Residual Stress in Friction Stir Welding and Laser-Assisted Friction Stir Welding by Numerical Simulation and Experiments

The friction stir welding (FSW) has become an important welding technique to join materials that are difficult to weld by traditional fusion welding technology. In this technique, the material is not led to fusion, and the joint is the result of the rotation and movement along the welding line of the tool that causes softening of material due to frictional heat and the stirring of the same. In FSW, the temperature does not reach the fusion value of the materials, and this helps to decrease the residual stress values. However, due to the higher force involved in the weld and, thus, the rigid clamping used, the residual stresses are not low in general in this technique. As the presence of high residual stress values influences the post-weld mechanical properties, e.g. fatigue properties, it is important to investigate the residual stress distribution in the FSW welds. In this chapter, two numerical models that predict temperatures and residual stresses in friction stir welding and laser-assisted friction stir welding will be described. Experimental measurements of temperatures and residual stress will be carried out to validate the prediction of the models

Application of Optical Methods to Electronic Component Stress Analysis

Increasing electronic component reliability is, nowadays, a hot topic both in most advanced applications as well as in electronic devices of common use in everyday life. In fact, requirements in terms of miniaturization of electronics components introduce issues connected with heat dissipation management. Materials, packaging, heat dissipator, and even positioning of the component on the board should be optimized in order to reduce thermal stresses generated in the components, which are one of the most important failure mechanisms of electronics. Thermal stress evaluation is, however, a difficult task due to the size of the elements under testing and to the necessity of measuring small amount of strains. At the same time, any contact with the object under measurement should be avoided not to alter heat capacity of the component itself. In this work, some results of experimental stress analysis gathered using electronic speckle pattern interferometry will be described; it will be pointed out how this approach allows to put in evidence inhomogeneous stress fields undergone by the electronic components and how it is possible to highlight the presence of bad functioning and defects

Mechanical Behavior of PET-G Tooth Aligners Under Cyclic Loading

Invisible aligners are medical devices, which allow repositioning of teeth through a treatment designed by the orthodontists. During this orthodontic treatment, patients use several aligners each for a couple of weeks. The aligner will apply a system of forces on the teeth to shift them to desired position. Since aligners exert forces thanks to their particular shape, it is important that during lifetime's service they do not undergo significant deformations. This research aims to study the mechanical behavior of invisible aligners made by polyethylene terephthalate-glycol (PET-G), which is one of most used the plastic materials to produce such devices. In this study, cyclic compression tests in atmospheric environment (∼25°C) as well as in the presence of saliva (to simulate intraoral environment) were performed. The mechanical behavior of aligners with two different thicknesses (0.75 and 0.88 mm) was studied. In particular, each aligner was subjected to 22500 load cycles from 0 to 50 N. The chosen number of load cycles simulates the average load history to which an aligner is subjected during its lifetime. The tests were performed on a testing machine, using a hard resin dental cast properly fixed to the machine. Analysis of the results shows that the stiffness of the aligners increases during the cyclic test. In particular, a gradual reduction of the crosshead displacement was observed during the test, highlighting the occurrence of cyclic hardening phenomena. It was also found that the aligners show a residual strain recovery after removing the applied load. Moreover, in the analyzed range of load rate, the aligners show a low tendency to accumulate residual strains as loading cycles progress

Full-Field Experimental Study and Numerical Modeling of Soft Polyurethane Foam Subjected to Cyclic Loading

In this study, the responses of three soft open cell polyurethane foam samples (85, 63 and 46 kg/m3) subjected to four incremental cyclic compression load steps of 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% strain are analyzed by digital image correlation. Facing large deformation, the foam behavior is investigated in terms of engineering and true strain curves. Poisson’s ratio is studied by a tangent Poisson function which is able to capture the instantaneous behavior of the foam. Experimental displacement maps, stress–strain, and axial vs. transverse strain curves are compared in terms of numerical results obtained by FEM analysis for ν = 0 and ν ≠ 0

Adaptive lighting for inhomogeneous reflectivity compensation in applications for 3D shape measurements

Surface 3D reconstruction is a topic of great relevance and it has a wide range of applications in many fields such as mechanics, bioengineering and arts. Nowadays optical systems for 3D contouring such as those based on structured light projection are becoming more and more widespread. The possibility to get shape information without any contact with the object, in fact, is a great advantage in some fields such as, for example, cultural heritage. For this class of objects, however, the issue connected with inhomogeneous reflectivity must be taken into account. Due to the different level of reflectivity, in different areas of the object, it comes out that the contrast of the projected pattern changes and, as a direct consequence, the achievable accuracy can change from part to part. In this paper, a study on the possibility to implement an adaptive lighting algorithm is performed allowing to adapt illumination in order to compensate the local inhomogeneities in terms of surface reflectivity

Digital Image Correlation Comparison of Damaged and Undamaged Aeronautical CFRPs During Compression Tests

The diffusion of composite materials in aeronautical and aerospace applications is attributable to the high specific mechanical properties they offer. In particular, the recent use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) materials is highly increased. The main disadvantage in using this kind of material is related to the possibility of including damages or defects not visible on the surface that compromise their behavior and make their use extremely unsafe if not properly supervised. The most conventional nondestructive techniques allow the detection of damages when they already compromise the life of these materials. The use of the same techniques makes it harder to monitor in-situ of the progress of damages, especially if they occur inside the materials. The implementation of the innovative strain analysis method, like those based on full-field measurements, could provide additional information about the damage mechanisms by supplying the complete strain distribution of the surface of the sample. The present paper examines the mechanical behavior of two different CFRP specimens, with and without damage, subjected to compressive load in an anti-buckling fixture by using the Digital Image Correlation (DIC). The purpose is to measure the out-of-plane displacements, characteristics of the compression tests, in all the points of the ROI (Region of Interest), using a full-field and noncontact technique. The innovative aspect of this work is therefore to solve this problem through an experimental approach with DIC 3D technique

Effect of ElectroSpark Process Parameters on the WE43 Magnesium Alloy Deposition Quality

This research aims to investigate the effects of process parameters on the quality of WE43 coatings deposited on homologue substrate by ElectroSpark Deposition (ESD) technology. ESD is new technology used to apply coatings or for the restoration and refurbishment of worn or damaged high valued parts. The depositions were processed using five different levels of Energy input (Es, Spark Energy). The microstructure of both the base material and deposits cross-section were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopies. Also, X-ray diffraction technique was used. In addition, stereological studies of the through-thickness heterogeneities of the deposits (e.g., voids) were performed. The mechanical properties were evaluated by Vickers micro-hardness. The results show that the deposits exhibited a fine grained microstructure due to the rapid solidification. The average micro-hardness values of the deposits are lower than that of the substrate and distributed in a small range (49-60 HV). The lower hardness of the deposits respect to the base material is due to the presence of defectiveness such as spherical, laminar and random shaped voids. The defects area percentage inside the deposits remains well below than 11%. All the deposits were mainly affected by laminar morphology defects. The results indicate that the deposits defectiveness decreases as the energy input increases

Acoustic Emissions in 3D Printed Parts under Mode I Delamination Test

This paper applies an innovative approach based on the acoustic emission technique to monitor the delamination process of 3D parts. Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is currently one of the most widespread techniques for additive manufacturing of a solid object from a computer model. Fundamentally, this process is based on a layer-by-layer deposition of a fused filament. The FDM technique has evolved to the point where it can now be proposed, not only as a prototyping technique, but also as one applicable to direct manufacturing. Nonetheless, a deeper comprehension of mechanical behavior and its dependence on process parameters must include the determination of material properties as a function of the service load. In this work, the effects of extrusion temperature on inter-layer cohesion are studied using a method employing a double cantilever beam (DCB). The ASTM D5528 standard was used to determine the delamination energy, GI. In addition, the acoustic emission technique was employed to follow the delamination process during testing. Finally, a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) camera and a calibrated grid was employed to evaluate crack propagation during testing