A liga Ti-6Al-4V tem sido usada com sucesso como biomaterial com aplicações nos campos da odontologia e ortopedia. As características da liga Ti-6Al-4V que a tornaram um material interessante são sua boa resistência à corrosão em meio biológico, combinada com um excelente grau de biocompatibilidade. Os efeitos biológicos a longo prazo dos íons metálicos resultantes da lenta lixiviação dos implantes de titânio não estão completamente entendidos. É conhecido que os íons titânio são considerados agentes químicos cancerígenos, os íons alumínio causam desordem neurológicas e os íons vanádio estão associados com distúrbios enzimáticos, entre outros problemas. O recobrimento das ligas de titânio por óxido de titânio (TiO2) pode atuar como uma barreira química para os íons lixiviados da superfície metálica da liga, além deste óxido ser um bom osseoindutor. O processo de aspersão térmica é amplamente empregado na aplicação de recobrimentos por óxidos. Uma vez que este processo acontece em altas temperaturas, onde partículas fundidas ou semi-fundidas aderem ao substrato, pode ocorrer difusão localizada. O objetivo deste estudo é caracterizar a interdifusão dos elementos de liga através das camadas superficiais do sistema Ti-6Al-4V/TiO2. Os recobrimentos de TiO2 foram preparados pela técnica de aspersão por plasma. A zona recoberta mostrou pequena porosidade distribuída por toda a camada e algumas trincas radiais. Adicionalmente, uma grande quantidade de buracos foi observada na região entre-camadas. Neste trabalho, a interface Ti-6Al-4V/TiO2 foi estudada por microscopia eletrônica de varredura. Os perfis de difusão do Ti, Al, V e O nas camadas superficiais da amostra recoberta foram obtidos por microanálise semi-quantitativa por energia dispersiva de raios-X. A caracterização química superficial do lado substrato depois da deposição de TiO2 mostrou a formação localizada de TiO. Na região entre-camadas foram observados os perfis de difusão característicos com forma de S para o Ti, V e O. O perfil de difusão do Al mostrou um pico na região entre-camadas indicando um acúmulo de Al2O3 nos buracos presentes nesta zona. O TiO2 foi identificado como o maior constituinte no lado revestimento. Pequenas quantidades de Al e V foram também detectadas homogeneamente distribuídas dentro do depósito. A presença do Al e V (metais tóxicos) na superfície externa do depósito indica que estes metais não competem com a oxidação da camada depositada indicando um efeito desmascarante da superfície da liga metálica pelo óxido superficial TiO2. / Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been used with some success as biomaterial with applications in the field of dentistry and orthopaedics. The features with make the Ti-6Al-4V alloy such an interesting material are its good corrosion resistance in the biological environment, combined with an excellent degree of biocompatibility. The long-term biological effects of the slowly leaching of metal ions from titanium implants are not completely understood. It is known that the titanium ions are considered chemical carcinogen, aluminium ions cause neurological disorders and, vanadium ions are associated with irreversible enzymatic disturbance, among other problems. Titanium oxide (TiO2) coatings on titanium alloys can act as a chemical barrier for ions leaching from the metallic alloy surface, beside the fact that this oxide is a very good osteoinductor. The thermal spray process is widely used to apply oxide coatings. Once this is a high temperature process where molten or semi-molten particles impinge upon the substrate, localized diffusion can occur. The aim of this study is characterize the inter-diffusion of the alloying elements through the surface layers of the system Ti-6Al-4V/TiO2. The TiO2 coatings were prepared by the plasma spray technique. The coated zone showed some porous distributed in all layer and a few radial cracks. Additionally, large amount of holes were observed in the interlayer region. In this work, the interface Ti-6Al-4V/TiO2 was studied by scanning electron microscopy. Diffusion profiles of Ti, Al, V and O in the surface layers of coated samples were measured by semi-quantitative energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. Chemical surface characterization of the substrate side after the TiO2 deposition showed the localized formation of TiO. At the interlayer region was observed the characteristic S shape diffusion profiles for Ti, V and O. The Al diffusion profile showed a peak in the interlayer region indicating anaccumulation of Al2O3 into the holes present in this zone. TiO2 was identified as the major component in the coating side. Small amounts of Al and V were also detected homogeneously distributed inside the deposit. Presence of Al and V (toxic metals) on the external surface of the deposit indicated that these metals did not compete with the oxidation of the deposited layer indicating a non-masking effect of metallic alloy surface by the TiO2- surface oxide.

Tato práce je zaměřena na modifikaci charakteru rozhraní substrát-nástřik NiCrAlY povlaků nanesených pomocí technologie vodou stabilizované plazmy na substráty z oceli S235JRC+C. Přetavení žárové vrstvy elektronovým paprskem bylo zvoleno jako technologie pro modifikaci a dvě různé modifikace byly zkoumány. V práci byl proveden pokus o stanovení vlivu modifikací na adhezní vlastnosti nástřiku. Dále jsou v práci prezentovány analýzy mikrostruktury, fázového a chemického složení a mikrotvrdosti ve stavu před a po modifikaci. Během studie bylo zjištěno, že dochází ke změnám fázového složení jak během depozice, tak během modifikace elektronovým paprskem. Modifikace elektronovým paprskem způsobila roztavení oxidů původní mikrostruktury nástřiku, které následně rekrystalizovaly na povrchu modifikované vrstvy. Dalším získaným poznatkem bylo, že dochází ke snížení mikrotvrdosti po modifikaci, což bylo způsobeno odstraněním oxidů z mikrostruktury a promícháním materiálu substrátu a původního nástřiku. Adheze nástřiků v as sprayed stavu byla kvantifikována. V případě nástřiků modifikovaných elektronovým paprskem přesná kvantifikace nebyla možná, z důvodu předčasného porušení na rozhraní nástřik-adhezivní pojivo během adhezních testů.

Beim Flammspritzen von Mischungen im System Al2O3-TiO2-ZrO2 treten vielfältige Effekte auf. Es kommt z.B. zur Ausbildung eines amorphen Anteils, der in Form von amorphen Sublamellen, dem primären amorphen Anteil, und in dendritisch geprägten Bereichen, dem sekundären amorphen Anteil im Gefüge vorliegt. Dieser beeinflusst die mechanischen Eigenschaften deutlich. Bei einer Temperaturbehandlung entstehende Ausscheidungen von ZrO2 oder verschiedenen Zirkoniumtitanaten beeinflussen die mechanischen Eigenschaften ebenfalls signifikant.

In a variety of engineering applications, components are subjected to corrosive environment. Protective coatings are essential to improve the functional performances and/or extend the lifetime of the components. Thermal sprayingas a cost-effective coating deposition technique offers high flexibility in coatings' chemistry/morphology/microstructure design. However, the inherent pores formed during spraying limit the use of coatings for corrosion protection. The recently developed supersonic spray method, High-Velocity-Air-Fuel (HVAF), brings significant advantages in terms of cost and coating properties. Although severely reduced, the pores are not completely eliminated even with the HVAF process. In view of the above gap to have a high quality coating, bi-layer coatings have been developed to improve the corrosion resistance of the coatings. In a bi-layer coating, an intermediate layer is deposited on the substrate before spraying the coating. The electrochemical behavior of each layer is important to ensure a good corrosion protection. The corrosion behavior of the layers strongly depends on coating composition and microstructure, which are affected by feedstock material and spraying process. Therefore, the objective of the researchis to explore the relationships between feedstock material, spraying process, microstructure and corrosion behavior of bi-layer coatings. A specific motivationis to understand the corrosion mechanisms of the intermediate layer which forms the basis for developing superior protective coatings. Cr3C2-NiCr top layer and intermediate layers (Fe-, Co- and Ni-based) were sprayed by different thermal spraying processes. Microstructure analysis, as well as various corrosion tests, e.g., electrochemical, salt spray and immersion tests were performed. The results showed a direct link between the corrosion potential (Ecorr) of the intermediate layer and the corrosion mechanisms. It was found that the higher corrosion resistance of Ni-based coatings than Fe- and Co-based coatings was due to higher Ecorr of the coating in the galvanic couple with top layers. Inter-lamellar boundaries and interconnected pores reduced the corrosion resistance of intermediate layers, however a sufficient reservoir of protective scale-forming elements (such as Cr or Al) improved the corrosion behavior.

Titanium powder was deposited into low-carbon steel specimens using three thermal spray technologies: plasma spray, cold spray (USA, Singapore) and warm spray (denoted as PS, CSU, CS-S, and WS, respectively, in further text). The aim was to determine the influence of the coatings on the fatigue lives of the specimens. The experimental work was carried out in a symmetrical cantilever-beam bending setup using a computer-controlled SF-Test loading device. Further to that, the micro-morphology of coatings structure, their respective porosity content and the fracture surfaces of both coatings and substrate materials was carried out.

Properties of samples and their coatings may be affected by the electron beam. This paper deals with the analysis of the microstructure, phase and chemical composition and the determination of mechanical characteristics of inconel steel substrate and CoNiCrAlY coatings deposited via different types of thermal spraying (HVOF, cold spray), in combination with modifications by the electron beam technology. During the study it was found that the deposition did not change the chemical composition. Further it was found that the interaction of the electron beam with the material did not change the chemical composition, but there is a change in the structure and a reduction of porosity and surface roughness, resulting in a change of mechanical properties such as decreasing hardness or increase of the modulus of elasticity.

<p dir="ltr">Fretting wear occurs when two contacting bodies under load are subjected to small amplitude oscillatory motion. Depending on the applied normal load, displacement amplitude, coefficient of friction and resulting shear force, two types of fretting wear regimes exist – (i) partial slip and (ii) gross slip. At displacement amplitudes higher than gross slip condition, sliding wear regime prevails. Fretting wear becomes dominant in machine components subject to vibrations such as bearings, dovetail joints, etc. whereas sliding wear is observed in brakes, piston-ring applications, etc. The work in this dissertation primarily focuses on characterizing the material response of various machine components subjected to fretting and sliding wear regimes.</p><p dir="ltr">At first, the friction and fretting wear behavior of inlet ring and spring clip components used in land-based gas turbines was investigated at elevated (<a href="" target="_blank">500°C</a>) temperature. In order to achieve this objective, a novel high-temperature fretting wear apparatus was designed and developed to simulate the conditions existing in a gas turbine. The test apparatus was used to investigate fretting wear of atmospheric plasma sprayed (APS) Cr₃C₂-NiCr (25% wt.), high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) sprayed Cr₃C₂-NiCr (25% wt.), HVOF sprayed T-800 and APS sprayed PS400 coated inlet rings against HVOF-sprayed Cr₃C₂-NiCr (25% wt.) coated spring clip. The PS400 coated inlet rings demonstrated a significant reduction in friction and wear. A finite element (FE) framework was also developed to simulate fretting wear in HVOF-sprayed Cr₃C₂-NiCr composite cermet coating. The material microstructure was modelled using Voronoi tessellations with a log-normal distribution of grain size. Moreover, the individual material phases in the coating were randomly assigned to resemble the microstructure from an actual SEM micrograph. A damage mechanics based cohesive zone model with grain deletion algorithm was used to simulate debonding of the ceramic carbide phase from the matrix and resulting degradation from repeated fretting cycles. The specific wear rate obtained from the model for the existing material microstructure was benchmarked against experiments. Novel material microstructures were also modeled and demonstrated to show less scatter in wear rate.</p><p dir="ltr">Following, a three-dimensional (3D) continuum damage mechanics (CDM) FE model was developed to investigate the effects of fretting wear on rolling contact fatigue (RCF) of bearing steels. In order to determine the fretting scar geometry, a 3D arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) adaptive mesh (AM) FE model was developed to simulate fretting wear between two elastic bodies for different initially pristine fretting pressures (0.5, 0.75 and 1 GPa) and friction coefficients (0.15, 0.175 and 0.25) resulting in stick zone to contact width ratios, c/a = 0.35, 0.55 and 0.75. The resulting wear profiles were subjected to various initially pristine RCF pressures (1, 2.2 and 3.4 GPa). The pressure profiles for RCF were determined by moving the contact over the fretted wear profiles in 21 steps. These pressure profiles were then used in the CDM-FE model to predict the RCF life of fretted surfaces. The results indicate that increased fretting pressure leads to more wear on the surface, thereby reducing RCF life. As the RCF pressure increases (P_RCF ≥ 2.2 GPa), the effect of fretting on RCF life decreases for all fretting pressures and c/a values, indicating that life is primarily governed by the RCF pressure. The results from CDM-FE model were used to develop a life equation for evaluating the L₁₀ life of fretted M-50 bearing steel for the range of tested conditions.</p><p dir="ltr">Lastly, the sliding wear characteristics of pitch and poly-acrylonitrile based carbon-carbon (C/C) composites were investigated in air and nitrogen environment by designing and developing a disc brake test rig. It was found that the temperature of the disc, the surrounding environment, the supplied energy flux as well as the type of composite play a critical role in determining whether C/C composites operate in normal wear or dusting wear regime. Further analysis of wear mechanisms revealed interface and matrix cracking with fiber breakage from tests in air environment, whereas in nitrogen environment, particulate and layered debris played a prominent role.</p>

Thesis (D. Tech.) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2009 / Superficial cancerous lesions are commonly treated through low energy X-ray or electron radiation in radiotherapy. The treatment units that produce the radiation are equipped with square, rectangular and round applicators of different sizes. These applicators attach to the treatment units and define the radiation field size applied during treatment. An applicator is chosen to fit the shape of the cancerous lesion on the patient as closely as possible. Since cancerous lesions are irregular in shape, there will always be an area of healthy tissue between the edge of the lesion and the edge of the standard field shape. This healthy tissue will be irradiated along with the lesion during treatment which is undesirable since the cancer wound heals through reparative growth of the surrounding healthy tissue after treatment. Traditional techniques that were developed to shield this healthy tissue and thus shape the radiation field to the shape of the lesion present various shortcomings. This study introduces a new thermal-spray process for producing radiation field shaping shields which overcomes most of the shortcomings encountered with the traditional field shaping techniques. Since none of the commercially available thermal-spray equipment could be used to produce field shaping shields, new thermal-spray equipment was designed and fabricated tailor made to the application. Different techniques to determine the contours of the treatment area on the patient were investigated. These included a patient contact technique using a plaster bandage impression and a non-contact technique using 3D laser scanning. From the plaster bandage impression a plaster model can be produced onto which a high density low melt material such as Wood’ s alloy can be thermally sprayed to produce a field shaping mask. A model can also be produced from the 3D laser scanning data through laser sintering (LS) in nylon polyamide powder or through computer numerical controlled (CNC) milling in a block of low density polyurethane. The thermal-spray technique was evaluated by comparing the field shaping ability of radiation shields produced through the technique to the field shaping ability of shields produced through the traditional techniques. Radiographic film was used for this purpose and the results are presented in the form of isodensity charts. The required thicknesses of thermal-sprayed field shaping masks to shield radiation of various energies were also determined. The thicknesses were determined through radiation transmission measurements of known thicknesses of sprayed sheets of Wood’ s alloy. X-ray imaging showed that there were no defects present within thermal-sprayed layers of Wood’ s alloy that may negatively affect the shielding ability of masks produced through the technique.

Dans la présente étude, la conductivité thermique et le module d'élasticité de revêtementsd’YPSZ élaborés par projection plasma ont été prédits par modélisations numériques 2D et3D de type différences finies et éléments finis.L'influence de la résolution d'image, de la taille et de la valeur du seuil sur les propriétésprédites du revêtement a été étudiée. En outre, les effets de la méthode numérique et du typede condition aux limites ont été étudiés. En particulier, la quantification de l'effet Knudsen(effet de raréfaction) sur le transfert de chaleur à travers une structure poreuse a été réaliséepar modélisation numérique en combinaison avec l'analyse d'image. Les conductivitéseffectives obtenues par modélisation 3D s'avèrent plus élevées que celles obtenues en 2D, etaussi en meilleur accord avec les résultats mesurés. Une corrélation 2D/3D a été trouvéepour la modélisation de la conductivité thermique : cette corrélation permet de prédire lesvaleurs 3D à partir des valeurs calculées en 2D. / In the present study, the thermal conductivity and elastic modulus of thermal spray YPSZcoatings were predicted by 2D and 3D finite differences and finite elements numericalmodeling based on cross-sectional images.The influence of the image resolution, size and threshold on the predicted properties of thecoating was studied. Moreover, the effects of the numerical method and of the boundarycondition were investigated. In particular, the quantification of the Knudsen effect(rarefaction effect) on the heat transfer through a porous structure was realized by numericalmodeling in combination with image analysis. The predicted thermal conductivities obtainedby 3D modeling were found to be higher than those obtained by 2D modeling, and in betteragreement with the measured results. A 2D/3D correlation was sucessfully found for themodeling of thermal conductivity: this correlation allows predicting 3D computed valuesfrom 2D ones.

La technologie de programmation hors-ligne permet la génération de la trajectoire complexe en projection thermique. Dans le laboratoire du LERMPS, une extension logicielle appelée « Thermal Spray Toolkit » (T.S.T.) a été développée pour assister la programmation hors-ligne dans le domaine de projection thermique. Cependant, les efforts sont encore attendus pour améliorer sa fonctionnalité. Donc, l'objectif de cette thèse est d'améliorer l'application de la programmation hors-ligne en projection thermique. Selon la procédure d'application, les travaux de cette thèse se composent de trois parties.Premièrement, les efforts sont dévoués à l'amélioration du module « PathKit » dans T.S.T., afin d'optimiser la fonctionnalité de la génération de la trajectoire. L'algorithme pour la génération de la trajectoire sur le substrat courbe a été étudié pour assurer le pas de balayage constant. Une nouvelle trajectoire « spirale d'Archimède » a été développé pour réparer les défauts par la projection à froid. La réparation sur une pièce d'aluminium avec un défaut a été réalisé pour valider la trajectoire spirale d'Archimède. Deuxièmement, les modélisations ont été développées pour simuler l'épaisseur du dépôt en 2D et en 3D. Puis, Ils sont intégrés dans le logiciel RobotStudioTM comme un module individuel dit « ProfileKit ». Dans le « ProfileKit 2D », il peut évaluer les effets des paramètres opératoires sur le profil du dépôt et puis optimiser les paramètres. Dans le « ProfileKit 3D », l'épaisseur du dépôt peut être simulée selon la trajectoire du robot et la cinématique du robot.Les fonctionnalités sont validées par un dépôt de forme trapézoïdal élaboré par la projection à froid avec les pas debalayage variés.Dernièrement, l'analyse cinématique du robot a été étudiée pour optimiser la performance du robot pendant le processus de projection. Afin de mieux évaluer la performance du robot, un paramètre « overall parameter » (OP), la moyenne pondérée d'écart-type de la vitesse articulaire est introduit pour mesurer la complexité de la trajectoire du robot. Ensuite, l'optimisation du montage de la torche ainsi que l'optimisation de la disposition de la pièce sont étudiées par l'analyse cinématique du robot et le paramètre OP. Le résultat montre que l'optimisation cinématique peut efficacement améliorer la performance du robot pour maintenir la vitesse prédéfinie. / The offline programming technology provides the possibility to generate complex robot trajectories in thermal spray process. In the laboratory of LERMPS, an add-in software called “Thermal SprayToolkit” (T.S.T.) has been developed to assist the offline programming in the field of thermal spray.However, efforts are still expected to improve the functionality of this software. The aim of this study is to improve the application of offline programming technology in the thermal spray process. According to the procedure of the offline programming in thermal spray, the work of this thesis consists of three parts.Firstly, efforts have been dedicated to improve the module “PathKit” in T.S.T., which aim to improve the functionality of trajectory generation. The algorithm of trajectory generation for the curved substrate surface was improved to maintain a constant scan step. A novel Archimedean spiral trajectory was developed for damage component recovery application by cold spray. The experiment of an Al5056 coating depositing on a manually manufactured workpiece with a crater defect was carried out to validate the effects of spiral trajectory with adapted nozzle speed.Secondly, numerical models were developed to simulate the coating thickness distribution in 2D and 3D, and then integrated in the RobotStudio™ as an individual module named “ProfileKit”. In the “ProfileKit 2D”, it is able to evaluate the effects of operating parameters on coating profile and optimize the parameters. In the “ProfileKit 3D”, coating thickness distribution can be simulated based on the nozzle trajectory and robot kinematics data. The functionalities were validated by the trapezoid coldsprayed coating.At last, kinematic analysis was used to provide the optimization methods for a better robot performance in thermal spraying. In order to better evaluate the robot performance, an overall parameter (OP) that is the weighted mean of standard deviation of joint speed, was introduced to measure the complexity of a robot trajectory. Afterwards, the optimal nozzle mounting method as well as the optimal workpiece placement were investigated by the kinematic analysis and the overall parameter. The result shows that the kinematic optimization can effectively improve the robot performance to maintain the predefined speed.