Brazing and soldering, as advanced manufacturing processes, are of significant importance to industrial applications. It is widely accepted that joining by brazing or soldering is possible if a liquid metal wets the solids to be joined. Wetting, hence spreading and capillary action of liquid metal (often called filler) is of significant importance. Good wetting is required to distribute liquid metal over/between the substrate materials for a successful bonding. Topographically altered surfaces have been used to exploit novel wetting phenomena and associated capillary actions, such as imbibitions (a penetration of a liquid front over/through a rough, patterned surface). Modification of surface roughness may be considered as a venue to tune and control the spreading behavior of the liquids. Modeling of spreading of liquids on rough surface, in particular liquid metals is to a large extent unexplored and constitutes a cutting edge research topic. In this dissertation the imbibitions of liquid metal has been considered as pertained to the metal bonding processes involving brazing and soldering fillers. First, a detailed review of fundamentals and the recent progress in studies of non-reactive and reactive wetting/capillary phenomena has been provided. An imbibition phenomenon has been experimentally achieved for organic liquids and molten metals during spreading over topographically modified intermetallic surfaces. It is demonstrated that the kinetics of such an imbibition over rough surfaces follows the Washburn-type law during the main spreading stage. The Washburn-type theoretical modeling framework has been established for both isotropic and anisotropic non-reactive imbibition of liquid systems over rough surfaces. The rough surface domain is considered as a porous-like medium and the associated surface topographical features have been characterized either theoretically or experimentally through corresponding permeability, porosity and tortuosity. Phenomenological records and empirical data have been utilized to verify the constructed model. The agreement between predictions and empirical evidence appears to be good. Moreover, a reactive wetting in a high temperature brazing process has been studied for both polished and rough surfaces. A linear relation between the propagating triple line and the time has been established, with spreading dominated by a strong chemical reaction.

Sustainable manufacturing involves utilizing energy resources efficiently. Currently, the state of sustainability for a given manufacturing process is described by most in a qualitative sense as opposed to using quantitative metrics. This thesis offers a segment of analysis needed to understand the state of sustainability in the context of energy resource utilization. This was accomplished by measuring the order of magnitude difference between the energy consumption of a manufacturing process vs. the theoretical minimum amount of energy required to complete the same task (aluminum T-joint bond). This analysis was completed for a TIG welding process and a controlled atmosphere brazing (CAB) process. Also, the energy Sankey diagram was constructed for the TIG welding process. The TIG welding process and CAB process consumed an average of 136.1 ± 16.5 kJ and 6,830 ± 77 kJ respectively to bond the same sample. The TIG welding process consumed O(102 kJ) more than the theoretical minimum amount needed to complete the same bond while the CAB process consumed O(104 kJ) more than the theoretical minimum. In the context of energy consumption, there are sizable margins for improvement for both metal joining processes analyzed in this study.

The use of composites materials in aerospace applications can provide significant weight reduction. However, in airframe designs composites are frequently required to be joined to metal components, which is a challenging issue owing to the very different thermo-physical properties of the two classes of materials. In many cases adhesive bonding has insufficient durability and the requirement for large lapped areas and mechanical fasteners adds considerable weight, reducing the mass savings associated with the introduction of composite structures. A promising approach for improving joint performance is to surface engineer locking features on to the metal part which then integrate with the composite laminate to increase shear load transfer, both via better adhesion and also by mechanical "fit" throughout the thickness of the composite. Such hybrid joints are known as "hyper-joints". For this work, three main techniques are currently being investigated for generating the required surface features. These are; (i) sculpting surfaces using power beam local surface melting techniques (Surfi-Sculpt), (ii) building surface protrusions by additive layer manufacturing (AM) and (iii) arc percussive welding process. The present work aims to provide understanding of the critical metallurgical interactions during the growth/production of the surface engineered features and how some build parameters might affect the eventual joint integrity, durability and performance. To enable the use of the arc-percussive welding process as a viable manufacturing route for these hyper-joints, optimisation of its process parameters were studied in the course of this work. Further work on the effect of process parameters such as voltage, travel velocity, gap setting and time delay on the quality of the weld were also investigated in this study. Of the above mentioned process parameters, the voltage across the capacitor and travel velocity of the actuator have been found to have far greater effect on the weld quality. More importantly, the travel velocity of the actuator was also found to help determine the shape, size and distribution of the melt pool. Based on the systematic study and analysis of all of the process parameters involved, an optimised process window has now been proposed. Microstructural characterisations of hyper-joint samples made via the three manufacturing routes were performed in the course of the work. The observed microstructures were related to the process history and the process parameters. Most importantly it was for found that in common with most welding and AM processes, columnar prior β grains developed in all the samples studied by epitaxial-regrowth either along the build or weld directions. It was also found that the fusion zone of the similar titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V to Ti-6Al-4V) arc-percussive welded samples were characterised by extremely fine acicular alpha' martensitic platelets formed as a result of the high cooling rate associated with the process. On the other hand, the fusion zone of the dissimilar titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V to β21S) arc-percussive welded samples was characterised by an extremely fine cellular structure prompted by constitutional supercooling. Finally the microstructures observed in the Surfi-Sculpt samples were found to be dependant on the swipe pattern and duration. In order to assess the performance of hyper-joints made via two of the candidate manufacturing routes, tensile testing of standard and modified tensile samples was performed. The result indicated that on average the strength of these hyper-joint pins were within nominal values expected of the Ti-6Al-4V and β21S alloys. It was also found that with optimum weld conditions, failure occurred only along the gauge length for the arc-percussive welded samples whilst the strength of the AM samples degrade as the gauge diameter decreases as the effect of surface defects became prominent. Results are also reported on a novel method for testing the shear strength and properties of individual hyper-pins manufactured via this process. Interpretation of the shear test was assisted by finite element modelling. The shear test results indicated that the arc-percussive welded samples outperformed the SLM-AM samples thereby giving credence to the process as a viable means for making the pins.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Friction bit joining (FBJ) is a new solid-state spot joining technology developed in cooperation between Brigham Young University of Provo Utah, and MegaStir Technologies of West Bountiful Utah. Although capable of joining several different material combinations, this research focuses on the application of FBJ to joining 5754 aluminum to DP 980 steel, two alloys commonly used in automotive applications. The thicknesses of the materials used were 0.070 inches (1.78 mm) and 0.065 inches (1.65 mm), respectively. The FBJ process employs a consumable 4140 steel bit and is carried out on a purpose built research machine. In the first stage of the weld cycle the bit is used to drill through the aluminum top sheet to be joined. After this, spindle speed is increased so that the bit tip effectively forms a friction weld to the steel bottom sheet. Momentary stoppage of the spindle facilitates weld cooling before the spindle is restarted, shearing the bit tip from the bit shank, and retracted. Incorporated into the bit tip geometry is a flange that securely holds the aluminum in place after joint formation is complete. This research consists of several developmental steps since the technology only recently began to be formally studied. Initial joint strengths observed in lapshear tensile testing averaged only 978.5 pounds (4.35 kN), with a relatively high standard deviation for the data set. Final lapshear tensile test results were improved to an average of 1421.8 pounds (6.32 kN), with a significantly lower, and acceptable, standard deviation for the data set. Similar improvements were realized during the development work in cross tension tensile test results, as average strengths increased from 255.8 pounds (1.14 kN) to 566.3 pounds (2.52 kN). Improvements were also observed in the standard deviation values of cross tension data sets from initial evaluation to the final data set presented in this work.