A unified constitutive model for asymmetric tension and compression creep-ageing behaviour of naturally aged Al-Cu-Li alloy

A set of unified constitutive equations is presented that predict the asymmetric tension and compression creep behaviour and recently observed double primary creep of pre-stretched/naturally aged aluminium-cooper-lithium alloy AA2050-T34. The evolution of the primary micro- and macro-variables related to the precipitation hardening and creep deformation of the alloy during creep age forming (CAF) are analysed and modelled. Equations for the yield strength evolution of the alloy, including an initial reversion and subsequent strengthening, are proposed based on a theory of concurrent dissolution, re-nucleation and growth of precipitates during artificial ageing. We present new observations of so-called double primary creep during the CAF process. This phenomenon is then predicted by introducing effects of interacting microstructures, including evolving precipitates, diffusing solutes and dislocations, into the sinh-law creep model. In addition, concepts of threshold creep stress σth and a microstructure-dependant creep variable H, which behave differently under different external stress directions, are proposed and incorporated into the creep model. This enables prediction of the asymmetric tension and compression creep-ageing behaviour of the alloy. Quantitative transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and related small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis have been carried out for selected creep-aged samples to assist the development and calibration of the constitutive model. A good agreement has been achieved between the experimental results and the model. The model has the potential to be applied to creep age forming of other heat-treatable aluminium alloys

Experimental studies and constitutive modelling of anelastic creep recovery during creep age forming

This paper presents a study of anelastic creep recovery during creep-ageing of an aluminium alloy AA7050-TAF. Uniaxial Creep-Ageing and Recovery Test (CART) was used to characterise the influence of anelastic creep strain on total creep deformation for determining the actual amount of springback in creep age forming (CAF) process. CART was performed on aluminium alloy AA7050-TAF at 174°C between the stress levels of 137.5 to 162.5 MPa. A constitutive model was developed for the prediction of the creep-ageing and recovery response of material in creep age forming. A 'back stress' variable was used to represent the net effect of the internal stresses of the material which causes anelastic creep recovery. Other microstructural variables were introduced to model complex micro-mechanisms and hardening effects including solid solution hardening, dislocation hardening, and age hardening. It has been found that the permanent strain after creep-ageing depends not only on total creep strain but also on anelastic strain. Simulation results from the constitutive model developed in this study show a good agreement with experimental data

Effects of asymmetric creep-ageing behaviour on springback of AA2050-T34 after creep age forming

This study investigates the effects of asymmetric creep-ageing behaviour on springback of aluminium alloys during creep age forming (CAF) process. An Al-Cu-Li alloy, AA2050, which shows an apparent asymmetric tension and compression creep-ageing behaviour is used for investigation. Several CAF trial tests to form singly-curved AA2050 plates with different thicknesses (3, 5 and 8 mm) are carried out with a four point bending setup. Meanwhile, two sets of finite element (FE) models of corresponding processes have been developed, in which either the conventional symmetric or the new asymmetric creep-ageing behaviour of the alloy was used. The asymmetric models can well predict the shape of formed plates for thicker materials (5 and 8 mm), while symmetric models provide over-prediction of final deflections. The results from asymmetric models indicate that more creep strain is generated in the tension stressed part of the forming plate than that in the other part with compressive stresses and therefore, resulting in an asymmetric distribution of the relaxed stresses through the thickness of the forming plates after creep-ageing. After springback, both top and bottom surfaces of the formed plates show significant compressive stresses while tensile residual stresses exist in the centre of the formed plates. The work in this study helps to understand the particular springback behaviour of AA2050 with asymmetric creep-ageing behaviour in CAF, and can be used to guide future industrial applications of the alloy in the CAF process

Towards High-Energy and Anti-Self-Discharge Zn-Ion Hybrid Supercapacitors with New Understanding of the Electrochemistry

Aqueous Zn-ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZHSs) are increasingly being studied as a novel electrochemical energy storage system with prominent electrochemical performance, high safety and low cost. Herein, high-energy and anti-self-discharge ZHSs are realized based on the fibrous carbon cathodes with hierarchically porous surface and O/N heteroatom functional groups. Hierarchically porous surface of the fabricated free-standing fibrous carbon cathodes not only provides abundant active sites for divalent ion storage, but also optimizes ion transport kinetics. Consequently, the cathodes show a high gravimetric capacity of 156 mAh g−1, superior rate capability (79 mAh g−1 with a very short charge/discharge time of 14 s) and exceptional cycling stability. Meanwhile, hierarchical pore structure and suitable surface functional groups of the cathodes endow ZHSs with a high energy density of 127 Wh kg−1, a high power density of 15.3 kW kg−1 and good anti-self-discharge performance. Mechanism investigation reveals that ZHS electrochemistry involves cation adsorption/desorption and Zn4SO4(OH)6·5H2O formation/dissolution at low voltage and anion adsorption/desorption at high voltage on carbon cathodes. The roles of these reactions in energy storage of ZHSs are elucidated. This work not only paves a way for high-performance cathode materials of ZHSs, but also provides a deeper understanding of ZHS electrochemistry

High Voltage Energy Harvesters

Green energy helps in reducing carbon emission from fossil fuel, harvesting energy from natural resources like wind to power consumer appliances. To date, many researches have been focusing on designing circuits that harvest energy from electromagnetic signals wirelessly. While it could be designed to be efficient, the generated power however is insufficient to drive large loads. Wind energy is highly available environmentally but development of small-scale energy harvesting apparatus aiming to extract significant power from miniature brushless fan has received limited attention. The aim of this chapter is to give audience an insight of different voltage multipliers used in energy harvester and knowledge on various circuit techniques to configure voltage multipliers for use in different high voltage applications. These include AC-DC converter, AC-AC converter and variable AC-DC converter

Aqueous Reactive Species Induced by a Surface Air Discharge: Heterogenous Mass Transfer and Liquid Chemistry Pathways

Plasma-liquid interaction is a critical area of plasma science and a knowledge bottleneck for many promising applications. In this paper, the interaction between a surface air discharge and its downstream sample of deionized water is studied with a system-level computational model, which has previously reached good agreement with experimental results. Our computational results reveal that the plasma-induced aqueous species are mainly H+, nitrate, nitrite, H2O2 and O-3. In addition, various short-lived aqueous species are also induced, regardless whether they are generated in the gas phase first. The production/loss pathways for aqueous species are quantified for an air gap width ranging from 0.1 to 2 cm, of which heterogeneous mass transfer and liquid chemistry are found to play a dominant role. The short-lived reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are strongly coupled in liquid-phase reactions: NO3 is an important precursor for short-lived ROS, and in turn OH, O-2(-) and HO2 play a crucial role for the production of short-lived RNS. Also, heterogeneous mass transfer depends strongly on the air gap width, resulting in two distinct scenarios separated by a critical air gap of 0.5 cm. The liquid chemistry is significantly different in these two scenarios

Comparison Between Electropositive and Electronegative Cold Atmospheric-Pressure Plasmas: A Modelling Study

Cold atmospheric-pressure He + N2 and He + O2 plasmas are chosen as the representatives for electropositive and electronegative plasmas, of which the discharge characteristics are studied and then compared to each other by fluid models. As the increase of the impurity (N2 or O2) fraction from 0 to 10%, for He + N2 plasmas the electron density and ion density increase, the spatiotemporal distributions of electron density, ion density, electron temperature and electron generation rate change a little. On contrast, for He + O2 plasmas the electron density decreases, the ion density first increases and then decreases, the electron temperature increases in the bulk region, but decreases in the sheath region, and the plasmas transform from ᵞ mode to α mode as the significant change of electron generation rate distributions. Larger electric field is needed in the bulk region to sustain the electronegative plasma, so the electrical characteristics of He + O2 plasmas transform form capacitive to resistive with increasing O2fraction. Meanwhile, the ion-coupling power increases dramatically, which can be estimated by a formula based on the electronegativity. A new criterion for determining the sheath boundary, |ΔE| = 5 kV/cm2, is put forward, which is found suitable for both the electropositive and electronegative plasmas

Self-Evolving Data Cloud-Based PID-Like Controller for Nonlinear Uncertain Systems

In this article, a novel self-evolving data cloud-based proportional integral derivative (PID) (SEDCPID) like controller is proposed for uncertain nonlinear systems. The proposed SEDCPID controller is constructed by using fuzzy rules with nonparametric data cloud-based antecedence and PID-like consequence. The antecedent data clouds adopt the relative data density to represent the fuzzy firing strength of input variables instead of the explicit design of the membership functions in the classical sense. The proposed SEDCPID controller has the advantages of evolving structure and adapting parameter concurrently in an online manner. The density and distance information of data clouds are proposed to achieve the addition and deletion of data clouds and also a stable recursive method is proposed to update the parameters of the PID-like subcontrollers for the fast convergence performance. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, the stability of the proposed controller is proven and the proof shows the tracking errors converge to a small neighborhood. Numerical and experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in handling the uncertain nonlinear dynamic systems