Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:12:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3767.pdf: 7137153 bytes, checksum: 0679292ceb74de53d4df272fad4edcf3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-14 / Poly(vinyl chloride) or PVC is among the most consumed thermoplastics in the world and has great versatility: A wide range of products, from pipes and rigid window frames to flexible foams, various types of materials such as synthetic leather clothing and flexible sheet can be made from PVC. The mechanical performance of the final product of PVC has direct relationship with the severity of the processing conditions, which can be quantified by the gelation level. This work studied the correlation between the gelation level of rigid PVC samples and the specific essential work of fracture (we), obtained by techniques of analysis of the essential work of fracture (EWF). For this assessment, and in order to control the gelation level, PVC compounds were processed in a torque rheometer, and then molded by compression. Different processing temperatures and two dosage levels in the mixture chamber were used to obtain samples with gelation levels between 2% and 74%, assessed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). EWF results showed that in PVC samples with low gelation level occur predominantly brittle fracture, while the progressively increasing of gelation level leads to an increasing of ductile portion in the fracture mechanism of the samples. However, samples with excessively high or excessively low gelation levels showed lower we values, when compared to samples with intermediate gelation levels, supported by both industry experiences and results from other researchers, when other techniques were used. / O poli(cloreto de vinila) ou PVC está entre os termoplásticos mais consumidos em todo o mundo e possui uma grande versatilidade: Uma grande gama de produtos, desde tubos e esquadrias de janelas rígidas até espumas flexíveis, diversos tipos de materiais tais como couro sintético para roupas e chapas flexíveis podem ser produzidos a partir do PVC. O desempenho mecânico do produto final de PVC possui relação direta com as condições de processamento, que pode ser quantificada pelo grau de gelificação. Neste trabalho foi estudada a correlação entre o grau de gelificação de amostras de PVC rígido e o trabalho essencial de fratura específico (we), obtido através de técnicas de análise do trabalho essencial de fratura (EWF). Para esta avaliação, e de forma a controlar o nível de gelificação, compostos de PVC foram processados em reômetro de torque, e posteriormente moldados por compressão. Foram utilizadas diferentes temperaturas de processamento e dois níveis de dosagem na câmara de mistura para obtenção de amostras com grau de gelificação entre 2% e 74%, analisadas por calorimetria exploratória diferencial (DSC). A avaliação dos resultados de EWF mostrou que amostras de PVC com baixo grau de gelificação apresentam fratura predominantemente frágil, enquanto que o aumento progressivo do grau de gelificação promove o aumento da contribuição da parcela dúctil no mecanismo de fratura das amostras. Entretanto, amostras com grau de gelificação excessivamente elevado ou excessivamente baixo apresentam valores de we menores quando comparados com amostras com grau de gelificação intermediários, corroborando tanto a experiência da indústria quanto resultados de outros pesquisadores, obtidos com a utilização de outras técnicas.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:10:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6216.pdf: 3752931 bytes, checksum: c42d2f4f644f3bf605290cc17c76dffa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-20 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / Polymeric materials, including polymer blends and composites are used in a great variety of engineering applications. Toughness, which is associated to the capacity of the material to absorb energy before its break, is frequently an important characteristic to many high-performance applications becoming essential the use of effective methods to determine the intrinsic toughness of a material in order to increase the possibility of development and applications concerning polymeric materials establishing a relationship between fracture behavior and morphology. The method Essential Work of Fracture (EWF) has been receiving special attention to determine the toughness of high ductility polymers, however, sometimes, a low discerning use of the technique concerning the theory and the correct preparation of specimen of polymeric systems.This way, it was developed a very selective procedure to the preparation specimen which is the main step to obtain precise results. In order to expand EWF technique application and to evaluate the fracture toughness, in this work the fracture behavior of three different polymeric systems was observed. Two of them showed an excellent response to the technique. The nanocomposites of blends HDPE/LLDPE and OMMT and Polypropylene/Glass Fiber composites, both semi-crystalline materials, with ductile behavior. On the other hand, observing the other system, nanostructured blends SAN/PBT, with brittle behavior, the EWF method applied in this work showed to be inappropriate. Therefore, there was an improvement concerning the understanding of limitations and peculiarities of the EWF technique, which is nowadays a very useful tool to characterize the toughness of ductile polymeric materials althought it still has some limitations related to brittle materials. / Materiais poliméricos, incluindo suas blendas e compósitos, são muito utilizados em uma ampla variedade de aplicações de engenharia. A tenacidade, que é a capacidade que um material apresenta de absorver energia antes de sua ruptura, frequentemente é uma propriedade chave para aplicações de alto desempenho, e assim é essencial a utilização de métodos eficazes na determinação da tenacidade intrínseca de um dado material, a fim de possibilitar o desenvolvimento e ampliar a aplicação dos materiais poliméricos estabelecendo uma relação entre o comportamento de fratura e a morfologia desses materiais. O método de Trabalho Essencial de Fratura (EWF) tem recebido especial atenção na determinação da tenacidade de polímeros altamente dúcteis, no entanto muitas vezes ocorre uma utilização pouco criteriosa da técnica no que diz respeito aos pré-requisitos teóricos e à preparação adequada dos corpos-de-prova de sistemas poliméricos. Dessa forma, foi desenvolvido de forma bastante criteriosa um procedimento de preparação de corpos-de-prova que é a etapa chave para a obtenção de resultados precisos. Visando ampliar a aplicação da técnica EWF para a avaliação da tenacidade à fratura, neste trabalho foram estudados três diferentes sistemas poliméricos. Dois deles mostraram excelente resposta à aplicação da técnica, os nanocompósitos de blendas HDPE/LLDPE e OMMT, e os compósitos de Poliprolileno/Fibras de Vidro, ambos materiais semicristalinos e com comportamento dúctil. Porém para o outro sistema, as blendas nanoestruturadas de SAN/PBT, de comportamento essencialmente frágil, a aplicação da técnica de EWF se mostrou inapropriada dentro das condições estudadas. Portanto, houve avanço com respeito à compreensão dos limites e peculiaridades da aplicação da técnica de EWF, que hoje é uma ferramenta muito útil na caracterização da tenacidade à fratura de materiais poliméricos dúcteis, mas que ainda possui sérias restrições para a análise de materiais de comportamento frágil.

With the increasing reliance and use of sensors to improve the capabilities of modern road vehicles, ensuring their functionality during different weather conditions has become an important design consideration. The sensing equipment is utilized for a multitude of tasks, ranging from aiding the user with parking to avoiding potentially dangerous situations. If the sensory equipment's functionality is compromised, these additional features might fail. Various solutions are used to ensure the integrity of the sensing equipment, primarily the location of the sensor is chosen to minimize contamination. However, in certain situations, exposure to contaminants cannot be avoided, and active cleaning systems are utilized to mitigate the issue. These systems often contain some sort of cleaning nozzle that sprays liquid onto the sensor in question.  At Volvo Cars Corporation (VCC), the group of Contamination & Core CFD is responsible for assessing the vehicle performance when exposed to contamination, such as rain, snow, or dust. This task is accomplished by employing tools such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and experiments. In the first part of this thesis, physical tests were conducted in the VCC wind tunnel to assess the performance of a cleaning nozzle mounted on a side-view mirror at different vehicle speeds. With the knowledge gained during the experiments, the second part of the thesis focused on the development of a cost-effective computational method that could be used to evaluate the cleaning performance virtually. The novel computational method utilized a hybrid approach, including volume of fluid simulations, discrete particle modeling, and Eulerian wall film modeling. Different analysis tools and approaches were used to extract quantitative information from the inherently qualitative data obtained from the experiments, which was then compared against the results from the computational method. The computational method was evaluated for different incoming wind velocities, and three metrics were compared to investigate if any could predict the cleaning performance seen in the experiments. At low incoming wind velocities, an accumulated film mass metric exhibited a good correlation with the experimental data. However, at higher wind speeds, an accumulated film momentum metric showed the closest correlation.

Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The use of talco as a dispersive phase in thermoplastic composites has strategic and economic functions in the polymer industry, propitiating advances in properties such as rigidity, thermal and dimensional stability, amongst others; seeing that this mineral filler presents a lamellar geometry. The objective of the present dissertation was to evaluate the effect of varied amounts of talco on the fracture mechanisms of polypropylene/talco composites applying the EWF method (Essential Work of Fracture). Composites of 5, 10 & 15 wt% of talco were prepared by extrusion then injected into mold plates, subsequently, the specimens were cut in DDENT geometry (deeply double edge-notched type). Six varied ligament lengths of 6 to 16mm were prepared for evaluation. The data used to determine the EWF parameters were obtained by unidirectional tensile tests. The results show that the specific essential work fracture (we) of the composites was considerably lower than that of the pure polypropylene specimen, which indicates that talco produced modifications in the composite’s structure, reducing the capacity to absorb energy. An increment in the specific nonessential work fracture (βwp) was observed with increasing amounts of talco, due to structural alterations which raise the amount of energy needed for plastic zone deformation. Based on the results of this study, the EWF method proves efficient in the fracture tenacity evaluation of these composites. / O uso do talco como fase dispersa em compósitos de matriz polimérica termoplástica tem funções estratégicas e econômicas na indústria de polímeros, propiciando melhoria nas propriedades como: rigidez, estabilidade térmica e dimensional, dentre outras propriedades, visto que este mineral apresenta geometria lamelar. Diante disto o objetivo do presente trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de diferentes teores de talco sobre os mecanismos de fratura dos compósitos de polipropileno/talco aplicando o método Trabalho Essencial de Fratura (EWF). Neste estudo, compósitos contendo 5, 10 e 20 % (em peso) de talco foram preparados através do processo de extrusão, em seguida os compósitos foram submetidos ao processo de injeção para obtenção de placas das quais foram retiradas os corpos de prova do tipo DENT (entalhados duplamente nas faces opostas). O duplo entalhe foi inserido nos corpos de prova com objetivo de produzir diferentes comprimentos de ligamentos, na faixa de 6 a 16 mm. Os dados usados para determinar os parâmetros do método EWF foram obtidos do ensaio de tração unidirecional. Os resultados mostraram que o trabalho essencial específico de fratura, we, dos compósitos apresentaram uma redução em relação ao PP puro, indicando que o talco produziu modificações na estrutura do compósito que acarretaram a diminuição da capacidade de absorção de energia. Houve um incremento do trabalho não-essencial específico de fratura, βwp, com o aumento do teor de talco, devido às alterações estruturais terem induzido ao aumento da energia necessária para a deformar a zona plástica. Os resultados obtidos permitiram concluir que o método EWF se mostrou eficiente para avaliar a tenacidade à fratura destes compósitos.

Dans un premier volet, une approche expérimentale basée sur des essais macroscopiques et des observations microscopiques (MEB et MO) ont permis de préciser la cause de l’endommagement du polyéthylène haute densité (PEHD) et sa sensibilité à la triaxialité des contraintes. Dans un deuxième volet, afin d’explorer des gammes de triaxialités de contraintesplus importantes, des éprouvettes fissurées ont été étudiées expérimentalement et ont permis de discuter de la pertinence des critères impliquant les concepts de la mécanique de la rupture ductile pour l’étude du PEHD. Pour étayer la discussion, deux approches énergétiques (intégrale J et EWF) de la mécanique de la rupture couplées à la technique de corrélation d’images digitales ont été examinées sur trois types d’éprouvettes (SENB, CT et DENT). Enfin, un troisième volet avait pour objet d’examiner la pertinence de modèles issus de la mécanique de l’endommagement ductile par croissance de vides pour prédire le comportement mécanique et l’endommagement du PEHD et ce, jusqu’à rupture. Une attention particulière a été portée aux effets de triaxialité des contraintes. Deux critères de coalescences ont été examinés selon deux approches complémentaires. Ces approches se sont avérées pertinentes dans le cas du PEHD. En effet, la confrontation des résultats numériques avec les résultats expérimentaux a montrée une bonne corrélation tant sur la réponse globale des éprouvettes axisymétriques entaillées (courbes contrainte vraie - variation de volume plastique - déformation vraie) et des éprouvettes de rupture (charge - déplacement) que sur la réponse locale des éprouvettes de rupture en terme de champs cinématiques. / In a first part of this thesis, an experimental approach based on macroscopic measurements and microscopic observations (SEM and OM) led to a better understanding of damage mechanisms in high density polyethylene (HDPE) and its stress triaxiality sensitivity. In order to examine higher stress triaxiality values, cracked samples were experimentally examined in a second part. Based on the obtained results, the relevance of the fracture mechanics concepts to characterize the fracture toughness of HDPE was critically discussed. The investigation was performed using two well-known approaches of the fracture mechanics – J-integral and EWF – using different specimen configurations (SENB, CT and DENT). To gain insight into the strain field around the crack tip, digital image correlation method was used. The third part was focused on the demonstration of the relevance of ductile damage models (based on the void volume evolution as indicator of damage) to predict the mechanical and damage behaviour of HDPE and that, until complete failure. A special attention was paid on the stress triaxiality effects. Two failure criteria using complementary approaches were examined. These approaches were found relevant in the case of HDPE. Indeed, a good agreement was found between the numerical simulations and the experimental results in terms of overall response of axisymmetric samples (true stress-strain-volumetric response) and of cracked samples (load-displacement response) and in terms of local response corresponding to kinematics fields.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:10:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2406.pdf: 16636995 bytes, checksum: 5dfba4f4a790ff3bbd877568045e31ea (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-05 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / High rubber content acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer (ABS) has been used to tough PBT. As a result, super tough PBT/ABS blends under notched Izod impact have been obtained. However, there has been a significant reduction in the PBT/ABS Young modulus. The development of an optimum stiffness-toughness balance in PBT/ABS blends can be achieved by addition of short glass fibers to the composite blends. The composite performance is strongly dependent on the matrix-fiber interface and consequently the surface treatment of the fiber is a key factor to be considered. In the present work, the effect of two kinds of glass fibers treatment on the mechanical properties of PBT/ABS blends is investigated and the results discussed in terms of the changes of the fiber wettability and interfacial adhesion strength of the fiber to the resin. The processing conditions used to prepare glass fiber reinforced tough PBT/ABS blends were studied to observe the best conditions to maintain the toughness and stiffness of the blend as high as possible. A twin screw extrusion was used to prepare the reinforced PBT/ABS blends. Tensile, impact and essential work of fracture (EWF) testing was carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties for stiffness and toughness of the reinforced blends, respectively. The results have shown a strong dependence of the mechanical properties on the surface treatment of the fibers and these results are corroborated by electron microscopy micrographs that clearly illustrate the changes in the composite fiber/matrix interface in the presence of differences in surface treatments of the fiber. The development of an optimum stiffness-toughness balance in PBT/ABS blends was achieved and EWF has been successfully applied to evaluate the toughness for PBT/ABS blends. / O terpolímero acrilonitrila-butadieno-estireno (ABS) com alto teor de borracha tem sido utilizado para tenacificar PBT. Como resultados, são obtidas blendas de PBT/ABS super tenazes sob impacto Izod entalhado. No entanto, ocorre uma redução significativa no módulo elástico. O desenvolvimento de um balanço de rigidez-tenacidade em blendas de PBT/ABS pode ser alcançado pela adição de fibras curtas de vidro. O desempenho dos compósitos é fortemente dependente da interface matriz-fibra e consequentemente o tratamento da superfície da fibra é um fator chave a ser considerado. No presente trabalho, foi investigado o efeito de dois tipos de tratamento de fibras de vidro nas propriedades mecânicas de blendas PBT/ABS e os resultados discutidos em termos das mudanças da molhabilidade da fibra e da adesão interfacial da fibra à resina. As condições de processo usadas para preparar as blendas de PBT/ABS reforçadas com fibra de vidro foram estudadas para observar as melhores condições para manter os valores de tenacidade e rigidez tão altos quanto possível. Uma extrusora dupla rosca foi usada para preparar as blendas de PBT/ABS reforçadas. Ensaios de tração, impacto e de tenacidade à fratura por meio do método do trabalho essencial de fratura (EWF) foram executados para avaliar as propriedades mecânicas de rigidez e tenacidade das blendas reforçadas. Os resultados mostraram uma forte dependência das propriedades mecânicas como o tratamento superficial das fibras e estes resultados são corroborados por micrografias de MEV, que claramente ilustram as mudanças na interface fibra/matriz em função das diferenças nos tratamentos superficiais das fibras. O desenvolvimento de um balanço de rigidez-tenacidade ótimo em blendas de PBT/ABS foi alcançado e o método EWF foi aplicado com sucesso para avaliar a tenacidade à fratura das blendas.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:10:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseRSY.pdf: 1549037 bytes, checksum: a3815021f9701d87e609f6d19b7f4531 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-03-11 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Initially it was made a well elaborated study on the essential work of fracture method (EWF) using the polyamide 6 (PA6) because this polymer shows high difficult to evaluate its toughness. The PA6 is a semi-crystalline polymer, so its mechanical properties are highly affects by the specimen processing conditions. This material is also highly susceptible to the notch, so it is necessary to study how the conditions to obtain the notch and pre-crack can affect the applicability of the EWF method. The best specimen dimension to work in plane stress condition was determined for the uniaxial tensile test. This first study allowed determining the best specimen condition to apply the EWF method. The EWF method was used to evaluate the toughness of polymeric blends. One of the blend was prepared with a semi-crystalline matrix (PA6/ABS) and other with amorphous matrix (PC/ABS). It was also studied the efficiency of the MMA-MA compatibilizer on the PA6/ABS blend toughness. The results allowed concluding that the EWF method was able to verify the improvement of toughness in the blends when compared with the pure polymers as well as the improvement of toughness when the compatibilizer is added to the blend. It was also studied the influence of specimen thickness, strain rate and injection molding conditions like injection speed and mold temperature on the parameters of EWF method. The results allowed concluding that all variables affected the specific essential work of fracture, we, while the specific nonessential work of fracture, βwp, was not affect by that variables, except in the highest test speed for PA6 and in the different thickness for the PA6 and PA6/ABS/MMA-MA blend. / Inicialmente foi realizado um estudo criterioso sobre o método do trabalho essencial de fratura (EWF) utilizando-se a poliamida 6, pois este polímero apresenta grandes dificuldades quanto à avaliação de sua tenacidade. A poliamida 6 é um polímero semicristalino, portanto, suas propriedades mecânicas são altamente influenciadas pelas condições de processamento dos corpos de prova. Apresenta também alta susceptibilidade ao entalhe necessitando, portanto, um estudo da influência das condições de confecção do entalhe e da pré-trinca. Nesta etapa inicial, verificaram-se também as dimensões ideais dos corpos de prova para garantir a condição de estado de tensão plana no ensaio de tração uniaxial. Este estudo permitiu determinar a melhor condição de obtenção de corpos de prova para a aplicação do método EWF. Na etapa seguinte utilizou-se o método EWF para a avaliação da tenacidade de blendas poliméricas com matriz semicristalina (PA6/ABS) e com matriz amorfa (PC/ABS), e também a eficiência do compatibilizante MMA-MA na tenacificação da blenda PA6/ABS. Os resultados obtidos permitiram concluir que a aplicação do método EWF para a avaliação da tenacidade das blendas em relação aos polímeros puros foi altamente satisfatória, bem como, a avaliação do efeito do compatibilizante na tenacidade da blenda PA6/ABS. A etapa final foi dedicada para avaliação de influência de variáveis que poderiam afetar os valores dos parâmetros de fratura do método EWF. Foram realizados estudos da influência da espessura do corpo de prova, da taxa de deformação e das condições de moldagem por injeção através da velocidade de injeção e temperatura do molde. Os resultados obtidos permitiram concluir que todas as variáveis afetaram os valores da tenacidade à fratura, através de mudanças nos valores do trabalho essencial de fratura específico, we, enquanto que o trabalho específico não-essencial ou plástico, βwp, apresentou-se independente das variáveis, com exceção da PA6 à alta taxa deformacional e PA6 e da blenda PA6/ABS/MMA-MA em diferentes espessuras.

Growing populations are contributing to resource scarcity, making it ever more important for governments to address resource challenges in a holistic and integrated manner. Energy, water and food are examples of these critical resources, and the province of Alberta in Canada faces an interesting opportunity to tackle all three in tandem. Alberta struggles with food insecurity, with one in ten households affected on an annual basis. The province has the additional issue of an abating fossil fuel-based energy sector. Retrofitting oil and gas wells to harness geothermal heat is a possible initiative that encourages an energy transition and boasts lesser environmental impacts. Further, combining geothermal heat with agricultural greenhouse production and thermally driven water filtration systems has the potential to reduce food insecurity and water scarcity in the province. The system thus handles all three food, energy and water security at once. As such, this report compares the overall sustainability of a conventional, natural gas-burning greenhouse against a novel, geothermally-heated greenhouse featuring thermally driven water filtration (membrane distillation) technology. The area of study is constrained to the greenhouse-rich region in Alberta between Edmonton and Red Deer that also has a high accessibility to geothermal heat. The comparison is conducted through a multi-criteria analysis following economic, social and environmental objectives, and is analyzed using quantitative data, scientific literature and surveys. The results indicate that the novel greenhouse exhibits a higher score as compared to the conventional greenhouse, implying that it is the preferred option on economic, social and environmental bases. The results are in keeping with economic and technical feasibility reports, though they shed new light on the social and environmental aspects – which were under-studied in the province. The geothermally-heated greenhouse system with membrane distillation acts as a holistic solution that targets energy, water and food issues in tandem, while contributing to Canada’s Sustainable Development Goals. The novel greenhouse is an avenue of exploration and development by policy-makers, greenhouse operators and researchers interested in attaining sustainable agriculture in Alberta, Canada.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:07:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 QueremAFA_DISSERT.pdf: 6927049 bytes, checksum: 5fbf755901320194b71aa9dc0dc0b657 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-07 / Studies indicate that a variation in the degree of crystallinity of the components of a polymer blend influences the mechanical properties. This variation can be obtained by subjecting the blend to heat treatments that lead to changes in the spherulitic structure. The aim of this work is to analyze the influence of different heat treatments on the variation of the degree of crystallinity and to establish a relationship between this variation and the mechanical behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) recycled (PMMA / PETrec) with and without the use of compatibilizer agent poly(methyl methacrylate-al-glycidyl methacrylate-al-ethyl acrylate) (MMAGMA- EA). All compositions were subjected to two heat treatments. T1 heat treatment the samples were treated at 130 ? C for 30 minutes and cooled in air. In T2, the samples were treated at 230 ? C for 5 minutes and cooled to approximately -10 ? C. The variation of the degree of crystallinity was determined by the proportional relationship between crystallinity and density, with the density measured by pycnometry. The mechanical behavior was verified by tensile tests with and without the presence of notches and pre-cracks, and by method of fracture toughness in plane strain (KIC). We used the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to analyze the fracture surface of the samples. The compositions subjected to heat treatment T1, in general, showed an increase in the degree of crystallinity in tensile strength and a tendency to decrease in toughness, while compositions undergoing treatment T2 showed that the opposite behavior. Therefore, this work showed that heat treatment can give a polymer blend further diversity of its properties, this being caused by changes in the crystal structure / Estudos apontam que uma varia??o no grau de cristalinidade dos componentes de uma blenda polim?rica influencia nas suas propriedades mec?nicas. Essa varia??o pode ser obtida pela submiss?o da blenda a tratamentos t?rmicos que levam a modifica??es da estrutura esferul?tica. O objetivo desse trabalho ? analisar a influ?ncia de diferentes tratamentos t?rmicos na varia??o do grau de cristalinidade e estabelecer uma rela??o entre essa varia??o e o comportamento mec?nico da blenda poli(metacrilato de metila)/poli(tereftalato de etileno) reciclado (PMMA/PETrec) com e sem o uso do agente compatibilizante interfacial poli(metacrilato de metila-almetacrilato de glicidila-al-acrilato de etila) (MMA-GMA-EA). Todas as composi??es foram submetidas a dois tratamentos t?rmicos. No tratamento t?rmico T1 as amostras foram tratadas a 130 ?C por 30 minutos e resfriadas ao ar. No tratamento T2 as amostras foram tratadas a 230 ?C por 5 minutos e resfriadas a aproximadamente 10 ?C. A varia??o do grau de cristalinidade foi verificada pela rela??o de proporcionalidade existente entre cristalinidade e densidade, sendo a densidade medida por picnometria. O comportamento mec?nico foi verificado por ensaios de tra??o, com e sem a presen?a de entalhes e pr?-trincas, e pelo m?todo da tenacidade ? fratura em estado plano de deforma??o (KIC). Utilizou-se a microscopia eletr?nica de varredura (MEV) para analisar a superf?cie de fratura das amostras. As composi??es submetidas ao tratamento t?rmico T1, de uma forma geral, mostraram aumento no grau de cristalinidade, na resist?ncia ? tra??o e uma tend?ncia ? redu??o na tenacidade ? fratura, enquanto que as composi??es submetidas ao tratamento T2 mostraram um comportamento oposto a esse. Portanto, este trabalho mostrou que um tratamento t?rmico pode conferir a uma blenda polim?rica uma diversidade ainda maior de suas propriedades, sendo essa ocasionada pelas mudan?as na estrutura cristalina

Les aciers inoxydables austéno-ferritiques présentent une microstructure biphasée dans laquelle se mêlent austénite et ferrite. Leurs caractéristiques mécaniques élevées ainsi que leur bonne tenue en corrosion en font un candidat sérieux pour remplacer les aciers inoxydables austénitiques. Malheureusement, la faible forgeabilité de ces alliages rend la fabrication de tôles particulièrement critique. En effet, le phénomène de « crique de rive » est fréquemment rencontré au cours des étapes du laminage à chaud. Par conséquent, cela nécessite des opérations supplémentaires comme le découpage des rives, ce qui aboutit à une augmentation des coûts de production. Les différents facteurs influençant la ductilité à chaud de ces aciers sont passés en revue afin d'identifier quels sont les zones d'ombres. La synthèse bibliographique révèle deux zones d'ombres : d'une part, le manque d'un essai de ductilité à chaud permettant de discriminer différentes microstructures en terme de résistance à la propagation de fissure à haute température ; et d'autre part l'absence de données quantitative concernant la partition de la déformation entre la ferrite et l'austénite lors des étapes de mise en forme à chaud. Le concept de travail essentiel de rupture a été appliqué à hautes températures. Il a été démontré que cette méthode est fiable et discriminante pour quantifier la résistance à la propagation de fissure à haute température. Elle permet également de générer un paramètre physique pertinent pour optimiser les microstructures par rapport à un mode de mise en forme donné. La technique conventionnelle de micro-grilles a été adaptée de manière à cartographier à haute température les déformations à l'échelle de la microstructure. Cette technique fournit en plus des résultats qualitatifs concernant les mécanismes de déformations, des données quantitatives à propos de la partition de la déformation entre la ferrite et l'austénite. Ces données peuvent être utilisées afin de valider les modèles qui prédisent le comportement à chaud des aciers duplex pendant les premières étapes du laminage à chaud. Les deux outils developpés au cours de cette étude permettent de donner des solutions pour éviter le phénomène de « crique de rives ». / The Duplex Stainless Steels (DSS) are defined as a family of stainless steels consisting of a two-phase microstructure involving δ-ferrite and γ-austenite. Exceptional combinations of strength and toughness together with good corrosion resistance under critical working conditions designate DSS a suitable alternative to conventional austenitic stainless steels. Unfortunately, the relatively poor hot workability of these alloys makes the industrial processing of flat products particularly critical. Cracking of the coils during hot rolling along the edges is frequently reported. As a consequence, additional operations like grinding, discontinuous processing or scraping are often required, leading to increased manufacturing costs. The different parameters affecting the hot working of duplex stainless steels have been reviewed in order to identify which are the missing pieces of the puzzle. The bibliographical review reveals that two pieces are missing in the hot workability puzzle. On the one hand, it is necessary to develop a new hot ductility test which allows discriminating microstructures in terms of high temperature tearing resistance, and on the other hand, quantitative data about the strain partitioning between ferrite and austenite during the hot working operations are needed. The Essential Work of Fracture concept has been applied at high temperature. It has been demonstrated that this method is a reliable and discriminating tool for quantifying the high temperature tearing resistance and to generate a physically relevant index to guide the optimization of microstructures towards successful forming operations. A modified micro-grid technique has been developed to experimentally simulate the local state of deformation of different duplex microstructures at high temperature. This technique provides qualitative results about the deformation features as well as quantitative data about the strain partitioning between ferrite and austenite. The micro-strain distributions measured can be used to validate the models predicting the hot deformation of duplex stainless steels during the roughing-mill operations. The two tools developed in this investigation allow suggesting possible remedies for the edge cracking phenomenon.