Low-Cycle Fatigue of Ultra-Fine-Grained Cryomilled 5083 Aluminum Alloy

The cyclic deformation behavior of cryomilled (CM) AA5083 alloys was compared to that of conventional AA5083-H131. The materials studied were a 100 pct CM alloy with a Gaussian grain size average of 315 nm and an alloy created by mixing 85 pct CM powder with 15 pct unmilled powder before consolidation to fabricate a plate with a bimodal grain size distribution with peak averages at 240 nm and 1.8 μm. Although the ultra-fine-grain (UFG) alloys exhibited considerably higher tensile strengths than those of the conventional material, the results from plastic-strain-controlled low-cycle fatigue tests demonstrate that all three materials exhibit identical fatigue lives across a range of plastic strain amplitudes. The CM materials exhibited softening during the first cycle, similar to other alloys produced by conventional powder metallurgy, followed by continual hardening to saturation before failure. The results reported in this study show that fatigue deformation in the CM material is accompanied by slight grain growth, pinning of dislocations at the grain boundaries, and grain rotation to produce macroscopic slip bands that localize strain, creating a single dominant fatigue crack. In contrast, the conventional alloy exhibits a cell structure and more diffuse fatigue damage accumulation

Degassing Behavior of Nanostructured Al and Its Composites

The synthesis of bulk ultrafine-grained (UFG) and nanostructured Al via cryomilling can frequently require a degassing step prior to consolidation, partly due to the large surface area of the as-milled powders. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects associated with cryomilling with stearic acid additions (as a process-control agent) on the degassing behavior of Al powders. This objective was accomplished by completing select experiments with Al-7.5Mg, Al-6.4 wt pct Al85Ni10La5, and Al-14.3 wt pct B4C. The interaction between Al and stearic acid was determined using thermal analysis combined with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The degassing experiments were carried out under high vacuum (10−4 to ~10−6 torr) in a range from room temperature to 400 °C, with the pressure of the released gases monitored using a digital vacuum gage. The results showed that the liberation of chemisorbed water was suppressed in cryomilled Al powders and both the chemisorbed water and stearic acid were primarily released in the form of hydrogen. It was also demonstrated that under certain conditions, a nanostructure (grain size ~100 nm) can be retained following the hot vacuum degassing of cryomilled Al

Modeling the heat flow in spray formed steel shells for tooling applications

This article concerns a metal spraying process for the manufacture of production tooling at reduced time and cost. Critical to the successful operation of this process is control of the sprayed steel shell temperature to eliminate thermal residual stresses and distortion. A computational model of the transient heat flow in steel shells during spray forming has been developed. The critical data for the distribution of convective heat-transfer coefficient distribution over the shell surface and average spray temperature has been obtained from experiments using embedded calorimeters and process monitoring respectively. Shell average temperature and temperature variance have been investigated using the model, and predictions compared well with experimental measurements obtained using infrared thermal imaging. The wire feed rate was identified as the most suitable control parameter for a closed loop control system to regulate shell surface temperature during manufacture

Phase transformations and control of residual stresses in thick spray-formed steel shells

Large, thick steel shells for tooling applications have been produced using a robot manipulated electric arc spraying technique with steady-state temperatures ranging from 170°C to 450°C. Critical to these experiments has been the use of a real-time feedback control system for surface temperature based on infrared thermal imaging. There was a reproducible trend in net residual shell distortion as a function of temperature with residual tensile stresses in the shell for temperatures ≤210°C and ≥390°C, and net compressive stresses at intermediate temperatures. In-situ linear displacement sensor experiments have been used to investigate the dynamic distortion of sprayed steel shells on steel substrates, over the same range of surface temperatures. Residual and in-situ distortion measurements confirmed two manufacturing temperatures at which stresses in the steel shells were either minimized or eliminated. A numerical model has been developed to relate shell quench and transformations stresses to the shell dynamic distortion behavior. It is proposed that tensile quench stresses are balanced by the time- and temperature-dependent expansive austenite-to-bainite phase transformation

On Storage Behavior Under Imperfect Competition, with Application to the American Cheese Market

Storage, Dynamics, Imperfect competition, D4, L1, Q11,