Titanium and its alloys have significant uses in the biomedical, chemical, and aerospace industries. In this article, the current and gas flow rates were varied using Taguchi’s experiment design. The mechanical properties of the welded joint made using tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding and Ti6Al4V ELI as filler metal was characterized using the microstructure, microhardness, and tensile strength. The joint was classified into three regions, namely, fusion zone (FZ), heat affected zone (HAZ), and base metal (BM). Results show martensitic microstructure within the fusion zone (FZ) and the heat affected zone (HAZ), which resulted in an increased hardness within the fusion and heat affected zone.

This work deals with the characterization of structure, magnetic and mechanical properties of (FeNiCo)100-x(AlSi)x (x = 0, 5, 10, 15, 25) multicomponent alloys prepared by casting. The results of X-ray diffraction measurements, scanning electron microscopy observations and hardness and magnetic properties investigations are presented. The studies show that cast (FeNiCo)100-x(AlSi)x alloys reveal dendritic morphology and their phase composition depends on (Al + Si) content. For x ≤ 10 a face-centered cubic phase is observed, while the increase of Al and Si content results in a body-centered cubic phase formation. It leads to a fivefold increase of hardness from 88 HV to 526 HV. The investigated alloys have high magnetic induction reaching 170 emu/g, while their coercivity value is even up to 2.9 kA/m for x = 15, and strongly depends on chemical and phase composition.

In this research, AA7068/Si3N4 composites were fabricated through stir casting with the attachment of ultrasonic treatment. The quenching medium and aging duration significantly influenced the hardness of Al alloy samples. Peak hardness was achieved after 12 h of artificial aging at the temperature of 140°C. The addition of nano Si3N4 significantly refined the microstructure of unreinforced AA7068. The dispersion of intermetallic compounds (MgZn2) and grain boundary discontinuation were noticed after the T-6 heat treatment. Ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and hardness were improved by 70.95%, 76.19%, and 44.33%, respectively, with the addition of 1.5 weight % Si3N4 compared to as-cast alloy due to the combined effect of heat treatment, hall-Petch, Orowan, thermal miss match, load-bearing strengthening mechanisms and uniform dispersion of reinforcement. A reduction in percentage elongation was noticed due to composites’ brittle nature by the effect of ceramic Si3N4 particles’ inclusion. The fracture surfaces reveal ductile failure for alloy and mixed-mode failure in the case of composites.

In this research, Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) reinforced epoxy nano composites were fabricated via magnetic stirrer and ultra sonification assisted hand layup method. The impact of different weight percentage of GNP (0, 0.25, 0.50, and 1.0%) on different characteristics of nano composites was evaluated. The microstructure analysis of developed nano composite was determined by Field emission scanning electron microscopy. It was examined that epoxy nano composites containing 0.5 wt.% GNP have the highest tensile, flexural, and impact strength compared to neat epoxy. The reduction in tensile and flexural strength is achieved at 1% of GNP. Adding more nanofiller to a certain limit causes non-uniform dispersion and agglomeration of nanoparticles, which results in a reduction in properties. The 1% GNP reinforced nano composite has the highest value of shore hardness.

In this paper the investigation of the FSW result characteristics on AA7075-T6 of the highest grade is carried out using different process parameters. A vertical milling machine with different FSW tool geometry is used to weld AA7075. When the tool rotational speed varies from 1200 and 1800 (rpm), different welding parameters are studied, the plunge depth of tool is between 0.14 and 0.20 mm, the table transverse speed range is between 20 and 50 (mm/min) and the tool shoulder diameter was 20 mm. The welding settings are optimized using the Taguchi approach. In this experimental investigation Taguchi Technique is utilized in this study to optimize three factorial and three level designs. The results show that when the rotating speed increases, the UTS of the welded joint increases, whereas the tensile strength of the welded joint decreases resulting to frictional heat created during the FSW process. Tensile strength decreases as feed increases and increases as rotational speed increases. For a 5 mm thick plate, tensile strength is optimal with a tool shoulder diameter of 20 mm, a rotational speed of 1600 rpm, feed rate of 30 mm/min and plunge depth. The shoulder diameter of 20 mm provides the maximum ultimate tensile strength when it is compared with all other tool shoulder diameter. The Al alloy AA7075-T6 plates, however, concurrently developed an equiaxial grain structure with a substantially smaller grain size and coarsened the precipitates.

Self-hardening aluminium alloys represent a new and interesting group of aluminium alloys. They have the advantage that they do not need to be heat treated, which is an important advantage that contributes to a significant reduction in production costs of some components and in the amount of energy used. The present paper deals with the possibility to replace the most used heat treatable AlSi7Mg0.3 cast alloys with a self-hardened AlZn10Si8Mg cast alloy. In this study, microstructural characterization of tensile and fatigue-tested samples has been performed to reveal if this replacement is possible. The results of fatigue tests show that AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy after T6 heat treatment and self-hardened AlZn10Si8Mg has comparable values of fatigue properties. The self-hardening alloy has slightly lower strength, ductility, and hardness.

Automotive industry is constantly interested in building cars made of light and high strength parts in order to reduce the emission levels, the fuel consumption and minimize the effects of a car crash. Some parts may be made of lighter materials, but the steel ones must compensate the strength needed for the car body. Research is made for finding new materials showing high strength combined with high ductility. Among them, transformation – induced – plasticity steels are of great interest, efforts being made to improve their characteristics. A new composition of such a steel is presented, its features being compared with those of three other steels of the same class and category. Optical microscopy at different magnifications is performed, together with Vickers hardness test. Structural particularities are found for each tested steel, justified by their own chemical compositions. The new steel reveals important characteristics: besides the mainly bainitic structure, it has both larger ferritic areas and amounts of retained austenite, making him proper for further study.

This study examines the optimal parameters for obtaining fluorine-doped SnO ₂ (FTO) films with promising potential for photovoltaic applications. Due to its properties, tin oxide is used in a wide range of technologies, among which the manufacture of solar cells is one of the most important. Being doped with fluorine, tin dioxide becomes a good transparent and conductive electrode, suitable for solar cell applications. The chemical stability and low cost of the doped SnO ₂ makes it an advantageous alternative to tin-doped indium oxide (ITO). Among the most important characteristics of FTO thin films are high photoconductivity under sunlight irradiation and strong UV absorption. The SnO ₂ compound, doped with fluorine, exhibits a considerable chemical and physical stability, good electrical conductivity and high transmission (over 85%) in the visible range. The spray pyrolysis technique is the most preferable and efficient deposition method of fluorine-doped SnO2 thin films. This work aims to identify the optimal parameters for the spray pyrolysis of SnO ₂:F films and to analyze the morphology, transparency and strength of as obtained films in relation to the doping amount in the precursor solution, spraying distance and film thickness.

Since fatigue cracks nucleate and initiate generally at the surface of the rotary components such as blades and discs, the surface condition is the most important factor affecting the fatigue life. Surface scratches are suitable sites for stress concentrations and therefore the nucleation stage of fatigue cracks will be shortened. In the present work, the influence of surface roughness on the low cycle fatigue life behavior of nickel-based superalloy Rene®80 at the temperature of 900°C was evaluated. Results of low cycle fatigue tests (LCF) under strain-controlled condition at 900°C for R = _εmin/εmax = 0 and strain rate of 2×10 ^–3 s ^–1, at a total strain range of 1.2% showed an inverse relationship between fatigue strength and surface roughness of the specimens. In this study, increasing the surface roughness of Rene®80 from 0.2 μm to 5.4 μm led to the decline in the final LCF life from 127 cycles to 53 cycles which indicated a 58.3% reduction in fatigue life at the same condition. Fractography evaluation also exhibited that fatigue cracks initiated from the notch in the rough specimens, whereas in the smooth specimen fatigue cracks nucleated from the internal imperfections and carbides.

In this study, Al 2024-T3 alloy plates were joined by using friction stir welding. Welding was performed at a rotational speed of 930, 1450, 2280 rpm and a welding feed rate of 180 mm min ⁻¹. The welded samples were analyzed at the microstructural level. Moreover, both bending fatigue tests and tensile tests were performed on samples. At the end of the microstructural examination of the samples welded at the rotational speed of 930 rpm and the welding feed rate of 180 mm min ⁻¹, the formation of tunnel defects was observed. The highest fatigue life was obtained at 2280 rpm and 180 mm min ⁻¹. The lowest fatigue life was obtained at 930 rpm and 180 mm min ⁻¹. The highest ultimate tensile stress was obtained at 2280 rpm/180 mm min ^–1 sample, which shows about a 12% reduction relative to the base material. The lowest ultimate tensile stress was obtained at 930 rpm/180 mm min ^–1 sample. The ultimate tensile stress value of the 930 rpm/180 mm min ^–1 sample decreased by approximately 25%.

Pipeline welding is an integral part of oil and gas exploration industries. Often the welded joint failures were due to lack of weld quality, improper heat treatment and even poor workmanship. Further, the use of new material in pipeline industry puts focus on a better understanding of qualifying requirements of welding for reducing the failures in future. This necessitates the need for development and design of suitable welding fluxes for joining these materials. In this paper an attempt is made to study the effects of submerged arc welding fluxes on weldability as well as structural integrity issues in pipeline steels. Physicochemical and thermophysical properties of submerged arc fluxes widely affects the mechanical behaviour of pipeline steels. This paper presents an overview of the role of welding parameters, flux composition, cooling rate, slag behaviour and physicochemical properties of slag on final welded joint properties such as tensile strength, impact toughness etc. during submerged arc welding.

In-situ study of deformation behaviour and mechanisms occurring during early stages of deformation is of a great practical importance. Low stacking fault energy materials, as is the case of AISI 304L, show non-linear deformation characteristics way below the bulk yield point. Shockley partial dislocations, formation of stacking faults respectively, resulting in creation of shear bands and ε-martensite transformation are the mechanisms occurring in the low strains in the studied steel. Acoustic emission and infrared thermography have been used in this study to investigate the deformation kinetics at the low strain stages of slow strain rate tensile tests. Acoustic emission cumulative energy together with the tracking of specimen maximum temperature have been found to be very useful in-situ techniques both supplementing each other in the sense of the sensitivity to different mechanisms. Mechanical, acoustic emission and infrared thermography results are discussed in detail with respect to potential occurred mechanism.

Progress in the industry is accompanied by the development of new materials and more efficient technological production processes. At present, additive production is becoming very attractive in all industries (research, development, production), which brings a number of advantages compared to subtractive methods (customization, production speed, control of material properties by users, etc.). The main advantage of 3D printing is the controlled deposition of material in defined places. Instead of demanding manual labour, fully automated production via computers leads to the manufacturing of complex components from materials whose production in conventional ways would be problematic or even impossible. Because these are new technologies, the main direction of research at present is to identify the basic physical properties of these materials under different types of loading.
The main goal of this article is to observe the dependence of the behaviour of the extruded material (thermoplastic reinforced with chopped carbon fibre) on the printing parameters (thickness of the lamina, the orientation of the fibres of the printed material, etc.). Based on published scientific works, it appears that these settings have a significant impact on the achieved physical properties. This is the reason why the authors decided to analyze the influence of these parameters on the basis of processed data from experimental measurements of mechanical properties in the MATLAB program. As this is FFF printing, an essential condition is to identify and specify the directional dependence of the behavior of the printed material. This physical phenomenon is a necessary condition for gradual knowledge for the purposes of a subsequent mathematical description of the material properties. According to the authors, for the purposes of modeling these materials in FEM-based programs, it is essential to define the directional dependence in the plane of the lamina.

A deep eutectic solvent, ethaline (as a typical representative of new-generation room temperature ionic liquids), was used to anodically treat the surface of copper-nickel alloy (55 wt.% Cu). Anodic treatment in ethaline allows flexibly affecting the patterns of surface morphology: formation of stellated crystallites and surface smoothing (i.e. electropolishing) are observed depending on the applied electrode potential. The measured values of roughness coefficient ( R_a ) well correlate with the changes in surface morphology. Anodic treatment of Cu-Ni alloy in ethaline contributes to a considerable increase in the electrocatalytic activity towards the hydrogen evolution reaction in an alkaline aqueous medium, which can be used to develop new high-efficient and inexpensive electrocatalysts within the framework of the concept of carbon-free hydrogen economy.

Tilted columnar dendritic morphologies are usually existed in wire and laser additive manufactured parts of GH3039 alloy. Overgrowth behaviors induced by the tilted dendritic arrays with a large tilted angle, and the effect of the angle between the growth direction and the direction vertical locally to the solid substrate on primary spacing, solute concentration and morphological evolution have been investigated at both the converging and the diverging grain boundaries through the phase-field simulation. The formation of cracking depends on solidification behaviors including columnar dendrites growth and micro-segregation in the interdendritic region. Furthermore, the effect of the tilted columnar dendrites on the susceptibility of crack is investigated during wire and laser additive manufacturing.

The present research investigates the nitriding kinetics of the near-beta-titanium alloy of Ti-Al-Nb-Fe-Zr-Mo-V system at 750, 800, and 850°C in gaseous nitrogen at 10 ⁵ Pa for 2, 4, and 8 h. The parabolic coefficient k_p of the layer’s growth rate and the nitriding activation energy E are set as the kinetic parameters of the nitrided layer’s growth. The activation energy for the formation of a nitride layer is ~108 kJ/mol. The authors discuss the morphology of the nitride layers as well as their roughness and surface hardness. The study determines the effective diffusion coefficient for the growth of diffusion layers in the temperature range of 750...850°C: D_ef = D₀ × exp (– E/RT), where D₀ = 0.0177 m ²/s; E = 215.7 kJ/mol. The friction coefficient of the disk from near-beta-titanium alloy with a bronze block is lowered by significantly more than 10 times after gas nitriding, and the temperature in the friction zone is reduced by 2.5 times.

Steel is basically used in construction, automobile, buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, appliances, machines and weapons due to its good mechanical as well as metallurgical properties. Heat treatment of steels significantly enhance its mechanical and metallurgical properties due to the formation of various phases depending upon the type of steel used for specific application. In present study, blank of EN353 grade steel having different sizes were used to investigate the effect of heat treatment and microstructural changes. JMat-Pro software was used to predict the continuous cooling transformation behaviour of EN353 steel. Different phases such as bainite, perlite and other carbide inclusion can be observed in the microstructural examination. Pearlitic microstructure developed for the specimen of size 40×40×40 mm heated at 870°C for 2 hrs and then isothermal heating was performed for same specimen at 600°C for 73 min followed by air cooling.
Relevance Statement: Steel is an important material which is frequently used in almost all areas such as structure building, pressure vessels, transportation and many more other applications. Addition of alloying elements in parent steel significantly improve the metallurgical as well as mechanical properties. Steel properties like tensile strength, toughness, ductility, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, hardness, hot hardness, weldability, fatigue etc. significantly improved with the addition of alloying and heat treatment. Heat treatment processes can be used to improve the properties of steel which are frequently used in many manufacturing industries. Different grades of steels which are heat treated under a set of sequence of heating and cooling to change their physical and mechanical properties so that it can fulfil its function under loading condition. With the help of heat treatment process desired microstructure has been achieved which exhibit good mechanical properties of steels.

Ni625/WC composite coatings added with different amounts of Y ₂O ₃were prepared on the surface of 304 stainless steels by laser cladding. This study focused on the microstructure characteristics, microhardness, and corrosion performances of Ni625/WC composite coatings. The results showed that Y ₂O ₃ can effectively improve the corrosion resistance of the composite coatings. The microstructure from the bottom to the surface of composite coatings consists of plane crystal, cellular crystal, columnar crystal and equiaxed crystal. The Y ₂O ₃content of optimum composite coating was 1.0%. Its microhardness was three times that of matrix material. In addition, the corrosion current density of the composite coating was only 2% of Ni625/WC coating, which was attributed to the good properties of Y ₂O ₃ and appropriate Y ₂O ₃ refined microstructure.

The article presents the results of the last stage of work on the impact of changes in the roll pass design on the state of residual stresses in railway rails. The discussed stage includes the summary of industrial experiments of rolling 60E1 rails with a length of 120 meters using a modified pass design of roll grooves. The rolling technology has been deeply modified, ranging from the finishing stand, through the pre-finishing stand, to the semi-finishing stand. The rails in this experiment were cooled using standard cooling technology and then straightened using innovative vertical straightener shaped rollers. Residual stresses were tested using the strain gauge method and the hole-drilling strain gauge method by drilling a hole in the rail axis and at a distance of 14 millimetres from its axis. The resulting tensile stresses in the rail foot were reduced to an average level of less than 43% in relation to the requirements of the EN13674-1 standard.

Present study describes about the effect of coolant water flow rate and coolant water temperature underside cooling slope on structural characteristics of casted AZ91 Mg alloy. Here, over the cooling slope, hot melt flows from top to bottom. Additionally, under the cooling slope, coolant water flows from bottom to top. Slurry gets obtained at bottom of cooling slope by pouring AZ91 Mg melt from top of the slope. Coolant water flow rate with coolant water temperature underside cooling slope warrant necessary solidification and shear to obtain AZ91 Mg slurry. Specifically, slurry at 5 different coolant water flow rates (4, 6, 8, 10, 12 lpm) and at 5 different coolant water temperatures (15, 20, 25, 30, 35°C) underside cooling slope are delivered inside metal mould. Modest coolant water flow rate of 8 lpm with coolant water temperature of 25°C (underside cooling slope) results fairly modest solidification that would enormously contribute towards enhanced structural characteristics. As, quite smaller/bigger coolant water flow rate/temperature underside cooling slope would reason shearing that causes inferior structural characteristics. Ultimately, favoured microstructure was realized at 8 lpm coolant water flow rate and 25°C coolant water temperature underside cooling slope with grain size, shape factor, primary α-phase fraction and grain density of 63 µm, 0.71, 0.68 and 198, respectively. Correspondingly, superior mechanical properties was realized at 8 lpm coolant water flow rate and 25°C coolant water temperature underside cooling slope with tensile strength, elongation, yield strength and hardness of 250 MPa, 8%, 192 MPa and 80 HV, respectively.

The coarse-grained heat-affected zone specimens of X80 pipeline steel were produced by welding thermal simulation under different heat inputs of 10, 30, and 55 kJ/cm to study the effects of heat input on microstructure evolution and corrosion characterization. The corrosion resistance of coarse-grained heat-affected zones was poorer than that of base metal due to less homogenous in the former. For 10 kJ/cm coarse-grained heat-affected zone, the corrosion resistance was poorer than the others due to the more adsorption hydrogen around the needle-like martensite/austenite constituents and greater galvanic driving force between the needle-like martensite/austenite constituents and ferrite. In carbonate/bicarbonate solution, better corrosion resistance for coarse-grained heat-affected zones was obtained when the heat input is 30 kJ/cm, which can be attributed to the severe coarse martensite/austenite constituents for 55 kJ/cm coarse-grained heat-affected zone. In the H2S environment, the better corrosion resistance for coarse-grained heat-affected zone was obtained when the heat input is 55 kJ/cm, which can be attributed to the protective effect of corrosion products. In addition, the high content of M/A constituents for 30 kJ/cm CGHAZ was good for hydrogen adsorption, which was adverse to the corrosion resistance in acid environments.

Processing of metal alloys in semi-solid state is a way of producing many near net-shape parts and nowadays is commercially successful. Particular behaviour of alloys in the partially liquid state, having non-dendritic microstructure, is a base for thixoforming processing. Processing materials in the semi-solid state concerns alloys with relatively wide solidification range. Thermodynamic modelling can be used as a one of a potential tools that allow to identify alloys with proper temperature range. It means that the key feature of alloys suitable for thixoforming is a widely enough melting range, allowing for precise control of material temperature. The data gathered from thermodynamics calculations can also pay off in the industrial thixoforming processes design. The goal of this paper is to identify copper alloys which can be successfully shaped in the semi-solid state. Apart to thermodynamic calculations, the observations on high temperature microscope was carried out. During experiments the solidus, liquidus and also deformation temperatures can be determined. An experimental work allows confirming results obtained within the confines of thermodynamic calculations and firstly to determine the deformation temperatures which are the optimal for shaping processes. The basic achievement of this work is an identification of copper alloy groups possible for shaping in the semi-solid state. At the first part of the paper, the basic criteria of suitable alloys were described. Next, both the solid fraction curves for copper alloys with different alloying elements using ProCAST software and the phase diagrams were determined to identify the solidification temperature ranges of these alloys. In the second part of these paper, the identification of the deformation temperatures was carried out with use of high temperature microscope observation.

The effect of aging time at 850°C for 300 s, 600 s, 1800 s, and 84600 s on the microstructural evolution and corrosion resistance of 2205 duplex stainless steel (DSS) was studied after cold rolling up to 60% of reduction. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy were used for microstructural characterization. The corrosion behavior was studied by cyclic potentiodynamic polarization (CPP) and electrochemical impedance technique (EIS) in 3.5% NaCl solution and the susceptibility to sensitization was investigated through the double loop electrochemical potentiodynamic reactivation (DL-EPR) test in 0.5 M H2SO4 + 0.1 M NaCl + 0.002 M KSCN solution. After cold working, increasing aging time led to an increase in sigma phase precipitation and a decrease in pitting corrosion resistance. However, the ultrafine microstructure had a beneficial influence on the self-healing effect in Cr and Mo depleted areas with the increasing of aging time, resulting in higher passivation ability. The DSS 2205 type was not susceptible to intergranular corrosion for the aged conditions applied.

Currently, one of the main challenges of civil engineering and science materials engineers is to develop a sustainable substitute for Ordinary Portland Cement. While the most promising solution is provided by the geopolymerisation technology, most of the studied geopolymers are based on natural raw materials (kaolin). The metakaolin is mainly preferred because of its rapid rate of dissolution in the activator solution, easy control of the Si/Al ratio, and white color. However, its high cost prevents it from being widely used in geopolymer composites or other materials that can become an industrial alternative for Ordinary Portland Cement. Several studies have shown that geopolymers with good performance can also be obtained from secondary raw materials (industrial wastes such as coal ash or slag). This explains why countries with rapidly developing economies are so interested in this technology. These countries have significant amounts of industrial waste and lack a well-developed recycling infrastructure. Therefore, the use of these by-products for geopolymers manufacturing could solve a waste problem while simultaneously lowering virgin raw material consumption. This study evaluates the effect of replacing different amounts of coal ash with sand on the microstructure of sintered geopolymers. Accordingly, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis were involved to highlight the morphological particularities of room-cured and sintered geopolymers.