In this paper the possibilities to replace metal with plastic in products for the building industry were looked into. The first part was a market examination where several suitable products were found. After evaluation the door latch for in-house doors was selected to be re-designed to better suit the properties of plastic. New types of mechanisms were designed with different functions that use the benefits of plastic materials. Models of these mechanisms were developed to evaluate their function. The components in the different mechanisms were adapted for manufacturing with injection moulding. To confirm that the plastic material could handle the appearing stresses calculations on the most vulnerable parts were carried out. The result of the re-design process was three types of door latches that all fit in the doors standard cut-out. Model Classic is similar to the existing mechanism but the number of components is less than half and assembly and manufacturing is simplified. Model Magneto uses a magnet to move the locking part when the door is closed. Opening and locking is the same as Classic. Model Push/Pull uses a pushing or pulling motion to open the door depending on which side it is operated from. / I arbetet undersöktes ersättning av metallprodukter med plast inom byggindustrin. Första delen är en enkel marknadsundersökning där produkter som kan vara lämpliga och lönsamma att ersätta söks. Marknadsundersökningen ledde till att flera lämpliga produkter hittades och efter sållning valdes dörrmekanismen till innedörrar för vidareutveckling. I den andra delen som kallas Re-design har dörrmekanismen omkonstruerats och en ny funktion har utvecklats för att passa för tillverkning i plast och för att kunna dra nytta av de fördelar som plastmaterialet erbjuder. Efter idégenerering och sållning har modeller byggts för att testa funktioner. Därefter anpassades de utvalda mekanismerna för tillverkning med formsprutning. Beräkningar av mekanismens mest belastade delar utfördes i beräkningsprogrammet Abaqus. Arbetet resulterade i tre varianter av innerdörrsmekanismen som alla passar i dörrens standarduttag, dessa fick namnen Classic, Magneto och Push/pull. Classic har samma funktion som den existerande varianten men antalet delar är mindre än hälften och monteringen och tillverkning är enklare. Magneto liknar i stor utsträckning Classic men vid öppen dörr ligger kolven jämns med dörren och dras in i låsblecket av en magnet istället för av en fjäder som i Classic. Push/pull har en annorlunda öppningsfunktion där drag/tryck används för att öppna dörren istället för en vridrörelse.

Atmospheric corrosion, the most common form of metal corrosion, occurs within the interfacial region between a solid, and the surrounding atmosphere. In fact three phases and two interfaces are involved: the gas, a thin liquid layer, a solid, the gas/liquid and the liquid/solid interfaces. In this thesis, the vapor/liquid and liquid/metal interfaces have been studied by the in-situ techniques vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS), and infrared reflection/absorption spectroscopy (IRAS). The main focus has been on characterization of the corrosive organic molecules formic acid, acetic acid, and acetaldehyde, at the two interfaces. Additionally, the headgroup of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) has been examined at the air/water interface. VSFS is an inherently surface sensitive laser spectroscopy technique, which provides vibrational spectra solely of the molecules residing at the surface of for example a liquid, despite the vast excess of the same molecules in the bulk. To obtain a comprehensive molecular picture of the organic compounds at the air/liquid interface, studies have been undertaken in several spectral regions, targeting the CH, C=O, C-O, OH, and SO3 stretching vibrations. Furthermore, the surrounding water molecules have been investigated in order to study hydration phenomena. Acetaldehyde has been determined to partly form a gem-diol (CH3CH(OH)2) at the air/water interface, whereas acetic acid forms various hydrogen-bonded species, with hydrated monomers at low concentrations and centrosymmetric cyclic dimers at high concentrations. Formic acid was found to form a different complex at very high concentrations, in addition to the species observed at low concentrations. Performing experiments with different polarizations of the laser beams has enabled the determination of the orientation of the interfacial molecules. The methyl group of acetic acid was concluded to be oriented close to the surface normal throughout the concentration range, whereas the tilt angle of the CH group of formic acid was determined to be ~35°. The SDS studies revealed that the headgroup orientation is constant in a wide range of concentrations, and also in the presence of sodium chloride. IRAS has provided information regarding the composition and kinetics of the corrosion products formed upon exposure of a zinc oxide surface to the organic compounds. The importance of the water adlayer on metal surfaces has been confirmed by the faster kinetics observed at higher relative humidities. Exposure to formic acid resulted in the formation of zinc formate, whereas both acetic acid and acetaldehyde formed zinc acetate upon reaction with the zinc oxide surface. However, the kinetics were faster for acetic acid than acetaldehyde, which was explained in terms of an acetate-induced zinc dissolution process and a more complicated reaction path involved in the acetaldehyde case to form the zinc acetate surface species. Scanning electron microscopy indicated the formation of radially growing reaction products for acetic acid and filiform corrosion for acetaldehyde. / QC 20101029

A study of strain path related effects on recrystallisation in aluminium has been carried out. The recrystallisation process has been studied after deformation in torsion and one pass hot rolling. For both deformation models, the work has been a combination of experimental studies of the deformation microstructure and recrystallisation process, as well as use of models for prediction of the deformation- and recrystallisation process. For deformation in torsion AA1050 and AA3103 has been studied. Cyclic deformation to zero net strain resulted in restoration of the initial grain structure, while monotonic deformation yielded an increasingly more elongated grain structure. Studies by EBSD revealed no difference in subgrain size as function of strain path, but the subgrain misorientation was larger after monotonic deformation. Similarly, the distance between high angle boundaries was smaller after monotonic deformation. The recrystallised grain size was larger after cyclic deformation, compared to monotonic deformation to the same cumulative strain. In AA1050 the difference in recrystallised grain size was mainly sees as an effect of difference in grain boundary area, leading to fewer nuclei after cyclic deformation. A small difference in driving pressure also contributed to the difference in recrystallised grain size. In AA3110 an additional effect of weakening of deformation zones surrounding particles was purposed, resulting in lower density of PSN-nuclei after cyclic deformation and accordingly larger grain size. The experimental study of the hot rolling pass was performed on an AA3103 alloy. A slight increase in Vickers hardness was seen from center to surface of the rolling slab after deformation. The microstructure after rolling was predicted by a combination of FEM-simulations and a microstructure model. This approach resulted in a larger predicted gradient in flow stress through thickness than calculated from the hardness measurements. The recrystallisation kinetics were monitored and were found to be fastest in the surface areas. The experimentally measured gradient in recrystallisation kinetics from center to surface was much larger than what was modeled. This was seen as an effect of the models limited coverage of changes in the density of nuclei as a result of other mechanisms than a difference in the driving pressure.

Flax fibers, along with a number of other natural fibers, are being considered as an environmentally friendlier alternative of synthetic fibers in fiber-reinforced polymer composites. A common feature of natural fibers is a much higher variability of mechanical properties. This necessitates study of the flax fiber strength distribution and efficient experimental methods for its determination. Elementary flax fibers of different gauge lengths are tested by single fiber tension in order to obtain the stress-strain response and strength and failure strain distributions. The applicability of single fiber fragmentation test for flax fiber failure strain and strength characterization is considered. It is shown that fiber fragmentation test can be used to determine the fiber length effect on mean fiber strength and limit strain. The effect of mechanical damage in the form of kink bands and of diameter variability on the strength of elementary flax fibers is considered. Stiffness and strength under uniaxial tension of flax fiber composites with thermoset and thermoplastic polymer matrices are studied. The applicability of rule of mixtures and orientational averaging based models, developed for short fiber composites, to flax reinforced polymers are evaluated. Both the quasi-static and time dependent mechanical properties of flax fiber/thermoplastic starch based composites are analyzed. The effect of temperature and relative humidity is investigated. It is found that microdamage accumulation in this type of composites is not significant. Results show that the composite elastic modulus and failure stress are linearly related to the maximum stress reached by the matrix in tensile tests. Simple material models are suggested to account for the observed nonlinear viscoelasticity and viscoplasticity. / Godkänd; 2009; 20091029 (edgspa); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Polymera konstruktionsmaterial/Polymeric Composite Materials Opponent: Docent Kristofer Gamstedt, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm Ordförande: Docent Roberts Joffe, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Onsdag den 9 december 2009, kl 10.00 Plats: E 231, Luleå tekniska universitet

<p>In this project, nano powder of CoSb₃ thermoelectric material was synthesized using chemical alloying novel co-precipitation method. This method involved co-precipitation of TE precursor compounds in controlled pH aqueous solutions followed by thermo-chemical treatments including calcination and reduction to produce nano-particulates of CoSb₃. The nano powder was consolidated using rapid solid state spark plasma sintering (SPS) and the processing time was of the order of few minutes. On a result very high densities were achieved and grain growth was almost negligible.</p><p>Various batches of the CoSb₃ nano powder were produced to achieve high purity, minimum particle size and compensate Sb evaporation during thermo-chemical reduction. For de-agglomeration, powder was grinded before and after calcination. Samples were characterized at each stage during synthesis using XRD and SEM (with EDX). Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) was done before thermochemical treatments to observe weight losses with heating the powder at high temperatures and other physiochemical changes. Thermal diffusivity of the samples was measured at room temperature using Laser Flash Apparatus (LFA) and heat capacity was measured using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC).   Thermal conductivities are calculated using these thermal diffusivities, heat capacities and densities of the sintered pellets. Average grain size is measure using image size J software.</p><p>It was observed that powder purity and size is affected by batch size, reduction conditions like holding temperature and time.  During sintering with SPS; heating and cooling rates, sintering temperature, holding pressure and time were the main variables. Grain size and morphology was analyzed using SEM.</p><p>It was observed that larger the grain size higher will be the thermal diffusivity, which leads to increase in thermal conductivity. Hence, grain size has affected on thermal conductivity and also on TE performance.</p> / QC 20100708

<p>In this thesis a multilayer actuator structure is developed for the I-SWARM project. In order to build an energy efficient and low voltage actuator system for the 3x3x3 mm3 robot, the resonance drive mode in combination with a ten layer multilayer structure build upon the most suitable substrate material was used. Two different sizes of the locomotion module were built. The first one is five times larger than the small version. It has five active layers and is simpler to work with and to test. The small module has three 2x0.4 mm can-tilevers on a 3x3mm body and ten active layers.</p><p>The multilayer process involve easily defined flexible printed circuit (FPC) board as substrate material, spin coating piezoelectric poly(vinylidenefluoride- tetrafluoroethylene) P(VDF-TrFE) as active stack material, and evaporated aluminum electrodes on each active polymer layer. By using different shadow masks for each electrode layer, special inter con-tact areas can be contacted from above after the polymer has been removed by an Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) etch. The contours of the locomo-tion module was etched in a Reactive Ion Etch (RIE) equipment. Both the cupper layer in the FPC and the electrode layers of the active stack, were used as etch mask.</p><p>The deflections of the cantilevers were measured at low voltages to ensure as realistic drive voltage as possible for the I-SWARM robot. The large struc-ture showed a 250 µm deflection at 4 V and 170 Hz resulting in a Q-value of 19. The deflection of the small structure was 8 µm at 3.3 V and 5000 Hz and the measured Q-value was 31.</p>

<p>In the last few years people have become more and more aware of how humanity is affecting the climate. In the direction of reducing the greenhouse gases is to design engines with higher tensile properties and reduced weight, in order to achieve lower fuel consumption and cleaner fuel incineration in today's truck engines.</p><p>In order to achieve these requirements it’s necessary to increase the combustion pressure in the engine. This requires higher tensile properties and high thermal conductivity of the engine material. The department of Component Technology at the University of Jönköping in collaboration with Volvo Powertrain AB, Scania CV AB and DAROS Piston Rings AB has been commissioned to develop this material and to find knowledge of material properties used in truck engines and piston rings used for marine applications.</p><p>The purpose with this work is to analyze the tensile properties of a series of cast iron, cast under different metallurgical conditions.</p><p>Four different series of cast irons have been analyzed from four points of view, carbon concentration, nodularity, amount inoculation and cooling rate.</p><p>After the tensile test all specimen data was analyzed in a mathematic calculation program called Matlab 2006a. These results were plotted in different diagrams to show the relations between the variables.</p><p>A low carbon contents and high cooling rate result in high tensile properties and vice versa. Also, a high nodularity gives the same result, i.e. high ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and young’s modulus. The experiment which cover different amount of inoculation, shows that Superseed is the most efficient element to increased tensile properties followed by Fe-powder and Fe-C-powder.</p><p>Lamellar graphite iron has the highest thermal conductivity and vibration damping properties compared to compact graphite iron followed by nodular graphite iron. Researches show that the thermal conductivity increases with slow cooling rate, irrespective of graphite structure. When designing new diesel engines, high tensile properties as well as high thermal conductivity are wanted. Compact cast iron has a compromised quality of these requirements. Higher tensile properties are a higher priority than thermal conductivity when the casting cooling rate is chosen.</p> / <p>Mänskligheten har idag blivit allt mer medveten om vilken påverkan människan har på klimatet. Ett steg i att reducera växthusgaserna är att konstruera motorer med högre hållfasthet och reducerad vikt, detta för att uppnå lägre bränsleförbrukning och renare förbränning i dagens lastbilsmotorer.</p><p>För att uppnå dessa krav är en lösning att öka kompressionen i motorn. Detta medför högre hållfasthetskrav samt hög värmeledningsförmåga hos materialet i motorerna. Avdelningen för komponentteknologi på Tekniska högskolan i Jönköping har i samarbete med Volvo Powertrain AB, Scania CV AB och DAROS Piston Rings AB fått uppdraget att utveckla ett material med rätt mekaniska egenskaper för att passa i lastbilsmotorer och kolvringar i marina applikationer.</p><p>Målet med detta examensarbete är att analysera de mekaniska egenskaperna i en serie där gjutjärn gjutets under olika metallurgiska förhållanden.</p><p>Fyra olika serier av gjutjärn har analyserats med utgångspunkt av variation av kolhalt, nodularitet, mängd ympningsmedel samt svalningshastighet.</p><p>Efter dragning av samtliga prover analyserades mätdata i Matlab 2006a och resulterade i olika sambandsdiagram.</p><p>Låg kolhalt samt snabb avsvalning av gjutgodset ger höga hållfasthetsegenskaper och vice versa. En hög nodularitet ger höga hållfasthetsegenskaper gällande brottgrans, sträckgräns och elasticitetsmodulmodul. Från experimenten där olika ympningsmedels påverkan av hållfastheten, har kunnat konstateras att ympningsmedlet Superseed ger de högsta hållfasthetsegenskaperna följt av Fe-pulver och Fe-C-pulver.</p><p>Värmeledningsförmågan och dämpningsförmågan för vibrationer är bäst i lamellartad grafit följt av kompakt och nodulär grafit. Studier visar att värmeledningsförmågan ökar med långsam svalning, oavsett grafitstruktur. I dagens dieselmotorer eftersträvas både god hållfasthet och god värmeledningsförmåga. En kompromiss av dessa krav är gjutjärn med en kompakt grafitstruktur. Högre hållfasthet bör prioriteras före bättre värmeledningsförmåga när val av svalningshastighet för gjutgodset görs.</p>

In the present work studies were performed to provide understanding for further model development of the two-phase phenomena, film formation from o/w emulsions and slag foaming. The drying of o/w emulsions of different oil viscosities on hydrophobic and hydrophilic substrates was studied. The hydrophobic substrate was found to destabilise the oil droplets and to result in a different mechanism for forming continuous oil film. Studies of adsorption behaviour of a series of non-ionic diblock copolymers at relevant interfaces showed that the adsorption behaviour at hydrophobic and hydrophilic solid surfaces differed at high polymer concentration. Emulsion droplets were found to interact with the hydrophobic interface. Adsorption at silicone oil-water interface resembled adsorption at solid hydrophobic surfaces. Gas was generated through chemical reaction at the interface between two immiscible liquids and the bubbles formation from the generated was studied optically. The gas bubble size was seen to be uninfluenced by the reaction rate. However, bubble formation was seen to take place in one of the phases, held up at the interface before detaching from the interface with a surrounding aqueous film. It was argued that this may affect the final bubble sizes. Slag foaming at high temperatures was studied in laboratory scale with X-ray imaging under dynamic conditions. The foam displayed a fluctuating behaviour, which the presently available models are not able to take into account. The concept of foaming index was found to be unsatisfactory in describing the foaming behaviour under dynamic conditions, thus emphasizing the need for alternative theories. The rate of fluctuations was seen to be related to the difference between rate of gas generation and rate of gas escape from the system (Ug-Ue) as well as the bubble sizes. Thus, it seems like model development of dynamic foaming phenomenon has to take the effective chemical reaction rate as well as the bubble sizes into consideration

Fusion welding is one of the most used methods for joining metals. This method has largely been developed by experiments, i.e. trial and error. The problem of distortion and residual stresses of a structure due to welding is important to control. This is especially important in the aerospace industry where the components are expensive and safety and quality are very important issues. The safety requirements and the high costs of performing experiments to find different manufacturing routes is the motivation to increase the use of simulations in design of components as well as its manufacturing. Thus, in the case of welding, one can evaluate the effect of different fixtures, welding parameters etc on the deformation of the component. The effects of previous processes are also important to consider, as well as it is important to bring forward the current state to subsequent processes.When creating a numerical model, the aim is to implement the physical behaviour of the process into the model. However, it may be necessary to compromise between accuracy of the model and the required computational time. The aim of the work presented in this thesis was to develop a method and model for simulation of welding and metal deposition of large and complex components using the finite element method. The model must be reliable and efficient to be usable in the designing and planning of the manufacturing of the component. In this thesis, the meaning of efficiency of a model is wider than just the computational efficiency. The time for creation and definition of the model should also be included. The developed methods enable the user to create a model for welding or metal deposition with a minimum of manual work. The method for defining weld paths and heat input together with activation of elements is now implemented in the commercial finite element software MSC.Marc. The implementation is based on the experience in this work and communication with the author. The approach has been validated against test cases. Naturally, this validation is dependent on sufficient accuracy of the heat input model and material model that are used. It is the first time a dislocation density model has been used to describe the flow stress in a welding simulation. The work has also demonstrated the possibility to calibrate heat input models with a physical based heat input model, thus relieving the need to calibrate the heat source versus measurements.Efficiency in terms of computing time has also been investigated in the course of this work. Three different methods has been explored and used, adaptive meshing, substructuring and parallel computation. The method that is found to be the most versatile and reduce the overall simulation time the most is parallel computation. It is straightforward for the user to employ and it introduces no reduction in the accuracy. / Godkänd; 2010; 20091124 (andlun); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Datorstödd maskinkonstruktion/Computer Aided Design Opponent: Professor Jesper Hattel, Danmarks tekniska universitet Ordförande: Professor Lennart Karlsson, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag den 5 februari 2010, kl 09.00 Plats: E 243, Luleå tekniska universitet

<p>Vid dragprovning av lödningar framkom att i många fall är kopparledningen svagare än själva lödningen och brottet sker i kopparledningen eller i kabelskon. Undersökning av mikrostrukturerna visade att det bildas martensit i grundmaterialet i ett område under pinnlödningarna. Medelvärdet på martensitlinsens storlek beräknades till 10,69 mm i diameter och 0,73 mm i djup. På grund av att grundmaterialet påverkas bör pinnlödningar sättas minst 10 mm från varandra. Lödningar gjorda i -5°C visade inga tecken på försämrad kvalitet med avseende på lägre hållfasthet eller ökad martensitbildning. Korrosion tränger in under kabelskor på pinnlödningar i områden där ingen lödfog finns. Undersökning av borrade prover visade att deformerad struktur uppkommer vid borrning samt att korrosion tränger in mellan kontaktförbindningens kopparhylsa och det borrade hålet. Vid en jämförelse mellan de båda förbindningsmetoderna framkom att lödningar är skonsammare för rälsmaterialet än borrade kontaktförbindningar men har däremot en tendens att lossna oftare. Vid val av borrade förbindningar som standard istället för pinnlödningar skulle det resultera i färre lossade anslutningar. Hållfastheten i räler skulle förmodligen påverkas och antalet sprickor från borrade hål öka.</p>