Effects of moisture absorption and surface modification using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane on the tensile and fracture characteristics of MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites

In this study, we examined the tensile and fracture behaviors of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) reinforced epoxy nanocomposites with and without moisture absorption. The MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites were fabricated using 0.1 wt.% unmodified, oxidized, and silanized MWCNTs and were kept in seawater for over 15 weeks. Silane-modified specimens demonstrated greater tensile strength, elastic modulus, and transmittance than unmodified or acid-modified specimens, irrespective of moisture absorption. Compared to dry nanocomposites, moisture absorption decreased the tensile strength and elastic modulus for each surface modification. Fracture behavior showed similar tendencies as tensile test results. However, the fracture toughnesses of oxidized and silanized MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites were not notably different, whereas unmodified specimens had much lower fracture toughnesses, irrespective of moisture absorption. Moisture absorption may have caused degradation resulting in weak interfacial bonding due to epoxy swelling.     

Molecular dynamics study of the shear strength and fracture behavior of nanoporous graphene membranes

We perform molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the structural response and fracture characteristics of nanoporous graphene (NPG) membranes subjected to shear loading. The effects of porosity, temperature, and shear velocity on the mechanical responses of NPG membranes are examined. The results show that the wrinkling of the membrane becomes more obvious with increasing strain. Fractures occur around holes on the long diagonal of the NPG parallelogram, and fracture stress in the NPG membrane decreases with increasing porosity. In addition, the effect of shear velocity on the shear modulus decreases with increasing porosity. The fracture strain of NPG membranes with different porosities obviously decreases with increasing temperature. The results enhance our understanding of the shear mechanical properties of NPG membranes and are helpful for the design and application of high-performance NPG membranes.     

Study on the surface properties of wood/polyethylene composites treated under plasma

Wood/polyethylene (PE) composites are widely used in many fields for its excellent properties, but they are hard to adhere for the surface lacking of polarity. So low-pressure glow discharge of air plasma was used to improve the adhesion properties of wood/PE composites. The composites were treated by plasma under different discharge power. And the changes on the surface properties of the treated and untreated composites were studied by contact angle, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The measurement showed that the contact angle decreased after plasma treatment, and the contact angle decreased gradually with the increasing of discharge power. The FTIR analysis results showed that the polar groups such as hydroxyl, carbonyl and carboxyl were formed on the surface of the composites treated under plasma. SEM and AFM results showed that the roughness of plasma treated samples increased. XPS analysis results indicated that the content of carbon element decreased while the content of oxygen element in the composition of wood/PE composites surface element increased and it reached a balance in a higher power, meanwhile a lot of carboxyl groups were formed. The newly formed polar groups are benefit for the adhesion of composites. The shear bonding strength test showed that the adhesion properties of wood/PE composites improved effectively after plasma treatment.     

Microstructure and shear fracture characteristics of porous anodic TiO2 layer before and after hot water treatment

Porous TiO₂ layer was fabricated on the surface of commercially pure titanium using an anodic spark oxidation technique for biomedical application, and subsequent hot water treatment was performed to modify the resultant oxide layer. The microstructure features and shear fracture characteristics of anodic oxide layer before and after water treatment were investigated. Results show that before water treatment, the oxide layer exhibited a porous surface with few nanometer features and consisted of poorly crystallized oxides, and an inner layer containing numerous cavities was observed near the oxide-substrate interface. After water treatment, the crystallinity degree of oxide layer was increased significantly and a nanostructured surface layer was obtained. The shear fracture characteristics of oxide layer were greatly influenced by its microstructure features. Before water treatment, the shear fracture took place primarily within the cavity-containing layer, resulting in a pitted fracture surface on the substrate side. However, after water treatment, the shear fracture occurred mainly along the bottom surface of nanostructured surface layer and the shear strength of oxide layer decreased obviously.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of gas diffusion behavior in polyethylene terephthalate/aluminium/polyethylene interface

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to estimate the diffusion coefficients of O₂ and H₂O molecules in polyethylene terephthalate/aluminum/polyethylene interface at the temperature of 298 K. It came out that the diffusion coefficient of gasses in the interface is smaller than that of a single polymer, and the diffusion coefficients compare well with experimental data as well as previously published work. Furthermore, the diffusion coefficients of H₂O molecules in the interface are preferable to that of O₂ molecules. Interestingly, the largest diffusion coefficient was detected in the polyethylene terephthalate/aluminum(1 0 0)/polyethylene interface, while the smallest value of the diffusion coefficients was found in the polyethylene terephthalate/aluminum(1 1 1)/polyethylene interface. Calculation and analysis of the interaction between aluminum and polymers indicated that the interaction of polymer/aluminum(1 1 0) has the most interface strength, and crystal density of the metal surface has a definite effect on the planar interface energy. What’s more, the figure of gas molecule concentration is further resulted that the interface make contribution to adsorption of gas molecules. Moreover, the diffusion is belonging to the Einstein diffusion in the multilayer materials, and this work provides some key clues to improve the performance of polymer materials.     

Multifractal analysis of the fracture surfaces of foamed polypropylene/polyethylene blends

The two-dimensional multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis is applied to reveal the multifractal properties of the fracture surfaces of foamed polypropylene/polyethylene (PP/PE) blends at different temperatures. Nice power-law scaling relationship between the detrended fluctuation function F_q and the scale s is observed for different orders q and the scaling exponent h(q) is found to be a nonlinear function of q, confirming the presence of multifractality in the fracture surfaces. The multifractal spectra f(α) are obtained numerically through Legendre transform. The shape of the multifractal spectrum of singularities can be well captured by the width of spectrum and the difference of dimension . With the increase of the PE content, the fracture surface becomes more irregular and complex, as is manifested by the facts that increases and decreases from positive to negative. A qualitative interpretation is provided based on the foaming process.     

Non-free gas of dipoles of non-singular screw dislocations and the shear modulus near the melting

The behavior of the shear modulus caused by proliferation of dipoles of non-singular screw dislocations with finite-sized core is considered. The representation of two-dimensional Coulomb gas with smoothed-out coupling is used, and the stress–stress correlation function is calculated. A convolution integral expressed in terms of the modified Bessel function K₀$K_0$ is derived in order to obtain the shear modulus in approximation of interacting dipoles. Implications are demonstrated for the shear modulus near the melting transition which are due to the singularityless character of the dislocations.     

聚变堆超导磁体用SS316LN铠甲低温断裂性能研究

对聚变堆中心螺管(CS)线圈中，铠装电缆导体(CICC)中的SS316LN 不锈钢铠甲在运行状态下的断裂性能进行了测试分析。结果显示SS316LN 疲劳裂纹扩展性能较稳定，断裂韧性在经历冷变形与时效热处理后出现了大幅度衰减。此结果为未来核聚变堆超导线圈的设计与性能分析提供了数据参考。     

Effect of vacuum heat treatment on tensile strength and fracture performance of cold-sprayed Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings

The previous study [1] indicated that dense thick Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings could be formed by cold spraying, and the post-spray heat treatment could significantly influence the microstructure and microhardness of the as-sprayed Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings. In this study, the tensile strength and fracture performance of the Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings after annealing were investigated. The vacuum heat treatment was conducted under 10⁻² Pa at 850 °C for 4 h. Results showed that the heat treatment had a great contribution to the healing-up of the incompleteness of the interfaces between the deposited particles. In addition, the coating microhardness decreased from 156.8 ± 4.6 Hv_0.2 for the as-sprayed coatings to 101.7 ± 4.5 Hv_0.2 for the annealed ones. The mean tensile strength of the annealed coatings was approximately 294.1 ± 36.1 MPa compared to that of 45.0 ± 10.5 MPa for the as-sprayed ones, which results from the partially metallurgically bonded zones between the deposited particles inducing by the heat treatment process.     

等离子体处理的聚丙烯和聚乙烯的粘合体

采用射频辉光放电等离子体和介质阻挡放电等离子体对聚丙烯（PP）和聚乙烯（PE）进行处理后,使用聚氨酯进行粘接,并测试了混合粘合体的剪切强度。介质阻挡放电功率是100 W时,等离子体处理对混合粘合体的剪切强度无影响。介质阻挡放电的功率为200 W、处理时间20 s时,等离子体处理效果最佳,剪切强度为1.58 MPa,是未处理的混合粘合体的14.36倍。介质阻挡放电的功率是300 W时,样品在10 s内就被击穿。射频辉光放电等离子体中,使用空气处理后最大剪切强度为1.60 MPa（100 W,3 min）,使用氮气处理后的最大剪切强度为1.57 MPa（200 W,3 min）。通过扫描电镜（SEM）对等离子体处理前后的PP表面形貌观察,发现未处理样品的表面比较平滑,而经等离子体放电处理后的样品表面变得疏松,出现了大量泡状物质,表面粗糙程度提高。     

Influences of interfacial adhesion on gas barrier property of functionalized graphene oxide/ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene composites with segregated structure

The segregated graphene oxide(GO)/ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composite films with various interfacial adhesion property were prepared by mechanical blending method from UHMWPE, GO, dodecyl amine (DA) functionalized graphene oxide(DA–GO) or uniform DA–GO/high density polyethylene (DA–GO/HDPE) powder. The results of XRD and XPS indicated that DA chain was successfully grafted onto GO sheets via a chemical method, which enhanced the interfacial adhesion between UHMWPE particles and GO sheets. The characterizations of POM and SEM proved that good segregated structure was only obtained in DA–GO/UHMWPE or DA–GO/HDPE/UHMWPE composite. Strong interfacial adhesion between fillers and matrix exhibits positive effect on gas barrier property. Compared to the GO/UHMWPE composite film, dramatic decrease in O₂ permeability coefficient by 42.2 and 48.1%, from 15.4 × 10^?14 to 8.9 × 10^?14 and 8.0 × 10^?14 cm³ cm cm^?2 s^?1 Pa^?1, is achieved upon the addition of only 0.5 wt% fillers, respectively. The DSC results demonstrated that the enhanced gas barrier performance was ascribed to the strong interfacial adhesion between DA–GO/HDPE and UHWMPE matrix, rather than the crystallinity of UHWMPE matrix. Additionally, the decrease in UHMWPE particle size might be conducive to improving the gas barrier property of composite films due to the formation of more isolation layers perpendicular to the film plane.     

等离子体处理的聚丙烯和聚乙烯的粘合体

采用射频辉光放电等离子体和介质阻挡放电等离子体对聚丙烯（PP）和聚乙烯（PE）进行处理后,使用聚氨酯进行粘接,并测试了混合粘合体的剪切强度。介质阻挡放电功率是100 W时,等离子体处理对混合粘合体的剪切强度无影响。介质阻挡放电的功率为200 W、处理时间20 s时,等离子体处理效果最佳,剪切强度为1.58 MPa,是未处理的混合粘合体的14.36倍。介质阻挡放电的功率是300 W时,样品在10 s内就被击穿。射频辉光放电等离子体中,使用空气处理后最大剪切强度为1.60 MPa（100 W,3 min）,使用氮气处理后的最大剪切强度为1.57 MPa（200 W,3 min）。通过扫描电镜（SEM）对等离子体处理前后的PP表面形貌观察,发现未处理样品的表面比较平滑,而经等离子体放电处理后的样品表面变得疏松,出现了大量泡状物质,表面粗糙程度提高。     

Small-scale fracture toughness of ceramic thin films: the effects of specimen geometry,ion beam notching and high temperature on chromium nitride toughness evaluation

For the implementation of thin ceramic hard coatings into intensive application environments, the fracture toughness is a particularly important material design parameter. Characterisation of the fracture toughness of small-scale specimens has been a topic of great debate, due to size effects, plasticity, residual stress effects and the influence of ion penetration from the sample fabrication process. In this work, several different small-scale fracture toughness geometries (single-beam cantilever, double-beam cantilever and micro-pillar splitting) were compared, fabricated from a thin physical vapour-deposited ceramic film using a focused ion beam source, and then the effect of the gallium-milled notch on mode I toughness quantification investigated. It was found that notching using a focused gallium source influences small-scale toughness measurements and can lead to an overestimation of the fracture toughness values for chromium nitride (CrN) thin films. The effects of gallium ion irradiation were further studied by performing the first small-scale high-temperature toughness measurements within the scanning electron microscope, with the consequence that annealing at high temperatures allows for diffusion of the gallium to grain boundaries promoting embrittlement in small-scale CrN samples. This work highlights the sensitivity of some materials to gallium ion penetration effects, and the profound effect that it can have on fracture toughness evaluation.     

A nondestructive method for estimation of the fracture toughness of CrMoV rotor steels based on ultrasonic nonlinearity

The objective of this paper is to develop a nondestructive method for estimating the fracture toughness (K(IC)) of CrMoV steels used as the rotor material of steam turbines in power plants. To achieve this objective, a number of CrMoV steel samples were heat-treated, and the fracture appearance transition temperature (FATT) was determined as a function of aging time. Nonlinear ultrasonics was employed as the theoretical basis to explain the harmonic generation in a damaged material, and the nonlinearity parameter of the second harmonic wave was the experimental measure used to be correlated to the fracture toughness of the rotor steel. The nondestructive procedure for estimating the K(IC) consists of two steps. First, the correlations between the nonlinearity parameter and the FATT are sought. The FATT values are then used to estimate K(IC) using the K(IC) versus excess temperature (i.e., T-FATT) correlation that is available in the literature for CrMoV rotor steel.     

Effect on the reduction of the barrier height in rear-emitter silicon heterojunction solar cells using Ar plasma-treated ITO film

In this study, we investigated the effect of plasma treatment on an indium tin oxide (ITO) film under an ambient Ar atmosphere. The sheet resistance of the plasma-treated ITO film at 250 W (37.6 Ω/sq) was higher than that of the as-deposited ITO film (34 Ω/sq). Plasma treatment was found to decrease the ITO grain size to 21.81 nm, in comparison with the as-deposited ITO (25.49 nm), which resulted in a decrease in the Hall mobility. The work function of the Ar-plasma-treated ITO (WF_ITO=4.17 eV) was lower than that of the as-deposited ITO film (WF_ITO = 5.13 eV). This lower work function was attributed to vacancies that formed in the indium and oxygen vacancies in the bonding structure. Rear-emitter silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells fabricated using the plasma-treated ITO film exhibited an open circuit voltage (V_OC) of 734 mV, compared to SHJ cells fabricated using the as-deposited ITO film, which showed a V_OC of 704 mV. The increase in V_OC could be explained by the decrease in the work function, which is related to the reduction in the barrier height between the ITO and a-Si:H (n) of the rear-emitter SHJ solar cells. Furthermore, the performance of the plasma-treated ITO film was verified, with the front surface field layers, using an AFORS-HET simulation. The current density (J_SC) and V_OC increased to 39.44 mA/cm² and 736.8 mV, respectively, while maintaining a WF_ITO of 3.8 eV. Meanwhile, the efficiency was 22.9% at V_OC = 721.5 mV and J_SC = 38.55 mA/cm² for WF_ITO = 4.4 eV. However, an overall enhancement of 23.75% in the cell efficiency was achieved owing to the low work function value of the ITO film. Ar plasma treatment can be used in transparent conducting oxide applications to improve cell efficiency by controlling the barrier height.     

Ultrasonic-accelerated metallurgical reaction of Sn/Ni composite solder: Principle,kinetics, microstructure,and joint properties

The high-melting-point joints by transient-liquid-phase are increasingly playing a crucial role in the die bonding for the high temperature electronic components. In this study, three kinds of Sn/Ni composite solder pastes composed of different sizes of Ni particles were synthesized to accelerate metallurgical reaction among Sn/Ni interfaces under the ultrasonic-assisted transient liquid phase (U-TLP) soldering. The temperature evolution, microstructure and mechanical property in joints composed by these composite solder pastes with or without ultrasonic energy were systemically investigated. The intermetallic joint consisted of high-melting-point sole Ni₃Sn₄ intermetallic compound with a little residual Ni was obtained under the conditions of no pressure and lower power (200 W) in a high-temperature duration of only 10 s, its shear strength was up to 45.3 MPa. Ultrasonic effects significantly accelerated the reaction among the interfaces of liquid Sn and solid Ni, which attributed to the temperature rise caused by acoustic cavitation because of large number of liquid/solid interfaces during U-TLP, resulting in accelerated solid/liquid interfacial diffusion and growth of intermetallic compounds. This intermetallic joint formed by U-TLP soldering has a promising potential for applications in high-power device packaging.     

Measurements of Young’s and shear moduli of rail steel at elevated temperatures

The design and modelling of the buckling effect of Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) requires accurate material constants, especially at elevated temperatures. However, such material constants have rarely been found in literature. In this article, the Young’s moduli and shear moduli of rail steel at elevated temperatures are determined by a new sonic resonance method developed in our group. A network analyser is used to excite a sample hanged inside a furnace through a simple tweeter type speaker. The vibration signal is picked up by a Polytec OFV-5000 Laser Vibrometer and then transferred back to the network analyser. Resonance frequencies in both the flexural and torsional modes are measured, and the Young’s moduli and shear moduli are determined through the measured resonant frequencies. To validate the measured elastic constants, the measurements have been repeated by using the classic sonic resonance method. The comparisons of obtained moduli from the two methods show an excellent consistency of the results. In addition, the material elastic constants measured are validated by an ultrasound test based on a pulse-echo method and compared with previous published results at room temperature. The measured material data provides an invaluable reference for the design of CWR to avoid detrimental buckling failure.     

氧等离子体处理对纳米二氧化硅溶胶涂覆高强、高模聚乙烯纤维拉伸性能的影响

基于艾琳方程,提出用于定量分析纤维表面和纳米涂覆层间的纳米界面结构的理论模型.实验结果表明,纤维高分子链段受力塑性变形时,纳米界面结构内纳米微粒阻碍其形貌变化产生热激活体积,该热激活体积是纳米界面结构性能的重要表征;氧等离子体处理对纳米二氧化硅溶胶涂覆高强、高模聚乙烯纤维有增韧作用.由不同处理样品的扫描电子显微镜图片和傅里叶变换红外光谱曲线对比分析可知,经氧等离子体处理纳米二氧化硅溶胶涂覆高强、高模聚乙烯纤维的纳米涂覆层纳米颗粒分布均匀,纳米颗粒还填补纤维表面微观缺陷,活性官能团被引入到纤维表面. 关键词： 激活体积 氧等离子体 高强、高模聚乙烯纤维 纳米界面结构     

Influence of thermomechanical processing on shear bands formation and magnetic properties of a 3% Si non-oriented electrical steel

The effect of thermomechanical processing on the formation of shear bands and on the magnetic properties of a 3.0 wt% silicon non-oriented steel was investigated by hot rolling samples with different thicknesses at different temperatures, in order to obtain a variation in hot band grain size and cold strain. All the samples were processed in a single-stage cold rolling and finally annealed at 1020 °C. It was found that the increase of the hot band grain size decreases the γ fiber volume fraction and increases the η fiber volume fraction after the final annealing. The increase of the cold strain strongly contributed to this result. A good combination of intense generation of shear bands, and proper crystallographic texture, due to higher nucleation of grains with favorable orientations to magnetization in these bands, can be obtained for the samples hot rolled at 1000 and 1120 °C and submitted to cold strain of 64.3% and 72.2% respectively. However the best combination of B₅₀, W_15/60 and μ_r can be obtained by hot rolling the samples at 1000 °C to the thickness of 1.4 mm, corresponding to 64.3% of cold strain.     

Evaluation of the tool life and fracture toughness of cutting tools boronized by the paste boriding process

The present study evaluates the tool life and the fracture toughness of AISI M2 steel cutting tools boronized by the paste boriding process. The treatment was done in selective form on the tool tips of the steels. The temperatures were set at 1173 and 1273 K with 4 h of exposure time and modifying the boron carbide paste thicknesses in 3 and 4 mm. Microindentation fracture toughness method was used on the borided tool at the temperature of 1273 K and a 4 mm paste thickness, with a 100 g load at different distances from the surface. Also, the borided cutting tools were worn by the turning process that implied the machining of AISI 1018 steel increasing the nominal cutting speed, of 55 m/min, in 10 and 25% and maintaining the feed and the depth cut constants. The tool life was evaluated by the Taylor's equation that shows the dependence of the experimental parameters of the boriding process.