Yes / Tensile properties of powder metallurgy 3% manganese-0·8% carbon (content of green compact) steels were determined following laboratory sintering in (nearly) full, semiclosed containers with no getter powders in dry, 0-100% hydrogen-nitrogen atmospheres. Manganese was mixed with the NC 100·24 sponge iron powder as low carbon ferromanganese and carbon as a graphite addition. Dogbone compacts were pressed at 660 MPa, the sintering temperatures were 1120 and 1250°C and cooling rates ∼65 K min- 1. In specimens sintered in nitrogen containing atmospheres at 1120°C, final carbon content was ∼0·7% and for those processed at 1250°C ∼0·6%. Sintering in dry hydrogen resulted in lower carbon and oxygen contents. Independent of the H2/N2 ratio in the furnace atmosphere, however, all the specimens were ductile and exhibited similar strengths. Yield strengths R 0·2 were in the range: 426-464 MPa, tensile strengths Rm were 724-780 MPa and strains to failure were 1·6-2·0% after sintering at 1250°C. The 1120°C sintering temperature resulted in 10-15% lower strength values. The microstructures, significantly devoid of oxide networks, comprised mainly mixtures of bainite and fine (divorced) pearlite, with very little martensite and retained austenite. Reproducibly successful sintering of manganese containing compacts requires that reduction conditions exist at the sintering temperature. Ellingham Richardson diagrams dictate that the dewpoints of hydrogen required are-55 and-40°C at 1120 and 1250°C, respectively. A semiclosed container, how ever, ensures a different microclimate. It is suggested that then the initial relevant reactions there are: Mn[vapour]+H2O=MnO+H2, 3Fe2O3 +H2= 2Fe3O4+H2O, Fe3O4+H2=3FeO+H2O, FeO+H2= Fe+H2O and C+O2=CO2, which provide hydrogen andwater vapour,also within the pores. The manganese vapour further acts as a ‘shield’ by generating further hydrogen from the water vapour. The following reactions involving carbon monoxide are postulated above 927°C, when CO is a more effective reducing agent than hydrogen: C+H2O=H2+CO, 3Fe2O3+ CO=2Fe3O4+CO2, Fe3O4+CO=3FeO+CO2, FeO+CO=Fe+CO2 and C+CO2=2CO. Accordingly, irrespective of whether it is hydrogen or nitrogen in the semiclosed container, if there is a supply of carbon, reducing conditions prevail at the sintering temperature,embrittling oxidenetworks arenot formed and ductile manganese steels are processed.

The aim of this study is to investigate the mechanical properties of continuous fiber reinforced composite tubes, produced by filament winding technique. For this purpose, tensile and split-disk tests were performed with specimens produced with five different fiber materials and two different resin systems. Longitudinal tensile and hoop tensile properties of the selected specimens were determined and the effect of reinforcement direction on the mechanical performance of these composites was investigated. In addition, the effect of a filament-winding processing variable (fiber tension) on longitudinal and hoop tensile properties of the selected composites was obtained. A slight increase in hoop/longitudinal tensile properties of specimens was observed for specimens wounded with tension and with winding angles greater than 60o. The tests were performed according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. The split-disk tests of selected composite specimens were simulated by the finite element method. For this purpose, a commercial finite element package program was used. Experimental results were used both as input in terms of material data for the finite element study and for comparison purposes. A good agreement was obtained between the simulation results and the experimental data.

Master of Science / Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Gurpreet Singh / 3D-printing is a popular manufacturing technique for making complex parts or small quantity batches. Currently, the applications of 3D-printing are limited by the material properties of the printed material. The processing parameters of commonly available 3D printing processes constrain the materials used to a small set of primarily plastic materials, which have relatively low strength and electrical conductivity. Adding filler materials has the potential to improve these properties and expand the applications of 3D printed material. Carbon nanomaterials show promise as filler materials due to their extremely high conductivity, strength, and surface area. In this work, Graphite, Carbon Nanotubes, and Carbon Black (CB) were mixed with raw Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) pellets. The resulting mixture was extruded to form a composite filament. Tensile test specimens and electrical conductivity specimens were manufactured by Fused Deposition Method (FDM) 3D-printing using this composite filament as the feedstock material. Weight percentages of filler materials were varied from 0-20 wt% to see the effect of increasing filler loading on the composite materials. Additional tensile test specimens were fabricated and post-processed with heat and microwave irradiation in attempt to improve adhesion between layers of the 3D-printed materials. Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy tests on 15 wt% Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube (MWCNT) composite specimens showed an increase in DC electrical conductivity of over 6 orders of magnitude compared to neat ABS samples. This 15 wt% specimen had DC electrical conductivity of 8.74x10−6 S/cm, indicating semi-conducting behavior. MWCNT specimens with under 5 wt% filler loading and Graphite specimens with under 1 wt% filler loading showed strong insulating behavior similar to neat ABS. Tensile tests showed increases in tensile strength at 5 wt% CB and 0.5 wt% MWCNT. Placing the specimens in the oven at 135 °C for an hour caused increased the stiffness of the composite specimens.

Numerous publications are available on the structure and properties correlation of fibers spun from polymers with flexible chains such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), nylon, polypropylene. Also considerable amount of work is reported in fibers spun from rigid rod polymers like poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) due to their value in high performance fibers category. However, very limited literature is available on the structure-properties relationship in fibers manufactured from poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS), a high performance polymer which possesses chain flexibility between above two classes of polymers. A few researchers have studied crystallization kinetics and the fibers by extruding the polymer using capillary rheometers. However, there is a lack of in-depth study of conversion of PPS into fibers through melt spinning and further enhancement of properties by drawing and annealing experiments. The purpose of the present research was to fill this void by systematically studying the fiber manufacture from PPS polymers. Four variances of proprietary Fortron® linear PPS resins differing in MW were analyzed for their characteristics such as molecular weight (MW) and MW distribution (MWD) using gel permeation chromatography (GPC), rheological properties using melt flow indexer (MFI) and capillary extrusion rheometer, and crystallization kinetics using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The fibers were spun on a pilot melt spinning facility, using a multi-hole spinneret, under different processing conditions. As-spun fibers were drawn and annealed subsequently by varying draw-annealing conditions. Thorough characterization of the as-spun and drawn-annealed fibers was carried out using various analytical techniques such as tensile testing, DSC, polarized light optical microscopy (POM), wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Relationship between polymer characteristics, process conditions and structure-properties in the fibers was analysed statistically. A strong correlationship between polymer molecular weight, processing conditions during melt spinning and draw-annealing, processing behavior during melt spinning and drawing, fiber tensile properties and fiber morphology is reported herein. Interaction effects of material and process variables in evolving fiber structure and properties are also discussed. Through optimal combination of material and process variables, PPS fibers of tenacity close to six gpd were obtained. With the help of several characterization tools listed earlier, melting behavior of PPS polymers and fibers is decoded, and probable structural model of high tenacity PPS fibers is proposed.

The focus of this thesis is to research and develop a uniaxial tensile testing technique and methodology to attain the post-peak softening response for ultra-high performance concrete under confining pressure. This particular multi-axial behavior is valuable in improving current material models in finite element simulations for US Army applications into hardened target structures.

The work presented aims to find alternatives for the prototyping of components by sand and plaster mold manufacturing processes that deliver properties similar to high pressure die casting (HPDC). Sand and plaster test samples have been casted. The Al-7Si-0.35Mg alloy has been tested in as cast condition and in a heat treated condition; T5 for sand cast samples and T6 for those plaster cast. The Al-7Si-2Cu-0.35Mg alloy was also tested in as cast condition. Tensile, fatigue and hardness tests have been performed. Microstructural investigation comprising secondary dendrite arm spacing, defects, Fe-rich β-phases and Si size measurements has been performed on the different conditions. The results have been compared to available data for Al-9Si-3Cu-(Fe) alloy used in HPDC. The T5 heat treated sand cast condition has shown to have properties similar to HPDC. All other sand cast conditions, including the previously tested Al-9Si-3Cu-(Fe) alloy, have been shown to be reasonable alternatives.

Hybrid systems with two or more fiber materials were used to combine the benefits of each fiber into a single composite product. Strength and toughness optimization of hybrid thin sheet composites has been studied extensively using combination of different fiber types with low and high modulus of elasticity. Hybrid reinforcement is more significant when the reinforcing structure is in fabric geometry. Fabric structure provides full control on the exact location of each yarn and its orientation in the composite during production, thus maximizes the reinforcing efficiency. A high-strength, high-modulus fiber primarily tends to increase the composite strength with nominal improvements in toughness. A low-modulus fiber expected to mainly improve toughness and ductility. Combination of two or more types of fiber can produce a composite that is both strong and tough as compared to a mono fiber composite. The purpose of the current work was to study hybrid warp knitted fabrics as reinforcement for cementbased composite, having AR (Alkali Resistance) glass and Polypropylene (PP) as the reinforcing yarns. The examined ratios between the two different yarns were 0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, 100:0 (glass: PP, by percentage). It was found that in the hybrid system, the fracture mechanism is a superposition of the mono systems, and the tensile behavior is a combination between the two materials.

Environmental savings can be made by increasing the use of aluminium alloys in the automotive industry as the vehicles can be made lighter. Increasing the knowledge about the heat treatment process is one task in the direction towards this goal. The aim of this work is to investigate and model the heat treatment process for Al-Si casting alloys. Three alloys containing Mg and/or Cu were cast using the gradient solidification technique to achieve three different coarsenesses of the microstructure and a low amount of defects. Solution treatment was studied by measuring the concentration of Mg, Cu and Si in the α-Al matrix using wavelength dispersive spectroscopy (WDS) after various times at a solution treatment temperature. A diffusion based model was developed which estimates the time needed to obtain a high and homogenous concentration of alloying elements for different alloys, temperatures and coarsenesses of the microstructure. It was shown that the yield strength after artificial ageing is weakly dependent on the coarseness of the microstructure when the solution treatment time is adjusted to achieve complete dissolution and homogenisation. The shape and position of ageing curves (yield strength versus ageing time) was investigated empirically in this work and by studying the literature in order to differentiate the mechanisms involved. A diffusion based model for prediction of the yield strength after different ageing times was developed for Al-Si-Mg alloys. The model was validated using data available in the literature. For Al-Si-Cu-Mg alloys further studies regarding the mechanisms involved need to be performed. Changes in the microstructure during a heat treatment process influence the plastic deformation behaviour. The Hollomon equation describes the plastic deformation of alloys containing shearable precipitates well, while the Ludwigson equation is needed when a supersaturated solid solution is present. When non-coherent precipitates are present, none of the equations describe the plastic deformation well. The evolution of the storage rate and recovery rate of dislocations was studied and coupled to the evolution of the microstructure using the Kocks-Mecking strain hardening theory.

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:52:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:02:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP