In this study, Mg, Sn, Cd, Bi and Sb containing, five binary, three ternary and two quaternary different alloys to be used in a Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid (VRLA) batteries have been studied in terms of their mechanical and electrochemical properties. The investigated properties are hardness, passivity, corrosion rate, hydrogen gassing and the conductivity of the passive film. All electrochemical tests were carried out in 3.75 M H2SO4 solution by using open-circuit potential, anodic polarization, polarization resistance measurement and gas collection techniques. The results showed that while the minimum hardness values were observed in Pb and Pb-Bi alloy, Mg containing alloys have the highest hardness values among all alloys. According to corrosion measurements, lowest icritical value was obtained for Pb, Pb-Bi and Pb-Sn, which reached to passivation region earlier than others. Passive film formation was seen for all specimens. The noble Ecorr value and minimum corrosion rates belonged to Pb and Pb-Mg. Pb-Bi and Pb-Cd have the highest gas evolution rate. Besides, there were not seen much difference in the gassing behavior of Pb-Sn and Pb-Sb alloys. Mg is found to have a superior effect on hydrogen gassing. Addition of Sn, as an alloying element, to lead increases the conductivity of the passivation layer. Mg containing alloys did not show good conductivity characteristic. As a result, Mg containing alloy seemed to have an important role because of the desired hardness, corrosion and, gas evolution behavior. However, conductivity of passivation layer of these alloys came up to be low due to the higher tendency of Mg to oxidation. Even so, Mg seems to be a promising alloying element for lead grid alloys in Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid (VRLA) batteries.

Distortion (undesired dimension and shape changes) is one of the most important problems of through hardened steel components. During quenching, anisotropic dimensional changes are inevitable due to classical plasticity and transformation induced plasticity. Moreover / various distortion potential carriers are brought into material during production chain. This study consists of analytical, numerical and experimental investigations of quench distortion. In numerical and analytical part, sensitivity analysis of the quenching model, and dimensional analysis of distortion were conducted by utilizing experimentally verified simulations. In sensitivity analysis, effect of uncertainties in input data on simulation results were determined, whereas / in dimensional analysis, the influence of various dimensionless numbers that govern quench distortion were investigated. Throughout the study, gas-nozzle-field quenching of SAE52100 long shafts were simulated. Simulations were performed by commercial finite element analysis software, SYSWELD&reg / . Conceptual results indicate that the most important material properties and dimensionless numbers are the ones that govern volume change. Moreover, those that determine plasticity of austenite significantly affect isotropy of the dimensional changes. When unimportant dimensionless numbers are eliminated, there remain 14 dimensionless combinations that govern the problem. In experimental part of the study / effect of microstructure on distortion behavior of SAE52100 long cylinders with various diameters was investigated. In addition to gas-nozzle-field quenching, salt bath and high speed quenching experiments were performed. In regards to experimental findings, there is a correlation between distortions of long cylinders and machining position with respect to billet.

7039 aluminum alloys are widely being used in the aerospace, automotive and defense industries in which welding technique is used for their joining. The main problem encountered during the welding of 7039 aluminum alloy is hot cracking. The aim of this study is to understand the effect of welding parameters on the hot cracking behavior of 7039 aluminum alloy by using Modified Varestraint Test (MVT) with Gas Tunsgten Arc Welding (GTAW) technique. During tests, welding speed was selected as varying parameter, welding current was kept constant and to understand the effect of filler materials 5183 and 5356 aluminum alloy filler materials were used. It has been observed that with the change in welding speed hot cracking susceptibility of 7039 aluminum alloy changes. The effect of filler materials is found to be favorable by decreasing the hot cracking susceptibility of 7039 aluminum alloy. Filler material additions also improved the hardness of the weld metal. Based on the cracking mechanism hot cracks were investigated as solidification cracks and liquation cracks. It has been experienced that liquation cracking susceptibility of the filler material added samples has been affected from the magnesium and manganese contents of the weld seams. Effect of solidification range on liquation cracking was also justified with differential thermal analyses. With the micro examinations the intergranular structure of hot cracking is revealed. In addition, the characterization and growth properties of the hot cracks under cyclic load were tried to be understood and the fractography of these cracks were taken.

In this thesis an apparatus is designed which enables the testing of thermal power plant boiler tubes against erosion. The apparatus makes use of a tube sample directly cut from the boiler tubes and simulates conditions similar to those prevailing in boilers in lignite fired power plants. The apparatus is composed of three components / a furnace for heating the sample, a loading system which allows application of tensile stresses while allowing the rotation of the sample, and a particle blower that delivers abrasive particles to the surface of the sample. The abrasive material used in the test is mixture of oxides, 90% of which is Al2O3 and the average particle size is approximately 300 &micro / m. The unit as designed would allow testing of boiler tubes up to a temperature of 650 C, and particle velocity of up to 50 m/s. The apparatus as tested at room temperatures for four identical samples have yielded very similar erosion values based on measurement of weight loss. At elevated temperature, erosion could be measured by a thickness loss since the oxidation that occurs complicates the erosion measurement. Two economizer material / P235GH and 16Mo3 were tested at 500oC with particle velocity of 10 m/s. The testing has shown that 16Mo3 has better performance than P235GH, the erosion rate differing by 20 percent.

This study focuses on joining pearlitic ductile cast iron with low carbon steel by welding and investigation of this joint in microstructural and mechanical viewpoints. For this purpose E355 steel and GJS600-3 cast iron were joined using metal active gas (MAG) welding process by G3Si1 filler wire. The joining process is shaped mainly by the problems related to the low weldability of cast. Preheating was applied to prevent formation of cooling cracks and effects of post weld heat treatments (PWHT) were surveyed. Micro examination and micro hardness tests were applied to characterize the general microstructure. Grain size measurements were done for E355. Hardness profiles, tension and impact toughness properties were designated via mechanical tests. Fatigue behavior was surveyed and general fracture characteristics were determined via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examinations. According to study it was concluded that successful weld joint could be formed between the materials by suitable preheating. Formation of ledeburitic white cast iron and martensite in heat affected zone of cast piece was witnessed. It was possible to lower high hardness values of these phases gradually by increasing post weld heat treatment temperatures. The weld joint behaved superior to the base metals under tension and fatigue tests. In tension tests failure occurred at E355 base metal whereas fatigue loading resulted failure at GJS600-3. A great impact toughness variation was determined between two pieces. It is seen that heat treatments had minor effect on mechanical test results except hardness. The study was concluded that a useful fusion weld joint between these materials can be built.

The aim of this study is the synthesis of hydrogen storage compounds by electrodeoxidation technique which offers an inexpensive and rapid route to synthesize compounds from oxide mixtures. Within the scope of this study, two hydrogen storage compounds, FeTi and Mg2Ni, are aimed to be produced by this technique. In the first part, effect of sintering conditions on synthesis of FeTi was studied. For this purpose, oxide pellets made out of Fe2O3-TiO2 powders were sintered at temperatures between 900 &deg / C &ndash / 1300 &deg / C. Experiments showed that by sintering at 1100 &deg / C, Fe2TiO5 forms and particle size remains comparatively small, which improve the reducibility of the oxide pellet. Experimental studies showed that the reduction of MgO rich MgO-NiO oxide pellet to synthesize Mg2Ni occurs only at extreme deoxidation conditions. Pure MgO remains intact after deoxidation. In contrast to these, pure NiO and NiO rich MgO-NiO mixtures were deoxidized successfully to Ni and MgNi2, respectively. Conductivity measurements address the low conductivity of MgO-rich systems as one of the reasons behind those difficulties in reduction. In the last part, a study was carried out to elucidate the low reducibility of oxides. It is considered that the oxygen permeability becomes important when the reduction-induced volumetric change does not yield fragmentation into solid-state. The approach successfully explains why MgO particles could not be reduced at ordinary deoxidation conditions. The study addresses that Mg layer formed at the surface of MgO particles blocks the oxygen transport between MgO and electrolyte as Mg has low oxygen permeability.

TiB2 particle reinforced aluminum matrix composites have been the subject of several investigations. An M.Sc. thesis on production of TiB2 reinforced aluminum composites by reaction between liquid aluminum and B2O3 and TiO2 dissolved in cryolite has been completed in this Department in 2005. This study is a continuation of the mentioned M.Sc.study. Composition of the starting cryolite-B2O3-TiO2 system, temperature and time were used as experimental variables. The resulting composite was squeeze cast and its microstructure was examined. Mechanical properties of the produced composite were measured and how mechanical properties of the composite vary with TiB2 content of the composite was determined.

The aim of this thesis study was to extract nickel and cobalt from Sivrihisar limonitic nickel laterite ore by high pressure acid leaching (HPAL) method under most economical operating parameters. Optimizing the conditions to yield a saleable quality mixed hydroxide product from the pregnant leach solution (PLS) was also investigated. To extract high amounts of nickel and cobalt from the laterite matrix / leaching duration, leaching temperature and sulfuric acid/ore ratio were studied at fixed conditions of -850 &micro / limonitic ore particle size and 40% solids concentration. The Sivrihisar limonitic nickel laterite ore was found to be readily leachable. It was found that 95.4% of Ni and 91.5% of Co were extracted at the optimized conditions of 235oC, 0.23 acid/ore ratio in 60 minutes. The real pregnant leach solution produced at the optimized conditions of HPAL was purified in two iron removal stages under the determined optimum conditions. Nearly all of the Al and Cr were removed from the PLS in the two stages of iron removal. Then, nickel and cobalt were taken out from the PLS in the form of mixed hydroxide precipitates (MHP) in two stages. A MHP 1 product containing 33.41 wt.% Ni, 2.93 wt.% Co was obtained with a Mn contamination of 3.69 wt.% at the optimized conditions of pH=7, 50oC and 60 minutes. The MHP 1 product was also contaminated with Fe (2.83 wt.%) since it could not be completely removed from the PLS without the critical losses of nickel and cobalt during the two iron removal stages.

In this study, prealloyed austenitic stainless steel and premixed soft magnetic Ni-Fe permalloy compacts were consolidated through microwave and conventional sintering routes at combinations of various sintering temperatures and compaction pressures. Sintered alloys were characterized in terms of their densification, microstructural evolution as well as mechanical and magnetic properties. The effect of sintering method in terms of the applied sintering parameters on the final properties of the compacts were investigated in a comparative manner. It was determined that microwave sintered permalloys are superior compared to their conventionally sintered counterparts in densification response, microstructural characteristics such as pore shape and distribution as well as mechanical properties for both austenitic stainless steel and permalloy compacts. However, permeability of the microwave sintered permalloys was inferior to their conventionally sintered counterparts in some cases due to microstructural refinement associated with microwave sintering route.

ABSTRACT AN INVESTIGATION OF THE MICROSTRUCTURAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TRI-CALCIUM PHOSPHATES DOPED WITH ALUMINUM AND FLUORIDE IONS Tahmasebifar, Aydin M. Sc., Department of Engineering Sciences Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zafer Evis August / 88 Pages The aim of this study was to investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties of pure tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and tricalcium phosphates doped with aluminum (Al3+) and fluoride (F-) ions at different compositions. TCP was synthesized via precipitation method and sintered at 1100