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Processing of NiTi Shape Memory Alloys through Low Pressure and Low Temperature Hydrogen Charging

Description: Many industries including the medical, aerospace, and automobile industries have increasingly adopted the use of shape memory alloys (SMAs) for a plethora of applications due to their unique thermomechanical properties. From the commercially available SMAs in the market, binary NiTi SMAs have shown the most desirable properties. However, SMA properties can be significantly affected by the fabrication process. One of the most familiar applications of NiTi SMAs is in the design of actuating devic… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Briseno Murguia, Silvia
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Alloy Development and High-Energy X-Ray Diffraction Studies of NiTiZr and NiTiHf High Temperature Shape Memory Alloys

Description: NiTi-based shape memory alloys (SMAs) offer a good combination of high-strength, ductility, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility that has served them well and attracted the attention of many researchers and industries. The alloys unique thermo-mechanical ability to recover their initial shape after relatively large deformations by heating or upon unloading due to a characteristic reversible phase transformation makes them useful as damping devices, solid state actuators, couplings, etc. H… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Carl, Matthew A
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Laser Surface Modification of AZ31B Mg Alloy Bio-Implant Material

Description: Magnesium and its alloys are considered as the potential biomaterials due to their biocompatibility and biodegradable characteristics but suffer from poor corrosion performance. Various surface modification techniques are employed to improve their corrosion resistance. In present case, laser surface melting was carried out on AZ31B Mg alloy with various laser energy densities using a continuous wave ytterbium laser. Effect of laser treatment on phase and microstructure evolution was evaluated b… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Wu, Tso-chang
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Design Principles for Metal-Coordinated Frameworks as Electrocatalysts for Energy Storage and Conversion

Description: In this dissertation, density functional theory calculations are performed to calculate the thermodynamic and electrochemical properties of metal coordinated frameworks for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Gibb's free energy, overpotential, charge transfer and ligands effect are evaluated. The charge transfer analysis shows the positive charges on the metal coordinated frameworks play an essential role in improving the electrochemical properties of the metal … more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Lin, Chun-Yu
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

High Temperature Water as an Etch and Clean for SiO2 and Si3N4

Description: An environmentally friendly, and contamination free process for etching and cleaning semiconductors is critical to future of the IC industry. Under the right conditions, water has the ability to meet these requirements. Water becomes more reactive as a function of temperature in part because the number of hydronium and hydroxyl ions increase. As water approaches its boiling point, the concentration of these species increases over seven times their concentrations at room temperature. At 150 °C, … more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Barclay, Joshua David
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Mechanisms of Formation and Effects of Transition Metal Oxides in Silicon Nitride on Steel Dry Sliding Contacts

Description: Silicon nitride on steel sliding contacts may provide advantageous tribological properties over traditional self-mated pairs, however the friction and wear behavior at high sliding speeds (>1 m/s) is not well understood. Previous studies at low sliding speeds (< 1 m/s) have found that the wear mechanisms change as a function of the operating parameters, e.g. atmosphere, sliding speed, load, and temperature, due to the formation of transition metal oxides such as Fe2O3 and Fe3O4. This study dete… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Harris, Michael D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Surface Chemistry and Work Function of Irradiated and Nanoscale Thin Films Covered Indium Tin Oxides

Description: In this study, we used UV-ozone Ar sputtering, X-ray photoelectron and ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopies and sputtering based depositions of RuO2 and Se nano-layers on indium tin oxides (ITOs). We elucidated the effect of Ar sputtering on the composition and chemistry of Sn rich ITO surface. We demonstrated that while a combination of UV-ozone radiation and Ar sputtering removes most of the hydrocarbons responsible for degrading the work function of ITO, it also removes significant amou… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Che, Hui
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Study on NiTiSn Low-Temperature Shape Memory Alloys and the Processing of NiTiHf High-Temperature Shape Memory Alloys

Description: Shape memory alloys (SMAs) operating as solid-state actuators pose economic and environmental benefits to the aerospace industry due to their lightweight, compact design, which provides potential for reducing fuel emissions and overall operating cost in aeronautical equipment. Despite wide applicability, the implementation of SMA technology into aerospace-related actuator applications is hindered by harsh environmental conditions, which necessitate extremely high or low transformation temperatu… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Young, Avery W
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Processing-Structure-Property Relationships of Spark Plasma Sintered Boron Carbide and Titanium Diboride Ceramic Composites

Description: The aim of this study was to understand the processing – structure – property relationships in spark plasma sintered (SPS) boron carbide (B4C) and B4C-titanium diboride (TiB2) ceramic composites. SPS allowed for consolidation of both B4C and B4C-TiB2 composites without sintering additives, residual phases, e.g., graphite, and excessive grain growth due to long sintering times. A selection of composite compositions in 20% TiB2 feedstock powder increments from 0% to 100%, was sintered at 1900°C… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Rubink, William S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Preventing Thermal Degradation of Pvc Insulation by Mixtures of Cross-Linking Agents and Antioxidants

Description: Poly(vinyl chloride)(PVC) wire and cable insulation has poor thermal stability, causing the plasticizer to separate from the PVC chain and produce an oily residue, lowering the tensile elongation at break and thus increasing brittleness. We have added 4 wt.% of three different types of cross-linking agents and antioxidants, as well as mixtures of both, to improve the thermal stability of the plasticizer and tensile properties of PVC after thermal exposure. We performed tensile tests, tribologic… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Kim, Taehwan
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Investigation into the Semiconducting and Device Properties of MoTe2 and MoS2 Ultra-Thin 2D Materials

Description: The push for electronic devices on smaller and smaller scales has driven research in the direction of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) as new ultra-thin semiconducting materials. These ‘two-dimensional' (2D) materials are typically on the order of a few nanometers in thickness with a minimum all the way down to monolayer. These materials have several layer-dependent properties such as a transition to direct band gap at single-layer. In addition, their lack of dangling bonding and remarkab… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Sirota, Benjamin
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Recycling of PVC and XLPE for High Impact Resistance in Spool Development

Description: My work focuses on taking waste wire-grade PVC = poly(vinyl chloride) and waste XLPE = cross-linked polyethylene and recycle them into small wire/cable spool technology in order to reduce waste cost and reduce cost of spool production. The PVC and XLPE were provided by Encore Wire Corp. of McKinney, TX; they have also defined the standard to which I am comparing my results. The end goal is to incorporate as much PVC and XLPE into the spools while maintaining material toughness, impact resistanc… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Granowski, Gregory A
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Defining a Relationship between the Flexibility of Materials and Other Properties

Description: Brittleness of a polymeric material has a direct relationship with the material's performance and furthermore shares an inverse relationship with that material's flexibility. The concept of flexibility of materials has been understood but merely explained with a hand-waving manner. Thus, it has never been defined by a calculation, thereby lacking the ability to determine a definite quantitative value for this characteristic. Herein, an equation is presented and proven which makes determining th… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Osmanson, Allison Theresa
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Room and Elevated Temperature Sliding Wear Behavior of Cold Sprayed Ni-WC Composite Coatings

Description: The tribological properties of cold sprayed Ni-WC metal matrix composite (MMC) coatings were investigated under dry sliding conditions from room temperature (RT) up to 400°C, and during thermal cycling to explore their temperature adaptive friction and wear behavior. Characterization of worn surfaces was conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and Raman spectroscopy to determine the chemical and microstructural evolution during friction testing.… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Torgerson, Tyler B.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Ultrasonic Processing of Aluminum 2139 and 7050

Description: Acoustics is the study of all sound waves, with ultrasound classified as those frequencies above 20,000 Hz. Currently, ultrasound is being used in many industries for a variety of purposes such as ultrasonic imaging, ultrasonic assisted friction stir welding, and ultrasonic spot welding. Despite these uses, the effects of ultrasound on phase stability and resultant mechanical properties has been minimally analyzed. Here we study the impact waves play in ultrasonic welding and design an appar… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Reed, Jordan Derek
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Structures and Properties of Aluminosilicate and Borosilicate Glasses

Description: Silicate glasses are the most common glass types and have impact on almost every aspect in our lives: from window, containers, to glass fibers for telecommunications. Unlike their crystalline counterparts, glass materials lack long-range order in their atomic arrangement but their structures do possess short and medium range characteristics that play critical roles in their physical and chemical properties. Despite active development of characterization techniques that have contributed to the u… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Ren, Mengguo
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Friction Stir Welding of Dissimilar Metals

Description: Dissimilar metals joining have been used in many industry fields for various applications due to their technique and beneficial advantages, such as aluminum-steel and magnesium-steel joints for reducing automobile weight, aluminum-copper joint for reducing material cost in electrical components, steel-copper joints for usage in nuclear power plant, etc. The challenges in achieving dissimilar joints are as below. (1) Big difference in physical properties such as melting point and coefficient of … more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Wang, Tianhao
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Effects of Transition Metal Oxide and Mixed-Network Formers on Structure and Properties of Borosilicate Glasses

Description: First, the effect of transition metal oxide (e.g., V2O5, Co2O3, etc.) on the physical properties (e.g., density, glass transition temperature (Tg), optical properties and mechanical properties) and chemical durability of a simplified borosilicate nuclear waste glass was investigated. Adding V2O5 in borosilicate nuclear waste glasses decreases the Tg, while increasing the fracture toughness and chemical durability, which benefit the future formulation of nuclear waste glasses. Second, structural… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Lu, Xiaonan
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Process Improvement of Surface Preparation of Structuraly Bonded Helicopter Detail Parts

Description: The objective of this study was to increase the bond strength at the surface interface of a thin stainless-steel panel for structural bonding on a helicopter. To achieve this objective, six activation methods for applying the coating to the panel in the surface preparation process are presented and explored. Adhesion and roughness tests were conducted to determine which method consistently initiates the etch and improves the bond at the surface. Based on the test results, three methods proved t… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Tafoya, Keirsten Breann
Partner: UNT Libraries
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