The present study aims to investigate the influence of Zn addition on hardness and microstructural characteristics of discontinuous precipitates (DPs) formed by isothermal aging in Mg-9%Al and Mg-9%Al-1%Zn alloys. To obtain large DPs volume fractions in the microstructure, the alloy specimens were solution-treated at 688 K for 24 h followed by water quenching, and then aged at 413 K for 48 h. The aged Mg-9%Al-1%Zn alloy had higher DPs content than the Mg-9%Al alloy, indicating that the Zn addition plays a beneficial role in enhancing age-hardening response. The DPs in the Zn-containing alloy possessed the higher hardness than those of the Zn-free alloy. Microstructural examination revealed that the increased hardness of the DPs resulting from the Zn addition is closely associated with the lower α-(Mg)/β(Mg₁₇Al₁₂) interlamellar spacing and the higher volume fraction of β phase layer of the DPs.

Variations in the microstructure and mechanical properties of API X70 steel processed by piping, electrical resistance welding (ERW), and post seam annealing (PSA) are investigated in this study. In the welding zone, some elongated pearlites are formed and grains coarsening occurs due to extra heat caused by the ERW and PSA processes. After the piping, the base metal shows continuous yielding behavior and a decrease in yield and impact strengths because mobile dislocation and back stress are introduced during the piping process. On the other hand, the ERW and PSA processes additionally decreased the impact strength of welding zone at room and low temperatures because some elongated pearlites easily act as crack initiation site and coarse ferrite grains facilitate crack propagation. As a result, the fracture surface of the welding zone specimen tested at low temperature revealed mostly cleavage fracture unlike the base metal specimen.

Manholes and underground spaces are installed to manage the buried heat transport pipes of the district heating system, and the corrosion damage of the equipment placed in this space often occurs. The purpose of this work is to identify locations with a high risk of corrosion damage in the air vent and to establish preventive measures based on precise analysis via sampling of heat transport pipes and air vents that have been used for about 30 years. The residual thickness of the air vent decreased significantly by reaching ~1.1 mm in thickness, and locations of 60~70 mm away from a transport pipe were the most vulnerable to corrosion. The energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis was performed in the corroded oxides, and it was found that chloride ion was contained in the corrosion products. Anodic polarization tests were carried out on the air vent materials (SPPS250, SS304) with varying the amounts of chloride ions at two different temperatures (RT, 80℃). The higher concentration of chloride ions and temperature are, the lower corrosion resistances of both alloys are.

In this study, hydrogen embrittlement in Inconel 718 fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) was investigated. To focus on the effect of the SLM-induced solidification substructure, hydrogen embrittlement behavior of SLM as-built (SLM-AB) sample and that of conventionally produced (Con-S) sample were systematically compared. The detailed microstructural characterization showed that the SLM-AB sample exhibited a solidification substructure including a high density of dislocations and Laves phase, while the Con-S sample showed completely recrystallized grains without any substructure. Although the intrinsic strength in the SLM-AB sample was higher than the Con-S sample, the resistance to hydrogen embrittlement was higher in the SLM-AB sample. Nevertheless, a statistical analysis of the hydrogen-assisted cracks (HACs) revealed that the predominant HAC type of SLM-AB and Con-S samples was similar, i.e., intergranular HAC. The difference in the resistance to hydrogen embrittlement between the SLM-AB and Con-S samples were discussed in terms of the relation between the microstructural feature and its effect on hydrogen accumulation.

It is known that superplastic materials with ultrafine grains have high elongation mainly due to grain boundary sliding. Therefore, in the present study we examined the influence of grain refinement, caused by a repetitive cold rolling and annealing process, on both superplastic elongation and superplastic deformation mechanism. The cold rolling and annealing process was repetitively applied up to 4 times using Fe-10Mn-3.5Si alloy. High-temperature tensile tests were conducted at 763 K with an initial strain rate of 1 × 10^-3 s^-1 using the specimens. The superplastic elongation increased with the number of the repetitive cold rolling and annealing process; in particular, the 4 cycled specimen exhibited the highest elongation of 372%. The primary deformation mechanism of all specimens was grain boundary sliding between recrystallized α-ferrite and reverted γ-austenite grains. The main reason for the increase in elongation with the number of the repetitive cold rolling and annealing process was the increase in fractions of fine recrystallized α-ferrite and reverted γ-austenite grains, which undergo grain boundary sliding.