Sharif Digital Repository

Finding the optimized set of manufacturing parameters to produce strong solder-copper connections requires investigating the main and interaction effects of processing variables on the joint strength and microstructure. In this study, solder joint specimens were prepared at different levels of cooling rate, time above liquidus (TAL), and soldering temperature. Mode I fracture experiments were designed and performed at a strain rate of 0.5 s−1. The fracture load remained constant from the cooling rate of 0.1 to 1.4 °C/s and then decreased by almost 34% with further increase in the cooling rate to 34 °C/s. Increasing TAL from 60 to 120 s reduced the fracture load by almost 27%, while it was... 

In this paper, a numerical model is developed for the assessment of carbon dioxide transport through naturally fractured cap-rocks during CO2 sequestration in underground aquifers. The cap-rock contains two types of fracture with different length scales: micro-cracks (fissures) and macro-cracks (faults). The effect of micro-cracks is incorporated implicitly by modifying the intrinsic permeability tensor of porous matrix, while the macro-cracks are modeled explicitly using the extended finite element method (X-FEM). The fractured porous medium is decomposed into the porous matrix and fracture domain, which are occupied with two immiscible fluid phases, water and CO2. The flow inside the... 

This study investigated the mode I fracture behavior of double cantilever beam (DCB) epoxy adhesive joints with similar adherends on the both sides (i.e., aluminum-aluminum or copper-copper) at different strain rates; i.e., quasi-static (∼10−3 s−1), low (∼7 s−1) and intermediate (∼14 s−1) rates. The fracture energy of the DCB joint in Al-adhesive-Al specimens decreased (i.e., by ∼62%, p = 0.0013) with an increase in the applied strain rate from quasi-static to low values, while it remained almost unchanged with further increase of stain rate to intermediate range (p > 0.05). For Cu-adhesive-Cu cases, however, the fracture energy was found to be almost insensitive to the applied strain rate... 

Welding of severely plastic deformed aluminum sheets, with high stored strain energy, faces a serious concern, which is decrease in strength of weld and heat-affected zone (HAZ) due to instability in microstructure and related grain growth. In this work, two-passes constrained groove pressed (CGPed) Al-1050 sheets were welded via friction stir welding (FSW), without and with addition of a hybrid powder including 50 vol.% α-Al2O3 nanoparticles+50 vol.% graphite micrometric powders (∼1 vol.% of hybrid powders in stir zone). Al2O3 nanoparticles may result in grain refinement in stir zone by grain boundary pinning. Lubricating nature of graphite may reduce welding heat input resulting in lower... 

This paper deals with the effects of three low-carbon steel filler metals consisting of ferritic and austenitic phases on the weld joints of the tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding of Hardox 500 steel. The correlation between the microstructure and mechanical properties of the weld joints was investigated. For this purpose, macro and microstructure were examined, and then microhardness, tensile, impact, and fracture toughness tests were carried out to analyze the mechanical properties of joints. The results of optical microscopy (OM) images showed that the weld zones (WZ) of all three welds were composed of different ferritic morphologies, including allotriomorphic ferrite, Widmanstätten... 

Considering the quasi-brittle mechanical properties of concrete, wedge-splitting tests are employed and improved in this paper to study the fracture behaviour of concrete. A novel wedge-splitting device is designed by fixing ten springs on the force transmission component. The adaptive spring force can be imposed on top of a concrete specimen to retard the brittle fracture process. With the proposed wedge-splitting test design for notched cuboid specimens, the complete load–strain/CMOD curves of concrete can be generated directly. The fracture toughness and the fracture energy can be calculated easily without numerical fitting using the double-K fracture model. The descending branch of the... 

Purpose: Core Bone Plug Fixation (CBPF) technique is an implant-less methodology for ACL reconstruction. This study investigates the effect of bone density on CBPF stability to identify the bone quality that is likely to benefit from this technique. Methods: Artificial blocks with 160 (Group 1), 240 (Group 2), and 320 (Group 3) kg/m3 densities were used to simulate human bone with diverse qualities. These groups are representative of the elderly, middle age and young people, respectively. A tunnel was made in each test sample using a cannulated drill bit which enabled harvesting the core bone plug intact. Fresh animal tendon grafts were prepared and passed through the tunnel, so the core... 

Biodegradable magnesium (Mg) alloys exhibit great potential for use as temporary structures in tissue engineering applications. Such degradable implants require no secondary surgery for their removal. In addition, their comparable mechanical properties with the human bone, together with excellent biocompatibility, make them a suitable candidate for fracture treatments. Nevertheless, some challenges remain. Fast degradation of the Mg-based alloys in physiological environments leads to a loss of the mechanical support that is needed for complete tissue healing and also to the accumulation of hydrogen gas bubbles at the interface of the implant and tissue. Among different methods used to... 

Nowadays, the significance of sustainability has urged composite manufacturers to replace traditional synthetic fibers with eco-friendly natural alternatives due to their environmental and economic benefits. This work aims to fabricate hybrid polypropylene (PP) composites with short flax fibers, octene-ethylene copolymer (POE) rubber particles, and maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (MAPP) compatibilizer. The main goal is to gain an insight into the combined effect of toughening mechanisms induced by the short fibers and rubber particles at the crack tip and wake of composites, which is a crucial step in reaching a balance between toughness and rigidity. In this regard, a novel... 

Material properties and fracture characteristics are among the most prominent parameters that should be considered for a wide range of graphene applications. This article reviews recent advances in theoretical studies on the mechanical properties and fracture behaviors of graphene, focusing on the effect of various simulation models. Most studies investigated single-layer graphene sheets (SLGSs) under uniaxial tensile tests using different common interatomic potentials, particularly AIREBO. Although researchers have examined a similar problem, specifically for pristine graphene, the differences in the reported values are considerable. These discrepancies are most evident in fracture... 

Phase field theory for fracture is developed at large strains with an emphasis on a correct introduction of surface stresses at nanoscale. This is achieved by multiplying the cohesion and gradient energies by the local ratio of the crack surface areas in the deformed and undeformed configurations and with the gradient energy in terms of the gradient of the order parameter in the reference configuration. This results in an expression for the surface stresses which is consistent with the sharp surface approach. Namely, the structural part of the Cauchy surface stress represents an isotropic biaxial tension, with the magnitude of a force per unit length equal to the surface energy. The surface... 

Mechanical characterization of fractures, i.e., identifying their characteristic parameters such as energy release rate, is crucial to assess the safety and stability of structural members. This is generally achieved using a combination of finite element analysis and optimization. Machine learning models are increasingly used to characterize engineering problems. While such models have shown impressive performance on smooth data, their performance diminishes significantly on data with discontinuities and sharp gradients. For fractures, this issue is more severe due to the singular solutions in the vicinity of the fracture tips. To resolve this difficulty, leveraging classical fracture... 

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are one of the preferred candidates for reinforcing polymeric nanobiocomposites, such as acrylic bone type of cement. In this study, at first, bulk samples of the reinforced polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) matrix were prepared with 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 wt per wt% of MWCNTs by the casting method. Tensile and three-point bending tests were performed to determine the essential mechanical properties of bone cement, such as tensile and bending strengths. The tensile fracture surfaces were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The commercial software (Abaqus) was used to conduct finite element analysis (FEA) by constructing a representative volume... 

Coating is an effective approach to address the high corrosion rate of biodegradable Mg alloys, as their main challenge toward their extensive use. In this regard, it was tried to control the degradation process of an Mg-4Zn alloy by Ca addition, equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), and hydrothermal coating. The obtained results indicated that excellent grain refinement induced by Ca incorporation and ECAP simultaneously, improved both mechanical strength and corrosion resistance of the Mg-based substrate. The achieved grain refinement resulted in a thicker, more compact and integrated coating, where the ECAP-processed Mg-4Zn-0.5Ca alloy exhibited the best coating quality with no... 

The fabrication of Ni/Ti laminated composite via cross accumulative roll bonding (CARB) and subsequent annealing treatment has been studied. The relationships between annealing conditions and microstructure at interfaces of Ni/Ti have been investigated by SEM, XRD, and EDS analyses. The results show that the layers were well-bonded by the CARB process, and by increasing the temperature and time of annealing treatment, the interfacial layers grew as a result of the interdiffusion of Ni and Ti atoms. The main intermetallic phases were NiTi and NiTi2, both of which obeyed linear kinetics of growth. However, the calculated activation energy of NiTi was lower than that of NiTi2, indicating the... 

The employment of tissue engineering scaffolds in the reconstruction of the damaged bone tissues has shown remarkable promise since they significantly facilitate the healing process. Fabrication of highly porous biocompatible scaffolds with sufficient mechanical strength is still challenging. In this regard, polymers have been widely utilized to construct three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffolds due to their excellent processability and biocompatibility. However, insufficient mechanical strength and inappropriate degradation rate of the monophasic polymer scaffolds in the bone regeneration process, as the main challenges, limit their extensive clinical application. The incorporation of... 

The present article aimed to examine the pore-scale examination of a fluid capability to block pores and fractures deduced by return permeability and the blocking ability of a novel lightweight Colloidal Gas Aphron Nano-Fluid (CGANF) in heterogeneous fractured/un-fractured porous medium. Silica (S) and fumed silica (FS) nanoparticles, Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) anionic surfactant, and Xanthan Gum (XG) bio-polymer were employed for following up CGANF bubbles' movements in incongruous micro-models’ inclusive crack. The transparent nature of the glass micro-model provides an intuition into the lenticular behavior of CGANF bubbles in the heterogeneous porous media. Differential pressure... 

During the drilling operation in high-permeability, natural and artificial fractured formations, the lost circulation of drilling mud is a common problem. Various methods have been applied to control lost circulation and among these methods, using Lost Circulation Materials (LCM) is the most common method that blocks the fluid loss channels in the formation by creating structures. In this project, the aim is to develop and use natural fiber-reinforced composites as LCM can be an innovative and technical solution. Natural fiber-reinforced composites have excellent properties such as high specific strength, non-abrasive, eco-friendly, and biodegradability. It seems to be possible that... 

Abstract: Bead-on-plate submerged arc welding was conducted on St37 steel by manufactured Cr, Mo, and Cr–Mo active basic fluxes produced via the unfused bonded method. The base metal heat-affected zone and weld metal (WM) microstructures were identified and characterized by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, each element’s recovery rate (η) and slag factor (α) determine the amount of element transferred from flux into WM. Then, the ferrite morphologies volume fraction of WMs was measured. Moreover, the chemical analysis of slag and inclusions was evaluated by point scan energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and extensively discussed. The number density and... 

Abstract: Commercially pure titanium and titanium alloys have been among the most commonly used materials for biomedical applications since the 1950s. Due to the excellent mechanical tribological properties, corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, and antibacterial properties of titanium, it is getting much attention as a biomaterial for implants. Furthermore, titanium promotes osseointegration without any additional adhesives by physically bonding with the living bone at the implant site. These properties are crucial for producing high-strength metallic alloys for biomedical applications. Titanium alloys are manufactured into the three types of α, β, and α + β. The scientific and clinical...