Solidification behavior and microstructural evolution of near-eutectic Zn-Al alloys under intensive shear

Copyright @ 2009 ASM International. This paper was published in Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 40(1), 185 - 195 and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of ASM International. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplications of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of this paper are prohibited.The effect of intensive shear on the solidification behavior and microstructural evolution of binary Zn-Al alloys is presented at hypoeutectic, eutectic, and hypereutectic compositions. It is found that the intensive shear, applied on the eutectic melt prior to solidification at a temperature above but close the eutectic temperature, can significantly reduce the size of eutectic cells, but the solidified microstructure still remains the lamellar morphology. For applying intensive shear on the melt during solidification, the nucleation occurs at temperatures very close to the equilibrium condition and requires very small undercooling for both the primary solidification and the eutectic solidification. The intensive shear can significantly alter the microstructural morphology. In contrast to the dendritic morphology formed in the conventional solidification, the primary Al-rich phase in hypoeutectic Zn-Al alloy and the primary Zn-rich phase in hypereutectic Zn-Al alloy under intensive shear exhibit fine and spherical particles, respectively. The lamellae morphology of Zn-rich phase and Al-rich phase formed in the conventional eutectic solidification exhibit fine and spherical particles. The increase of intensity of shear promotes the independence of solid Zn-rich particles and Al-rich particles during the eutectic solidification, resulting in the uniform and separate distribution of two solid particles in the matrix. It is speculated that the high intensity of shear can result in the independent nucleation of individual eutectic phase throughout the whole melt, and the separate growth of solid phases in the subsequent solidification

A super-ductile alloy for the die-casting of aluminium automotive body structural components

Super-ductile die-cast aluminium alloys are critical to future light-weighting of automotive body structures. This paper introduces a die-cast aluminium alloy that can satisfy the requirements of these applications. After a review of currently available alloys, the requirement of a die-cast aluminium alloy for automotive body structural parts is proposed and an Al-Mg-Si system is suggested. The effect of the alloying elements, in the composition, has been investigated on the microstructure and mechanical properties, in particular the yield strength, the ultimate tensile strength and elongation. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.The EPSRC and JLR U

The effects of protected beams and their connections on the fire resistance of composite buildings

According to full-scale fire tests, it is noticed that tensile membrane action within the concrete floor slabs plays an important role in affecting the fire resistance of composite buildings. It is well known that the development of tensile membrane actions relies on the vertical support along the edges of the slab panel. However, there is at present a lack of research into the influence of vertical supports on the tensile membrane actions of the floor slabs. In this paper, the performances of a generic three dimensional 45m x 45m composite floor subjected to ISO834 Fire and Natural Fire are investigated. Different vertical support conditions and three steel meshes are applied in order to assess the impact of vertical supports on tensile membrane action of floor slabs. Unlike other existing large scale modelling which assumes the connections behave as pinned or rigid for simplicity, two robust 2-node connection element models developed by the authors are used to model the behaviour of end-plate and partial end-plate connections of composite structures under fire conditions. The impact of connections on the 3D behaviour of composite floor is taken into consideration. The load-transfer mechanisms of composite floor when connections fail due to axial tension, vertical shear and bending are investigated. Based on the results obtained, some design recommendations are proposed to enhance the fire resistance of composite buildings

Two-step Emergence of the Magnetic Flux Sheet from the Solar Convection Zone

We perform two-dimensional MHD simulations on the solar flux emergence. We set the initial magnetic flux sheet at z=-20,000 km in the convection zone. The flux sheet rises through the convective layer due to the Parker instability, however, decelerates beneath the photosphere because the plasma on the flux sheet piles up owing to the convectively stable photosphere above. Meanwhile, the flux sheet becomes locally unstable to the Parker instability within the photosphere, and the further evolution to the corona occurs (two-step emergence model). We carry out a parameter survey to investigate the condition for this two-step model. We find that magnetic fluxes which form active regions are likely to have undergone the two-step emergence. The condition for the two-step emergence is 10^21 - 10^22 Mx with 10^4 G at z=-20,000 km in the convection zone.Comment: 41 pages, 15 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in Ap

Fresnel operator, squeezed state and Wigner function for Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian

Based on the technique of integration within an ordered product (IWOP) of operators we introduce the Fresnel operator for converting Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian into time-independent harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian. The Fresnel operator with the parameters A,B,C,D corresponds to classical optical Fresnel transformation, these parameters are the solution to a set of partial differential equations set up in the above mentioned converting process. In this way the exact wavefunction solution of the Schr\"odinger equation governed by the Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian is obtained, which represents a squeezed number state. The corresponding Wigner function is derived by virtue of the Weyl ordered form of the Wigner operator and the order-invariance of Weyl ordered operators under similar transformations. The method used here can be suitable for solving Schr\"odinger equation of other time-dependent oscillators.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Signal enhancement of the in-plane and out-of-plane Rayleigh wave components

Several groups have reported an enhancement of the ultrasonic Rayleigh wave when scanning close to a surface-breaking defect in a metal sample. This enhancement may be explained as an interference effect where the waves passing directly between source and receiver interfere with those waves reflected back from the defect. We present finite element models of the predicted enhancement when approaching a defect, along with experiments performed using electromagnetic acoustic transducers sensitive to either in-plane or out-of-plane motion. A larger enhancement of the in-plane motion than the out-of-plane motion is observed and can be explained by considering ultrasonic reflections and mode conversion at the defect