Search for spontaneous fission emitters in Atlantis II (Part I)

No evidence for spontaneous fission decay (and the implied presence of superheavy nuclides) has been found in a several kilogram precipitate gathered at the Atlantis-II site in the Red Sea. The sample was investigated with a neutron multiplicity counternon-destructively so that no chemical losses should have been sustained. Upper limits have been determined for possible superheavy element concentrations in the sample.     

Anisotropic hardening and non-associated flow in proportional loading of sheet metals

Conventional isotropic hardening models constrain the shape of the yield function to remain fixed throughout plastic deformation. However, experiments show that hardening is only approximately isotropic under conditions of proportional loading, giving rise to systematic errors in calculation of stresses based on models that impose the constraint. Five different material data for aluminum and stainless steel alloys are used to calibrate and evaluate five material models, ranging in complexity from a von Mises’ model based on isotropic hardening to a non- associated flow rule (AFR) model based on anisotropic hardening. A new model is described in which four stress–strain functions are explicitly integrated into the yield criterion in closed form definition of the yield condition. The model is based on a non-AFR so that this integration does not affect the accuracy of the plastic strain components defined by the gradient of a separate plastic potential function. The model not only enables the elimination of systematic errors for loading along the four loading conditions, but also leads to a significant reduction of systematic errors in other loading conditions to no higher than 1.5% of the magnitude of the predicted stresses, far less that errors obtained under isotropic hardening, and at a level comparable to experimental uncertainty in the stress measurement. The model is expected to lead to a significant improvement in stress prediction under conditions dominated by proportional loading, and this is expected to directly improve the accuracy of springback, tearing, and earing predictions for these processes. In addition, it is shown that there is no consequence on MK necking localization due to the saturation of the yield surface in pure shear that occurs with the aluminum alloys using the present model.     

Evolution of subsequent yield surfaces and elastic constants with finite plastic deformation. Part-I: A very low work hardening aluminum alloy (Al6061-T6511)

In the present study, the initial and subsequent yield surfaces in Al 6061-T6511, based on 10 με deviation from linearity definition of yield, are presented. The subsequent yield surfaces are determined during tension, free end torsion, and combined tension–torsion proportional loading paths after reaching different levels of strains. The yield surfaces are also obtained after linear, bi-linear and non-linear unloading paths after finite plastic deformation. The initial yield surface is very close to the von-Mises yield surface and the subsequent yield surfaces undergo translation and distortion. In the case of this low work hardening material, the size of the yield surfaces is smaller and negative cross-effect is observed with finite plastic deformation. The subsequent yield have a usual “nose” in the loading direction and flattened shape in the reverse loading direction; the observed nose is more dominant in the case of tension and combined tension–torsion loading than in torsional loading. The size of the yield surfaces after unloading is smaller than the initial yield surface but larger than subsequent yield surfaces obtained during prior loading, show much smaller cross-effect, and the shape of these yield surfaces depends strongly on the loading and unloading paths. Elastic constants (Young’s and shear moduli) are also measured within each subsequent yield surfaces. Evolution of these constants with finite deformation is also presented. The decrease of the two moduli is found to be much smaller than reported earlier in tension by Cleveland and Ghosh [Cleveland, R.M., Ghosh, A.K., 2002. Inelastic effects on springback in metals. Int. J. Plast. 18, 769–785]. Part-II and III [(Khan et al., 2009a) and (Khan et al., 2009b)] of the papers will include experimental results on annealed 1100 Al (a very high work hardening material) and on both Al alloys (Al6061-T6511 and annealed 1100 Al) in tension- tension stress space, respectively. The results for both cases are quite different than the ones that are presented in this paper.