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In the V-bending of sheet metals using a pair of plastic punch and die manufactured by a 3D printer, the effects of two different dimensions designed with the same tool geometry on the deformation behaviors of the punch, die, and sheet were evaluated. The deformation behavior and strain distribution of the punch, die, and sheet were analyzed using a digital image correlation method. Sheets from pure aluminum to ultra-high-strength steel were bent using the two tools with different spans; one was designed on the assumption of tool steel material, and the other was designed on the assumption of plastic material. In both tools, the large compressive strain appeared around the center of the punch tip and on the corners of the die. The tools with a long span for the plastic material gave a lower bending force and small deformation of the plastic tools. The angle difference between a bent sheet at the bottom dead center and a tool was smaller for the tools with the long span, although the springback in the bent sheet appeared. It was found that the design method on the assumption of the plastic material is effective for the V-bending plastic tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Mg-based composite material has been produced by the consolidation at room temperature of a Mg-5wt.% Ni-2wt.% Nb2O5 powder mixture subjected to high-pressure torsion (HPT), one of the processing methods to induce severe plastic deformations. The microstructure, density, and microhardness of the consolidated disks were characterized after the application of up to 30 revolutions in torsion under compression stresses of 3 and 5 GPa. According to the density measurements, the composite was consolidated in full after the application of five revolutions, although disks subjected to only one revolution exhibited densities close to the maximum measured value. On the other hand, grain size and microhardness measurements showed that differences existed at locations near the center and the periphery of the HPT-processed disks. Under the stress of 5 GPa, the grain size in the central regions stabilized at about 0.35 μm after five revolutions, while at the peripherical regions it gradually decreased with an increasing number of revolutions down to about 0.15 μm after 30 revolutions. In turn, the microhardness measured along a diametral cross section steadily increased with the number of revolutions between 1 and 10 revolutions, maintaining a gradient from the center to the periphery in all cases. With the application of 20 and 30 revolutions, only the peripheral regions increased considerably in hardness. It was discovered that the magnesium particles in the initial powder mixture had formed an oxide—hydroxide surface layer, which changed the expected final density of the consolidated material by about 2 to 4.5%. This superficial contamination of the Mg powders did not prevent the material from achieving full consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the deformation mechanism of cementite such as on a slip plane is important with regard to revealing and improving the mechanical property of steels. However, the deformation behavior of cementite has not been well investigated because of the difficulty of sample preparation given the single phase structure of cementite. In this study, by fabricating bulk single phase cementite samples using the method developed by the authors, the deformation texture formed by uniaxial compression was investigated using both electron back scatter diffraction and neutron diffraction. The fabricated sample had a random texture before the compression. After applying a compressive strain of 0.5 at 833 K, (010) fiber texture was formed along the compressive axis. It has been suggested from this trend that the primary slip plane of cementite is (010). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new method for evaluating single crystals and oligocrystals, pulsed neutron Bragg-dip transmission analysis/imaging method is being developed. In this study, a single Bragg-dip profile-fitting analysis method was newly developed, and applied for analyzing detailed inner information in a crystalline grain position-dependently. In the method, the spectrum profile of a single Bragg-dip is analyzed at each position over a grain. As a result, it is expected that changes in crystal orientation, mosaic spread angle and thickness of a perfect crystal can be evaluated from the wavelength, the width and the integrated intensity of the Bragg-dip, respectively. For confirming this effectiveness, the method was applied to experimental data of position-dependent Bragg-dip transmission spectra of a Si-steel plate consisting of oligocrystals. As a result, inner information of multiple crystalline grains could be visualized and evaluated. The small change in crystal orientation in a grain, about 0.4°, could be observed by imaging the Bragg-dip wavelengths. By imaging the Bragg-dip widths, both another grain and mosaic block in a grain were detected. Furthermore, imaging results of the integrated intensities of Bragg-dips were consistent with the results of Bragg-dip width imaging. These small crystallographic changes have not been observed and visualized by previous Bragg-dip analysis methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new mapping procedure for polycrystals using neutron Bragg-dip transmission is presented. This is expected to be useful as a new materials characterization tool which can simultaneously map the crystallographic direction of grains parallel to the incident beam. The method potentially has a higher spatial resolution than neutron diffraction imaging. As a demonstration, a Bragg-dip neutron transmission experiment was conducted at J-PARC on beamline MLF BL10 NOBORU. A large-grained Si-steel plate was used. Since this specimen included multiple grains along the neutron beam transmission path, it was a challenging task for existing methods to analyse the direction of the crystal lattice of each grain. A new data-analysis method for Bragg-dip transmission measurements was developed based on database matching. As a result, the number of grains and their crystallographic direction along the neutron transmission path have been determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the electronic and crystal structures of a new thermoelectric material, CaMgSi compound, by using synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy (SR-PES), synchrotron radiation X-ray powder diffraction (SR-XRD) measurements, and electronic band structure calculation to understand the way leading to improvement in the thermoelectric properties of this material. Electronic band structure calculation of the CaMgSi compound using the crystal structure determined from SR-XRD measurement showed a semi-metallic electronic structure with a pseudo-gap at the Fermi level. In contrast to the predicted semi-metallic electronic structure, the SR-PES results showed a small semiconductor-like gap at the Fermi level. This result revealed that the CaMgSi compound is a Mott-type insulator owing to strongly correlated electrons effect in the Ca 3 d and Mg 3 p states being well hybridized with those in the Si 3 p states. The observed electronic structure of the CaMgSi compound suggests that an optimal carrier doping exists to best control the n- and p-type thermoelectric properties and enhance the power factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of higher-order micromagnetic small-angle neutron scattering theory in nanocrystalline materials is still in its infancy. One key challenge remaining in this field is understanding the role played by the microstructure on the magnitude and sign of the higher-order scattering contribution recently observed in nanocrystalline materials prepared by high-pressure torsion. By combining structural and magnetic characterization techniques, namely X-ray diffraction, electron backscattered diffraction and magnetometry with magnetic small-angle neutron scattering, this work discusses the relevance of higher-order terms in the magnetic small-angle neutron scattering cross section of pure iron prepared by high-pressure torsion associated with a post-annealing process. The structural analysis confirms: (i) the preparation of ultra-fine-grained pure iron with a crystallite size below 100 nm and (ii) rapid grain growth with increasing annealing temperature. The analysis of neutron data based on the micromagnetic small-angle neutron scattering theory extended to textured ferromagnets yields uniaxial magnetic anisotropy values that are larger than the magnetocrystalline value reported for bulk iron, supporting the existence of induced magnetoelastic anisotropy in the mechanically deformed samples. Furthermore, the neutron data analysis revealed unambiguously the presence of non-negligible higher-order scattering contributions in high-pressure torsion iron. Though the sign of the higher-order contribution might be related to the amplitude of the anisotropy inhomogeneities, its magnitude appears to be clearly correlated to the changes in the microstructure (density and/or shape of the defects) induced by combining high-pressure torsion and a post-annealing treatment., (open access.)