Sharif Digital Repository

Recent uses of intelligent composites in biomedical appliances aggrandize the necessity of bonding-strength improvement in NiTi/silicone matrix interface. SEM micrographs and pull-out tests are employed to determine the strength of the NiTi/silicone bonds in a flexible composite piece. Greater adhesion strengths are obtained due to the presence of thin oxide layer, surface roughness and frictional forces between the embedded-wires and the contacting phase. Effect of curing treatment on phase transformation temperatures of the wires is determined by electrical resistivity (ER) measurements. Results show that the curing treatment shifts the transition points of the wires towards higher... 

Weldability is one of the key requirements for automotive materials. This two-part paper aims at understanding the metallurgical phenomena during resistance spot welding of stainless steels, as interesting candidates for automotive body in white. Part I addresses the phase transformations in the fusion zone of three types of stainless steels including austenitic, ferritic and duplex types. The solidification and solid state phenomena including columnar to equiaxed transition, ferrite– austenite post-solidification transformation, martensitic transformation and carbide precipitation are discussed. Particular attention is given to the effect of high cooling rate of resistance spot welding... 

The paper addresses the microstructure and failure characteristics of dissimilar resistance spot welds between austenitic stainless steel and ferritic stainless steel. The fusion zone (FZ) of dissimilar welds exhibited complex microstructure consisting of ferrite, austenite and martensite. The development of this triplex structure in the FZ was explained by analysing the phase transformation path and austenite stability. Results showed that all dissimilar welds failed in partial thickness-partial pull-out failure mode. It was shown that the fraction of the nugget fracture of the weld is reduced by increasing the FZ size improving the mechanical performance of the weld. Peak load and energy... 

Thermal oxidation of commercial ilmenite concentrate from Kahnouj titanium mines, Iran, at 500-950 C was investigated for the first time. Fractional conversion was calculated from mass change of the samples during oxidation. Maximum FeO to Fe2O3 conversion of 98.63 % occurred at 900 C after 120 min. Curve fit trials together with SEM line scan results indicated constant-size shrinking core model as the closest kinetic mechanism of the oxidation process. Below 750 C, chemical reaction with activation energy of 80.65 kJ mol-1 and between 775 and 950 C, ash diffusion with activation energy of 53.50 kJ mol-1 were the prevailing mechanisms. X-ray diffraction patterns approved presence of... 

Highly stable, water-based barium titanate (BaTiO3) sols were developed by a low cost and straightforward sol-gel process. Nanocrystalline barium titanate thin films and powders with various Ba:Ti atomic ratios were produced from the aqueous sols. The prepared sols had a narrow particle size distribution in the range 21-23 nm and they were stable over 5 months. X-ray diffraction pattern revealed that powders contained mixture of hexagonal- or perovskite-BaTiO3 as well as a trace of Ba2Ti 13O22 and Ba4Ti2O27 phases, depending on annealing temperature and Ba:Ti atomic ratio. Highly pure barium titanate with cubic perovskite structure achieved with Ba:Ti = 50:50 atomic ratio at the high... 

The demand for bidirectional DC/DC converters is increasing because of their potential capability for sustainable energy conversion systems where the power is to be captured from or stored in energy storage elements. This paper presents a three-phase series resonant bidirectional converter which is suitable for high power applications. The converter consists of two three-phase full bridge networks, the resonant tanks and a high frequency three-phase transformer. All switches can work either in ZVS or ZCS mode. The voltage drop on leakage inductances is minimized by choosing the switching frequency close to the resonant frequency, allowing high efficient power conversion. The phasor analysis... 

This paper proposes a straightforward control method for voltage control of a three-phase transformer-based inverter in uninterruptible power supplies or distributed generation systems. The approach offers a dual-loop design consisting inner current control loop and outer voltage loop. Sliding mode current controller provides desired bandwidth for voltage controller which consists of a state feedback term for stabilization and resonant term for harmonic damping. The proposed scheme provides fast dynamic response and low total harmonic distortion even for high power inverters with the limitations of switching frequency and LC filter components. Experimental studies for 2KVA linear and... 

Biphase TiO2 nanoparticles have been prepared by sol-gel method. Water/titanium molar ratio (r) has been used to control the hydrolysis and condensation of titanium isopropoxide in solution producing titanium oxide with two different polymorphs. The influence of crystallite size and morphology of prepared TiO2 on the phase transformation of the resultant materials has been investigated. Synthesized powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Different trends can be observed in the phase transformation and particle growth of the prepared titanium oxide nanomaterial. It was concluded that, the rate of particle... 

In this paper, the effect of aluminum content on the formation mechanism, volume fraction, morphology and particle size distribution of graphite has been investigated. Addition of aluminum on ductile iron causes some fundamental changes in iron-carbon phase-diagram and as a result, improves the graphite formation during eutectic transformation. The results reveals that aluminum compounds have been formed in the core of graphite nodules, thus aluminum plays an important role in the formation of graphite nodules. Furthermore, it is indicated that an increase in the aluminum content also leads to an increase in the number of graphite nodules and a decrease in the nodules size. By using EPMA,... 

Graphitization in steels is a subject which has been studied temporarily in past decades. The importance of this phenomenon is due to the fact that graphite formation in steels can ease machining treatment and increase cold-work capability of steels. Weight reduction of the parts and the dedicated bioenvironmental properties of these steels are considered as a valuable replacement for lead containing steels for researchers. Anyway there has been always the assumption that this operation is long and not economically cost effective. For this reason due to the different conditions of applied heat treatments, the effects of the temperature and the time period of heat treatment on the... 

In this research, an algorithm based on the Q-state Potts model is presented for modeling the austenite to ferrite transformation. In the algorithm, it is possible to exactly track boundary migration of the phase formed during transformation. In the algorithm, effects of changes in chemical free energy, strain free energy and interfacial energies of austenite-austenite, ferrite-ferrite and austenite-ferrite during transformation are considered. From the algorithm, the kinetics of transformation and mean ferrite grain size for different cooling rates are calculated. It is found that there is a good agreement between the calculated and experimental results  

A relationship between ferrite grain size, cooling rate from austenitising temperature, austenitising time, and austenitising temperature is developed to predict the ferrite grain size of a low carbon steel. The coefficients of that relationship are determined experimentally. A Hall-Petch relationship is used to predict the yield stress and fracture stress from the predicted ferrite grain size. Considering the experimental results, maximum errors of 12-5% and 6·5% were found in the prediction of ferrite grain size and strengths, respectively  

The phase field approach (PFA) for the interaction of fracture and martensitic phase transformation (PT) is developed, which includes the change in surface energy during PT and the effect of unexplored scale parameters proportional to the ratio of the widths of the crack surface and the phase interface, both at the nanometer scale. The variation of these two parameters causes unexpected qualitative and quantitative effects: shift of PT away from the crack tip, "wetting" of the crack surface by martensite, change in the structure and geometry of the transformed region, crack trajectory, and process of interfacial damage evolution, as well as transformation toughening. The results suggest... 

Nickel titanium shape memory alloys (NiTi-SMAs) were successfully produced from elemental Ni/Ti powders by powder metallurgical method and then subjected to age treatment. Microstructure was examined by SEM and XRD and phase transformation temperatures were measured by dilatometric method. The phase transformation temperatures increased with both duration and temperature of the age treatment. The porous product exhibited desirable shape memory effect. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

The strain-induced martensitic transformation greatly affects the plastic behavior of the metastable austenitic stainless steels. The martensitic transformation continuously changes the initially homogeneous material into a strongly heterogeneous bi-phase one. In addition to the hardening behavior, this phenomenon would influence the damage growth and load-carrying capacity of the material during the plastic deformation. In this study, plastic behavior of the material AISI 304 including the hardening and damage growth, has been examined at low temperature; where a high rate of martensitic transformation affects the microstructure strongly. Experimental analysis and microscopic observations... 

In recent years, there have been some endeavors in order to characterize and model Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) behavior both in tension and compression. However, the one-dimensional behavior of SMA has been mostly studied for the case of wire elements subjected to tension. The objective of this paper is to analyze the behavior of Ni-55.7% wt Ti SMA in tension, compression, and at various temperatures. The effects of cycling, annealing, and friction on the mechanical behavior of this material in compression are discussed as well and, where applicable, compared to those of tension. The compressed SMA rings are finally used as clamping-force actuators in loosed bolted joints. In the second part of... 

The α-FAPbI3 perovskite nanocrystals exhibit interesting optical properties, which make them attractive for versatile optoelectronic applications; however, the spontaneous phase transformation to the non-perovskite phase (δ-FAPbI3) in humid conditions requires a new strategy to improve the phase stability of the material. We employed 3-Aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES)-assisted reprecipitation and sol-gel methods at ambient temperature to prepare stable α-FAPbI3 nanocrystals embedded in a silica matrix. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis determined that ultrafine perovskite nanocrystals (11.5 ± 3 nm) were uniformly distributed in a silica matrix.... 

A thermo-elastic analysis coupled with a phase change model is employed to evaluate thermal stresses as well as progress of austenite decomposition after hot strip rolling operations. The thermo-mechanical finite element analysis is utilized to assess the distributions of temperature and thermal stresses during cooling while at the same time, a model based on the additivity rule is used to determine the rate of austenite to ferrite decomposition. The proposed model is applicable to multi-pass rolling schedules while the effects of different process parameters including the rolling speed and cooling configuration of the run-out table can be taken into account. In order to verify the... 

The mathematical modeling of a bolted joint with a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuator ring is presented. In this way, phase transformation, constitutive and displacement compatibility equations are used. The obtained model is utilized to show how the application of the SMA actuator ring in the bolted joint can help the joint to recover a significant amount of its lost clamping force. The model is run using the experimental data obtained for the Ni-55.7%wt Ti SMA in the companion paper (Part 1). The mechanical properties of SMA are calculated using the mentioned equations and compared to the experimental findings. It is observed that the final clamping force obtained theoretically is close to... 

Recently, an increasing concern has been raised about turn-to-turn faults (TTFs) in power transformers, because these faults can lead to severe transformer insulation failure and consequently, its outage. Generally, it is impossible to experimentally analyze the transformer behavior under such faults, since the implementation of those experiments may be substantially destructive. Therefore, computer-aided models should be developed to investigate the performance of transformer protective relays under turn-to-turn faults. So far, existing transformer models are mainly formulated to implement in the EMTP-based softwares. However, most of power system protection engineers and researchers...