In the first part of this thesis, the FE program MSC.Marc is applied for coupled thermomechanical simulations of wire-rod rolling. In order to predict material behaviour of an AISI 302 stainless steel at high strain rates generated during wire-rod rolling, a material model based on dislocation density is applied. Then, the evolution of temperature, strain rate and flow stress is predicted in the first four rolling passes of a wire block. In the second part of the thesis, an alternative approach to simulation of shape rolling is evaluated. The approach is applied in order to save the computational time in cases where many shape-rolling passes are to be simulated. The approach is a combination of the slab method and a 2D FEM with a generalized plane-strain formulation. A number of various isothermal shape-rolling passes are simulated applying the simplified approach. The simulations are carried out using an in-house 2D FE code implemented in Matlab. The results are compared to fully 3D FE analyses. The comparison shows that the simplified approach can predict roll forces and roll torques with a fair accuracy, but the predicted area reductions are a bit underestimated. The reasons for the deviations between the simplified approach and the 3D FEM are discussed. / QC 20101123

This licentiate thesis concerns one dimensional flow simulation of turbocharged spark ignited engines. The objective has been to contribute to the improvement of turbocharged SI engines’ performance as well as 1 D simulation capabilities. Turbocharged engines suffer from poor gas exchange due to the high exhaust pressure created by the turbine. This results in power loss as well as high levels of residual gas, which makes the engine more prone to knock. This thesis presents an alternative gas exchange concept, with the aim of removing the high exhaust pressure during the critical periods. This is done by splitting the two exhaust ports into two separate exhaust manifolds. The alternative gas exchange study was performed by measurements as well as 1-D simulations. The link between measurements and simulations is very strong, and will be discussed in this thesis. As mentioned, turbocharged engines are prone to knock. Hence, finding a method to model knock in 1-D engine simulations would improve the simulation capabilities. In this thesis a 0-D knock model, coupled to the 1-D engine model, is presented / QC 20101112

The main purpose of the AOD-converter is to lower the carbon content in stainless steel production. The carbon content can be estimated by static theoretical models. It can also be estimated through dynamic models based on analysis of the exhaust gases from the converter. This master thesis is a study on an extended use of exhaust gas analysis data on the AOD-converter at Outokumpu’s stainless steel plant in Avesta, Sweden. There are two main methods of predicting the carbon content based on exhaust gas analysis, mass balance and a linear regression between decarburization rate and carbon content. This master thesis mainly focuses on the development of the linear regression model for steel grades ASTM 304L, 316L, S32101 and S32205 for the last step of the decarburization, as well as ASTM S32205 and S30815 for the second last step of the decarburization. The results showed that the linear regression model can predict the carbon content at the last step of decarburization with a standard deviation between 0,00626 %C and 0,0109 %C for the different steel grades. An equation for carbon prediction dependent on the steel composition was also developed in the master thesis, making it theoretically possible to use for all steel grades, it has however not yet been tested on other steel grades. The CRE measured from the exhaust gases was also studied to find out if it is possibleto use as basis for step changes during the decarburization, but the resultswere inconclusive. / Huvudsyftet med AOD-konvertern är att sänka kolhalten i produktionen av rostfritt stål. Kolhalten kan uppskattas av statiska teoretiska modeller. Den kan också uppskattas av dynamiska modeller baserade på analys av avgaserna från konvertern. Det här examensarbetet handlar om utvidgning av användandet av avgasanalysdata på AOD-konvertern på Outokumpus stålverk i Avesta, Sverige. Det finns i huvudsak två metoder för att bestämma kolhalten med hjälp av avgasanalys, massbalans och en linjär regression mellan kolfärskningshastigheten och kolhalten. Det här examensarbetet fokuserar i huvudsak på utvecklingen av den linjära modellen för stålsorterna ASTM 304L, 316L, S32101 och S32205 för sista steget i kolfärskningen. Samt stålsorterna ASTM S32205 och S30815 för näst sista steget i kolfärskningen. Resultaten visade att den linjära modellen kunde uppskatta kolhalten i sista steget av kolfärskningen med en standardavvikelse mellan 0,00626 %C och 0,0109 %C för de fyra olika stålsorterna. En ekvation som anger sambandet mellan sammansättningen på stålet under kolfärskningen och ekvationen för den linjära regressionen togs också fram i examensarbetet. Teoretiskt kan ekvationen användas för alla stålsorter men den har inte än blivit testad på andra stålsorter. CRE uppmätt med hjälp av avgasanalys undersöktes också för att ta reda på om CRE kan användas för att bestämma när stegbytena ska ske, det gick dock inte att utgöra från resultaten.

This master's thesis project investigates the impact of hydrophobicity and topology on dry and wet macroscopic particle accumulation on surfaces. The report begins by outlining the challenges associated with this phenomenon and the existing theories and methods used to study it, including adhesion, surface engineering, the Lotus effect, and humidity. The method chapter presents the case study of grass accumulation for robotic lawn mowing application and describes experiments conducted to simulate the accumulation of grass during robotic lawn mowing. These experiments explore two different phenomena: the accumulation of grass that is already stuck to a surface and the process by which grass initially sticks to a surface. Experiments have been done to change the hydrophobicity level of certain specimens and investigate how hydrophobicity and humidity affect the stickiness of grass when already accumulated on a surface. In addition, experiments are conducted by throwing grass towards surfaces with different hydrophobicity and topology to determine the influence of these variables on accumulation. Finally, a physical field test is conducted. The findings indicate that hydrophobicity up to 108,2° water contact angle has a low impact on both static and dynamic grass accumulation. Increased hydrophobicity does not tend to decrease grass accumulation, even showing increased accumulation in some experiments. Humidity and the wetness of the grass are more important factors. Experiments have shown that a textured surface can decrease the accumulation, showing significant results in a controlled environment. However, these results did not transfer over in a significant way to a real robotic lawn mowing situation.

This paper presents an investigation on using the variation of ferrostatic pressure exerted by the molten steel in the strand to the support rolls during continuous casting to detect the location of the final solidification. The final solidification point is of high importance for applying soft reduction during continuous casting in order to ensure inner quality and achieve high productivity. The measurement was conducted at one of the casters at SSAB Oxelösund, of which all the support rolls are separately mounted. The project finds that this method shows promising results and can help to narrow down the range of the location due to certain interferences and noises. The ferrostatic pressure decrease during tail-out and the variation of whether a pressure drop exists is the dividing line of full and partial solidification. With the promising results achieved, more effort should be put to further improve the method.

Humans are exposed to metals and metal-containing materials daily, either conscious, e.g. using metal tools or objects, or unconscious, e.g. during exposure to airborne metal-, and metal-containing particles. The diffuse dispersion of metals from different sources in the society, and the concern related to its potential risk for adverse effects on humans have gained an increased public and governmental attention both on a national and international level. In this context, the knowledge on metal release from metallic objects or metal-containing particles is essential for health risk assessment. This thesis focuses on the study of metal release from powder particles of stainless steel and Cu-based materials exposed to synthetic body fluids mainly for simulating lung-like environments. The study comprises: i) development of a suitable experimental method for metal release studies of micron sized particles, ii) metal release data of individual alloy constituents from stainless steel powder particles of different particle sizes, and iii) Cu release from different Cu-based powder particles. In addition, the influence of chemical and physical properties of metallic particles and the test media are investigated. Selected results from Ni powder particles exposed to artificial sweat are presented for comparison. The outcome of this research is summarized through ten questions that are formulated to improve the general understanding of corrosion-induced metal release from metallic particles from a health risk perspective. A robust, reproducible, fairly simple, and straightforward experimental procedure was elaborated for metal release studies on particles of micron or submicron size. Results in terms of metal release rates show, for stainless steel powder particles, generally very low metal release rates due to a protective surface oxide film, and Fe preferentially released compared to Cr and Ni. Metal release rates are time-dependent for both stainless steel powder particles and the different Cu-containing powders investigated. The release of Cu from the Cu-containing particles depends on the chemical and compositional properties of the Cu-based material, being either corrosion-induced or chemically dissolved. Moreover, the test medium also influences the metal release process. The metal release rate increases generally with decreasing pH of the test media. However, even at a comparable pH, the release rate may be different due to differences in the interaction between the particle surface and specific media. The nature of particles is essentially different compared to massive sheet in terms of physical shape, surface composition and morphology. The surface area, and even the surface composition of metallic particles, depend on the particle size. The specific surface area of particles, area per mass, is intimately related to the particle size and has a large effect on the metal release process. Release rates increase with decreasing particle size due to a larger active surface area that takes part in the corrosion/dissolution process. The surface area that actually is active in the corrosion and metal release process (the effective area) governs the metal release process for both particles and massive sheet of metals or alloys. For particles, the effective surface area depends also on agglomeration conditions of particles during exposure. / QC 20101119

Recrystallization kinetics, during and after hot deformation, has been investigated for decades. From these investigations several equations have been derived for describing it. The equations are often empirical or semi-empirical, i.e. they are derived for certain steel grades and are consequently only applicable to steel grades similar to these. To be able to describe the recrystallization kinetics for a variety of steel grades, more physically based models are necessary. During rolling in hot strip mills, recrystallization enables the material to be deformed more easily and knowledge of the recrystallization kinetics is important in order to predict the required roll forces. SSAB Tunnplåt in Borlänge is a producer of low-carbon steel strips. In SSAB’s hot strip mill, rolling is conducted in a reversing roughing mill followed by a continuous finishing mill. In the reversing roughing mill the temperature is high and the inter-pass times are long. This allows for full recrystallization to occur during the inter-pass times. Due to the high temperature, the rather low strain rates and the large strains there is also a possibility for dynamic recrystallization to occur during deformation, which in turn leads to metadynamic recrystallization after deformation. In the finishing mill the temperature is lower and the inter-pass times are shorter. The lower temperature means slower recrystallization kinetics and the shorter inter-pass times could mean that there is not enough time for full recrystallization to occur. Hence, partial or no recrystallization occurs in the finishing mill, but the accumulated strain from pass to pass could lead to dynamic recrystallization and subsequently to metadynamic recrystallization. In this work a newly developed physically based model has been used to describe the microstructural evolution of austenite. The model is based on dislocation theory where the generated dislocations during deformation provide the driving force for recrystallization. The model is built up by several submodels where the recrystallization model is one of them. The recrystallization model is based on the unified theory of continuous and discontinuous recovery, recrystallization and grain growth by Humphreys. To verify and validate the model, rolling in the hot strip mill was modeled using process data from SSAB’s hot strip mill. In addition axisymmetric compression tests combined with relaxation was modeled using experimental results from tests conducted on a Gleeble 1500 thermomechanical simulator at Oulu University, Finland. The results show good agreement with measured data. / QC 20101118

Over one million hip prostheses are implanted in patients worldwide each year and the need is increasing as the patient group of younger and more active patients is increasing. Many parameters affect the longevity of the implant, where aseptic loosening caused by wear debris is the most common reason for revision. To be able to monitor wear in vivo and also to predict the longevity of new materials for hip prostheses are therefore important issues in this interdisciplinary research area. This thesis comprise a true non-invasive 3D method for determination of acetabular cup wear using Computed Tomography (CT) intended for clinical routine use in order to plan for a revision. It also comprises investigations of the influence of surface roughness and sterilization method in wear testing of materials for hip prostheses. Mainly wear of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) was investigated since it is the most common soft bearing in hip prostheses. The 3D-CT method was found to be easy to use and showed an accuracy and repeatability at a clinical relevant level for acetabular cup wear. It should lend itself well to semi-automation. The influence of surface roughness was investigated with both a multidirectional pin-on-disk machine and with a hip simulator. A new low friction coating, Micronite, was also evaluated with the pin-on-disk machine. This coating showed potential for use in artificial joints, but further investigations are needed. In the hip simulator test, it was found that not only a rougher counter surface increased wear, but also sterilization by γ-irradiation increased wear of UHMWPE cups. / QC 20101117

The treatment and control of superfluous aqueous phosphate is a critical task in environmental management. Magnetic bio-activated carbon is a good adsorbent for physical adsorption methods with several environmental and economic advantages. A streamlined and new method for production of magnetic bio-activated carbon from lignin is finished and presented by Tong Han. To enhance the phosphate adsorption and find the optimization process for mac production from lignin, it’s necessary to investigate influence of process parameters on the quality of the final products systematically. In this work, four different modification of process are used to investigate the influence of process parameters on the quality of the final products systematically, which shows how the proportion of iron oxides, the dispersion of iron oxides and the degree of activation influence the capacities. And the maximum capacity is around 50mg/g, which is a relatively high improvement. / Behandling och kontroll av överflödigt vattenhaltigt fosfat är en kritisk uppgift i miljöhantering. Magnetiskt bioaktiverat kol är ett bra adsorbent för fysiska adsorptionsmetoder med flera miljömässiga och ekonomiska fördelar. En strömlinjeformad och ny metod för produktion av magnetiskt bioaktiverat kol från lignin är färdig och presenteras av Tong Han. För att förbättra fosfatadsorptionen och hitta optimeringsprocessen för mac-produktion från lignin är det nödvändigt att systematiskt undersöka påverkan av processparametrar på kvaliteten på de slutliga produkterna. I detta arbete används fyra olika modifieringar av processen för att systematiskt undersöka påverkan av processparametrar på slutprodukternas kvalitet, vilket visar hur andelen järnoxider, spridningen av järnoxider och graden av aktivering påverkar kapaciteten. Och den maximala kapaciteten är cirka 50 mg / g, vilket är en relativt hög förbättring.

The role of intrinsic hydrodynamic instability of the premixed flame (known as Landau-Darrieus instability) in various flame phenomena is studied by means of direct numerical simulations of the complete system of hydrodynamic equations. Rigorous study of flame dynamics and effect of Landau-Darrieus instability is essential for all premixed combustion problems where multidimensional effects cannot be disregarded. The present thesis consists of three parts. The first part deals with the fundamental problem of curved stationary flames propagation in tubes of different widths. It is shown that only simple "single-hump" slanted stationary flames are possible in wide tubes, and "multi-hump" flames in a laminar flow are possible in wide tubes only as a non-stationary mode of flame propagation. The stability limits of curved stationary flames in wider tubes are obtained, together with the dependence of the velocity of the stationary flame on the tube width. The flame dynamics in wider tubes is shown to be governed by a large-scale stability mechanism resulting in a highly slanted flame front. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to studies of acceleration and fractal structure of outward freely propagating flames. It is shown that in direct numerical simulation the development of Landau-Darrieus instability results in the formation of fractal-like flame front structure. The fractal excess for radially expanding flames in cylindrical geometry is evaluated. Two-dimensional simulation of radially expanding flames in cylindrical geometry displays a radial growth with 1.25 power law temporal behavior after some transient time. It is shown that the fractal excess for 2D geometry obtained in the numerical simulation is in good agreement with theoretical predictions. The difference in fractal dimension between 2D cylidrical and three-dimensional spherical radially expanding flames is outlined. Extrapolation of the obtained results for the case of spherical expanding flames gives a radial growth power law that is consistent with temporal behavior obtained in the survey of experimental data. The last part of the thesis concerns the role of Landau-Darrieus instability in the transition from deflagration to detonation. It is found that in sufficiently wide channels Landau-Darrieus instability may invoke nucleation of hot spots within the folds of the developing wrinkled flame, triggering an abrupt transition from deflagrative to detonative combustion. It is found that the mechanism of the transition is the temperature increase due to the influx of heat from the folded reaction zone, followed by autoignition. The transition occurs when the pressure elevation at the accelerating reaction front becomes high enough to produce a shock capable of supporting detonation. / QC 20101119