فصلنامه مواد پیشرفته در مهندسی
سال بیست و هشتم شماره 1 (تابستان 1388)

An Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloy was subjected to tensile testing, both under solutionized and ECAE-ed conditions, using strain rates of 10-4 s-1 to 10-1 s-1 at temperatures of 25 $C to 325 $C to investigate the dynamic strain aging (DSA) phenomenon in the alloy. Negative strain rate sensitivity (m) and increasing ultimate tensile stress were observed in the DSA region with increasing temperature. Regarding the activation energy of the phenomenon, it was suggested that the process is controlled by the interaction of Mg atoms with mobile dislocations at lower temperatures of DSA occurrence while at higher temperatures, the aggregation of Mg atoms and precipitates of a second phase decreases the amount of Mg atoms in the solid solution, resulting in the inverse DSA effect. Moreover, it was shown that at temperatures greater than 250 $C, the ratio of post-uniform to uniform elongation increases with increasing temperature or with decreasing strain rate due to the solute drag of Mg atoms in the Al matrix. Processing the alloy by ECAE transferred the negative m values to lower temperatures and decreased the tendency to DSA at higher temperatures. Calculating the mentioned ratio for the ECAE-ed specimens revealed that the post-uniform elongation dominates the uniform elongation at all examined temperatures and strain rates. Also, it was found that for ECAE-ed specimens, the ratio is not so sensitive to variations of temperature and strain rate.

Solid Assisted Melt Disintegration (SAMD) is a relatively new method for producing metallic powder particles in which the kinetic energy transferred from a rotating impeller to the melt via a solid medium causes melt disintegration. These droplets are then solidified and separated from the media to obtain metallic powder particles. In the present study, sodium chloride (NaCl) was used to produce Al-6wt%Si powder particles. A specified amount of NaCl was introduced into the aluminum alloy melt and the slurry was stirred following a specified time-temperature regime to disintegrate the molten alloy into droplets.This blend was quenched in water to solidify Al powder particles and to dissolve NaCl in water. The Al powder particles were then collected, washed, dried, and subjected to laser particle size (LPS) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effects of different time-temperature regimes on the size and morphology of the resultant Al-6wt%Si powder particles were investigated and the optimum conditions for obtaining the finest spherical particles were established. It was concluded that the finest and most spherically shaped Al powder particles could be produced by stirring the slurry at 690 °C for 5 min followed by water quenching.

In this research, a 3-D mathematical model is developed for simulating electromagnetic continuous removal of inclusions from molten metals. The model includes the computation of electromagnetic force field and fluid flow in the presence of electromagnetic forces. The results of flow field together with electromagnetic force field were further used for calculating the trajectory of inclusions in the molten metal. Parametric studies were performed to evaluate the effects of various parameters such as magnetic field intensity, inclusion size, and fluid velocity on inclusion removal efficiency in molten magnesium. In order to verify the mathematical model and visualize the trajectories of particles in the melt flow under electromagnetic force, a physical model was constructed. The predicted particle trajectories and separation in the physical model were compared with those obtained from experiments, which showed a relatively good agreement.

The effects of mechanochemical treatment of monoclinic zirconia in high energy planetary ball mill on its phase transformation were investigated. The mechanical treatment in ball mill reduces the grain size, increases microstrain, and causes phase transition to metastable nanostructured tetragonal and cubic phases. XRD and TEM results show considerable amounts of amorphous phase during ball milling. Surface area measurements by BET method over long milling times reveal that ZrO2 particles are agglomerated with an amorphous phase as a binder. The mechanical treatment increases the reactivity of zirconia in chlorine gas. Annealing of ball milled zirconia in the chlorine atmosphere produces oxygen vacancy in zirconia (ZrO2-x) and causes the amorphous phase to be crystallized and to change into cubic and tetragonal phases. The chlorine atmosphere increases the stability temperatures of cubic and tetragonal phases to 800°C and 1000°C, respectively. In this situation, the energy of grain boundary and oxygen vacancy play important roles in the stability of tetragonal and cubic phases.

In cast aluminum and its alloys, the microstructure varies under different solidification conditions, causing variations in their mechanical properties. These materials are basically produced in sand and metallic molds or through die casting, each of which is associated with a unique solidification regime with significantly different cooling rates so that the resulting microstructure strongly depends on the casting method used. In the present study, the effects of such important solidification parameters as cooling rate, solidification front velocity, and thermal gradient at the solid-liquid interface on secondary dendrite arm spacing were investigated. By a directional solidification system, the mathematical relation between cooling rate and dendrite spacing was extracted for several commercially important aluminum alloys. A neural network model was trained using the experimental values of cooling rates and secondary dendrite arm spacing. Reliable prediction of these values was made from the trained network and their corresponding diagrams were constructed. A good agreement was found between simulation and experimental values. It is concluded that the neural network constructed in this study can be employed to predict the relationship between cooling rate and dendrite arm spacing, which is difficult, if not iompossible, to accomplish experimentally.