High-Throughput Tensile Testing Reveals Stochastic Properties in Additively Manufactured Steel

An adage within the Additive Manufacturing (AM) community is that “complexity is free”. Complicated geometric features that normally drive manufacturing cost and limit design options are not typically problematic in AM. While geometric complexity is usually viewed from the perspective of part design, this advantage of AM also opens up new options in rapid, efficient material property evaluation and qualification. This Thesis demonstrates how 100’s of miniature tensile bars can be produced and tested for comparable cost and in comparable time to a few conventional tensile bars. With this technique, it is possible to evaluate the stochastic nature of mechanical behavior and capture the statistical nature of mechanical properties. As a proof of concept, the technique is demonstrated on a precipitation hardened stainless steel alloy, commonly known as 17-4PH, produced by two commercial AM vendors using a laser powder bed fusion process, also commonly known as selective laser melting. Using two different commercial powder bed platforms, the vendors produced material that exhibited slightly lower strength and markedly lower ductility compared to wrought sheet. After demonstrating vendor to vendor variability, one vendor was chosen to produce 1000’s of tensile samples to explore within-build and between-build variability. Such a large dataset is seldom available in conventional materials evaluation and revealed rare defects that were only present in ~2% of the population. Worst-case failures were associated with residual porosity. To address the deleterious effect of porosity, the study examined a hot isostatic pressing process that collapsed a vast majority of the internal voids. Lastly, hardness testing which is an alternative high-throughput material evaluation technique was used to make a comparison between strength values obtained by tensile tests to those approximated by hardness testing. It is shown that hardness testing can be an appropriate technique for estimating the strength of wrought 17-4PH, but has a non-conservative error in strength estimations for AM 17-4PH

Effects of ATP and ATP inhibitors on the P2X7 receptor

Extracellular ATP has been shown to increase the permeability of cells via the P2X7 receptor. This relationship could be important in understanding the physiology of the inflammation that occurs in bovine respiratory disease complex (BRDC). My research involved testing to see if this relationship between ATP and the P2X7 receptor is present. Then, potential inhibitors of ATP were tested so they can be used in further research involving ATP and BRDC. To test bovine cells, Mac-T cells were treated with ATP and incubated for various periods of time before Yo-Pro (a fluorescent molecule) was added. The percent change in fluorescence between cells with and without ATP determined the ability ATP had in opening the P2X7 receptor pore. Results showed that extracellular ATP does bind to the P2X7 receptor to open pores. In general, the greatest change in fluorescence was seen when ATP was incubated for at least 45 minutes before the Yo-Pro was added. The actual incubation time where the greatest change in fluorescence value occurred was 60 minutes. In addition, the results from the experiments with inhibitors A were insignificant; therefore no conclusions could be made at this time

Quantum structural fluxion in superconducting lanthanum polyhydride

The discovery of 250-kelvin superconducting lanthanum polyhydride under high pressure marked a significant advance toward the realization of a room‐temperature superconductor. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies reveal a nonstoichiometric LaH9.6 or LaH10±δ polyhydride responsible for the superconductivity, which in the literature is commonly treated as LaH10 without accounting for stoichiometric defects. Here, we discover significant nuclear quantum effects (NQE) in this polyhydride, and demonstrate that a minor amount of stoichiometric defects will cause quantum proton diffusion in the otherwise rigid lanthanum lattice in the ground state. The diffusion coefficient reaches ~10−7 cm2/s in LaH9.63 at 150 gigapascals and 240 kelvin, approaching the upper bound value of interstitial hydrides at comparable temperatures. A puzzling phenomenon observed in previous experiments, the positive pressure dependence of the superconducting critical temperature Tc below 150 gigapascals, is explained by a modulation of the electronic structure due to a premature distortion of the hydrogen lattice in this quantum fluxional structure upon decompression, and resulting changes of the electron-phonon coupling. This finding suggests the coexistence of the quantum proton fluxion and hydrogen-induced superconductivity in this lanthanum polyhydride, and leads to an understanding of the structural nature and superconductivity of nonstoichiomectric hydrogen-rich materials.The project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11974135, 11874176, 12174170, and 12074138), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the EPSRC through grants EP/P022596/1, and EP/S021981/1, and the startup funds of the office of the Dean of SASN of Rutgers University-Newark. P. T. S. thanks the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge for generous funding. The work of P. T. S. is further supported through a Trinity Hall research studentship. I. E. acknowledges financial support by the European Research Council (ERC) under the EuropeanUnion’sHorizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 802533)

Developments and Further Applications of Ephemeral Data Derived Potentials

Machine-learned interatomic potentials are fast becoming an indispensable tool in computational materials science. One approach is the ephemeral data-derived potential (EDDP), which was designed to accelerate atomistic structure prediction. The EDDP is simple and cost-efficient. It relies on training data generated in small unit cells and is fit using a lightweight neural network, leading to smooth interactions which exhibit the robust transferability essential for structure prediction. Here, we present a variety of applications of EDDPs, enabled by recent developments of the open-source EDDP software. New features include interfaces to phonon and molecular dynamics codes, as well as deployment of the ensemble deviation for estimating the confidence in EDDP predictions. Through case studies ranging from elemental carbon and lead to the binary scandium hydride and the ternary zinc cyanide, we demonstrate that EDDPs can be trained to cover wide ranges of pressures and stoichiometries, and used to evaluate phonons, phase diagrams, superionicity, and thermal expansion. These developments complement continued success in accelerated structure prediction.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figure

On the use of small ring testing for the characterisation of elastic and yield material property variation in additively manufactured materials

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. The present work introduces a small volume, high throughput testing method that may be used to quickly, and with high spatial fidelity, investigate local material properties in additively manufactured materials. A case study application is presented here, considering components made from the alloy Ti-6Al-4V by the powder bed fusion process. Novel tensile small ring samples are produced at multiple locations over the print volume and are tested in order to estimate local tensile material responses. An inverse method is implemented in order to estimate representative material properties at each testing location by optimising initial values against sequential finite element model results. Initial estimates themselves are found through a geometrically non-linear semi-analytical model that approximates elastic material response. A good level of repeatability is noted between small ring tests conducted at specific build locations, suggesting a limited effect of build height on constitutive response and robust testing/analysis methodology. Small ring tests indicate a mean Young's modulus of 82.83 GPa (with a standard deviation of 4.57 GPa) and a mean yield stress of 655.58 MPa (with a standard deviation of 115.73 MPa). Full sized “conventional” tests, published in the author's previous work, indicate a Young's modulus of 114.45 GPa and a yield stress of 771.266 MPa. Limited fractography has indicated that there is a wide variation in porosity across the build volume, suggesting that the deviations in local material properties are due to the use of a reduced print volume in specimen manufacture

Drill stem steels for use in geothermal environments

Steels which are used in drill stem for conventional drilling have been selected primarily to satisfy certain static strength requirements and cost considerations. As the environments in which drilling is performed become more severe (e.g., in geothermal fluids) additional considerations must be given to the design of alloys which are resistant to general corrosion, stress corrosion, and corrosion fatigue. General design considerations for steel alloys which should provide an enhanced resistance to geothermal drilling operations are presented. These considerations include discussion of the chemistry and metallurgical substructure, and how their variation affects the mechanical and corrosion properties of steel used for drill stem applications. A duplex ferritic-martensitic steel has an advantageous combination of compositional and microstructural features which should lead to improved chemical resistance (particularly to hydrogen sulfide) as well as provide a good combination of strength and toughness properties. This duplex steel is based on the iron-2.0 weight percent silicon-0.1 weight percent carbon system, and offers the potential of enhanced performance in geothermal drilling as well as low alloy cost

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