Ondřej Kovářík

Young's modulus-and fatigue behavior of plasma-sprayed alumina coatings

The fatigue behavior and Young’s modulus of plasma-sprayed gray alumina on low-carbon steel substrates were investigated. The investigation of the properties of composites that were defined as “coating-substrate” composites included measurements of the microhardness profile, the residual stress on the top of the coating, and the residual stress profile in the substrate. Fatigue samples were periodically loaded as a cantilever beam on a special testing machine. Failed samples were observed with a scanning electron microscope to determine the failure processes in the coating. The Young’s modulus of the coating was measured by the four-point bending method. Samples were tested both in tension and compression under low (300 N) and high (800 N) loads. The authors’ experiments revealed that the average fatigue lives of coated specimens were nearly two times longer than those of the uncoated specimens. The measurements of Young’s modulus of the coating yielded values that varied between 27 and 53 GPa, with an average value of 43 GPa. Loading in tension caused a decrease in the Young’s modulus of the coating, while loading in compression led to an increase in Young’s modulus. The increase in the lifetime of coated samples was likely due to compressive residual stresses in the substrate, originating during the spray process. The failure of the coating was due to several processes, among which the most important were splat cracking, splat debonding, and the coalescence of cracks through the voids in the coating.

Nondestructive indication of fatigue damage and residual lifetime in ferromagnetic construction materials

A new revolutionary attitude toward investigation of fatigue damage in cyclically loaded steel samples is reported. The measurement is based on the method of magnetic adaptive testing, which-–in contrast to traditional magnetic hysteresis investigations-–picks up the relevant information from systematic measurement and evaluation of whole minor magnetic hysteresis loops and their derivatives. Satisfactory correlations between nondestructively measured magnetic descriptors and actual lifetime of the fatigued material were found. The presented method is able to serve as a powerful tool for indication of changes, which occur in the structure of the inspected objects during their industrial service lifetime, as long as they are manufactured from ferromagnetic materials.

Effect of Actual Indenter Shape on the Results of Spherical Nanoindentation

Actual shape of the diamond spherical indenter of nominal radius 20 μm was investigated in this study. 3D reconstruction was performed by atomic force microscope and by the method of stereopair using SEM images of the tip taken under several different angles. The results were compared with the shape obtained indirectly by the calibration performed on specimens with known Young’s modulus. It was found that lower effective values of tip radius for the small penetration depths are caused by the irregular geometry of contact between indenter and specimen surface. With increasing penetration depth the radius increased to the theoretical values and it decreased again for high penetration depths. The stress-strain curves were determined using corrected effective indenter radius.

Optimization of fatigue damage indication in ferromagnetic low carbon steel

Fatigue damage was investigated by the method of magnetic adaptive testing (MAT), which is based on the systematic measurement and evaluation of minor magnetic hysteresis loops. A large number of magnetic measurements were performed on a single reference series of low carbon steel flat samples, which were fatigued by cyclic bending in an identical way, up to an increasing level of fatigue damage. The measurements of the magnetic properties of these samples were repeated under varied conditions, including speed of magnetization of the samples, sample temperature during the measurement, choice of the evaluated signal, frequency of the voltage sampling, and range of the applied amplitudes of the magnetizing field/current. Special attention was turned to the influence of the thickness of the non-ferromagnetic spacers positioned between the surface of the samples and the flat fronts of the attached magnetizing yokes. On one hand, the spacers decrease the values of the induced signal and its derivatives, but on the other hand they substantially increase the reproducibility of the measurement and positively influence the shapes of the resulting degradation curves. Optimum conditions for the magnetic measurement of the fatigue damage were searched, found, and recommended. The results indicate the reliable applicability of MAT to detect early stages of the material fatigue, and to predict its residual lifetime.

Young’s Modulus of Alumina Particles Reinforced Metal-Matrix Composite

Young’s modulus of alumina particles reinforced pure Al-matrix composite is characterized by different methods: the pulse-echo ultrasound method, static three point bending, resonant bending and continuous multicycle measurement by instrumented indentation. Dependency of apparent Young’s modulus on loading amplitude was observed and attributed to the local mechanical properties of both phases, especially to the development of internal damage (local plasticity and particle cracking).

Effect of Grit-Blasting on Residual Stress Field

The effect of grit-blasting on the development of residual stress field during the surface treatment of the cold rolled mild steel was characterized by means of neutron diffraction, nanohardness measurement and electron back-scatter diffraction. The neutron diffraction revealed strong residual compressive stress with the maximum value (about-100 MPa) situated just under the sample surface of the grit-blasted sample. The deformation profiles obtained by the nanoindentation and electron back-scatter diffraction (band slope signal) revealed the strain hardening after grit blasting up to depth of approximately 100 μm.

A Contribution to the Physical Interpretation of the Morphology of Fatigue Fracture Surfaces

The reference texture is a subset of the image texture in SEM fractographs of fatigue fractures. It is common to all fractures caused by loadings in which significant events occur sufficiently regularly and frequently. The reference crack growth rate is unambiguously related to the reference texture. A particular loading is characterized by the ratio of the reference and conventional crack growth rates called reference factor. Its value may be related to the sequence of successive sizes of cyclic plastic zone, while the mechanism of the effect of overloads follows the models of Wheeler and Willenborg. Application to a set of three test specimens from stainless steel AISI 304L loaded by various loading regimes is shown.