F.S. Silva

Crack closure inadequacy at negative stress ratios

Abstract This paper reports an experimental study related to the influence of different maximum load, P max , levels on crack closure, and on fatigue crack growth, at a negative stress ratio, R =−1. It focuses on crack tip plasticity effects and on roughness effects on crack closure. Measurements of roughness and of crack opening loads are made, in order to verify their influence on crack propagation rate. It is confirmed that, at negative stress ratios, crack closure changes with P max for the same R ratio. It is also confirmed that roughness is not a relevant mechanism at negative stress ratios. It is demonstrated in this study that the crack closure concept is not adequate to explain crack propagation rate as a function of P max at R =−1. In its place, a concept based on plasticity and on cyclic plastic properties, or on internal stresses, should be used to explain fatigue crack propagation.

Analysis of a vehicle crankshaft failure

Abstract This paper reports an investigation that was carried out on two damaged crankshafts. They were diesel van crankshafts that were sent to be ground, after a life of about 300,000 km each. Some journals were damaged on each crankshaft. After grinding, and assembling on the diesel van, the crankshafts lasted about 1000 km each, and the journals were damaged again. The crankshafts were then sent to be investigated. Different laboratory tests were carried out in order to discover what could have been the cause of the damage. Different typical crankshaft failures were assessed, and will be discussed in this paper. The cause of the damaged journals was found to be a wrong grinding process that originated small thermal fatigue cracks at the center of the journals, on both crankshafts. These almost invisible cracks, with sharp edges, acted as knives originating a very quick damaging of the journal bearings, and as a consequence damaged the journals themselves.

Tribocorrosion behavior of veneering biomedical PEEK to Ti6Al4V structures.

In dentistry, prosthetic structures must be able to support masticatory loads combined with a high biocompatibility and wear resistance in the presence of a corrosive environment. In order to improve the simultaneous wear and corrosion response of highly biocompatible prosthetic structures, a veneering poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) to Ti6Al4V substrate was assessed by tribocorrosion analyses under conditions mimicking the oral environment. Samples were synthesized by hot pressing the PEEK veneer onto Ti6Al4V cylinders. The tribocorrosion tests on Ti6Al4V or PEEK/Ti6Al4V samples were performed on a reciprocating ball-on-plate tribometer at 30N normal load, 1Hz and stroke length of 3mm. The tests were carried out in artificial saliva at 37°C. Open circuit potential (OCP) was measured before, during and after reciprocating sliding tests. The worn surfaces were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The results revealed a lower wear rate on PEEK combined with a lower coefficient of friction (COF), when compared to Ti6Al4V. In fact, PEEK protected Ti6Al4V substrate against the corrosive environment and wear avoiding the release of metallic ions to the surrounding environment.

On assessment of processing variables in vertical centrifugal casting technique

Abstract The aim of the present study is to investigate the influence of the vertical centrifugal casting technique over mechanical and metallurgical properties of a hypereutectic Al–18Si alloy. Due to the inherent vibration of the centrifugal casting technique, and in order to study and understand the individual effects of the equipment vibration and the centrifugal force itself (pressure or fluid dynamics), as well as the combined effect of both, three different tests were performed: gravity casting, gravity casting with vibration and centrifugal casting. It was concluded that the metallurgical and mechanical properties of castings obtained by the centrifugal casting process depend on the combined effect of the centrifugal pressure and/or fluid dynamics and on the inherent vibration of the technique itself. Correlations between the different casting techniques and obtained mechanical and metallurgical properties are presented.

Comparison between PEEK and Ti6Al4V concerning micro-scale abrasion wear on dental applications.

In the oral cavity, abrasive wear is predictable at exposed tooth or restorative surfaces, during mastication and tooth brushing. Also, wear can occur at contacting surfaces between the Ti-based prosthetic structures and implants in presence of abrasive compounds from food or toothpaste. Thus, the aim of this work was to compare the abrasive wear resistance of PEEK and Ti6Al4V on three-body abrasion related to different hydrated silica content and loads. Surfaces of Ti6Al4V or PEEK cylinders (8mm diameter and 4mm height) were wet ground on SiC papers and then polished with 1µm diamond paste. After that, surfaces were ultrasonically cleaned in propyl alcohol for 15min and then in distilled water for 10min. Micro-scale abrasion tests were performed at 60rpm and on different normal loads (0.4, 0.8 or 1.2N) after 600 ball revolutions using suspensions with different weight contents of hydrated silica. After abrasive tests, wear scars on flat samples were measured to quantify the wear volume and characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) to identify the dominant wear mechanisms. Results showed a higher volume loss rate on PEEK than that recorded on Ti6Al4V,, when subjected to three-body abrasion tests involving hydrated silica suspensions. An increase in volume loss was noted on both tested materials when the abrasive content or load was increased. PEEK was characterized by less wear resistance than that on Ti6Al4V after micro-scale abrasion wear in contact with hydrated silica particles, as commonly found in toothpastes.

Hot pressing effect on the shear bond strength of dental porcelain to CoCrMoSi alloy substrates with different surface treatments

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of hot pressing on the shear bond strength of a CoCrMoSi alloy to a low-fusing feldspathic porcelain, for two types of surface treatments: polished and grit-blasted. Moreover, the shear strength of hot pressed porcelain was also compared with that of conventional vacuum sintered porcelain. Bond strength of metal-porcelain composites were assessed by the means of a shear test performed in a universal test machine until fracture. Fracture surfaces and interfaces were investigated by optical microscope, stereomicroscope and SEM/EDS. Data was analyzed with Shapiro-Wilk test to test the assumption of normality. The 2-way ANOVA followed by Tukey HSD multiple comparison test was used to compare shear bond strength results and the t-test was used to compare the porcelain shear strength (p<0.05). Hot pressed specimens exhibited significantly (p<0.001) higher bond strength values than those obtained by conventional PFM technique. Significant differences (p<0.001) were found in the shear bond strength between grit-blasted and polished specimens. Significant differences (p<0.05) were also found between the shear strength of vacuum sintered and hot pressed porcelain. This study revealed that metal-ceramic bond strength is maximized for hot pressed porcelain onto rough metal substrates, with lower variability in results. Hot pressing technique was also shown to enhance the cohesion of porcelain.

Tribological behavior of Ti6Al4V cellular structures produced by Selective Laser Melting

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies enable the fabrication of innovative structures with complex geometries not easily manufactured by traditional processes. Regarding metallic cellular structures with tailored/customized mechanical and wear performance aiming to biomedical applications, Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is a remarkable solution for their production. Focusing on prosthesis and implants, in addition to a suitable Youngs modulus it is important to assess the friction response and wear resistance of these cellular structures in a natural environment. In this sense, five cellular Ti6Al4V structures with different open-cell sizes (100-500µm) were designed and produced by SLM. These structures were tribologicaly tested against alumina using a reciprocating sliding ball-on-plate tribometer. Samples were submerged in Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) fluid at 37°C, in order to mimic in some extent the human body environment. The results showed that friction and wear performance of Ti6Al4V cellular structures is influenced by the structure open-cell size. The higher wear resistance was obtained for structures with 100µm designed open-cell size due to the higher apparent area of contact to support tribological loading.

Finite element analysis of the residual thermal stresses on functionally gradated dental restorations

The aim of this work was to study, using the finite element method (FEM), the distribution of thermal residual stresses arising in metal-ceramic dental restorations after cooling from the processing temperature. Three different interface configurations were studied: with conventional sharp transition; one with a 50% metal-50% ceramic interlayer; and one with a compositionally functionally gradated material (FGM) interlayer. The FE analysis was performed based on experimental data obtained from Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and Dilatometry (DIL) studies of the monolithic materials and metal/ceramic composites. Results have shown significant benefits of using the 50% metal-50% ceramic interlayer and the FGM interlayer over the conventional sharp transition interface configuration in reduction of the thermal residual stress and improvement of stress profiles. Maximum stresses magnitudes were reduced by 10% for the crowns with 50% metal-50% ceramic interlayer and by 20% with FGM interlayer. The reduction in stress magnitude and smoothness of the stress distribution profile due to the gradated architectures might explain the improved behavior of these novel dental restorative systems relative to the conventional one, demonstrated by in-vitro studies already reported in literature.

Influence of the processing route of porcelain/Ti-6Al-4V interfaces on shear bond strength

This study aims at evaluating the two-fold effect of initial surface conditions and dental porcelain-to-Ti-6Al-4V alloy joining processing route on the shear bond strength. Porcelain-to-Ti-6Al-4V samples were processed by conventional furnace firing (porcelain-fused-to-metal) and hot pressing. Prior to the processing, Ti-6Al-4V cylinders were prepared by three different surface treatments: polishing, alumina or silica blasting. Within the firing process, polished and alumina blasted samples were subjected to two different cooling rates: air cooling and a slower cooling rate (65°C/min). Metal/porcelain bond strength was evaluated by shear bond test. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by Tuckeys test (p<0.05). Before and after shear bond tests, metallic surfaces and metal/ceramic interfaces were examined by Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope (FEG-SEM) equipped with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS). Shear bond strength values of the porcelain-to-Ti-6Al-4V alloy interfaces ranged from 27.1±8.9MPa for porcelain fused to polished samples up to 134.0±43.4MPa for porcelain fused to alumina blasted samples. According to the statistical analysis, no significant difference were found on the shear bond strength values for different cooling rates. Processing method was statistically significant only for the polished samples, and airborne particle abrasion was statistically significant only for the fired samples. The type of the blasting material did not cause a statistically significant difference on the shear bond strength values. Shear bond strength of dental porcelain to Ti-6Al-4V alloys can be significantly improved from controlled conditions of surface treatments and processing methods.

The bending stress distribution in bilayered and graded zirconia-based dental ceramics

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biaxial flexural stresses in classic bilayered and in graded zirconia-feldspathic porcelain composites. A finite element method and an analytical model were used to simulate the piston-on-ring test and to predict the biaxial stress distributions across the thickness of the bilayer and graded zirconia-feldspathic porcelain discs. An axisymmetric model and a flexure formula of Hsueh et al. were used in the FEM and analytical analysis, respectively. Four porcelain thicknesses were tested in the bilayered discs. In graded discs, continuous and stepwise transitions from the bottom zirconia layer to the top porcelain layer were studied. The resulting stresses across the thickness, measured along the central axis of the disc, for the bilayered and graded discs were compared. In bilayered discs, the maximum tensile stress decreased while the stress mismatch (at the interface) increased with the porcelain layer thickness. The optimized balance between both variables is achieved for a porcelain thickness ratio in the range of 0.30-0.35. In graded discs, the highest tensile stresses were registered for porcelain rich interlayers (p=0.25) whereas the zirconia rich ones (p=8) yield the lowest tensile stresses. In addition, the maximum stresses in a graded structure can be tailored by altering compositional gradients. A decrease in maximum stresses with increasing values of p (a scaling exponent in the power law function) was observed. Our findings showed a good agreement between the analytical and simulated models, particularly in the tensile region of the disc. Graded zirconia-feldspathic porcelain composites exhibited a more favourable stress distribution relative to conventional bilayered systems. This fact can significantly impact the clinical performance of zirconia-feldspathic porcelain prostheses, namely reducing the fracture incidence of zirconia and the chipping and delamination of porcelain.