Nesta dissertação, foram estudados materiais com gradiente de função produzidos por metalurgia do pó a fim de se encontrar uma alternativa com redução de custo para aplicações na indústria automobilística. Os corpos de prova produzidos com ferro comercialmente puro e materiais ligados foram ensaiados de maneira a entender o efeito da interface no componente a ser produzido. Foram estudadas as propriedades de ruptura transversal, resistência à tração, macro e microdureza, além da microestrutura por microscopia ótica e microscopia eletrônica de varredura. Foi possível verificar que é uma alternativa viável, mas se faz necessário um controle da posição da interface e do elemento de liga a ser utilizado no material mais nobre a fim de se obter o melhor desempenho do componente. / In this dissertation, materials with a gradient of function produced by powder metallurgy were studied in order to find an alternative with cost reduction for applications in the automobile industry. The specimens produced with commercially pure iron and alloyed materials were tested in order to understand the effect of the interface on the component to be produced. The properties of transverse rupture, tensile strength, macro and micro hardness, as well as, the microstructure by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were studied. It was possible to verify that it is a viable alternative, but it is necessary to control the position of the interface and the alloying element to be used in the noblest material in order to obtain the best performance of the component.

Nesta dissertação, foram estudados materiais com gradiente de função produzidos por metalurgia do pó a fim de se encontrar uma alternativa com redução de custo para aplicações na indústria automobilística. Os corpos de prova produzidos com ferro comercialmente puro e materiais ligados foram ensaiados de maneira a entender o efeito da interface no componente a ser produzido. Foram estudadas as propriedades de ruptura transversal, resistência à tração, macro e microdureza, além da microestrutura por microscopia ótica e microscopia eletrônica de varredura. Foi possível verificar que é uma alternativa viável, mas se faz necessário um controle da posição da interface e do elemento de liga a ser utilizado no material mais nobre a fim de se obter o melhor desempenho do componente. / In this dissertation, materials with a gradient of function produced by powder metallurgy were studied in order to find an alternative with cost reduction for applications in the automobile industry. The specimens produced with commercially pure iron and alloyed materials were tested in order to understand the effect of the interface on the component to be produced. The properties of transverse rupture, tensile strength, macro and micro hardness, as well as, the microstructure by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were studied. It was possible to verify that it is a viable alternative, but it is necessary to control the position of the interface and the alloying element to be used in the noblest material in order to obtain the best performance of the component.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-04T13:36:40Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação_Mestrado_(Andre E. Poroca Lins)_Final.pdf: 64666922 bytes, checksum: 584e69803acfdd0b31e2b58094eb9b6c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-04T13:36:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação_Mestrado_(Andre E. Poroca Lins)_Final.pdf: 64666922 bytes, checksum: 584e69803acfdd0b31e2b58094eb9b6c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-01-28 / Os materiais com óxido de zinco vêm passando por um rápido desenvolvimento devido as suas potenciais aplicações em uma ampla variedade de áreas tecnológicas, tais como eletrônica, catálise, cerâmica, fotodetectores, sensores, células solares, entre outras. Porém, torna-se fundamental o estudo das propriedades, condições de síntese e aplicações. Um material que vem se destacando devido as suas propriedades mecânicas, elétricas, magnéticas, ópticas e químicas é o óxido de zinco (ZnO). No óxido de zinco tais propriedades dependem principalmente do tamanho e morfologia de suas partículas. O avanço no desenvolvimento de materiais com óxido de zinco vem recebendo bastante destaque no meio científico e se tornando de fundamental importância devido à interdisciplinaridade entre vários campos da ciência, e por permitir a obtenção de novos materiais com melhores propriedades físicas e químicas. O objetivo principal desse trabalho é produzir um compósito de matriz de alumínio AA1100, reforçado com material cerâmico, o óxido de zinco (ZnO), utilizando o processo de metalurgia do pó e técnica de moagem de alta energia. Para tanto, utilizou-se a caracterização por microscopia ótica (MO), microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV), difração de raios X (DRX) e difração a laser para avaliar as características do compósito, além de verificar as propriedades mecânicas inerentes e constatar a superioridade em relação a materiais produzidos de forma convencional. No primeiro momento é feita a avaliação da mistura dos pós produzidos, segundo variação percentual do reforço e tempo de processamento, com o objetivo de obter dados iniciais. Em seguida, é feito o processamento das misturas dos pós para compactação e sinterização; visando obter pastilhas do compósito, nas quais serão feitas ensaios e caracterização microestrutural, e por fim avaliação de resultados e conclusões. / The zinc oxide composites materials are undergoing rapid development due to their potential applications in a wide variety of technological areas such as electronics, catalysis, ceramics, photodetectors, sensors, solar cells, among others. However, it is fundamental the studies of the properties, synthesis conditions and applications. A material that has been highlighted due to its mechanical, electrical, magnetic, optical and chemical properties is the zinc oxide (ZnO). In zinc oxide such properties mainly depend on the size and morphology of the particles. The technological progress in the development of materials with zinc oxide has been receiving a lot of attention in the scientific community and becoming of paramount importance due to several interdisciplinary fields of science, and for allowing the obtaining of new materials with improved physical and chemical properties. The main objective of this work is to produce matrix composites of aluminum alloy AA1100, reinforced with ceramic material, the zinc oxide (ZnO), the process of using powder metallurgy technique and high energy milling. For this we used the characterization by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD, and laser diffraction to evaluate and compare the features of composite, besides checking the mechanical properties and see the inherent superiority over conventionally produced material. At first assessment is made of the mixture of powders produced according to percentage change in the reinforcement and processing time, in order to obtain initial data. Then the processing is done mixtures of powders for compaction and sintering, to obtain tablets composite in which are made tests and microstructural characterization, and ultimately evaluating the results and conclusions.

This study presents results of selective laser melting (SLM), powder metallurgy (PM), and casting technologies applied for producing Ti–TiB composites from Ti–TiB₂ powder. Diffraction patterns and microstructural investigations reveal that chemical reaction occurred between Ti and TiB₂ during all the three processes, leading to the formation of Ti–TiB composites. The ultimate compressive strength of SLM-processed and cast samples are 1421 and 1434 MPa, respectively, whereas the ultimate compressive strengths of PM-processed 25%, 29%, and 36% porous samples are 510, 414, and 310 MPa, respectively. The Young’s moduli of porous composite samples are 70, 45, and 23 GPa for 25%, 29%, and 36% porosity levels, respectively, and are lower than those of SLM-processed (145 GPa) and cast (142 GPa) samples. Fracture analysis of the SLM-processed and cast samples shows shear fracture and microcracks across the samples, whereas failure of porous samples occurs due to porosities and weak bonds among particles.

A fairly new technology used to produce metallic components is powder metallurgy (PM). Among the advantages with this technique are decreased cost of production for complex-shaped parts, new alloys are made possible, reduced end processing, less material loss, and vibrational damping effects. The downside is the number of pores created which can alter the tribological properties of the material. The focus of this report is to investigate how lean PM steel behaves under tribological contacts.  Friction and wear will be investigated using a pin-on-disc setup to mimic the sliding part of a gear tooth mesh. Previous studies show that the amount of wear, and if the wear increases or decreases with increased density is dependent on the degree of porosity and the pore size. This means that the wear might be minimized by optimizing the number of pores in the material and their shape and size. The result of this study shows that the friction coefficient decreases with increasing density. The wear coefficient show signs of the same correlations but further tests are needed. The main wear comes from adhesive wear, with signs of abrasive wear. The amount of abrasive wear seems to increase with an increase in density, supporting previous studies claiming that pores can trap wear debris and decrease the number of abrasive particles in the contact.

<div>In this thesis, the role of location-specific microstructural features in the fatigue performance of the safety-critical aerospace components made of Nickel (Ni)-base superalloys and linear friction welded (LFW) Titanium (Ti) alloys has been studied using crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) simulations, energy dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDD), backscatter electron (BSE) images and digital image correlation (DIC).</div><div><br></div><div>In order to develop a microstructure-sensitive fatigue life prediction framework, first, it is essential to build trust in the quantitative prediction from CPFE analysis by quantifying uncertainties in the mechanical response from CPFE simulations. Second, it is necessary to construct a unified fatigue life prediction metric, applicable to multiple material systems; and a calibration strategy of the unified fatigue life model parameter accounting for uncertainties originating from CPFE simulations and inherent in the experimental calibration dataset. To achieve the first task, a genetic algorithm framework is used to obtain the statistical distributions of the crystal plasticity (CP) parameters. Subsequently, these distributions are used in a first-order, second-moment method to compute the mean and the standard deviation for the stress along the loading direction (σ_load), plastic strain accumulation (PSA), and stored plastic strain energy density (SPSED). The results suggest that an ~10% variability in σ_load and 20%-25% variability in the PSA and SPSED values may exist due to the uncertainty in the CP parameter estimation. Further, the contribution of a specific CP parameter to the overall uncertainty is path-dependent and varies based on the load step under consideration. To accomplish the second goal, in this thesis, it is postulated that a critical value of the SPSED is associated with fatigue failure in metals and independent of the applied load. Unlike the classical approach of estimating the (homogenized) SPSED as the cumulative area enclosed within the macroscopic stress-strain hysteresis loops, CPFE simulations are used to compute the (local) SPSED at each material point within polycrystalline aggregates of 718Plus, an additively manufactured Ni-base superalloy. A Bayesian inference method is utilized to calibrate the critical SPSED, which is subsequently used to predict fatigue lives at nine different strain ranges, including strain ratios of 0.05 and -1, using nine statistically equivalent microstructures. For each strain range, the predicted lives from all simulated microstructures follow a log-normal distribution; for a given strain ratio, the predicted scatter is seen to be increasing with decreasing strain amplitude and are indicative of the scatter observed in the fatigue experiments. Further, the log-normal mean lives at each strain range are in good agreement with the experimental evidence. Since the critical SPSED captures the experimental data with reasonable accuracy across various loading regimes, it is hypothesized to be a material property and sufficient to predict the fatigue life.</div><div><br></div><div>Inclusions are unavoidable in Ni-base superalloys, which lead to two competing failure modes, namely inclusion- and matrix-driven failures. Each factor related to the inclusion, which may contribute to crack initiation, is isolated and systematically investigated within RR1000, a powder metallurgy produced Ni-base superalloy, using CPFE simulations. Specifically, the role of the inclusion stiffness, loading regime, loading direction, a debonded region in the inclusion-matrix interface, microstructural variability around the inclusion, inclusion size, dissimilar coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), temperature, residual stress, and distance of the inclusion from the free surface are studied in the emergence of two failure modes. The CPFE analysis indicates that the emergence of a failure mode is an outcome of the complex interaction between the aforementioned factors. However, the possibility of a higher probability of failure due to inclusions is observed with increasing temperature, if the CTE of the inclusion is higher than the matrix, and vice versa. Any overall correlation between the inclusion size and its propensity for damage is not found, based on inclusion that is of the order of the mean grain size. Further, the CPFE simulations indicate that the surface inclusions are more damaging than the interior inclusions for similar surrounding microstructures. These observations are utilized to instantiate twenty realistic statistically equivalent microstructures of RR1000 – ten containing inclusions and remaining ten without inclusions. Using CPFE simulations with these microstructures at four different temperatures and three strain ranges for each temperature, the critical SPSED is calibrated as a function of temperature for RR1000. The results suggest that critical SPSED decreases almost linearly with increasing temperature and is appropriate to predict the realistic emergence of the competing failure modes as a function of applied strain range and temperature.</div><div><br></div><div>LFW process leads to the development of significant residual stress in the components, and the role of residual stress in the fatigue performance of materials cannot be overstated. Hence, to ensure fatigue performance of the LFW Ti alloys, residual strains in LFW of similar (Ti-6Al-4V welded to Ti-6Al-4V or Ti64-Ti64) and dissimilar (Ti-6Al-4V welded to Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr or Ti64-Ti5553) Ti alloys have been characterized using EDD. For each type of LFW, one sample is chosen in the as-welded (AW) condition and another sample is selected after a post-weld heat treatment (HT). Residual strains have been separately studied in the alpha and beta phases of the material, and five components (three axial and two shear) have been reported in each case. In-plane axial components of the residual strains show a smooth and symmetric behavior about the weld center for the Ti64-Ti64 LFW samples in the AW condition, whereas these components in the Ti64-Ti5553 LFW sample show a symmetric trend with jump discontinuities. Such jump discontinuities, observed in both the AW and HT conditions of the Ti64-Ti5553 samples, suggest different strain-free lattice parameters in the weld region and the parent material. In contrast, the results from the Ti64-Ti64 LFW samples in both AW and HT conditions suggest nearly uniform strain-free lattice parameters throughout the weld region. The observed trends in the in-plane axial residual strain components have been rationalized by the corresponding microstructural changes and variations across the weld region via BSE images. </div><div><br></div><div>In the literature, fatigue crack initiation in the LFW Ti-6Al-4V specimens does not usually take place in the seemingly weakest location, i.e., the weld region. From the BSE images, Ti-6Al-4V microstructure, at a distance from the weld-center, which is typically associated with crack initiation in the literature, are identified in both AW and HT samples and found to be identical, specifically, equiaxed alpha grains with beta phases present at the alpha grain boundaries and triple points. Hence, subsequent fatigue performance in LFW Ti-6Al-4V is analyzed considering the equiaxed alpha microstructure.</div><div><br></div><div>The LFW components made of Ti-6Al-4V are often designed for high cycle fatigue performance under high mean stress or high R ratios. In engineering practice, mean stress corrections are employed to assess the fatigue performance of a material or structure; albeit this is problematic for Ti-6Al-4V, which experiences anomalous behavior at high R ratios. To address this problem, high cycle fatigue analyses are performed on two Ti-6Al-4V specimens with equiaxed alpha microstructures at a high R ratio. In one specimen, two micro-textured regions (MTRs) having their c-axes near-parallel and perpendicular to the loading direction are identified. High-resolution DIC is performed in the MTRs to study grain-level strain localization. In the other specimen, DIC is performed on a larger area, and crack initiation is observed in a random-textured region. To accompany the experiments, CPFE simulations are performed to investigate the mechanistic aspects of crack initiation, and the relative activity of different families of slip systems as a function of R ratio. A critical soft-hard-soft grain combination is associated with crack initiation indicating possible dwell effect at high R ratios, which could be attributed to the high-applied mean stress and high creep sensitivity of Ti-6Al-4V at room temperature. Further, simulations indicated more heterogeneous deformation, specifically the activation of multiple families of slip systems with fewer grains being plasticized, at higher R ratios. Such behavior is exacerbated within MTRs, especially the MTR composed of grains with their c-axes near parallel to the loading direction. These features of micro-plasticity make the high R ratio regime more vulnerable to fatigue damage accumulation and justify the anomalous mean stress behavior experienced by Ti-6Al-4V at high R ratios.</div><div><br></div>