• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.132-137
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• 2019

Tungsten carbide (WC) hard materials are used in various industries and possess a superior hardness compared to other hard materials. They have particularly high melting points, high strength, and abrasion resistance. Accordingly, tungsten carbide hard materials are used for wear-resistant tools, cutting tools, machining tools, and other tooling materials. In this study, the WC-5wt.%Co, Fe, Ni hard materials are densified using the horizontal ball milled WC-Co, WC-Fe, and WC-Ni powders by a spark plasma sintering process. The WC-5Co, WC-5Fe, and WC-5Ni hard materials are almost completely densified with a relative density of up to 99.6% after simultaneous application of a pressure of 60 MPa and an electric current for about 15 min without any significant change in the grain size. The average grain size of WC-5Co, WC-5Fe, and WC-5Ni that was produced through SPS was about 0.421, 0.779, and $0.429{\mu}m$, respectively. The hardness and fracture toughness of the dense WC-5Co, WC-5Fe, WC-5Ni hard materials were also investigated.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.161-166
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• 2011

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of high-energy mechanical milling (HEMM) time and sintering temperature on microstructure and mechanical properties of the TiAl composite fabricated by pulse current activated sintering. TiAl intermetallic powders were milled by HEMM for 1h, 4h, and 8h respectively. Thermal analysis was used to observe the phase transformation of the milled TiAl powders. The sintering time decreased with increase of milling time. The hardness and fracture toughness of the sintered specimens also was improved with increasing milling time. The grain size of the sintered specimens which was milled for 4h was in the range of 50~100 nm.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.861-866
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• 2012

A dense nanostructured TiN-AlN composite was prepared from high-energy ball milled TiN-AlN mixture powders by pulsed current activated sintering (PCAS). A highly dense TiN-AlN bulk composite was obtained within 2 minutes at $1500^{\circ}C$ with the simultaneous application of 80 MPa pressure and pulsed current. The fine crystalline structure of the TiN-AlN mixture, which was obtained by high-energy milling, was effectively maintained during PCAS and resulted in the enhancement of the mechanical properties. The micro hardness and fracture toughness of TiN-AlN composite were $1780kg/mm^2$ and $5MPa.m^{1/2}$, respectively. The mechanical properties were higher than monolithic AlN or TiN.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 2022

Transition metal carbides (TMCs) are used to process difficult-to-cut materials due to the trend of requiring superior wear and corrosion properties compared to those of cemented carbides used in the cutting industry. In this study, TMC (TiC, TaC, Mo₂C, and NbC)-based cermets were consolidated by spark plasma sintering at 1,300 ℃ (60 ℃min) with a pressure of 60 MPa with Co addition. The sintering behavior of TMCs depended exponentially on the function of the sintering exponent. The Mo₂C-6Co cermet was fully densified, with a relative density of 100.0 %. The Co-binder penetrated the hard phase (carbides) by dissolving and re-precipitating, which completely densified the material. The mechanical properties of the TMCs were determined according to their grain size and elastic modulus: TiC-6Co showed the highest hardness of 1,872.9 MPa, while NbC-6Co showed the highest fracture toughness of 10.6 MPa^*m^1/2. The strengthened grain boundaries due to high interfacial energy could cause a high elastic modules; therefore, TiC-6Co showed a value of 452 ± 12 GPa.

• Composites Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.209-214
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• 2024

Graphene oxide (GO), known for its high stiffness, thermal conductivity, and electrical conductivity, is being utilized as a reinforcement in nanocomposite materials. This study evaluates the mechanical properties of epoxy nanocomposites incorporating GO and edge modified GO (E-GO), which has hydroxyl groups substituted only on its edges. GO/E-GO was uniformly dispersed in epoxy resin using ultrasonic dispersion, and mechanical properties were assessed through tensile testing. The results showed that the addition of nanoparticles increased both tensile strength and toughness. The tensile strength of the epoxy without nanoparticles was 74.4 MPa, while the highest tensile strength of 90.7 MPa was observed with 0.3 wt% E-GO. Additionally, the modulus increased from 2.55 GPa to 3.53 GPa with the addition of nanoparticles. Field emission scanning electron microscopy of the fracture surface revealed that the growth of cracks was impeded by the nanoparticles, preventing complete fracture and causing the cracks to split in multiple directions. E-GO, with surface treatment only on the edges, exhibited higher mechanical properties than GO due to its superior dispersion and surface treatment effects. These results highlight the importance of nanoparticle surface treatment in developing high-performance nanocomposite materials.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.513-519
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• 1994

Alumina composite was fabricated by introducing tetragonal ZrO2 in alumina composite of $\alpha$-alumina reinforced with in-situ formed La-$\beta$-aluminate (LaAl11O18). The powder mixture of composition (100-x)[88 Al2O3+(La2O3+11 Al2O3)]+x vol% ZrO2 was prepared with x from 0 to 40. Dense composites fabricated by hot-pressing exhibited bending strength up to 1200 MPa. The gain growth inhibiting effect of ZrO2 grains and La-$\beta$-aluminate platelets, and possibly the stress-induced phase transformation of ZrO2 have resulted in the high bending strength. The fracture toughness of the composite also increased up to 8.5 MPa.m1/2. The enhancement in toughness can be explained by transformation and microcrack toughening of ZrO2 and by crack deflection and bridging of La-$\beta$-aluminate platelets and ZrO2.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.319-325
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• 2010

3-D IC integration enables the smallest form factor and highest performance due to the shortest and most plentiful interconnects between chips. Direct metal bonding has several advantages over the solder-based bonding, including lower electrical resistivity, better electromigration resistance and more reduced interconnect RC delay, while high process temperature is one of the major bottlenecks of metal direct bonding because it can negatively influence device reliability and manufacturing yield. We performed quantitative analyses of the interfacial properties of Al-Al bonds with varying process parameters, bonding temperature, bonding time, and bonding environment. A 4-point bending method was used to measure the interfacial adhesion energy. The quantitative interfacial adhesion energy measured by a 4-point bending test shows 1.33, 2.25, and $6.44\;J/m^2$ for 400, 450, and $500^{\circ}C$, respectively, in a $N_2$ atmosphere. Increasing the bonding time from 1 to 4 hrs enhanced the interfacial fracture toughness while the effects of forming gas were negligible, which were correlated to the bonding interface analysis results. XPS depth analysis results on the delaminated interfaces showed that the relative area fraction of aluminum oxide to the pure aluminum phase near the bonding surfaces match well the variations of interfacial adhesion energies with bonding process conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.4 s.175
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• pp.1055-1064
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• 2000

First, various specimen geometries, namely, coupon type, waisted type and dog-bone type, were examined to determine appropriate fatigue specimen of thermoplastic composite material AS4/PEEK and the n, fatigue strength of smooth and notched specimens of AS4/PEEK [-45/0/+45/90]2s was investigated. Fatigue tests were performed under load controlled condition at a stress ratio of 0. 1 at a frequency of 5Hz. Stiffness degradation of specimens with fatigue cycling was monitored using an automated unloading compliance technique. The waisted type specimen is found appropriate for smooth fatigue specimen geometry of AS4/PEEK. As for the effect of stress concentration, it is found that fatigue strength is higher for a 2mm-diameter hole notched specimen than a 5mm-diameter one. Fatigue notch factor decreases with the increase of fatigue life. These results are far different from the trend of fatigue strength of metallic materials. The stiffness variation of smooth specimen was only 4% at maximum until final fracture. On the other hand, the stiffness of hole notched specimen was reduced by 45% at maximum. Notched fatigue strength was compared between thermoplastic composite AS4/PEEK and thermosetting composite Graphite/Epoxy. In long-life fatigue (>104), the AS4/PEEK composite shows superior fatigue strength, but in short-life fatigue, the fatigue strength of the Graphite/Epoxy composite is nearly equal or somewhat higher than that of the AS4/PEEK composite.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.1207-1214
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• 2014

Under excessive plasticity, the fracture toughness of a material depends on its size and geometry. Under fully yielded conditions, the stresses in a material near its crack tip are not unique but rather depend on the geometry. Therefore, the single-parameter J-approach is limited to a high-constraint crack geometry. The JQ theory has been proposed for establishing the crack geometry constraints. This approach assumes that the crack-tip fields have two degrees of freedom. In this study, the crack-tip stress field of a fully circumferential surface-cracked pipe under combined loads is investigated on the basis of the JQ theory by using finite element analysis. The combined loads are a tensile axial force and the thermal gradient in the radial direction. Q-stresses of the crack geometry and its loading state are used to determine the constraint effects. The constraint effects of secondary loading are found to be greater than those of primary loading. Therefore, thermal shock is believed to be the most severe loading condition of constraint effects.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.101-108
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• 2018

AA7010 is an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy containing Zr, developed as an alternate to traditional AA7075 alloy owing to their high strength combined with better fracture toughness. It is necessary to improve the corrosion resistance and surface properties of the alloy by incorporating plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) method. AA7010-T7452 aluminum alloy has been processed through the forging route with multi-stage working operations, and was coated with $10{\mu}m$ thick $Al_2O_3$ ceramic aluminina coating using the plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) method. The corrosion, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and nano-mechanical behaviours were examined by means of potentiodynamic polarization, slow strain rate test (SSRT) and nano-indentation tests. The results indicated that the additional thermomechanical treatment during the forging process caused a fully recrystallized microstructure, which lead to the poor environmental cracking resistance of the alloy in 3.5% NaCl solution, despite the overaging treatment. Although the fabricated PEO coating improved general corrosion resistance, the brittle nature of the coating did not provide any improvement in SCC resistance of the alloy. However, the hardness and elastic modulus of the coating were significantly higher than the base alloy.