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open access

Exceptional Properties in Friction Stir Processed Beta Titanium Alloys and an Ultra High Strength Steel

Description: The penchant towards development of high performance materials for light weighting engineering systems through various thermomechanical processing routes has been soaring vigorously. Friction stir processing (FSP) - a relatively new thermomechanical processing route had shown an excellent promise towards microstructural modification in many Al and Mg alloy systems. Nevertheless, the expansion of this process to high temperature materials like titanium alloys and steels is restricted by the limi… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Tungala, Vedavyas
open access

Microstructural Evolution and Mechanical Response of Materials by Design and Modeling

Description: Mechanical properties of structural materials are highly correlated to their microstructure. The relationship between microstructure and mechanical properties can be established experimentally. The growing need for structural materials in industry promotes the study of microstructural evolution of materials by design using computational approaches. This thesis presents the microstructural evolution of two different structural materials. The first uses a genetic algorithm approach to study the m… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Dutt, Aniket Kumar
open access

Structure Evolution and Nano-Mechanical Behavior of Bulk Metallic Glasses and Multi-Principal Element Alloys

Description: Bulk metallic glasses and multi-principal element alloys represent relatively new classes of multi-component engineering materials designed for satisfying multiple functionalities simultaneously. Correlating the microstructure with mechanical behavior (at the microstructural length-scales) in these materials is key to understanding their performance. In this study, the structure evolution and nano-mechanical behavior of these two classes of materials was investigated with the objective of funda… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Mridha, Sanghita
open access

Improving the Long-term Performance of PVC Compositions

Description: PVC are extensively applied in many fields, such as cables, pipes, vehicles, shoes, toys and infusion bags. Generally, plasticizers are blended with PVC to improve the ability of process in industrial production; however, the toxic plasticizers will gradually migrate to the surface of products and such a leakage results in brittleness of plasticized PVC and environmental pollution. In other words, humans are frequently exposed to the potential risks. According to previous researches, cross-link… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Yang, Yu Chia
open access

Sliding Friction and Wear Behavior of High Entropy Alloys at Room and Elevated Temperatures

Description: Structure-tribological property relations have been studied for five high entropy alloys (HEAs). Microhardness, room and elevated (100°C and 300°C) temperature sliding friction coefficients and wear rates were determined for five HEAs: Co0.5 Cr Cu0.5 Fe Ni1.5 Al Ti0.4; Co Cr Fe Ni Al0.25 Ti0.75; Ti V Nb Cr Al; Al0.3CoCrFeNi; and Al0.3CuCrFeNi2. Wear surfaces were characterized with scanning electron microscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy to determine the wear mechanisms and tribochemical phase… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Kadhim, Dheyaa
open access

Compostable Soy-Based Polyurethane Foam with Kenaf Core Modifiers

Description: Building waste and disposable packaging are a major component in today's landfills. Most of these are structural or thermally insulative polymer foams that do not degrade over a long period of time. Currently, there is a push to replace these foams with thermoplastic or biodegradable foams that can either be recycled or composted. We propose the use of compostable soy-based polyurethane foams (PU) with kenaf core modifiers that will offer the desired properties with the ability to choose respon… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Hoyt, Zachary
open access

Friction Stir Welding of High Strength Precipitation Strengthened Aluminum Alloys

Description: Rising demand for improved fuel economy and structural efficiency are the key factors for use of aluminum alloys for light weighting in aerospace industries. Precipitation strengthened 2XXX and 7XXX aluminum alloys are the key aluminum alloys used extensively in aerospace industry. Welding and joining is the critical step in manufacturing of integrated structures. Joining of precipitation strengthened aluminum alloys using conventional fusion welding techniques is difficult and rather undesirab… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Sidhar, Harpreet
open access

Friction Stir Welding of Precipitation Strengthened Aluminum 7449 Alloys

Description: The Al-Zn-Mg-Cu (7XXX series) alloys are amongst the strongest aluminum available. However, they are considered unweldable with conventional fusion techniques due to the negative effects that arise with conventional welding, including hydrogen porosity, hot cracking, and stress corrosion cracking. For this reason, friction stir welding has emerged as the preferred technique to weld 7XXX series alloys. Aluminum 7449 is one of the highest strength 7XXX series aluminum alloy. This is due to its hi… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Martinez, Nelson Y
open access

In Vitro Behavior of AZ31B Mg-Hydroxyapatite Metallic Matrix Composite Surface Fabricated via Friction Stir Processing

Description: Magnesium and its alloys have been considered for load-bearing implant materials due to their similar mechanical properties to the natural bone, excellent biocompatibility, good bioactivity, and biodegradation. Nevertheless, the uncontrollable corrosion rate in biological environment restrains their application. Hydroxyapatite (HA, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) is a widely used bio-ceramic which has bone-like mineral structure for bone fixation. Poor fracture toughness of HA makes it not suitable for load-b… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Ho, Yee Hsien
open access

Microstructure for Enhanced Plasticity and Toughness

Description: Magnesium is the lightest metal with a very high specific strength. However, its practical applicability is limited by its toughness and reliability. Mg, being HCP has low ductility. This makes the improvement of toughness a grand challenge in Mg alloys. Friction stir processing (FSP) is a thermomechanical technique used to effect microstructural modification. Here, FSP was utilized to affect the toughness of WE43 sheets through microstructural modification. Room temperature Kahn-type tests wer… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Das, Shamiparna
open access

Enhancement of Light Emission from Metal Nanoparticles Embedded Graphene Oxide

Description: A fully oxidized state of graphene behaves as a pure insulating while a pristine graphene behaves as a pure conducting. The in-between oxide state in graphene which is the controlled state of oxide behaves as a semiconducting. This is the key condition for tuning optical band gap for the better light emitting property. The controlling method of oxide in graphene structure is known as reduction which is the mixed state of sp2 and sp3 hybrid state in graphene structure. sp2 hybridized domains cor… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Karna, Sanjay K.
open access

Fatigue Behavior of A356 Aluminum Alloy

Description: Metal fatigue is a recurring problem for metallurgists and materials engineers, especially in structural applications. It has been responsible for many disastrous accidents and tragedies in history. Understanding the micro-mechanisms during cyclic deformation and combating fatigue failure has remained a grand challenge. Environmental effects, like temperature or a corrosive medium, further worsen and complicate the problem. Ultimate design against fatigue must come from a materials perspective … more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Nelaturu, Phalgun
open access

Influence of High Strain Rate Compression on Microstructure and Phase Transformation of NiTi Shape Memory Alloys

Description: Since NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) was discovered in the early 1960s, great progress has been made in understanding the properties and mechanisms of NiTi SMA and in developing associated products. For several decades, most of the scientific research and industrial interests on NiTi SMA has focused on its superelastic applications in the biomedical field and shape memory based “smart” devices, which involves the low strain rate (around 0.001 s^-1) response of NiTi SMA. Due to either stress-indu… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Qiu, Ying
open access

Microstructural Phase Evolution In Laser Deposited Compositionally Graded Titanium Chromium Alloys

Description: A compositionally graded Ti-xCr (10≤x≤30 wt%) alloy has been fabricated using Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENSTM) to study the microstructural phase evolution along a compositional gradient in both as-deposited and heat treated conditions (1000°C followed by furnace cooling or air cooling). The alloys were characterized by SEM BSE imaging, XRD, EBSD, TEM and micro-hardness measurements to determine processing-structure-property relations. For the as-deposited alloy, α-Ti, β-Ti, and TiCr2 (C15… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Thomas, Jonova
open access

Reactions and Interfacial Behaviors of the Water–Amorphous Silica System from Classical and Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Description: Due to the wide application of silica based systems ranging from microelectronics to nuclear waste disposal, detailed knowledge of water-silica interactions plays an important role in understanding fundamental processes, such as glass corrosion and the long term reliability of devices. In this dissertation, atomistic computer simulation methods have been used to explore and identify the mechanisms of water-silica reactions and the detailed processes that control the properties of the water-sili… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Rimsza, Jessica M.
open access

Stable Nanocrystalline Au Film Structures for Sliding Electrical Contacts

Description: Hard gold thin films and coatings are widely used in electronics as an effective material to reduce the friction and wear of relatively less expensive electrically conductive materials while simultaneously seeking to provide oxidation resistance and stable sliding electrical contact resistance (ECR). The main focus of this dissertation was to synthesize nanocrystalline Au films with grain structures capable of remaining stable during thermal exposure and under sliding electrical contact stress… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Mogonye, Jon-Erik
open access

Thermomechanical Processing, Additive Manufacturing and Alloy Design of High Strength Mg Alloys

Description: The recent emphasis on magnesium alloys can be appreciated by following the research push from several agencies, universities and editorial efforts. With a density equal to two-thirds of Al and one-thirds of steel, Mg provides the best opportunity for lightweighting of metallic components. However, one key bottleneck restricting its insertion into industrial applications is low strength values. In this respect, Mg-Y-Nd alloys have been promising due to their ability to form strengthening precip… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Palanivel, Sivanesh
open access

Anisotropic Nature of Radially Strained Metal Tubes

Description: Metal pipes are sometimes swaged by a metal cone to enlarge them, which increases the strain in the material. The amount of strain is important because it affects the burst and collapse strength. Burst strength is the amount of internal pressure that a pipe can withstand before failure, while collapse strength is the amount of external pressure that a pipe can withstand before failure. If the burst or collapse strengths are exceeded, the pipe may fracture, causing critical failure. Such an … more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Strickland, Julie N.
open access

Characterization of Ti-6Al-4V Produced Via Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing

Description: In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) has become an increasingly promising method used for the production of structural metallic components. There are a number of reasons why AM methods are attractive, including the ability to produce complex geometries into a near-net shape and the rapid transition from design to production. Ti-6Al-4V is a titanium alloy frequently used in the aerospace industry which is receiving considerable attention as a good candidate for processing via electron be… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Hayes, Brian J.
open access

Deformation Micro-mechanisms of Simple and Complex Concentrated FCC Alloys

Description: The principal objective of this work was to elucidate the effect of microstructural features on the intrinsic dislocation mechanisms in two FCC alloys. First alloy Al0.1CoCrFeNi was from a new class of material known as complex concentrated alloys, particularly high entropy alloys (HEA). The second was a conventional Al-Mg-Sc alloy in ultrafine-grained (UFG) condition. In the case of HEA, the lattice possess significant lattice strain due to the atomic size variation and cohesive energy differe… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Komarasamy, Mageshwari
open access

Determining the Emissivity of Roofing Samples: Asphalt, Ceramic and Coated Cedar

Description: The goal is to perform heat measurements examine of selected roofing material samples. Those roofing materials are asphalt shingles, ceramics, and cedar. It’s important to understand the concept of heat transfer, which consists of conduction, convection, and radiation. Research work was reviewed on different infrared devices to see which one would be suitable for conducting my experiment. In this experiment, the main focus was on a specific property of radiation. That property is the emissivit… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Adesanya, Oludamilola
open access

Effect of Alloy Composition, Free Volume and Glass Formability on the Corrosion Behavior of Bulk Metallic Glasses

Description: Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have received significant research interest due to their completely amorphous structure which results in unique structural and functional properties. Absence of grain boundaries and secondary phases in BMGs results in high corrosion resistance in many different environments. Understanding and tailoring the corrosion behavior can be significant for various structural applications in bulk form as well as coatings. In this study, the corrosion behavior of several Zr-ba… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Ayyagari, Venkata Aditya
open access

An Initial Study of Binary and Ternary Ti-based Alloys Manufactured Using Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENSTM)

Description: In this study an initial assessment of the composition – microstructure – property relationships in binary and ternary Ti – based systems are made possible using LENSTM technology. Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENSTM), a rapid prototyping, directed laser deposition methodology of additive manufacturing (AM) was used to create bulk homogenous specimens that are compositionally graded. Compositionally graded specimens were made possible by incorporating elemental blends of powder during the LEN… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Gray, Alyn M.
open access

The Role of Crystallographic Texture in Achieving Low Friction Zinc Oxide Nanolaminate Films

Description: Metal oxide nanolaminate films are potential high temperature solid lubricants due to their ability to exhibit significant plasticity when grain size is reduced to the nanometer scale, and defective growth structure is achieved by condensation of oxygen vacancies to form intrinsic stacking faults. This is in contrast to conventional microcrystalline and single crystal oxides that exhibit brittle fracture during loading in a sliding contact. This study emphasizes the additional effect of growt… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Mojekwu, Nneoma
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