Selective laser melting (SLM) has been shown to be an attractive manufacturing route for the production of ??/?? titanium alloys, and in particular Ti-6Al-4V. A thorough understanding of the relationship between the process, microstructure and mechanical properties of the components produced by this technology is however crucial for the establishment of SLM as an alternative manufacturing route. The purpose of the present study is thus to determine the microstructure evolution, crystallographic texture and the mechanical properties of SLM Ti-6Al-4V. The effect of several processing parameters on the density and the microstructure of the SLM samples were initially investigated. It was found that different sets of process parameters can be used to fabricate near fully dense components. It was found that the samples built using the optimised process window consist exclusively of ????? martensitic phase precipitated from prior ?? columnar grains. It was observed that the ?? grain solidification is influenced by the laser scan strategy and that the ?? phase has a strong <001> texture along its grain growth direction. The ????? martensitic laths that originate from the parent ?? grains precipitate according to the Burgers orientation relationship. It was found that ????? laths clusters from the same ?? grain have a specific misorientation that minimise the local shape strain. Texture inheritance across successive deposited layers was also observed and discussed in relation to various variant selection mechanisms. The mechanical properties of as-built and stress relieved SLM Ti-6Al-4V built using the same optimised process parameters were then investigated. It was found that the build orientation affects the tensile properties, and in particular the ductility of the samples. Samples built perpendicularly to the building direction showed higher ductility than those built in the vertical orientation. It was also observed that a stress relief heat treatment was beneficial to the mechanical properties of SLM Ti-6Al-4V. The ductility of the stress relieved samples was indeed higher than those found in the as-built condition. It was found that the predominant fracture mode during tensile testing is inter-granular. In terms of high-cycle fatigue, it was found that SLM Ti-6Al-4V is comparable to HIPed cast Ti-6Al-4V but it has a significantly lower fatigue resistance than that of wrought and annealed alloys. It was observed that porosity and the elongated prior ?? grain boundaries decrease substantially the fatigue life of the components. Cracks propagate either by fatigue striation or ductile tearing mechanisms. Using alternative laser scan strategies it was possible to control the microstructure of the as-built samples. It was observed that the laser scan vector length influences several microstructural features, such as the width of the prior ?? grains and the thickness of the ????? laths. It was found that re-melting the same layer has instead little effect on the microstructure. A novel laser scan strategy characterised by much lower laser power and scan speed than those typically used in SLM enabled finally to fabricate SLM Ti-6Al-4V with a microstructure close to that of conventionally manufactured Ti-6Al-4V. This study investigates for the first time the crystallographic texture evolution in Ti-6Al-4V manufactured by SLM. Further, this research presents for the first time the effect of the characteristic microstructure and crystallographic texture on the mechanical properties and fracture of SLM Ti-6Al-4V. Lastly, for the first time this research shows examples of microstructural control during the SLM fabrication of the same alloy using long laser dwell times.

An experimental program was conducted at the Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory of The University of Texas at Austin, under the auspices of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Research Project 5831, to investigate the tensile stresses that develop in the end regions of pretensioned concrete U-beams at transfer of prestress. Understanding the effect of these “bursting” and “spalling” stresses is essential in order to design standard details that might lead to reliably-serviceable end regions. Two full-scale beam specimens, designed to be worst-case scenarios for bursting and spalling, were fabricated. Each beam had one square and one highly skewed end. Extensive instrumentation, including strain gages on transverse and lateral reinforcing bars, was employed in the end regions of these U-beams. Experimentally determined bursting and spalling stresses in these bars were compared to results of past projects (from the literature) investigating I-beams and inverted T-beams. Preliminary recommendations are made for changes in the standard reinforcing details for U-beam end regions. Such recommended details will be tested in the upcoming phase of Research Project 5831. / text

<p>Quality of the castings is affected by several factors which the designer should take into consideration during the product development process. Although residual stress is one of those, it is often not considered in practical computations. Hence residual stresses are one of the forgotten areas in designing of machine parts. This master thesis is focused on the investigation of residual stresses in a high pressure die casted component, with the aim of extending its service life, by taking results from the study as a feedback.</p><p>The investigation of residual stresses was done on a variety of specimens, cast aluminum flywheel, provided by Husqvarna AB. This flywheel is a component in a product of the same company.In evaluating the residual stresses in the part, two tools-simulation and physical measurement were used. Moreover, comparison with these two methods is also done at an area of interest on the flywheel. The simulation was carried out by using MAGMAhpdc-a module for high pressure die casting process, from the commercial software package MAGMAsoft; while for the physical measurements, the hole drilling method was used, a method believed to be less accurate at low stresses areas.</p><p>The findings obtained from this study show that the results from both procedures are close, with small deviations observed, which reveals the reliability of the hole drilling method even when the stress levels are low. It is also found that the compressive residual stresses dominate in the component-a preferred phenomenon with regards to residual stress.</p>

The current thesis focuses on the deformation behaviour and strain distribution in the microstructure of ductile iron during tensile loading. Utilizing Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and in-situ tensile test under optical microscope, a method was developed to measure high resolution strain in microstructural constitutes. In this method, a pit etching procedure was applied to generate a random speckle pattern for DIC measurement. The method was validated by benchmarking the measured properties with the material’s standard properties. Using DIC, strain maps in the microstructure of the ductile iron were measured, which showed a high level of heterogeneity even during elastic deformation. The early micro-cracks were initiated around graphite particles, where the highest amount of local strain was detected. Local strain at the onset of the micro-cracks were measured. It was observed that the micro-cracks were initiated above a threshold strain level, but with a large variation in the overall strain. A continuum Finite Element (FE) model containing a physical length scale was developed to predict strain on the microstructure of ductile iron. The materials parameters for this model were calculated by optimization, utilizing Ramberg-Osgood equation. For benchmarking, the predicted strain maps were compared to the strain maps measured by DIC, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The DIC and simulation strain maps conformed to a large extent resulting in the validation of the model in micro-scale level. Furthermore, the results obtained from the in-situ tensile test were compared to a FE-model which compromised cohesive elements to enable cracking. The stress-strain curve prediction of the FE simulation showed a good agreement with the stress-strain curve that was measured from the experiment. The cohesive model was able to accurately capture the main trends of microscale deformation such as localized elastic and plastic deformation and micro-crack initiation and propagation.

The geological disposal of nuclear waste, in underground openings and the long-term performance of these openings demand a detailed understanding of fundamental rock mechanics. A full scale field experiment: Äspö Pillar Stability Experiment was conducted at a depth of 450 m in sparsely fractured granitic rock to examine the rock mass response between two deposition holes. An oval shaped tunnel was excavated parallel to the σ3 direction to provide access to the experiment and also provide elevated stress magnitudes in the floor. In the tunnel floor two 1.75-m diameter 6-m deep boreholes were excavated so that a 1-m thick pillar was created between them. In one of the holes a confinement pressure of 700 kPa was applied and in the other displacement transducers were installed. The pillar volume was monitored by an Acoustic Emission System. Spatially distributed thermocouples were used to monitor the temperature development as the pillar was heated by electrical heaters. The excavation-induced stress together with the thermal-induced stress was sufficient to cause the wall of the open borehole to yield. The temperature-induced stress was increased slowly to enable detailed studies of the rock mass yielding process. Once the rock mass loading response was observed, the rock mass was unloaded using a de-stress slotting technique. This thesis focuses on the in-situ study of the rock mass response to coupled mechanical thermal loading and thermal-mechanical unloading. The experiment, its design, monitoring and observations are thoroughly described. An estimate of the yielding strength of the rock mass is presented and compared with laboratory test and results from other rock mass conditions reported elsewhere in the open literature. General conclusions about the effect of the confining pressure and the observations from the unloading of the pillar are also presented. Important findings are that the yielding strength of the rock mass has been successfully determined, low confinement pressures significantly affects the onset of yielding, the primary mode of fracture initiation and propagation is extensional, no significant time dependency of the yielding process was observed. The unloading studies also indicated that what appeared to be shear bands likely was a propagating zone of extensile failure that weakened the rock so that displacements in the shear direction could occur. / <p>QC 20100622</p>

La fissuration à chaud est un défaut majeur rencontré en solidification des alliages d'aluminium. Elle est liée à l'incapacité du liquide de s'écouler dans les zones où des porosités sont présentes, ne permettant pas de les refermer avant qu'elles gagnent en volume. Pour comprendre la fissuration à chaud, il est crucial de développer nos connaissances du comportement mécanique de la zone pâteuse. Pour cela, il est très utile d'effectuer des expériences de microtomographie aux rayons X et des simulations mécaniques sur des volumes élémentaires représentatifs. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons de coupler les deux approches en initialisant une simulation par éléments finis grâce à des données de microtomographie issues d'un test de traction isotherme d'un alliage d'aluminium-cuivre à l'état pâteux. Cette approche originale nous donne directement accès à la réalité expérimentale et permet des comparaisons des évolutions numérique et expérimentale de l'éprouvette. Nous expliquons dans un premier temps comment obtenir la représentation numérique à l'aide de l'algorithme des marching cubes et de la méthode d'immersion de volume. Nous présentons ensuite notre modèle numérique qui s'appuie sur une résolution monolithique des équations de Stokes. Une fois le champ de vitesse obtenu dans l'ensemble des phases solide, liquide et gazeuse, nous utilisons une méthode level set dans un formalisme eulérien afin de faire évoluer la morphologie de notre échantillon numérique. Malgré la simplicité du modèle, les résultats expérimentaux et numériques montrent un accord raisonnable en ce qui concerne la propagation de l'air à l'intérieur de l'échantillon. / Hot tearing is a major defect arising during solidification of aluminium alloys. This defect is associated with the inability of liquid to feed areas where voids have started to appear, not allowing to heal small defects before they grow bigger. To understand hot tearing, it is mandatory to develop a good knowledge of the semi-solid mechanical behaviour. It is thus very useful to carry out X-ray microtomographies experiments and mechanical simulations on representative elementary volumes. In this work, we couple the both approaches by initialising a finite element simulation with the help of microtomography data obtained during an isothermal tensile testing of an aluminium-copper alloy in the mushy state. This innovative approach gives a direct access to the experimental reality and allows comparisons of numerical and experimental evolutions of the sample. We explain in a first time how to get the numerical representation thanks to a marching cubes algorithm and the immersed volume method. Then, we present our numerical model for which we solve the Stokes equations in a monolithic way. Once the velocity computed in all the solid, liquid and gaseous phases, we use a level set method in a Eulerian formalism to obtain the morphological evolution of our numerical sample. Despite the model simplicity, numerical and experimental results show a reasonable agreement concerning the air propagation inside the sample.

Cette thèse porte sur le traitement de la farine de bois et son utilisation comme renforts de composites à matrice polymère. En effet, l’incompatibilité entre le bois, hydrophile, et les polymères, généralement hydrophobes, est la principale difficulté de mise en oeuvre des composites bois-polymère. Un traitement des renforts bois est alors nécessaire pour améliorer les propriétés mécaniques et hygroscopiques des composites. Un traitement par fluoration directe est ici proposé pour diminuer le caractère hydrophile du bois et augmenter son adhésion avec la matrice polymère. Après une phase de développement et de réglage du traitement, une caractérisation physico-chimique de la farine de bois non-traitée ou fluorée a été réalisée afin d’observer l’effet de la fluoration. Le greffage de fluor sur les constituants du bois a été validé, et une diminution du nombre des sites de sorption de l’eau dans le bois a été constatée. Cette réduction a conduit à une diminution de la teneur en eau du bois après fluoration. En outre, la structure physique des particules et le comportement thermique du bois n’ont pas été modifiés par le traitement. Des composites bois-polyester ont été fabriqués par moulage par compression à chaud, avec des renforts non-traités et fluorés. Ceux-ci ont été testés en traction, en flexion, et en fluage afin d’observer l’influence du traitement sur les propriétés mécaniques des composites. Par ailleurs, une caractérisation hygroscopique a également été conduite. Les résultats montrent que la fluoration directe des renforts permet d’améliorer les propriétés mécaniques et hygroscopiques des composites bois-polyester. / This thesis focuses on the treatment of wood flour used as reinforcement for polymer matrix composites. Indeed, the lack of compatibility between the hydrophilic wood and the hydrophobic polymers is the major difficulty encountered when processing wood-polymer composites. The treatment of the wood reinforcements is necessary to improve the mechanical and hygroscopic properties of the composites. Here, we proposed to apply direct fluorination to wood flour in order to reduce its hydrophilic character and then improve its compatibility with polymer matrix. Physicochemical characterization of the non-treated and fluorinated wood flours was carried out to observe the fluorination effects. The success of the fluorine grafting onto the wood components was confirmed by chemical analyses. Moreover, significant decrease in the number of moisture adsorption sites in wood was observed. This reduction led to a decrease in the equilibrium moisture content of wood after direct fluorination. In addition, the physical structure of the particles and the thermal behaviour of the wood were not modified by the treatment. Wood-polyester composites were processed by hot compression moulding with non-treated and fluorinated reinforcements. These composites were characterized by tensile, flexural and creep tests. Furthermore, a hygroscopic characterisation was also carried out. The results showed an improvement of the mechanical and hygroscopic properties of the composites with the reinforcements fluorination.

Le silicium (Si) et le germanium (Ge) sont les matériaux de base utilisés dans les circuits intégrés. Cependant, à cause de leur gap indirect, ces matériaux ne sont pas adaptés à la fabrication de dispositifs d'émission de lumière, comme les lasers ou diodes électroluminescentes. Comparé au Si, le Ge pur possède des propriétés optiques uniques, à température ambiante son gap direct est de seulement 140 meV au-delà du gap indirect tandis qu'il est supérieur à 2 eV dans le cas du Si. Compte tenu du coefficient de dilatation thermique du Ge, deux fois plus grand que celui du Si, une croissance de Ge sur Si à hautes températures suivie d'un refroidissement à température ambiante permet de générer une contrainte en tension dans le Ge. Cependant, l'existence d'un désaccord de maille de 4,2% entre deux matériaux conduit à une croissance Stranski-Krastanov avec la formation des films rugueux et contenant de forte densité des dislocations. Nous avons mis en évidence l'existence d'une fenêtre de température de croissance, permettant de supprimer la croissance tridimensionnelle de Ge/Si. En combinant la croissance à haute température à des recuits thermiques par cycles, une contrainte de 0,30% a pu être obtenue. Le dopage de type n a été effectué en utilisant la décomposition de GaP, ce qui produit des molécules P2 ayant un coefficient de collage plus grand par rapport à celui des molécules P4. En particulier, en mettant en oeuvre la technique du co-dopage en utilisant le phosphore et l'antimoine, nous avons mis en évidence une augmentation de l'émission du gap direct du Ge à environ 150 fois, ce qui constitue l'un des meilleurs résultats obtenus jusqu'à présent. / Silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge) are the main materials used as active layers in microelectronic devices. However, due to their indirect band gap, they are not suitable for the fabrication of light emitting devices, such as lasers or electroluminescent diodes. Compared to Si, pure Ge displays unique optical properties, its direct bandgap is only 140 meV above the indirect one. As Ge has a thermal expansion coefficient twice larger than that of Si, tensile strain can be induced in the Ge layers when growing Ge on Si at high temperatures and subsequent cooling down to room temperature. However, due to the existence of a misfit as high as 4.2 % between two materials, the Ge growth on Si proceeds via the Stranski-Krastanov mode and the epitaxial Ge films exhibits a rough surface and a high density of dislocations. We have evidenced the existence of a narrow substrate temperature window, allowing suppressing the three-dimensional growth of Ge on Si. By combining high-temperature growth with cyclic annealing, we obtained a tensile strain up to 0.30 %. The n-doping in Ge was carried out using the decomposition of GaP to produce the P2 molecules, which have a higher sticking coefficient than the P4 molecules. In particular, by implementing a co-doping technique using phosphorus and antimony, we have evidenced an intensity enhancement of about 150 times of the Ge direct band gap emission. This result represents as one of the best results obtained up to now.

[pt] Efeitos da taxa de deformação nas propriedades mecânicas podem ser significativos na simulação do comportamento dinâmico de estruturas deformadas plasticamente, e o objetivo deste trabalho é avaliá-los através de duas tarefas complementares: (i) desenvolver e qualificar uma metodologia apropriada para a medição de propriedades mecânicas dinâmicas, incluindo os requisitos necessários para medir e ajustar da melhor forma possível os dados experimentais, quantificando a incerteza a eles associada; e (ii) verificar a influência da estratégia de medição das propriedades mecânicas na previsibilidade do comportamento de estruturas sujeitas a impactos.Os modelos que descrevem o comportamento mecânico dinâmico são baseados na taxa de deformação de/dt, mas freqüentemente seus parâmetros são medidos em testes controlados pela velocidade do carregamento. Todavia, a taxa de/dt não permanece constante nos testes feitos sob velocidade fixa, o que aumenta a incerteza das previsões baseadas nos parâmetros assim medidos. Para avaliar quantitativamente a influência das estratégias de controle nas propriedades mecânicas, primeiro foi estabelecido um procedimento estatístico apropriado para determinar o número de corpos de prova necessários para medir propriedades dinâmicas dentro de um nível de confiança desejado. Todos os dados foram medidos em duplicata, controlando as taxas de deformação ou a velocidade de carregamento imposta nos corpos de prova, numa larga faixa, 10(-4) menor ou igual a de/dt menor ou igual a 10/s, em testes particularmente feitos com cuidado. A aquisição e tratamento dos dados foram feitos através de um programa desenvolvido em Labview. Um programa desenvolvido em Mathcad foi usado para otimizar os parâmetros dos diversos modelos estudados ao conjunto de dados medidos via um algoritmo Levenberg–Marquardt. A partir deste estudo é proposto um novo modelo que descreve adequadamente o patamar de escoamento, e minimiza os erros de ajuste na região de transição elastoplástica, de grande importância na análise estrutural. Um pórtico simples foi escolhido para verificar o efeito das propriedades dinâmicas nas simulações numéricas feitas no programa LS-DYNA, tradicionalmente usado para modelar impactos elastoplásticos. Vários destes pórticos foram submetidos a impactos numa máquina de queda livre (dropweight), para induzir deformações plásticas variáveis em função das velocidades de impacto. As deformações medidas foram comparadas com as previstas usando as propriedades obtidas sob as duas estratégias de controle, e ajustadas pelos diversos modelos estudados. Desta forma pode-se finalmente quantificar a influência da metodologia de medição das propriedades mecânicas dinâmicas na previsibilidade do comportamento de estruturas sujeitas a impactos elastoplásticos. / [en] The strain rate effects in the mechanical properties can be significant in the simulation of the dynamic behavior in plastic deformed structures, this work has the objective to evaluate these effects through two complementary tasks: (i) to develop and qualify an appropriate methodology for the measurement of dynamic mechanical properties, including the requirements necessary to measure and to adjust of the best possible way the experimental data, quantifying the uncertainty they associated; and (ii) to verify the influence of the strategy of measurement of the mechanical properties in the prediction of the behavior of structures submitted to impacts.The models that describe the dynamic mechanical behavior are based on the strain rate de/dt, but usually its parameters are measured in controlled tests by the speed of loading. However, the rate de/dt does not remain constant in the tests realized with fixed speed, which it increases the uncertainty of the predictions based on the measured parameters. For a quantitative evaluation of the influence of the control strategies in the mechanical properties, was first established a appropriated statistical procedure to determine the number of specimens necessary to measure dynamic properties with a acceptable level of reliability. All the data were measured twice, controlling the strain rate or the loading speed imposed in the specimens, in a wide range, 10(-4) less than or equal de/dt less than or equal 10/s, in tests particularly realized with care. The acquisition and data processing were made through a program developed in Labview. A program developed in Mathcad was used to optimize the parameters of the diverse models studied to the data set measured by a Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. From this study is proposed a new model that describes the yieldind adequately, and minimizes the errors of fitting in the region of transition elasto-plastic, that plays a great role in the structural analysis.A simple porch was chosen to verify the effect of the dynamic properties in the numerical simulations made in program LS-DYNA, used traditionally to simulate elasto-plastics impacts. Several of these porches had been submitted to impacts in a machine of free fall (drop-weight), to induce variable plastic strains in function of the impact speeds. The measured strains were compared with the predicted ones using the properties obtained with the two strategies of control, and adjusted by the diverse studied models. In such way the influence of measurement methodology of the dynamic mechanical properties in the prediction of the behavior of structures submitted to elasto-plastics impacts can be quantified.

Os constantes vazamentos de combustíveis derivados do petróleo nos postos de abastecimento têm gerado grande preocupação em diversos países do mundo. Estes combustíveis apresentam em sua composição compostos orgânicos, entre eles os hidrocarbonetos poliaromáticos (HPAs) nocivos à saúde humana. Este trabalho visa ao estudo da eficiência de uma camada de impermeabilização, constituída por uma Geomembrana de Polietileno de Alta Densidade (PEAD) de 2,5 mm de espessura. Os estudos se basearam em análises físicas (Densidade), mecânicas (Tração e Permeabilidade) e térmicas (Calorimetria de Varredura Diferencial) da geomembrana exposta aos três combustíveis, além de analisar a estanqueidade por Difusão, na geomembrana intacta. Os resultados mostraram que: a densidade das geomembranas sofre pequenas variações, e que para um período de até 6 meses o parâmetro é mantido; as resistências mecânicas apresentam maior influência nas suas propriedades em relação ao óleo diesel e gasolina, e menor para o álcool; os testes de análise térmica mostram que as cadeias poliméricas mantiveram as ligações atômicas, baseado nas temperaturas de fusão e degradação; os testes de permeabilidade ao vapor d\'água mostram que a geomembrana exposta à gasolina apresenta tendência de aumento da permeabilidade em função do tempo; os resultados dos testes de impermeabilização a um grupo de compostos policíclicos aromáticos, mostram que a geomembrana apresenta desempenho menos satisfatório para os compostos antraceno e naftaleno. A geomembrana de polietileno de alta densidade de 2,5 mm é uma boa alternativa na prevenção da contaminação pelos compostos estudados, até um período aproximado de um ano, tendo em vista seu desempenho no período estudado. / The constant petrol fuel leaks in gas stations has been caused concern in many countries around the world. This fuel has toxic organic compounds in their composition, like Polyciclic Aromatic Hidrocarbons (PAHs) harmful to the human health. In this work the efficiency of the protection layer with a Hight Density Polyetilene Geomembrane (HDPE) 2.5 mm thickness was used. The study is based upon the physical (density), mecanical (Tensile and Permeability) and thermal tests (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) and was used for the three fuels, as well as the difusion test of intact geomembrane. The results show that the geomembrane density has changed a little bit, holding the standard values up to 6 months; the mecanical resistence decreases in diesel oil and gasoline, and increases in alcohol; the thermic analisys tests show that the polimeric chains maintain the same chemical bonds, based on the melting point and degradation temperature; the water vapor permeability test shows, as the time increases, the water vapor throught the geomembrane which was exposed to gasoline tends to increase; the results of impermeabilization test of a poliaromatic compound group shows that the geomembrane is less efective to antracene and naftalene compounds. The hight density polyethylene geomembrane of 2.5 mm thickness is a good alternative preventing contamination of water and soil, by the compounds under stusy, about up to one year, based on this time of study performance.