Sharif Digital Repository

Nature-inspired coating with polydopamine (PDA) is a promising way to improve the performance of graphene oxide (GO) based nanocomposites due to its high ability to enhance interactions in matrix-disperse systems. Here, we examined the capability of two types of PDA to develop the reinforced polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/GO hydrogels. In the first mode, dopamine hydrochloride was polymerized as nanoparticles and then incorporated into PVA solution with GO nanoplatelets (P-NG hydrogel). In the second mode, polydopamine was polymerized in the presence of GO nanoparticles to obtain PDA surface-modified GO and then PVA nanocomposite hydrogel (P-CG sample). Rheological and tensile findings revealed... 

In this paper, the effects of both pozzolans and (steel and poly-propylene) fibers on the mechanical properties of roller compacted concrete are studied. Specimens for the experiments were made using a soil-based approach; thus, the Kango's vibration hammer was used for compaction. The tests in the first stage were carried out to determine the optimal moisture requirements for mix designs using cubic 150 × 150 × 150 mm specimens. In the tests of the second stage, the mechanical behaviors of the main specimens made using the optimal moisture obtained in the previous stage were evaluated using 28, 90, and 210 day cubic specimens. The mechanical properties of RCC pavements were evaluated using... 

In this paper, tensile strain energy absorption of two different hybrid modified epoxies has been systematically investigated. In one system, epoxy has been modified by amine-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile (ATBN) and hollow glass spheres as fine and coarse modifiers, respectively. The other hybrid epoxy has been modified by the combination of ATBN and recycled Tire particles. The results of fracture toughness measurement of blends revealed synergistic toughening for both hybrid systems in some formulations. However, no evidence of synergism is observed in tensile test of hybrid samples. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission optical microscope (TOM) and finite element (FEM)... 

Mechanical alloying and hot extrusion techniques were employed to produce in-situ fully dens Al-Ti composites without applying any heat treatment. The focus of this study is the investigation of fracture toughness in produced composites in order to improve it and to explain the mechanisms responsible for the fracture. The morphology of milled powders was studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The microstructure of the extruded composites was examined by Optical Microscopy (OM) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). Moreover, the density and hardness of samples were investigated. Three point bending test of the single edge notched beam (SENB) samples was applied to... 

Lamination has been shown to enhance damage tolerance of discontinuously reinforced aluminum (DRA) composites. Doing this technique, DRA layers could be laminated with ductile interlayers. In this research, two types of laminates consisting similar DRA layers and a ductile AA1050 interlayer were fabricated by means of hot roll-bonding. AA6061-5. vol% SiCp and AA6061-15. vol% SiCp composites were considered as exterior layers. Different rolling strains, was applied to control the interfacial strength which was examined by shear test. Toughness behavior of laminates was evaluated by three-point bending test in crack-divider orientation. Based on obtained results, the plastic deformation of... 

Functionally graded aluminum matrix composites (FGAMC) are new advanced materials with promising applications due to their unique characteristics in which composite nature is combined with graded structure. Different architectures of Al6061/SiCp composite laminates were fabricated by successive hot roll-bonding. For FGAMCs, two composite layers as outer strips and a layer of Al1050 as interlayer were applied. To investigate laminate toughness, the quasi-static three-point bending test was conducted in the crack divider orientation. Genetic programming as a soft computing technique was implemented to find mathematical correlations between architectural parameters and experimentally obtained... 

To perform a long lasting, crack-free repair welding on ultrahigh strength steels, the filler metal must be chosen and applied properly. Avoiding several short-term repairs or replacements, the repaired weldment should reveal comparative characteristics such as wear resistance, toughness and hardness to base metal. In the present study, a novel functionally graded material have been introduced to obtain enhanced wear resistance and hardness at surface as well as improved fracture toughness at fusion line of repaired weldments. A comparative study of wear resistance of repaired weld metals has been carried out by pin-on-disk apparatus at 5N normal load and 0.14ms-1 sliding speed. Fracture... 

Abstract High ductility of metals as well as high strength of ceramics has made the metal/ceramic composites an attractive material for many applications requiring high strength to weight ratios. An important issue in using this material is the behavior of the material and its ceramic-metal interface under various loading, especially at high strain rate. To provide a better understanding of the interface conditions, in this work, a molecular dynamics study of the interface behavior in Al/α-Al2O3 composite as the result of tensile and shear loadings is presented. For this purpose, the reactive force field (ReaxFF) potential function is utilized. The effects of... 

The present paper discusses the possibility of adding recycled polymer fibres to high performance concrete (HPC). Fibres used in this study were recovered from discarded car timing belts. To investigate different characteristics of the concrete specimens several destructive and non-destructive tests, such as compressive strength, modulus of rupture, flexural toughness, ultrasonic velocity and electrical resistance tests were carried out. In addition, slump flow tests were conducted on the fresh concrete. Experimental results from the study showed that the use of low percentages (up to 0.5%) of waste fibres improved the modulus of rupture and flexural toughness. Based on ultrasonic and... 

Toughening of epoxy with different types of modifiers produces a bimodal blend that might show better fracture resistance in comparison with single-modified ones. In this research, bimodal epoxy formulations including mixtures of glass microsphere and silica nanoparticles are explored for possible synergistic toughening. The influence of composition on the glass transition temperature (Tg), tensile characteristics, and fracture toughness (KIC) is investigated. Interestingly, a synergism in fracture toughness is observed when mixtures of modifiers were incorporated. For the fixed overall modifier content, KIC is higher when the volume fraction of glass microsphere is lesser than the volume... 

Microstructure and mechanical properties development of X80 weld metal by addition of different amounts of alloying elements such as Nickel and Manganese to the covering of electrodes were investigated. For this reason samples were welded with electrodes that Ni value changed between 0.8%- 3.5% in tow critical amounts of Mn: 0.7 and 1.6. Tensile test and microhardness results indicated the suitable ranges of Ni and Mn for acceptable mechanical properties. In addition, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were applied to link the microstructure with mechanical properties. The hardness of weld metals were found to increase linearly with Mn and Ni, which was attributed mainly to... 

In this research, the welding characteristics of a new UHSLA steel, 35NiCrMoV123, have been studied in two general conditions (annealed and quench-tempered). Carbon equivalent value of 35NiCrMoV123 steel is near 0.9 which classifies it as a "very difficult to weld" steel. The effects of welding heat treatment cycle (preheat, interpass, and postheat) on metallurgical and mechanical properties of weldments have been investigated by tensile, impact toughness, and hardness tests, as well as optical microscopy observations. It has been observed that by employing high-temperature stress relief (600 °C), welding could be performed in annealed condition successfully. Also, the results indicate that... 

The fracture toughness and deformation mechanism of PP/CaCO3 (15 wt.%) composites were studied and related to load-bearing capacity of the particles. To alter the load-bearing capacity of the particles, different particle sizes (0.07-7 μm) with or without stearic acid coating were incorporated. The fracture toughness of the composites was determined using J-Integral method and the deformation mechanism was studied by transmission optical microscopy of the crack tip damage zone. It was observed that the load-bearing capacity of the particles decreased by reduction of particle size and application of coating. A linear relationship between normalized fracture toughness and inverse of... 

Mechanical properties and microstructural analysis of Expanded Perlite Aggregate (EPA) concretes are presented. Using 10% EPA, the effects of using various types of fibre were investigated. For all specimens, fibrous and non-fibrous, the compressive and the splitting tensile strengths were obtained. Complete stress–strain curves for fibre-reinforced specimens were obtained. A new index for representing the toughness of fibre-reinforced Perlite concretes is introduced. The addition of fibres substantially increased the splitting tensile strength. Steel fibres with “indentations” had the best performance in this regard. Regarding the toughness, specimens with “hooked” steel fibres performed... 

High energy vibratiory mill was used to produce Nanocrystalline Al-20 wt% Ti powders by mechanical alloying. The milled powders were then consolidated by hot extrusion at 530°C. Produced bulk nanocomposite samples were studied by XRD analysis, optical microscopy (OM), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), EDS spectroscopy, densitometry and hardness tests. Three point bending on SENB specimens was applied under quasi static condition to determine the fracture toughness and also investigate the fracture surface using SEM. The results indicated that after extrusion a fully dense Al-Al3Ti nanocomposite with the crystallite size of 200-400 nm is produced in which the Al3Ti... 

The Cu-0.5Co/WC nano-composite coating was synthesized on CP-copper substrate using Direct Current (DC) electrodeposition method. In this work, it was tried to increase the hardness of surface without considerable degradation of copper's particular physical properties such as electrical conductivity. The effect of current density on microstructural homogeneity, hardness, fracture toughness, and electrochemical behavior of coating was investigated. The copper plates with the purity of 99.99% were used as electrodes. The electrolyte consists of tungsten carbide particles (30 g/l), copper sulfate (200 g/l), sulfuric acid (50 g/l), cobalt sulfate (50 g/l), and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) (0.3... 

Recently, a wide variety of research works have focused on carbon nanotube (CNT)-ceramic matrix nanocomposites. In many cases, these novel materials are produced through conventional powder metallurgy methods including hot pressing, conventional sintering, and hot isostatic pressing. However, spark plasma sintering (SPS) as a novel and efficient consolidation technique is exploited for the full densification of high-temperature ceramic systems. In these binary nanocomposites, CNTs are added to ceramic matrices to noticeably modify their inferior properties and SPS is employed to produce fully dense compacts. In this review, a broad overview of these systems is provided and the potential... 

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of using hybrid fibers on rheological, mechanical and durability properties of the high-strength self-consolidating concrete (SCC). For this purpose, two types of fibers including hooked-end steel fibers and polypropylene fibers were used. In this study, a total of eleven mixtures were used: one as a control mix, one containing 0.5% steel fibers, four containing 0.5% hybrid fibers (steel and polypropylene), one containing 1.0% steel fibers and the four containing 1.0% hybrid fibers (steel and polypropylene). For investigating the rheological properties, slump flow, J-ring and V-funnel tests were performed. Mechanical properties were... 

This paper addresses the microstructure-properties relationship during resistance spot welding of martensitic stainless steel (MSS). The effect of the initial base metal microstructure (ferritic microstructure in annealed condition vs. partially tempered martensitic in quench and tempered condition) on the weld microstructure evolution is highlighted. Regardless of the initial base metal microstructure, the fusion zone exhibited a predominantly martensitic structure plus some δ-ferrite. The heat affected zone (HAZ) in the quenched and partially tempered (Q-PT) sheet was featured by formation of martensite and carbide in upper-critical zone and tempering of martensite in sub-critical zone.... 

This paper deals with investigation of fracture behavior of steel fiber reinforced high strength concrete (SFRHSC) and compare it to plain high strength concrete (HSC). Based on an experimental program, a series of three point bending tests were carried out on 54 notched beams, as recommended by RILEM. The fracture parameters were measured by two methods: work of fracture method (WFM) and size effect method (SEM). Then the fracture parameters obtained from these two methods were compared. The results showed that with increase of steel fibers, fracture energy of GF in WFM and Gf in SEM increase but this increase in work of fracture method is more significant. The effective size of the process...