In the present research, hierarchical structure observation and mechanical property characterization for a type of biomaterial are carried out. The investigated bioma- terial is Hyriopsis cumingii, a typical limnetic shell, which consists of two different structural layers, a prismatic ＂pillar＂ structure and a nacreous ＂brick and mortar＂ structure. The prismatic layer looks like a ＂pillar forest＂ with variationsection pillars sized on the order of several tens of microns. The nacreous material looks like a ＂brick wall＂ with bricks sized on the order of several microns. Both pillars and bricks are composed of nanoparticles. The mechanical properties of the hierarchical biomaterial are measured by using the nanoindentation test. Hardness and modulus are measured for both the nacre layer and the prismatic layer, respectively. The nanoindentation size effects for the hierarchical structural materials are investigated experimentally. The results show that the prismatic nanostructured material has a higher stiffness and hardness than the nacre nanostructured material. In addition, the nanoindentation size effects for the hierarchical structural materials are described theoretically, by using the trans-scale mechanics theory considering both strain gradient effect and the surface/interface effect. The modeling results are consistent with experimental ones.
In this paper, ultrasonic （20 kHz） fatigue tests were performed on specimens of a high-strength steel in very high cycle fatigue （VHCF） regime. Experimental results showed that for most tested specimens failed in a VHCF regime, a fatigue crack originated from the interior of specimen with a fish-eye pattern, which contained a fine granular area （FGA） centered by an inclusion as the crack origin. Then, a two-parameter model is proposed to predict the fatigue life of high-strength steels with fish-eye mode failure in a VHCF regime, which takes into account the inclusion size and the FGA size. The model was verified by the data of present experiments and those in the literature. Furthermore, an analytic formula was obtained for estimating the equivalent crack growth rate within the FGA. The results also indicated that the stress intensity factor range at the front of the FGA varies within a small range, which is irrespective of stress amplitude and fatigue life.
Strengthening in metals is traditionally achieved through the controlled creation of various grain boundaries(GBs),such as low-angle GBs,high-angle GBs,and twin boundaries(TBs).In the present study,a series of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with spherical nanoindentation and carefully designed model were conducted to investigate and compare the strengthening effects of various GBs with nano-spacing as barriers of dislocation motion.Simulation results showed that high-angle twist GBs and TBs are similar barriers and low-angle twist GBs are less effective in obstructing dislocation motion.Corresponding atomistic mechanisms were also given.At a certain indentation depth,dislocation transmission and dislocation nucleation from the other side of boundaries were observed for low-angle twist GBs,whereas dislocations were completely blocked by high-angle twist GBs and TBs at the same indentation depth.The current findings should provide insights for comprehensive understanding of the strengthening effects of various GBs at nanoscale.
Based on the crystal plasticity theory and interatomic potential, in this paper a new thermo-elasto-plasticity constitutive model is proposed to study the behavior of metal crystals at finite temperature. By applying the present constitutive model, the stress-strain curves under uniaxial tension at different temperatures are calculated for the typical crystal A1, and the calculated results are compared with the experimental results. From the comparisons, it can be seen that the present theory has the capability to describe the thermo-elasto-plastic behavior of metal crystals at finite temperature through a concise and explicit calculation process.
A theoretical model that takes into account the flee-volume aided cooperative shearing of shear transformation zones （STZs） is developed to quantitatively understand the ductile-to-brittle transition （DBT） of metallic glasses. The STZ dilatational strain is defined as the ratio of STZ-activated free volume to STZ volume itself. The model demonstrates that the STZ dilatational strain will increase drastically and exceed the characteristic shear strain of STZ as temperature decreases below a critical value. This critical temperature is in good agreement with the experimentally measured DBT temperature. Our results suggest that the DBT of metallic glasses is underpinned by the transition of atomic-cluster motions from STZ-tvpe rearrangements to dilatational processes （termed tension transformation zones （TrZs））.
Effects of agglomerates on the densification behavior and microstructural evolution during solid-state sintering of a cube of copper particles have been studied with discrete element method (DEM).It is found that the densification of the sintering system decreases as the volume fraction of agglomerates increases.At a given volume fraction of agglomerates,the smaller the size of agglomerates,the poorer the densification and more inhomogeneous the compact is.The morphology and distribution of agglomerates have negligible effects on the densification,especially for the case with a low volume fraction of agglomerates.Agglomerates with a smaller average coordination number would have more restriction on the densification of sintering bodies.To our best knowledge,it is the first time to study the effect of agglomerates on sintering behavior using DEM.This study should be useful for further investigations of the effect of various inhomogeneities of microstructure on the complex sintering process by DEM.
Very high cycle fatigue（VHCF） properties of a low temperature tempering bearing steel GCr15 with smooth and hole-defect specimens are studied by employing a rotary bending test machine with frequency of 52.5 Hz.Both smooth and hole-defect specimens break in VHCF regime with some difference in fatigue crack initiation.For smooth specimens,a fine granular area（FGA） is observed near the grain boundary in the fracture surface of the specimens broken after 10~7 cycles. But no FGA is observed in the hole-defect specimens broken in VHCF regime,and the VHCF crack does not initiate from the small hole at the surface as it does at low or high cycle fatigue regime. Internal stress is employed to explain the VHCF behavior of these two types of specimens.At last,an advanced dislocation model based on Tanaka and Mura model is proposed to illustrate the internal stress process and to predict fatigue crack initiation life with FGA observed in the fracture region.
Zhengqiang LeiAiguo ZhaoJijia XieChengqi SunYoushi Hong
