Among the commercial aluminum alloys, aluminum 319 (Al-7wt%Si-4wt%Cu) type alloys are popularly used in automobile engine parts. These alloys have good casting characteristics and excellent mechanical properties resulting from a suitable heat treatment. To get a high strength in the 319 type alloys, grain refining, reducing the porosity, solid solution hardening, and precipitation hardening are preferred. All experimental variables such as solidification condition, composition, and heat treatment are influence on the precipitation behavior; however, precipitation hardening is the most significant because excess alloying elements from supersaturated solid solution form fine particles which act as obstacles to dislocation movement. The challenges of the 319 type alloys arise due to small size of precipitate and complex aging response caused by multi components. It is important to determine the chemical composition, crystal structure, and orientation relationship as well as precipitate morphology in order to understand the precipitation behavior and strengthening mechanism. In this study, the mechanical properties and microstructure were investigated using transmission electron microscopy and three dimensional atom probe tomography. The Mn and Mg effects on the microstructure and mechanical properties are discussed with crystallographic study on the iron intermetallic phases. The microstructural evolution and nucleation study on the precipitates in the low-Si 319 type aluminum alloys are also presented with sample preparation and analysis condition of TEM and 3DAP tomography.
Ruthenium and ruthenium dioxide thin films have shown great promise in various applications, such as thick film resistors, buffer layers for yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) superconducting thin films, and as electrodes in ferroelectric memories. Other potential applications in Si based complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices are currently being studied. The search for alternative metal-based gate electrodes as a replacement of poly-Si gates has intensified during the last few years. Metal gates are required to maintain scaling and performance of future CMOS devices. Ru based materials have many desirable properties and are good gate electrode candidates for future metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) device applications. Moreover, Ru and RuO2 are promising candidates as diffusion barriers for copper interconnects. In this thesis, the thermal stability and interfacial diffusion and reaction of both Ru and RuO2 thin films on HfO2 gate dielectrics were investigated using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). An overview of Ru and RuO2/HfO2 interface integrity issues will be presented. In addition, the effects of C ion modification of RuO2 thin films on the physico-chemical and electrical properties are evaluated.
The increasing technological need to push service conditions of structural materials to higher temperatures has motivated the development of several alloy systems. Among them, superalloys are an excellent candidate for high temperature applications because of their ability to form coherent ordered precipitates, which enable the retention of high strength close to their melting temperature. The accelerated kinetics of solute diffusion, with or without an added component of mechanical stress, leads to coarsening of the precipitates, and results in microstructural degradation, limiting the durability of the materials. Hence, the coarsening of precipitates has been a classical research problem for these alloys in service. The prolonged hunt for an alternative of nickel base superalloys with superior traits has gained hope after the recent discovery of Co-Al-W based alloys, which readily form high temperature g precipitates, similar to Ni base superalloys. In the present study, coarsening behavior of g precipitates in Co-10Al-10W (at. %) has been carried out at 800°C and 900°C. This study has, for the first time, obtained critical coarsening parameters in cobalt-base alloys. Apart from this, it has incorporated atomic scale compositional information across the g/g interfaces into classical Cahn-Hilliard model for a better model of coarsening kinetics. The coarsening study of g precipitates in Ni-14Al-7 Cr (at. %) has shown the importance of temporal evolution of the compositional width of the g/g interfaces to the coarsening kinetics of g precipitates. This study has introduced a novel, reproducible characterization method of crystallographic study of ordered phase by coupling of orientation microscopy with atom probe tomography (APT). Along with the detailed analysis of field evaporation behaviors of Ni and Co superalloys in APT, the present study determines the site occupancy of various solutes within ordered g precipitates in both Ni and Co superalloys. This study has explained the role of structural …
The presence of deposits on the secondary side of pressurized water reactor (PWR) steam generator systems is one of the main contributors to the high maintenance costs of these generators. Formation and transport of corrosion products formed due to the presence of impurities, metals and metallic oxides in the secondary side of the steam generator units result in formation of deposits. This research deals with understanding the deposit formation and characterization of deposits by studying the samples collected from different units in secondary side system at Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station (CPSES). Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) have been used for studying the phases, morphologies and compositions of the iron oxides formed at Unit 1 and Unit 2 of secondary side of steamgenerator systems. Hematite and magnetite were found to be the dominant phases of iron oxides present in the units. Fe, Cr, O, Ni, Si, Cl and Cu were found in samples collected from both the units. A qualitative method was developed to differentiate iron oxides using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) based on temporal response of iron oxides to a high power laser beam. A quantitative FTIR technique was developed to identify and quantify iron oxides present in the different components of the secondary side of the steam generator of CPSES. Amines are used in water treatment to control corrosion and fouling in pressurized water reactors. CPSES presently uses an amine combination of dimethylamine (DMA), hydrazine and morpholine to control the water chemistry. Along with the abovementioned amines, this study also focuses on corrosion inhibition mechanismsof a new amine DBU (1, 8-diazabicyclo [5.4.0] undec-7-ene). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization curves were used to study the interaction mechanism between DBU solution and inconel alloys 600 and 690 at steamgenerator operating …
I have used computer simulations to investigate the behavior of polymeric materials at the molecular level. The simulations were performed using the molecular dynamics method with Lennard-Jones potentials defining the interactions between particles in the system. Significant effort was put into the creation of realistic materials on the computer. For this purpose, an algorithm was developed based on the step-wise polymerization process. The resulting computer-generated materials (CGMs) exhibit several features of real materials, such as molecular weight distribution and presence of chain entanglements. The effect of the addition of a liquid crystalline (LC) phase to the flexible matrix was also studied. The concentration and distribution of the second phase (2P) were found to influence the mechanical and tribological properties of the CGMs. The size of the 2P agglomerates was found to have negligible influence on the properties within the studied range. Moreover, although the 2P reinforcement increases the modulus, it favors crack formation and propagation. Regions of high LC concentration exhibit high probability of becoming part of the crack propagation path. Simulations of the tensile deformation under a uniaxial force have shown that the molecular deformation mechanisms developing in the material depend on several variables, such as the magnitude of the force, the force increase rate, and the level of orientation of the chains. Three-dimensional (3D) graphical visualization tools were developed for representation and analysis of the simulation results. These also present interesting educational possibilities. Computer simulations provide us information which is inaccessible experimentally. From the concomitant use of simulations and experiments, a better understanding of the molecular phenomena that take place during deformation of polymers has been established.
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