Key Engineering Materials Vols. 592-593

Abstract: The microscope mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is overviewed from the viewpoint of Mechanics-Microstructure-Environment Interactions. The plastic deformation (Mechanics) at crack tip for low strength steel is controlled by hydrogen concentration (Environment) to crack tip, eventually resulting in very strong time dependent phenomenon in static fracture and fatigue crack growth. Various typical phenomena in low strength steels which can be understood from the viewpoint of Mechanics-Environment Interactions will be presented. Fracture and fatigue of high strength steels (Microstructure) are strongly influenced by hydrogen. Especially, fatigue crack growth is remarkably accelerated by hydrogen-induced deformation twins. The HE phenomemon of the high-strength steels was applied to a newly inclusion rating method. Hydrogen trapped by nonmetalliec inclusions causes the elimination of fatigue limit at very high cycle fatigue. The values of threshold stress intensity factor K_TH in hydrogen for small cracks are much smaller than those for long cracks measured by the standard WOL or CT specimens, which are eventually unconservative for the design of hydrogen components. This phenomenon is similar to the small crack problem in fatigue.

Abstract: Hardness testing obtains material properties from small specimens via measurement of load-displacement response to an imposed indentation; it is a surface characterisation technique so, except in optically transparent materials, there is no direct observation of the assumed damage and deformation processes within the material. Three-dimensional digital image correlation (digital volume correlation) is applied to study deformation beneath indentations, mapping the relative displacements between high-resolution synchrotron X-ray computed tomographs (0.9 μm voxel size). Two classes of material are examined: ductile aluminium-silicon carbide composite (Al-SiC) and brittle alumina (Al₂O₃). The measured displacements for Hertzian indentation in Al-SiC are in good agreement with an elastic-plastic finite element simulation. In alumina, radial cracking is observed beneath a Vickers indentation and the crack opening displacements are measured, in situ under load, for the first time. Potential applications are discussed of this characterization technique, which does not require resolution of microstructural features.

Abstract: Aluminum alloys, widely used for constitutive parts of aircrafts are confronted to a wide range of temperature depending on altitude and climate, from room temperature on the ground down to some 223K at high altitude. The fatigue crack growth behavior of two new generation aluminum alloys, 2024A in T351 temper and 2022 in T351 and T851 tempers, have been investigated at both temperatures. It is shown that temperature and air humidity do not affect the crack growth resistance of the peak aged 2022 while these two parameters widely influence the crack growth in the under-aged alloys which exhibit in cold air a crystallographic retarded propagation similar to that in vacuum. The respective role of microstructure, temperature, atmosphere residual humidity and crack closure is discussed on the basis of a preexisting modeling framework for environmentally assisted fatigue.

Abstract: In this work, a Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb alloy obtained with a additive manufacturing technique by electron beam melting (EBM) has been examined by conducting high cycle fatigue tests both with plain specimens and with specimens with artificially introduced defects with the objective of studying the growth behavior of small cracks. A consistent model for predicting the fatigue endurance strength of specimens with artificial defects is proposed, based on the Kitagawa diagram and taking into account of the presence of inherent microstructural features of the studied intermetallic alloy. Thus, the origin of fatigue failures due to intermetallic phases and orientation of lamellar colonies was investigated by means of micromechanical analysis through the use of high-resolution Digital Image Correlation (DIC). The local strain heterogeneities were measured out of the load frame by means of an optical microscope at high magnifications. The strain maps were then overlaid with the images of the microstructure and detailed analyses were performed to investigate the features of the microstructure where high local strain heterogeneities arise. High local residual plastic strains were measured inside lamellar colonies, which are detected as the precursor to fatigue crack initiation. The measure of the residual strains also provides further information on the role of the intermetallic phases on the fatigue behaviour of γ-TiAl alloys.

Abstract: There have been a lot of studies dedicated to structural instability in solids. For local instability, theoretical (ideal) strength of crystals has been extensively studied with ab initio calculations. Global instability taking into account the collective motion of atoms involved in deformation has also been investigated. However, these studies have usually been done at 0 K and little has been understood about the effect of temperature. In this study, we demonstrate computational approaches to the effect of temperature on local and global instabilities. Ideal shear strength (ISS) of silicon at finite temperatures is calculated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with an empirical potential. ISS is obtained as a function of temperature. Our results imply that, unlike metals, the reduction in ISS by temperature cannot be estimated simply by taking into account thermal expansion of volume. In addition, global instability for dislocation nucleation in a Cu thin film model under tension is investigated. We first evaluated instability modes at 0 K with increasing strain, and then performed MD simulations at 50 K. After the nucleation of a partial dislocation, the second dislocation can be one to create a twin or one to create another partial dislocation. These different deformations can be understood as the competition of latent instability modes that have relatively small eigenvalues.

Abstract: A small rectangular strip of fcc Cu, containing a through crack on the nanoscale and subjected to loading under displacement control, is simulated using molecular dynamics (MD). The geometry is highly constrained and chosen to mimic that of a thin strip between two stiff layers. The Lennard-Jones pair potential is used for the inter-atomic forces. The centrally placed crack shaped void is created by removing a few atoms inside the specimen. The crack is loaded perpendicular to the crack plane and the tensile stress is studied as it varies over the thickness of the strip. Comparisons with finite element calculations are made and the goal is to find a limit in model size beneath which the finite element (FE) solutions and linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) lose their accuracy.

Abstract: Lattice dynamics and stability of fcc crystal of Ni under isotropic (hydrostatic) tensile loading are studied from first principles using supercell method and a harmonic approximation. According to the results, strength of the crystal is determined by occurrence of an instability related to soft phonons with finite wave vector. On the other hand, the critical strains and stresses associated with such instabilities are only slightly lower than those related to the volumetric instability.

Abstract: This article deals with the research of the influence of the anisotropy of the alloys properties having non-cubic symmetry for example nanofibers CuAu I during deformation at low temperatures.

Abstract: Molecular dynamics investigation of metal crystallite with bcc lattice under nanoindentation was carried out. Potentials of interatomic interactions were calculated on the base of the approximation of the embedded atom method. The potentials chosen make it possible to describe with a high accuracy the elastic and surface properties of the simulated metal and energy parameters of defects, which is important for solution of the task posed in the work. For clarity and simpler indentation data interpretation, an extended cylindrical indenter was used in the investigation and loading was realized by its lateral surface. The simulated crystallite had a parallelepiped shape. The loaded plane of crystallite was modeled as a free surface while the positions of atoms in the opposite plane of crystallite were fixed along the indentation direction. Other planes of crystallite were simulated as free surfaces. The indenter velocity varied from 5 to 25 m/s in different calculations. The loading of the model crystallite was realized at 300 K. Influence of interfaces (free surfaces and grain boundaries) on peculiarities of plastic deformation nucleation and interactions of generated structural defects with interfaces in simulated crystallite under nanoindentation were investigated.