steel mill) are collected in a regional pipeline network. The resulting CO2 stream (19.78 Mio t impure CO2 per year) is transported in a trunk line (onshore and offshore) and injected into five generic replicate storage structures (Buntsandstein saline aquifers) offshore. Experimental investigations and modeling of selected impacts revealed beneficial as well as adverse impacts of different impurities and their combinations. Overall, no fundamental technical obstacles for transporting, injecting and storing CO2 streams of the considered variable compositions and mass flow rates were observed. We recommend to define minimum composition thresholds for each specific CCS project through limiting
i) the overall CO2 content,
ii) maximum contents of relevant impurities or elements,
iii) acceptable variability of concentrations of critical impurities, and defining impurity combinations to be avoided.
Inconel 718 is a precipitation strengthened, nickel-based super alloy of interest for the Additive Manufacturing (AM) of low volume, complex parts to reduce production time and cost compared to conventional subtractive processes. The AM process involves repeated rapid melting, solidification and reheating, which exposes the material to non-equilibrium conditions that affect elemental segregation and the subsequent formation of solidification phases, either beneficial or detrimental. These variations are difficult to characterize due to the small length scale within the micron sized melt pool. To understand how the non-equilibrium conditions affect the initial solidification phases and their critical temperatures, a multi-length scale, multi modal approach has been taken to evaluate various methods for identifying the initial phases formed in the as-built Inconel 718 produced by laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM). Using a range of characterization tools from the bulk differential thermal analysis (DTA) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) to spatially resolved images using a variety of electron microscopy tools, a better understanding is obtained of how these minor phases can be properly identified regarding the amount and size, morphology and distribution. Using the most promising characterization techniques for investigation of the as-built specimens, those techniques were used to evaluate the specimens after various heat treatments. During the sequence of heat treatments, the initial as-built dendritic structures recrystallized into well-defined grains whose size was dependent on the temperature. Although the resulting strength was similar in all heat treated specimens, the elongation increased as the grain size was refined due to differences in the precipitated phase distribution and morphology.
The field of materials science is defined as “the study of the properties of solid materials and how those properties are determined by a material’s composition and structure.”. Many –if not most– of the materials that are produced nowadays owe their properties to structures engineered down to the nanoscopic level. This need has been partly realized thanks to the understanding of materials’ building blocks via characterization techniques that reach this level of resolution. Transmission electron microscopy, since its first implementation in the early 1930s (in Berlin), has been implemented to achieve imaging –and spectral– analysis at lateral resolutions down to the atomic level.
In this contribution, a series of practical examples will be presented, where applied materials are characterized by a range of transmission electron microscopy techniques to understand structural and functional properties of a wide range of materials. Among these materials examples will be presented on structural conventionally and additively manufactured metallic alloys, high entropy alloys, dissimilar aluminum-to-steel welds, magnetic nanoparticles, ceramic coatings, high temperature oxidation products. Addressed will be either the effect of processing route or that of the exposure to experimental conditions similar to those found in the respective intended applications.
Single-crystal components made of nickel base superalloys contain pores after casting and homogenization heat treatment. Hot isostatic pressing (HIP), which is carried above the γ' -solvus temperature of the alloy, is industrially applied to reduce porosity. A modeling of HIP based on continuously distributed dislocations is developed in a 2D setting. Glide and climb of straight-edge dislocations, as well as vacancy diffusion, are the deformation mechanisms taken into account.
Thereby, dislocation glide is controlled by dragging a cloud of large atoms, and climb is controlled by vacancy diffusion. Relying on previous investigations of the creep behavior at HIP temperatures, it is assumed that new dislocations are nucleated at low-angle boundaries (LAB) and move through subgrains until they either reach the opposite LABs or react with other dislocations and annihilate.
Vacancies are created at the pore surface and diffuse through the alloy until they are either consumed by climbing dislocations or disappear at the LABs. The field equations are solved by finite elements. It is shown that pore shrinking is mostly controlled by vacancy diffusion as the shear stresses at the LABs are too low to
nucleate a sufficient amount of dislocations.
Characterization of Ti-6Al-4V fabricated by multilayer laser powder-based directed energy deposition
(2022)
Laser powder-based directed energy deposition (DED-L) is increasingly being used in additive manufacturing (AM). As AM technology, DED-L must consider specific challenges. It must achieve uniform volume growth over hundreds of layers and avoid heat buildup of the deposited material. Herein, Ti–6Al–4V is fabricated using an approach that addresses these challenges and is relevant in terms of transferability to DED–L applications in AM. The assessment of the obtained properties and the discussion of their relationship to the process conditions and resulting microstructure are presented. The quality of the manufacturing process is proven in terms of the reproducibility of properties between individual blanks and with respect to the building height. The characterization demonstrates that excellent mechanical properties are achieved at room temperature and at 400 °C.
The formation of pores in CMSX-4 nickel based superalloys is detrimental to the service life of the material. A way to avoid the problem is to treat the superalloys under Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), which enables a large volume fraction of pores to be annihilated. This paper aims to understand the contribution of plastic activity related to the gliding of dislocations on the pore annihilation. Simulations based on a phase-field model of dislocation are performed and make it possible to consider the strong anisotropy of the CMSX-4 under HIP conditions in conjunction to the strong elastic heterogeneity introduced by the pore. For pores with a radius of few micrometers, it is shown that edge parts of dislocation lines that present an extra half atomic plane oriented towards the pore are stacked above and under it in the direction which is perpendicular to their slip-planes, causing an increase of the number of dislocation along the four octahedral directions of the FCC single crystal which intersect the pore center. Results are streamlined within the isotropic elastic theory of dislocations. Effects of elastic anisotropy and dislocation reactions are also investigated in order to specify what would be the dislocation configuration around a pore in CMSX-4 under HIP conditions. Notably, the elastic anisotropy is shown to significantly modify the arrangement of dislocations close to the pore equator. Simulations also allow for the characterization of pore/dislocation interactions when dislocations are involved in Low Angle Boundaries as experimentally observed.
Rapid solidification leads to unique microstructural features, where a less studied topic is the formation of various crystalline defects, including high dislocation densities, as well as gradients and splitting of the crystalline orientation. As these defects critically affect the material’s mechanical properties and performance features, it is important to understand the defect formation mechanisms, and how they depend on the solidification conditions and alloying. To illuminate the formation mechanisms of the rapid solidification induced crystalline defects, we conduct a multiscale modelling analysis consisting of bond-order potential-based molecular dynamics (MD), phase field crystal-based amplitude expansion simulations, and sequentially coupled phase field–crystal plasticity simulations. The resulting dislocation densities are quantified and compared to past experiments. The atomistic approaches (MD, PFC) can be used to calibrate continuum level crystal plasticity models, and the framework adds mechanistic insights arising from the multiscale analysis.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Transport phenomena in complex systems (part 2)’.
Creep and creep damage behavior of stainless steel 316L manufactured by laser powder bed fusion
(2022)
This study presents a thorough characterization of the creep properties of austenitic stainless steel 316L produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF 316L) contributing to the sparse available data to date. Experimental results (mechanical tests, microscopy, X-ray computed tomography) concerning the creep deformation and damage mechanisms are presented and discussed. The tested LPBF material exhibits a low defect population, which allows for the isolation and improved understanding of the effect of other typical aspects of an LPBF microstructure on the creep behavior. As a benchmark to assess the material properties of the LPBF 316L, a conventionally manufactured variant of 316L was also tested. To characterize the creep properties, hot tensile tests and constant force creep tests at 600 °C and 650 °C are performed. The creep stress exponents of the LPBF material are smaller than that of the conventional variant. The primary and secondary creep stages and the times to rupture of the LPBF material are shorter than the hot rolled 316L. Overall the creep damage is more extensive in the LPBF material. The creep damage of the LPBF material is overall mainly intergranular. It is presumably caused and accelerated by both the appearance of precipitates at the grain boundaries and the unfavorable orientation of the grain boundaries. Neither the melt pool boundaries nor entrapped gas pores show a significant influence on the creep damage mechanism.
Unlike conventional alloys, high entropy alloys are characterized by one or more solid solution phase(s) without a clearly defined solvent, all element contribute to the matrix in a way that is still not entirely understood. In addition, it is not known to what extent classic thermodynamic rules can be applied to these multi-element alloys, especially concerning the question about what factor incites the matrix to undergo a phase transformation.
This work tackles directly some of these aspects on a chosen alloy, Al8Cr17Co17Cu8Fe17Ni33 (at.%), which presents a high temperature single-phase γ state and a two-phase state with γ′ precipitates, above and below 900 ◦C, respectively. A combined investigation via microstructural observations, hardness testing, X-ray absorption and photoelectron spectroscopy was carried out above the γ′ formation temperature. Hardness values are independent of the annealing temperatures, microstructural analysis shows no phase formation and X-ray absorption spectroscopy does not reveal observable changes in neither local atomic nor electronic structure, indicating that approaching γ′ formation temperature is not influenced by atomic or electronic rearrangements.
Interestingly, short-range chemical order remains quantitatively compatible at any annealing temperature in the single-phase γ state, and the observed preferred pairs Al–Cu and Al–Ni in the γ state match with the γ’ precipitates composition below 900 ◦C.
High- and medium-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a quite new class of materials. They have a high potential for applications from low to high temperatures due to the excellent combination of their structural properties.
Concerning their application as components; processing properties, such as machinability, have hardly been investigated so far. Hence, machinability analyses with a focus on the influence of the milling process and its basic parameters (cutting speed, feed per cutting edge) on the resulting surface integrity of specimens from an equiatomic high- (CoCrFeMnNi) and a medium- (CoCrNi) entropy alloy have been carried out. A highly innovative milling process with ultrasonic assistance (USAM) was compared to conventional milling processes.
Recent studies have shown that USAM has a high potential to significantly reduce the mechanical load on the tool and workpiece surface during milling. In this study, the basic machining and ultrasonic parameters were systematically varied. After machining, the surface integrity of the alloys was analyzed in terms of topography, defects, subsurface damage, and residual stresses. It was observed that USAM reduces the cutting forces and increases the surface integrity in terms of lower tensile residual stresses and defect density near the surfaces for the CoCrFeMnNi alloy. It was shown that the cutting forces and the metallurgical influence in the sub surface region are reduced by increasing the cutting speed and reducing the feed rate per cutting edge. With the CoCrNi alloy, the tool revealed severe wear. As a result, for this alloy no influence of the parameters on the machinability could be determined.
The large number of TEM investigations and the regular microstructure
of single-crystal nickel-base superalloys has boosted the development of a number of physically motivated constitutive laws. In contrast to the more phenomenological models discussed in the next chapter, these models use dislocation densities as internal variables. Obvious advantages are that the computed densities can be compared to TEM observations and the Deformation mechanisms can be easier translated into mathematical equations.
The elastic constants are the most basic mechanical properties of a material and are needed for any structural analysis of a component. For example, they have a major influence on the eigenfrequencies of vibrating parts. Single crystals of Ni-base superalloys are strongly anisotropic, which means that the observed properties are orientation dependent. Tensor algebra is then required to mathematically formulate the elastic properties and their relations to the crystal orientation. Hence, this chapter first summarizes some basic definitions and calculation rules for Rotation matrices, including the definition of the Euler angles, which are most commonly used to define the relative orientations of the crystal and the component. Parts of this chapter closely follow the lines of the excellent exposition of the topic by Olschewski.
The elastic energy of mixing for multi-component solid solutions is derived by generalizing Eshelby's sphere-in-hole model. By surveying the dependence of the elastic energy on the chemical composition and lattice misfit, we derive a lattice strain coefficient λ*. Studying several high-entropy alloys and superalloys, we propose that most solid solution multi-component alloys are stable when λ*<0.16, generalizing the Hume-Rothery atomic-size rule for binary alloys. We also reveal that the polydispersity index δ, frequently used for describing strain in multi-component alloys, directly represents the elastic energy e with e=qδ², q being an elastic constant. Furthermore, the effects of (i) the number and (ii) the atomic-size distribution of constituting elements on the phase stability of high-entropy alloys were quantified. The present derivations and discussions open for richer considerations of elastic effects in high-entropy alloys, offering immediate support for quantitative assessments of their thermodynamic properties and studying related strengthening mechanisms.