Materials Engineering

A new simple “four-variable shear deformation” plate model is proposed in this work to demonstrate the hygro-thermal environment effects on dynamic and buckling of functionally graded material “sandwich plates” supported by “Winkler–Pasternak” elastic foundations. Equations of motion are obtained from Hamilton’s principle containing the hygro-thermal influences. This model uses only “four variables” and considers trigonometric variation of “transverse shear stress.” In addition, these stresses become zero at the upper and lower surfaces of the “sandwich plate.” The novelty of this formulation is the addition of the integral term in the field of displacement, which leads to a reduction of the number of unknowns and basic equations. Various kinds of functionally graded material “sandwich plates” are examined in this study. To verify the validity of the model, the calculated results are compared with the existing results. Comparison investigations reveal that the computed results of th...

Scandium (Sc) is known to be one of the most effective alloying elements of aluminum alloys. The only drawback is its high price, but that could change quickly due to the promising results of recent research on its extraction. However, the data on how it affects anodic oxidation are very scarce. In this research, we analyzed how a micro-addition of Sc to the AlMg alloy affects the growth mechanism and properties of the protective aluminium oxide layer depending on the anodization parameters. For comparison, alloy AA5083 with a similar magnesium content was also anodized with the same anodizing parameters. In all experiments, sulfuric acid (VI) with concentrations of 1.72 M or 2.2 M at temperatures of 21 °C or 35 °C was used as the electrolyte. Potentiostatic (18 V) and galvanostatic (20 mA/cm2) anodizing methods were applied. The results (SED-EDS) show that scandium is uniformly intercalated in the matrix of the oxide layer and decreases its resistivity, which increases the oxide gr...

The occurrence and formation sequence of secondary ledeburite in the heat affected zone of chromium ledeburitic tool steel W.Nr. 1.2379 (OCR12 VM) after welding with SAW, TIG, microplasma and laser welding techniques is presented in this paper. Special attention was paid on the behaviour of carbides. The occurrence of secondary ledeburite is a result of local enrichment of the austenite matrix with alloying elements, due to partial or complete dissolution of primary/eutectic carbides. The results show that the largest amount of secondary ledeburite is formed during submerged arc welding, followed by TIG and microplasma welding technique. Welding by laser technique, with appropriate technological parameters, could prevent secondary ledeburite formation.

Luminescent thermometers based on the luminescence intensity ratio between two thermally coupled levels have a strong appeal in the biomedical area due to the possibility of monitoring the temperature of deep tissues. In such procedures, it is necessary that the excitation and emission wavelengths are within the biological windows. Probes based on neodymium luminescence, with excitation and emission around 800 and 880 nm, are frequently proposed but have low relative sensitivity (0.2%.K−1) due to the small energy separation between the explored Stark sublevels. By changing the excitation wavelength to around 750 nm, it is possible to explore the thermal coupling between the 4F5/2 and 4F3/2 levels. However, lasers in this wavelength range are not common. An alternative is to use LEDs as an excitation source. As a proof of concept, we investigated the thermometric performance of three distinct Nd-doped luminescent probes under 730 nm LED excitation and 532 nm laser excitation: nanocry...

Improved switching characteristics were obtained from high-κ oxides AlOx, GdOx, HfOx, and TaOx in IrOx/high-κx/W structures because of a layer that formed at the IrOx/high-κx interface under external positive bias. The surface roughness and morphology of the bottom electrode in these devices were observed by atomic force microscopy. Device size was investigated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. More than 100 repeatable consecutive switching cycles were observed for positive-formatted memory devices compared with that of the negative-formatted devices (only five unstable cycles) because it contained an electrically formed interfacial layer that controlled ‘SET/RESET’ current overshoot. This phenomenon was independent of the switching material in the device. The electrically formed oxygen-rich interfacial layer at the IrOx/high-κx interface improved switching in both via-hole and cross-point structures. The switching mechanism was attributed to filamentary conduc...