Spiro Yannacopoulos

On the Microstructural Evolution of 4130 Steel During Hot Compression

This article first gives a brief patent review of recent trends of steel alloys used in the manufacturing of high- pressure gas containers. 4130 steel is among such alloys and has been extensively used in natural gas cylinders that are manufactured through the hot deformation processes. Due to the importance of process parameters such as temperature and strain rate on the ensuing microstructure, primarily grain size, and mechanical properties of the cylinder, the dynamic recrystallization characteristics of 4130 steel are investigated in the second part of this article. Hot compression tests on 4130 steel specimens have been performed at a temperature range of 900-1100°C, strain rate range of 0.001-0.1s - � and the strain of 0.9. The resulting flow stress curves show the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization with single or multiple peaks, before reaching the steady state flow at different temperatures and strain rates. The effect of various processing pa- rameters on the microstructure of the alloy is identified by microstructural examination focusing on revealing primary austenite grains using special etchant solutions. It is found that the average grains size of the deformed 4130 steel in- creases with an increase of the forming temperature and a decrease in the strain rate. The grain size is decreased with an increase of the steady state stress.

An integrated multiphysics model for friction stir welding of 6061 Aluminum alloy

This article presents a new, combined ‘integrated’- ‘multiphysics’ model of friction stir welding (FSW) where a set of governing equations from non-Newtonian incompressible fluid dynamics, conductive and convective heat transfer, and plain stress solid mechanics have been coupled for calculating the process variables and material behaviour both during and after welding. More specifically, regarding the multiphysics feature, the model is capable of simultaneously predicting the local distribution, location and magnitude of maximum temperature, strain, and strain rate fields around the tool pin during the process; while for the integrated (post-analysis) part, the above predictions have been used to study the microstructure and residual stress field of welded parts within the same developed code. A slip/stick condition between the tool and workpiece, friction and deformation heat source, convection and conduction heat transfer in the workpiece, a solid mechanics-based viscosity definition, and the Zener-Hollomon- based rigid-viscoplastic material properties with solidus cut-off temperature and empirical softening regime have been employed. In order to validate all the predicted variables collectively, the model has been compared to a series of published case studies on individual/limited set of variables, as well as in-house experiments on FSW of aluminum 6061.

Predicting Residual Stresses in Friction Stir Welding of Aluminum Alloy 6061 Using an Integrated Multiphysics Model

Experimental results in the literature show that there are two flow areas of material during the friction stir welding (FSW) process [1]; namely the “pin-driven flow” and the “shoulder-driven flow”. These areas should completely join together to create a weld with no defect. First, in order to numerically predict the local distribution of flow stress around the pin as well as the temperature, strain, and strain rate fields during FSW, a two-dimensional steady-state Eulerian multiphysics finite element model has been employed in this work for aluminum alloy 6061using the COMSOL software. In this model, the non-Newtonian flow mode of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) module, general heat transfer mode of the heat transfer module, and the plain stress mode of the structural mechanics module of the software have been coupled. Slip/stick condition between the tool and workpiece, frictional and deformation heat sources, the convectional heat transfer in the workpiece, the solid mechanics-based viscosity definition, the temperature-dependent physical properties and the Zener-Hollomon- based thermo-visco-plastic mechanical properties with a cut-off temperature of 582oC were considered. Next, the thermal history during the process predicted by the model was used as input for an elasto-visco-plastic analysis to estimate the local residual stresses distribution due to the workpiece thermal expansion effect. Finally, the predicted longitudinal and transverse residual stresses were verified by comparing to experimental data.

A New Approach to Measure Strain During Friction Stir Welding Using Visioplasticity

During modeling of the friction stir welding (FSW) process, the prediction of strain range experienced by the material is important as it affects the microstructure and mechanical properties of the final weld [1–7]. For aluminum alloys, this range has been reported very scarcely and/or scattered widely in the literature (the range of the maximum equivalent plastic strain has been reported to be from 2.4 to 184 [8–24]). A new approach is proposed in this article for measuring strain during friction stir welding using visioplasticity. In this approach, strains are calculated from changes in the boundaries of a small cylindrical Al-30% SiC composite marker mounted in the advancing side of mid-plane of adjacent plates during welding. The marker shape change is observed by a “stop action” (freeze-in) technique midway the process. COMSOL numerical modeling is then used to compute the strain distribution using the observed boundary changes compared to the initial marker boundaries. As an illustrative example, the method is applied to the results reported by London et al. [25] for the friction stir welding of 6.35 mm thick 7050 aluminum plates, welded with tool RPM of 350, welding speed of 1.69 mm/sec, tool pin diameter of 8 mm, tool shoulder diameter of 24 mm, and tool tilt angle of 3 degrees. A lower and upper bound of cumulative equivalent plastic strain of 14.1 and 20.3, respectively, were found to be in the neighborhood where the marker enters the severe deformation zone at mid-plane of plates in front of the leading edge of the pin.© 2011 ASME

A Review on Thermomechanical Models of Friction Stir Welding

There are several reported thermomechanical models that can be used to predict friction stir welding (FSW) properties of different alloys. A major application of these models is the computation of material temperature, flow stress, strain rate and strain during the process and/or the resulting residual stress after the process. The models are normally applied to solve energy, mass and force equilibrium equations simultaneously using different numerical approaches. All of the validated models can be reliably used to optimize the FSW process parameters such as tool RPM and transverse speed. The brief review in this article is indented to summarize some of the most commonly used thermomechanical models of FSW along with their main characteristics namely; the Solid Mechanics-based models, Fluid Dynamics-based models, and hybrid/ multiphysics models.

Flexural Toughness as an Attribute for Impact Damage Evaluation of Composite Laminates

Popularity and application of composite materials are increasing in several industries including transportation, construction and aerospace. The mechanical properties of these materials should be known to engineers to be able to design/select new products. Impact resistance is one of the properties which have been studied extensively over the past years and still is an ongoing topic in composites research. Since analytical solutions have not been fully developed for the impact characterization of anisotropic materials, researchers often perform mechanical testing in conjunction with visual inspection methods to investigate the impact behavior of composite materials. The present study shows that flexural toughness can be used as a parameter in the design/material selection stage in the evaluation of pre- and post-impact damage of composite laminates. A series of drop-weight impact tests, using a 200J energy level, were performed on specimens made of four different stacking configurations of TWINTEX® and unidirectional laminates (polypropylene and glass fiber commingled composites) according to ASTM D7136. The damaged areas of the impacted specimens were measured using image analysis. Four-point flexural testing was then carried out, based on ASTM D7264, on both non-impacted and impacted specimens. Damaged area and flexural toughness, along with a set of other commonly used mechanical properties, were selected as measures for damage evaluation. Comparison of results before and after impact and under different criteria showed that in the present case study, visual inspection is not sufficient in predicting the post-impact properties of the tested specimens and can be misleading. On the other hand, flexural toughness could give a much clearer perspective on the extent of post-impact resistance of the specimens.Copyright