Iranian Journal of Materials science and Engineering
Volume:7 Issue: 3, Sep 2010

Free swelling index (FSI) is an important parameter for cokeability and combustion of coals. In this research, the effects of chemical properties of coals on the coal free swelling index were studied by artificial neural network methods. The artificial neural networks (ANNs) method was used for 200 datasets to estimate the free swelling index value. In this investigation, ten input parameters such as moisture, volatile matter (dry), fixed carbon (dry), ash (dry), total sulfur (organic and pyretic)(dry), (British thermal unit (Btu)/lb) (dry), carbon (dry), hydrogen (dry), nitrogen (dry) as well as oxygen (dry) were used. For selecting the best model for this study the outputs of models were compared. A three-layer ANN was found to be optimum with architecture of ten and four neurons in first and second hidden layer, respectively, and one neuron in output layer. Results of artificial neural network shows that training, testing and validating data’s square correlation coefficients (R2) achieved 0.99, 0.92 and 0.96, respectively. The sensitivity analysis showed that the highest and lowest effects of coal chemical properties on the coal free swelling index were nitrogen (dry) and fixed carbon (dry), respectively. Keywords: Coal Chemical Properties, Free Swelling Index, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Cokeability and Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN).

The effects of anodizing condition and post treatment on the growth of nickel nanowires, were investigated. A two-step anodizing process was applied in phosphoric and oxalic acid solution. Nickel electrochemical plating was applied to fill Anodic Aluminum Oxide (AAO) pores. For pore filling enhancement, AAO surfaces were treated by silver predeposition. After electroplating, aluminum and oxide layer of some specimens were removed. The results showed that silver preplating increases the pore filling and as the applied voltage becomes higher, the pores diameter decreases.

In this research an ultra-fine grained composite structure consisting of an intermetallic matrix together with dispersed nano-sized Al2O3 obtained via mechanical activation of TiO2 and Al in a high energy ball mill and sintering of consolidated samples. Phase composition and morphology of the milled and sintered samples were evaluated by XRD and SEM techniques Thermal behavior of the powder sample milled for 8 hours was evaluated by DTA technique. DTA results showed that, the reaction happens in two steps. The first step is the aluminothermic reduction of TiO2 with Al. XRD observations reveals that minor amount of Ti3Al phase formed during reduction reaction together with TiAl and Al2O3 major phases. This intermetallic phase disappeared when sintering temperature was increased to 850 ºC. The second step in DTA is related to a reaction between residual Al in the system (partly dissolved in TiAl lattice) and the Ti3Al phase produced earlier at lower temperatures. SEM micrographs reveal that by completion of the reduction reaction more homogeneous and finer microstructure is observable in sintered samples.

Y2O3) and ethyl acetate as a mineralizer by hydrothermal method at a low temperature (T=.230°C, and P=100bars).The as-prepared powders were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), UV-V Spectroscopy and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the sewage water, respectively. The results show that hydrothermal method can greatly promote the crystallization and growth of YVO4 phase. XRD pattern clearly indicates the tetragonal structure and crystallanity. An FTIR spectrum of the YVO4 shows the presence of Y-O and V-O bond, respectively. The presence of these two peaks indicates that yttrum vanadate has been formed. UV-V is absorption spectra suggesting that YVO4 particles have stronger UV absorption than natural sunlight and subsequent photocatalytic degradation data also confirmed their higher photocatalytic activity.

The effects of lower bainite volume fraction on tensile and impact properties of D6AC ultrahigh strength steel were studied in the current work. To obtain mixed microstructures containing martensite and different volume fractions of the lower bainite, specimens were austenitized at 910° C, then quenched in a salt bath of 330°C for different holding times, finally quenched in oil. In order to obtain fully martensitic and bainitic microstructures, direct oil quenching and isothermal transformation heat treatment for 24 hours were used respectively. All specimens were double tempered at 200°C for 2 hours per tempered. Microstructures were examined by optical and scanning electron microscopes. Fracture morphologies were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results showed that both yield and ultimate tensile strength generally decreased with an increase in volume fraction of lower bainite. However, a few exceptions were observed in the mixed microstructures containing 12% lower bainite, showing a higher strength than the fully martensitic microstructure. This can be explained on the basis of two factors. The first is an increase in the strength of martensite due to the partitioning of the prior austenite grains by lower bainite resulting in the refinement of martensite substructures. The second is a plastic constraint effect leading to an enhanced strength of lower bainite by the surrounding relatively rigid martensite. Charpy V-notch impact energy and ductility is improved with increasing the volume fraction of lower bainite.

Macrosegregation has been received high attention in the solidification modeling studies. In the present work, a numerical model was developed to predict the macrosegregation during the DC Casting of an Al-4.5wt%Cu billet. The mathematical model developed in this study consists of mass, momentum, energy and species conservation equations for a two-phase mixture of liquid and solid in an axisymmetric coordinates. The solution methodology is based on a standard Finite Volume Method. A new scheme called Semi-Implicit Method for Thermodynamically-Linked Equations (SIMTLE) was employed to link energy and species equations with phase diagram of the alloying system. The model was tested by experimental data extracted from an industrial scale DC caster and a relatively good agreement was obtained. It was concluded that a proper macrosegregation model needs two key features: a precise flow description in the two-phase regions and a capable efficient numerical scheme

Dolomite refractories have a good production potential in Iran due to the existence of high-quality dolomite ore in many regions of the country, particularly in Isfahan and Hamedan. The basic problem associated with the production and use of this type of refractories is inherent tendency to hydration of calcined dolomite. One of the methods to overcome this problem is to increase the amount of magnesia in doloma. This study focuses on the use of Iranian dolomite to produce magnesia –doloma (mag-dol) refractory with high resistance to hydration and corrosion. It was found that addition of 20wt% magnesite to dolomite would result in capsulating of CaO by MgO that protects doloma from further hydration