Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

---

In principal, a proper combination of strength and ductility is achieved through micro component refinement in steels. This is particularly empowered with ferrite refinement down to micron sizes in ferrite pearlite engineering steels. The latter is achieved through various well-defined methods in which strain induced transformation (SIT) has shown spectacular capabilities. In the present study, to address the effect of thermo mechanical processing parameters on the (SIT) behavior, two plain carbon steels were studied through single pass rolling. This was carried out at the corresponding Ar_3 + 20°C temperature of the steels. The results indicated that the transformation behavior and ferrite morphology would be .strongly influenced by both the chemical composition (i.e., carbon content) and the amount of applied strain. Furthermore, a high volume fraction of very fine ferrite with mean grain size of less than 2 µm was obtained. This was attributed to the ferrite nucleation at deformation bands and serrated austenite grain boundaries.

---

In this study different volume fractions of SiC particles of various sizes were introduced into the semisolid A356 aluminum alloy by a mechanical stirrer. Then the slurry was poured into a permanent die of certain dimensions either when the metal alloy was partially solid (semisolid-semisolid or SS route) or after reheating to above the liquidus temperature of the alloy (semisolid-liquid or SL route). Both the SS and SL composite samples were solution-treated at 520°C for 8 hours followed by quenching in water at room temperature. Microstructural characterization studies have been conducted on both the SL and SS samples to quantify the effects of the size andcontent of the SiC particles as well as the solutionizing treatment on the morphology and size ofthe eutectic silicon particles and the matrix grain (globule) size. The results were rationalized in terms of the different nucleation, fragmentation, spherodization and coarsening events, which had taken place during the processing of these composites. Finally the impact of these microstructural features in improving the wear properties of the composites has been discussed.

---

The new in situ method for AI-TiC composite fabrication has been carried out. In this method, fabrication of AI-TiC composite by simultaneous introduction of titanium oxide and carbon into aluminum melt was investigated.. Under the process conditions, titanium and carbon reaction results in titanium carbide whiskers. The salt containing keriolite (Na3AIF6), titanium oxide (TiO2) and graphite used for this purpose. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction analysis (XRD) the resulted composite was characterized. It was shown that it contains Al as matrix and TiC as the reinforcement. Then, mechanical properties of fabricated composite were examined.

---

In the current research, the optimum conditions for the electrolytic deposition of TiO2 coatings on titanium pieces were experimentally investigated. Flat pieces of commercially available titanium with dimensions of 50 x20 x3 mm were used as the anode and cathode electrodes. The coatings were applied on the cathode in an electrolyte solution essentially from water and methanol, containing different amounts of TiCI4, and H202. Coatings of sufficient thickness and adequate adhesion to the substrate were obtained at the optimum conditions of theELD process. The latter conditions were electrode gap distance of 3 cm, TiCl4 concentration of 0.005M, H202 concentration of 0.1 M, current density of 35 mA/cm2, methanol/water volume ratio of 9, and pH of the electrolyte in the vicinity of 1.40. Results of XRD analysis revealed the presence of anatase crystals of titanium oxide in the coated layers, where the deposited coating was treated at some temperatures in the range of 400 to 600°C for a period of at least 2 hours. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures also confirmed the formation of a uniform coating layer with cracked suiface area. At the optimum conditions of the process coatings with thicknesses of up to 10 flm were easily obtained through the application of one to three deposited layers.

---

In the present research influences of different combinations of five types of inoculants and four types of nodularizers on eutectic nucleation in ductile cast iron were studied. The alloys were kept at 1320°C for 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 min under nitrogen atmosphere. Cooling curves and image analysis were used to characterize the influence of holding time and different combinations of inoculants and nodularizers on the graphite morphologies and eutectic nucleation. When dominant morphology of graphite is spheroidal or flake, by decreasing the different combinations of nodularizers and inoculants fading resistance, temperature of eutectic undercooling decreases. Nevertheless, when there is combination of spheroidal, vermicular and flake graphites temperature of eutectic undercooling increases by reduction of material fading resistance.

---

The surface condition and microstructure of near stoichiometric (Fe823Ndll.8B5.9) Nd-Fe-B alloy ribbons and the effect of melt spinning parameters were investigated using optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopes (SEM, TEM). The formation of gas pockets on the roll surface of the ribbons during melt spinning can prevent heat transform and result in local coarse grains. The local thickness would also be less in these places and thus perforates preferentially during ion beam milling. Therefore different areas of the sample should be carefully observed in the TEM. Reducing inert gas pressure in the chamber will eliminate the gas pockets. As a general trend, decrease in the ribbon thickness and mean Nd2 Fe14B grain size were observed on increasing the roll speed. By careful adjustment of the melt spinning parameters, the nanostructure will develop. An orientation relationship was found between Nd2 Fe14B and α-Fe precipitates for coarse grain samples melt spun at low roll speed. Dark field image of such grain also shows that some of these α-Fe precipitates have the same orientation. X-ray diffraction evident the development of texture by decreasing the roll speed.

---

An AI-7wt%Si-5vol%TiCp was worn against a cast iron disc in a tri-pin-on-disc machine, under dry sliding conditions at the sliding speed of 0.24 m/s and applied loads of 6, 20 and 40 N/pin. Stress-strain (σ-ε) curves were constructed by measuring the microhardness and the equivalent strain gradients in near surface regions on the cross-sectional surface prepared parallel to sliding direction.It was shown that, both the magnitude of plastic strains and the depth of plastic deformed zones increased with the applied load. The material exhibited considerable work softening in addition to work hardening at the highest applied load. The softened layer placed just beneath the mechanical mixed layer (MML), was mostly covered with the fine fractured eutectic Si and TiC fragments most of which were associated with microcracks at Al/Si and Al/TiC interfaces. The results were discussed in terms of some of the current work hardening models.

---

Two commercial methods are used for the production of strontium carbonate:1) Direct conversion of Celsetite to strontium carbonate by hot sodium carbonate,2) Carbothermic reduction of celestite with coal followed by water leaching of strontium sulfide(SrS) and its conversion to strontium carbonate.The present study has been made on the carbothermic reduction of celestite ores of Varamin (Iran) mines. Effects of temperature, time, pellet size, particle size of celestite ore, pellet compactness and type of reducing agent have been studied. In the range of 800-1100°C, reduction rate increases notably with temperature, which may mean that the reduction is predominantly chemical controlled. Activation energy of around 22.5 kcal/mol supports the idea of chemical control mechanism. Further support for this postulation is provided by the following facts:1) Increasing rate with carbon reactivity (graphite, coal, and charcoal)2) Small dependency of rate on pellet compactness.3) Small dependency of rate on pellet size

---

ZnS : Cu phosphors were prepared by using laboratory grade chemicals through coprecipitating Cu along with ZnS using H2S and thiourea. Photo- and electroluminescence studies indicate that these phosphors have better emission characteristics compared to the phosphors in which activator is externally added. Phosphors with luminescence at ~530nrn were prepared. The difference between the characteristic properties of the samples seems to be due to formation of nanoparticles during the preparation of the samples by different methods.

---

This study was launched to investigate the effects of heating rate and aging parameters on the kinetic of precipitation reactions in a high alloy high strength steel having Ni, Co, Mo and Ti. For this purpose, as quenched specimens were subjected to three types of aging methods with different heating rates. These methods consisted of aging in Pb bath, salt bath, and furnace at different aging cycles. The kinetic of precipitation in each method was studied by hardness measurements and was described adequately by the Johnson-mehl-Avrami equation. Remarkable increase in hardness and its rate is observed when the rate of heating increases. The substantial increase in hardness of the specimens aged rapidly in salt & Pb baths, compared with those aged normally in furnace, seemed to be due to the formation of thermo elastic stresses during sudden expansion of the substance subjected to rapid heating. According to the results obtained in this research, increase in the Avrami constants, n & k, and decrease in the start time of transformation, ts, are associated with heating rate increasing. Analysis of the observed and calculated data for hardness using Arrhenius equation, shows that for the same amount of volume fraction of precipitates, the activation energy of precipitates decreased for f=25 and 50%, while at f=90 % it increased by increasing heating rate.

---

Fracture behavior of a 7075 aluminium alloy reinforced with 15 Vol%. SiC particles was studied after T6 and annealing heat treatments under uniaxial tensile loading at room temperature. The scanning electron microscopy of fractured surfaces and EDS analysis showed:, that fracture mechanism changed from due mainly to fractured particle in T6 condition to interface decohesion in samples in annealed state. Different fracture mechanisms in annealed and T6 conditions can be ascribed mainly to the significant difference in the stress concentration levels around the particles. In T6 condition, very high local stress sufficient to cause fracture of particle can be generated during loading, while the presence of large precipitates at the particle/matrix interface produced interface decohesion leading to final fracture in the annealed state.

---

In this research pitting Corrosion of a sensitized 316 stainless steel was investigated employing potentiodynamic, potentiostatic techniques. Sensitization process was carried out on as-received alloy by submitting the specimen in electric furnace set at 650°Cfor five hours and then the specimen was quenched 25°C water. Potentiodynamic polarization of as received and sensitized specimens in 1M H2SO4 solution at room temperature and 70°C clearly revealed that the sensitization process has caused a magnificent change on electrochemical behavior of the specimen by changing critical current density for passivation, passivation potential and passive current density. Optical microscopy examination of the specimen surface after oxalic acid electrochemical etching also showed the deterioration of grain boundary of sensitized specimen due to chromium carbide precipitation in compared to as-received one. Several anodic potentiodynamic polarization on rode shaped working electrodes prepared from as-received and sensitized specimen in 3.5% NaCl test solution proved an average ~220 mV drop in pitting potential due to sensitization. Anodic potentiostatic polarization at 400 and 200 mV above corrosion potential also demonstrate the deterioration of pitting resistance of alloy as a result of sensitization. Scanning electron microscopy examination of anodically polarized of sensitized specimen at 700mVprior and after oxalic acid etching revealed large stable pits with lacy cover and also openpits with deep crevice for etched specimens.

---

In wire arc spraying, the atomizing air pressure and applied nozzle system are important factors influencing particles characteristics and coating quality. The aim of this paper is to study how the characteristics of particles such as size, velocity and temperature are influenced by the operating conditions in wire arc spray. For that, three types of wires are tested: solid wire of stainless steel 316L, cored wires 97MXC and 98MXC. Arc spray gun is an Arc Jet 9000 manufactured by TAFA. For each condition, the particles temperature and particles velocity are measured using an imaging CCD camera, Spray Watch (Oseir Ltd). Particles size distributions are determined with a laser grain meter. The morphology and composition of particles were evaluated with SEM, EDX and X-Ray diffraction. Results induce important modifications in the particles size distributions and particles velocity. A small diameter nozzle and high atomizing air pressure resulted in a reduction in particles size distributions and an increase in particles velocity.

---

Abstract: Static recrystallization (SRX) behavior of a composite based 7075 Aluminum alloy reinforced with SiC particles was studied during annealing the deformed samples at high temperatures. The results showed an absence of SRX in the samples annealed after hot working at the same deformation temperature, however, a rise in annealing temperature of 100-1500 􀁱C above that the deformation temperature led to full recrystallization. This can be ascribed to the relatively moderate dynamic recovery and the presence of dispersions which stabilize the substructure. Particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) had a significant effect on the grain size in deformed samples at low temperature, but no PSN was observed in samples strained at high temperatures. The possible cause might be that at high temperature the dislocations can be annihilated by climb process around the particles together with the absence of deformation zone for nucleating the recrystallization.

---

Abstract: Problems such as the difficulty of the selection of processing parameters and the large quantity of experimental work exist in the morphological evolutions of Semisolid Metal (SSM) processing. In order to deal with these existing problems, and to identify the effect of the processing parameters, (i.e. shearing rate-time-temperature) combinations on particle size and shape factor, based on experimental investigation, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was applied to predict particle size and shape factor SSM processed Aluminum A.356.0 alloy. The results clearly demonstrated that, the ANN with 2 hidden layers and topology (4, 2) can predict the shape factor and the particle size with high accuracy of 94%.The sensivity analysis also revealed that shear rate and solid fraction had the largest effect on shape factor and particle size, respectively. The shear rate had a reverse effect on particle size.

---

Abstract: The objective of this research was to develop a tungsten heavy alloy (WHA) having a microstructure and properties good enough to penetrate hard rolled steels as deep as possible. In addition this alloy should not have environmental problems as depleted uranium (DU) materials. For this purpose a wide spread literature survey was performed and on the base of information obtained in this survey, three compositions of WHA were chosen for investigation in this research. The alloys namely 90W-7Ni-3Fe, 90W-9Ni-Mn and 90W-8Ni-2Mn were selected and after producing these alloys through powder metallurgy technique, their thermal conductivity, compression flow properties and microstructures were studied. The results of these investigations indicated that W-Ni-Mn alloys had better flow properties and lower thermal conductivities relative to W-Ni-Fe alloy. In addition Mn helped to obtain a finer microstructure in WHA. Worth mentioning that a finer microstructure as well as lower thermal conductivity in this type of alloys increased the penetration depth due to formation of adiabatic shear bands (ASB) during impact.

---

Abstract: In chloride salt solutions, titanium alloys exhibit reasonably high pitting potentials as high as +10 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) at room temperatures. On the other hand, anodic pitting potentials are significantly lower in bromide solutions. In this study, pitting corrosion of commercially pure titanium in aqueous NaBr solution of 0.1 M concentration at room temperature was studied and the effect of an external magnetic field oriented both parallel and perpendicular to electrode surface was investigated. Cyclic potentiodynamic and potentiostatic polarization tests were carried out. Anodic breakdown potential of +1.45 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) obtained in the absence of magnetic field, decreasing to +1.11 V in the presence of a 0.05 T parallel magnetic field. The perpendicular magnetic field actually did not affect the breakdown potential. Applying of an external magnetic field, independent of its orientation, shifted the repassivation potential approximately 150 mV in the positive direction. SEM microscopy observations of sample surfaces indicated that applying of magnetic field results in some variations in the pit shapes and their sizes.

---

Abstract: In this paper solid state reduction of high carbon ferrochromium-chromite composite pellets in the temperature range of 900-1350°C was investigated. A two stage reduction mechanism is proposed. The first stage is likely to be controlled by the chemical reaction with activation energy of 127.2kJ/mol. In the second stage, solid state diffusion of carbon through the reaction product layer is suggested to be rate controlling. The activation energy of this stage was calculated to be 93.1kJ/mol. The reduction process was found to be favored by high temperatures as well as high vacuum. The results also show that pre-milling of initial mixture has a negative effect on the reduction degree.

---

Abstract: To ensure the rail transportations safety, evaluation of fatigue behavior of the rail steel is necessary. High cycle fatigue behaviour of a rail steel was the subject of investigation in this research using fracture mechanics. Finite element method (FEM) was used for analyzing the distribution of the stresses on the rail, exerted by the external load. FEM analysis showed that the maximum longitudinal stresses occurred on the railhead. To find out about the relation of crack growth with its critical size, and to estimate its lifetime, the behaviour of transverse cracks to rail direction was studied using damage tolerance concept. It revealed that transverse crack growth initially occurred slowly, but it accelerated once the crack size became larger. Residual service life was calculated for defective segments of the rails. In addition, allowable crack size for different non-destructive testing intervals was determined the allowable crack size decreased as the NDT intervals increased.

---

Abstract: Thermal fatigue is a stochastic process often showing considerable scatter even in controlled environments. Due to complexity of thermal fatigue, there is no a complete analytical solution for predicting the effect of this property on the life of various components, subjected to severe thermal fluctuations. Among these components, one can mention car cylinder, cylinder head and piston which bear damages due to thermal fatigue. All these components are usually produced by casting techniques. In order to comprehend and compare the thermal fatigue resistance of cast Al alloys 356 and 413, this research was designed and performed. For this purpose, several samples in the form of disc were cast from the two alloys in sand mould. The microstructures of the cast samples were studied by light microscopy in order to choose the samples with the least amounts of defects for thermal fatigue tests. The results of thermal fatigue tests showed that the nucleation of microcracks in Al-356 alloy occurred at shorter time relative to those occurred in Al- 413 alloy under the same test conditions. In addition, the density of micro-cracks in Al-356 alloy was more than that of Al-413 alloy. The results of fractography on 356 alloy indicated that the cracks were generally nucleated from inter-dendritic shrinkage porosities and occasionally from the interface of silicon particles with the matrix. The growth of these micro cracks was along the dendrite arms. Fractography of 413 alloy fracture surfaces showed that nucleation of microcracks was often associated with silicon particles.