S. Mackiewicz

The influence of hot pressing conditions on mechanical properties of nickel aluminide/alumina composite

The influence of hot pressing conditions on mechanical properties of nickel aluminide/alumina composite has been investigated in the present paper. In particular, effect of the process parameters, viz. compacting pressure, sintering temperature and sintering time on the evolution of density, elastic constants and tensile strength properties of the intermetallic-ceramic composite has been studied. Elastic constants, the Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio, have been evaluated using an ultrasonic testing method, and the tensile strength has been determined by a Brazilian-type splitting test. Microscopic observations of microstructure evolution complemented the experimental procedure. Experimental results have been confronted with theoretical models showing a good agreement between the data compared.

Destructive and Ultrasonic Investigations of Damage Development in Metallic Materials

Damage development due to creep under uniaxial tension at elevated temperatures is assessed using destructive and non-destructive methods in steels, commonly used in power plants or chemical industry, and in aluminium alloy used in aircrafts for responsible elements. The results obtained using two different destructive methods for assessments of damage development are critically discussed. In the first method the specimens of steel after different amounts of creep prestraining were stretched up to failure and variations of the selected tension parameters were taken into account for damage identification. In the second one, a damage degree was evaluated by studying variations of an initial yield locus position in the stress space and by determination of the yield loci dimensions. The ultrasonic investigations were selected as the non-destructive method for damage development evaluation.

A study of densification and microstructure evolution during hot pressing of NiAl/Al2O3 composite

Evolution of the density and the microstructure during hot pressing of NiAl/Al2O3 composite has been investigated in the present paper. In particular, the effect of the process parameters, viz. compacting pressure, sintering temperature and sintering time, on the evolution of the density of the intermetallic–ceramic composite has been studied. Evolution of the density has been related to microstructure changing. Porosity, pore structures and grains rearrangement have been analysed in microscopic observations.