Wear and biological response to wear debrisof artificial joints remain the major concerns in total hip arthroplasty (THA) [1].Silicon carbide reinforced alumina, Al2O3-SiCw,can be considered as a candidate for hip implants due to its high hardnessand toughness, aswell as chemical inertness. In this study, thewear and friction properties of Al2O3-SiCw areinvestigated by pin-on-disc experiments, with Hank’s Buffered Salt Solution(HBSS) as lubricant. Comparisons with BIOLOX®delta,the most commonly used ceramic in THA, under the same test conditions are made as well.

Although high strength steels represent yield strength up to 1300 MPa, welded structures reveal lowerstrength values. The strongest commercially available electrode provides the yield strength of about900 MPa. Therefore, in welded steels with strength above this type of filler metal, achieving anacceptable global strength is a crucial issue. In this master thesis, affects of different welding procedures on static strength of welded jointsof Weldox 960 and Weldox 1100 steels, were studied. These steels are produced by SSAB inOxelösund. Meanwhile, finite element method analyses were applied in order to investigatethe static strength behavior of such weldments under uniaxial tension. The welding parameters which were selected as variables are:  Heat input Weld joint geometry Filler metal When weld metal is undermatching in strength levels than the base material, by applyingtension the soft weld metal begins to deform before parent metal. At that point thedeformation of resulted soft zone, including the weld metal and the heat affected zone, ishindered by high strength parent metal. Thus, uniaxial stress caused by uniaxial load isconverted to multiaxial stress. This conversion in tension results in increase in the staticstrength of weldment. The increase in strength is emphasized by increase in the width of thewelded joint while the thickness of the plate is kept as constant. After experiments and performing FEM studies, it was revealed that the static strength ofWeldox 960 welded joints approaches towards the tensile strength of parent metal by increasein the width of the weldment. In Weldox 1100 joints; a slight increase in tensile properties ofthe weldments, when the width of the sample increases, was observed.

Due to the high efficiency and productivity of continuous casting process, this method has been the most employed process to produce steel in past decades. The need to improve and optimize the finished product made it essential to gain more knowledge about the process, types of defects that may occur and the reasons for them. Moreover, the solutions for reducing the shortcomings in continuous casting process have been an intriguing subject to study. Many attempts have been done in order to reach this goal. Understanding, determining and optimizing the mould flux slag properties is especially important, since it plays an important and significant role in this process. For this, it is of outmost importance to acquire more knowledge about different properties of mould flux powders. Hence, there has been a world wide effort to measure and model the properties of mould flux properties, such as liquidus and solidus temperatures, heat capacity, enthalpy, thermal expansion, density, viscosity, electrical conductivity, surface tension and thermal conductivity. This thesis presents a brief review on continuous casting process, mould flux powder and its properties and characteristics. Furthermore, it focuses on the thermo-physical properties of mould fluxes. In present work, different industrial mould flux powders have been analyzed to measure their viscosity, break temperature, physical properties such as density, flowablity of powder, slag structure and chemical composition. The experimental data have been compared to some of the most commonly used models such as Riboud model, Urbain model, Iida model and KTH model.

A newly developed martensitic stainless steel powder, called “powder A”, designed for surface coating with laser cladding and PTA cladding was characterized. The purpose with powder A is to achieve both good corrosion resistance and wear resistance in a stainless steel grade. The investigation of powder A was divided into cladding characterization, microstructural investigation and a property comparison to existing grades 316 HSi and 431 L. Powder A was successfully deposited with laser cladding, exhibiting a wide process window, and PTA cladding. In both cases no preheating was required and no cracks were formed. The microstructure examination indicates that powder A has a martensitic structure possibly containing small amounts of ferrite in the grain boundaries. Thermodynamic calculations in computer software Thermo-Calc 4.1 supported this theory. The microstructure of powder A proved to be very stable over a wide range of cladding parameters. Powder A was significantly harder than 316 HSi and 431 L and had better corrosion resistance than 431 L in a chloride environment. Powder A had similar corrosion properties as 316 HSi in the experiments made .The wear performance of the powder A coatings was similar to 431 L. This was surprising since the hardness of the powder A coatings is significantly higher compared to 431 L.

The concrete mixer industry is affected by abrasive wear under both dry and wet conditions. An upgrade of the material inside the drums to high abrasion resistant steel grades can improve the lifetime and offer the possibility to reduce the weight of the drum. A new wear testing apparatus was designed to simulate the wear conditions in a concrete mixer truck with the aim to investigate the relative wear resistance for a number of steel grades. Three tests were performed under wet conditions using 16-25 mm crushed granite. The tests focused on the wear resistance under sliding and impact wear for 30 different steel grades. All of the steel grades were analyzed regarding hardness profile, microstructure and chemical composition prior to testing. Wear losses were investigated by weighing before, during and after testing. Hardness profile and SEM investigations were performed at Swerea Kimab on worn surface and cross-section after testing. Relationship between hardness and wear resistance was found over a certain hardness level. Higher hardness show better wear resistance for this type of application. The shape and degradation of abrasives were found to affect the wear rate. / Betongblandare är en applikation som är utsatt för ett abrasivt slitage under både torra och våta miljöer. Genom att uppgradera materialet inuti trumman till ett slitstarkt stål kan livslängden förlängas och vikten på trumman reduceras. En ny testutrustning utformades för att simulera slitaget och miljöerna inuti en betongbil. Slitstyrkan undersöktes genom att mäta det relativa slitaget för totalt 30 stycken stålsorter. Tre stycken slitagetester genomfördes med en blandning av krossad granit, av storleken 16-25 mm, och vatten. Testerna fokuserade på att simulera både ett glidande slitage och ett lätt stötslitage. Innan testet påbörjades analyserades samtliga stålsorter med avseende på hårdhetsprofilen, mikrostrukturen och kemisk sammansättning. Materialförlusten undersöktes genom vägning före testet, under testet och efter testet. Efter testet analyserades provernas slityta i SEM och hårdheten i tvärsnittet på Swerea Kimab. Ett samband mellan hårdhet och slitstyrka kunde ses över en viss hårdhetsnivå. Testerna visade att en högre hårdhet ger en bättre slitstyrka samt att formen och nötningen av de abrasiva materialet påverkade nötningshastigheten.

Domain wall dynamics is the one of the most interesting topics in the field of Spintronics because of its potential applications in the development of memory devices. These studies of dynamics are particularly focused on dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMS) or ferromagnetic semiconductors, which are believed to be one of the future materials for Spintronics devices. Despite the fact that the Curie temperature of these DMS is still lower than room temperature the knowledge gained in this study can be applicable to other DMS systems and will unravel new phenomena for the dynamic behavior of domain walls. In this work the dynamic behavior of magnetic domain walls in (Ga, Mn) (As, P) nanometric layers was studied. This was achieved with the use of longitudinal Kerr microscopy working at cryogenic temperature. The domain wall displacements were measured with the application of high enough magnetic fields for very short durations at two different temperatures. These magnetic fields were applied with the help of homemade microcoils used for the first time in this kind of study on DMS. A comparison is shown with the previous results obtained on the same material with a different magnetic anisotropy. The results show very high domain wall velocities for this type of material, not reported previously. The velocity curves clearly show two distinct regions with different mobilities. Finally quantitative analyses are presented to explain these velocities.

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Detta projekt har genomförts för att studera möjligheterna med att justera ämnesgeometrin före valsning för att minimera tillväxten av tungor som bildar stjärtändar i bandets sistaände. Olika justeringar har utvärderats genom att ämnen har justerats med hjälp av gasskärning och sedan valsats i förpar och färdigverk. Ett delmål var att förenkla efterföljande behandlingar där långa stjärtändar är ett hinder.   Resultaten visar att stora skillnader på längden hos tungorna kan åstadkommas med mindre justeringar hos ämnena. Längden på stjärtändarna minskade med upp till 70 % på band som valsats till en tjocklek av 15,02 mm och 75 % på band som valsats till en tjocklek av 12,02 mm. Effekten av att valsa ämnen med dessa justeringar var att en midja bildades i slutet av bandet där bredden linjärt avtog innan det att stjärtänden uppstod. Delmålet uppnåddes genom att alla uppmätta, justerade band i framtiden kan undvika ett processteg då längderna hos tungorna hade minskats tillräckligt mycket.   Svårigheter under projektet var att kunna planera och genomföra omfattande försök med många ämnen vilket resulterade i ett begränsat antal fick genomföras. Ämnesgeometrin var även ett problem då inga exakta mått fanns att tillgå före valsningen vilket gjorde det svårt att förutse valsinställningar för specifika ämnen.

This work studied the hot wire method in measuring thermal conductivity at room temperature. The purpose is to find the optimized experimental conditions to minimize natural convection in liquid for this method, which will be taken as reference for high temperature thermal conductivity measurement of slag. Combining room temperature experiments and simulation with COMSOL Multiphysics 4.2a, the study on different experimental parameters which may influence the accuracy of the measured thermal conductivity was conducted. The parameters studied were the diameter of crucible, the position of wire in the liquid, including z direction and x-y plane position, diameter of the hot wire, and current used in the measurement. In COMSOL simulations, the maximum natural convection velocity value was used to evaluate the natural convection in the liquid. The experiment results showed after 4~5 seconds of the measuring process, the natural convection already happened. Also when current was fixed, the thinner the hot wire, the larger convection it would cause. This is because thinner wire generates more heat per unit surface area. Using higher current in measuring, more heat generation improved accuracy of result but also had earlier and larger effect on convection. Both simulation and experiments showed that with the height of the liquid fixed, the smaller diameter of the crucible (not small to the level which is comparable with hot wire diameter), the higher the position in z direction (still covered by liquid), the less natural convection effect existed. But the difference was not significant. The radius-direction position change didn’t influence the result much as long as the wire was not too close to the wall.

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are advanced materials and their main characteristic is microstructure and composition variation over the volume of the specimen. This variation of the composition results in changing of material properties in the component. In FGMs usually there are two different types of powder materials such as metal and ceramic powders which are mixed to build up the graded region. These grade layers are placed between the metal and ceramic layers and by this approach a smooth and gradual transient from metal to ceramic can be achieved.Sintering is the main technique to manufacture these types of materials. During the sintering process, cooling of the specimen from sintering temperature to room temperature results in generation of thermal residual stresses within the material. These thermal stresses may cause crack propagation and failure of the material.Distribution analysis of these thermally induced stresses within the material has been carried out in this thesis work. Finite element package ABAQUS has been used in order to simulate the distribution of the thermal residual stresses in the materials. In order to achieve the optimal design for different geometries the parametric study also has been performed. For example influence of number of layers, mixing ratio and porosity has been investigated.Based on the finite element results for cylindrical and cuboid models, non-linear composition variation for both geometries has no improving effect in terms of induced thermal residual stresses. Porous material shows less thermal stress than non-porous material. As the amount of porosity for individual layer was considered in simulation process, this approach resulted in decreasing of thermal stresses within the material. Moreover, non-uniform thickness of graded layers was not beneficial for stress reduction. This variation of thickness results in increasing of thermal residual stresses within the material.