• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.8 no.1 s.27
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• pp.139-152
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• 2006

Many experimental and numerical approaches have been developed to evaluate paving materials and to predict pavement response and distress. Micromechanical simulation modeling is a technology that can reduce the number of physical tests required in material formulation and design and that can provide more details, e.g., the internal stress and strain state, and energy evolution and dissipation in simulated specimens with realistic microstructural features. A clustered distinct element modeling (DEM) approach was implemented In the two-dimensional particle flow software package (PFC-2D) to study the complex behavior observed in asphalt mixture fracturing. The relationship between continuous and discontinuous material properties was defined based on the potential energy approach. The theoretical relationship was validated with the uniform axial compression and cantilever beam model using two-dimensional plane strain and plane stress models. A bilinear cohesive displacement-softening model was implemented as an intrinsic interface and applied for both homogeneous and heterogeneous fracture modeling in order to simulate behavior in the fracture process zone and to simulate crack propagation. A disk-shaped compact tension test (DC(T)) with heterogeneous microstructure was simulated and compared with the experimental fracture test results to study Mode I fracture. The realistic arbitrary crack propagation including crack deflection, microcracking, crack face sliding, crack branching, and crack tip blunting could be represented in the fracture models. This micromechanical modeling approach represents the early developmental stages towards a 'virtual asphalt laboratory,' where simulations of laboratory tests and eventually field response and distress predictions can be made to enhance our understanding of pavement distress mechanisms, such its thermal fracture, reflective cracking, and fatigue crack growth.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.70-74
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• 2003

We fabricated cube textured Ni substrate for YBCO coated conductor and evaluated the effects of processing parameters on microstructural evolution and texture formation. Ni-rods as an initial specimen were prepared by two different methods, i.e., powder metallurgy(PM) and plasma arc melting(PAM). Subsequently, the rods were cold rolled to 100 $\mu\textrm{m}$ thick substrate and annealed at temperatures of $700∼1200^{\circ}C$. The texture of the substrate was characterized by pole-figure. It was observed that the texture of substrate made by P/M did not significantly varied with annealing temperature of 600∼$l100^{\circ}C$ and the full-width at half-maximums (FWHM) of both in-plane and out-of-plane were 9$^{\circ}$∼$10^{\circ}$. On the other hand, the texture of substrate made by PAM was more dependent on the annealing temperature and the corresponding values were $9^{\circ}$ ∼$13^{\circ}$ at the temperature range. In addition, recrystallization twin texture, (221)＜221＞, was formed as the temperature increased further. OM profiles showed that the grain size of substrate made by P/M was smaller than that made by PAM and this difference was correlated to the microstructure of initial specimens.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2012

This study investigated the effects of annealing environment for the densification and purification properties of pure titanium coating layer manufactured by cold spraying. The annealing was conducted at $600^{\circ}C$/1 h and three kinds of environments of vacuum, Ar gas, and $5%H_2+Ar$ mixture gas were controlled. Cold sprayed Ti coating layer (as sprayed) represented 6.7% of porosity and 228 HV of hardness, showing elongated particle shapes (severe plastic deformation) perpendicular to injection direction. Regardless of gas environments, all thermally heat treated coating layers consisted of pure ${\alpha}$-Ti and minimal oxide. Vacuum environment during heat treatment represented superior densification properties (3.8% porosity, 156.7 HV) to those of Ar gas (5.3%, 144.5 HV) and $5%H_2+Ar$ mixture gas (5.5%, 153.1 HV). From the results of phase analysis (XRD, EPMA, SEM, EDS), it was found that the vacuum environment during heat treatment could be effective for reducing oxide contents (purification) in the Ti coating layer. The characteristic of microstructural evolution with heat treatment was found to be different at three different gas environments. The controlling method for improving densification and purification in the cold sprayed Ti coating material was also discussed.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2003

Al-l4wt.%Ni-l4wt.% Mm(Mm=misch metal) alloy powders rapidly solidified by the gas atomization method were subjected to mechanical milling(MM). The morphology, microstructure and hardness of the powders were investigated as a function of milling time using scanning electron microscopy(SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and Vickers microhardness tester. Microstructural evolution in gas-atomized Al-l4wt.%Ni-l4wt.% Mm(Mm=misch metal) alloy powders was studied during mechanical milling. It was noted that the as-solidified particle size of $200\mutextrm{m}$ decreases during the first 48 hours and then increases up to 72 hours of milling due to cold bonding and subsequently there was continuous refinement to $20\mutextrm{m}$ on milling to 200 hours. Two microstructurally different zones, Zone A, which is fine microstructure area and Zone B, which has the structure of the as-solidified powder, were observed. The average thickness of the Zone A layer increased from about 10 to $15\mutextrm{m}$ in the powder milled for 24 hours. Increasing the milling time to 72 hours resulted in the formation of a thicker and more uniform Zone A layer, whose thickness increased to about $30~50\mutextrm{m}$. The TEM micrograph of ball milled powder for 200 hours shows formation of nano-particles, less than 20 nm in size, embedded in an Al matrix.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.552-561
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• 2011

This study attempted to manufacture a Cu-15 at.%Ga coating layer via the cold spray process and investigated the effect of heat treatment environment on the properties of cold sprayed coating material. Three kinds of heat treatment environments, $5%H_2$+argon, pure argon, and vacuum were used in this study. Annealing treatments were conducted at $200{\sim}800^{\circ}C$/1 hr. With the cold sprayed coating layer, pure ${\alpha}$-Cu and small amounts of $Ga_2O_3$ were detected in the XRD, EDS, EPMA analyses. Porosity significantly decreased and hardness also decreased with increasing annealing temperature. The inhomogeneous dendritic microstructure of cold sprayed coating material changed to the homogeneous and dense one (microstructural evolution) with annealing heat treatment. Oxides near the interface of particles could be reduced by heat treatment especially in vacuum and argon environments. Vacuum environment during heat treatment was suggested to be most effective one to improve the densification and purification properties of cold sprayed Cu-15 at.%Ga coating material.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.584-590
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• 1998

The microstructures of finely distributed Si-phases in $\beta$-$FeSi_2$ thermoelectric matrix, were produced by heat-treating the melt-cast ingots of single $\alpha$-$Fe_2Si_5$ phase at 730~85$0^{\circ}C$ for 4~20 hours, or by resistance-hot-pressing the mechanically alloyed powders ordinarily consisting of $\varepsilon$-FeSi and Si phases at 760~85$0^{\circ}C$ for 10 minutes of composition. $(Fe_{0.98}Mn_{0.02})_xSi_2(x{\leq$}1) The size and interspacing of dispersed Si-phases were able to control within a range of 0.05~0.27$\mu\textrm{m}$ and 0.2~0.6$\mu\textrm{m}$ by variations of heat treatment temperature and sintering temperature as well as the composition. respectively. The dispersion of Si- phases was expected to be effective for the reduction of thermal conductivity responsible for the increment of thermoelectric figure of merit.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.42-45
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• 2012

The mechanical behavior and microstructural evolution during high temperature tensile deformation of recrystallized Ni3Al polycrystals doped with boron were investigated as functions of initial grain size, tensile strain rate and temperature. In order to obtain more precise information on the deformation mechanism, tensile specimens were rapidly quenched immediately after deformation at a cooling rate of more than $2000Ks^{-1}$, and were then observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Mechanical tests in the range of 923 K to 1012 K were carried out in a vacuum of less than $3{\times}10^{-4}$ Pa using an Instron-type machine with various but constant cross head speeds corresponding to the initial strain rates from $1.0{\times}10^{-4}$ to $3.1{\times}10^{-5}s^{-1}$. After heating to deformation temperature, the specimen was kept for more than 1.8 ks before testing. The following results were obtained: (1) Flow behavior was affected by initial strain size; with decreasing initial grain size, the level of a stress peak in the true stress-true strain curve decreased, the steady state region was enlarged and elongation increased. (2) On the basis of TEM observation of rapidly quenched specimens, it was confirmed that dynamic recrystallization certainly occurred on deformation of fine-grained ($3.3{\mu}m$) and intermediate-grained ($5.0{\mu}m$) specimens at an initial strain rate of $3.1{\times}10^{-5}s^{-1}$ and at 973 K. (3) There were some dislocation-free grains among the new recrystallized grains. The obtained results suggest that both dynamic recrystallization and grain boundary sliding are operative during high temperature deformation.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.153-158
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• 2002

$Al_2O_3$ composites powders with 1∼11 wt% $TiO_2$ were prepared by wet method and sintered at 1350$^{\circ}C$, 1450$^{\circ}C$ for 2h. Mechanical properties and microstructural evolution were investigated in this study. $Al_2O_3$-3 wt% $TiO_2$ composite were high bulk density of 2.37 g/$cm^3$ and low apparent porosity of 6.3%. The composites containing of 3 wt% $TiO_2$ showed moderately high bending strength of 68.9 MPa and the young's modulus of 35.5 MPa. The composites with increasing $TiO_2$ contents exhibit reduced thermal expansion coefficient due to the formation of $Al_2TiO_5$ phase.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.37-42
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• 2003

In soldering of electronic packaging, the research on substituting lead-free solder materials for Pb-Sn alloys has become active due to environmental and health concerns over the use of lead. The reliability of the solder joint is very important in the development of solder materials and it is known that it is related to wettability of the solder over the substrate and microstructural evolution during soldering. It is also highly affected by type and extent of the interfacial reaction between solder and substrate and therefore, it is necessary to understand the interfacial reaction between solder and substrate completely. In order to predict the intermetallic compound (IMC) phase which forms first at the substrate/solder interface during the soldering process, a thermodynamic methodology has been suggested. The activation energy for the nucleation of each IMC phases is represented by a function of the interfacial energy and the driving force for phase formation. From this, it is predicted that the IMC phase with the smallest activation energy forms first. The grain morphology of the IMC at the solder joint is also explained by the calculations which use the energy. The Jackson parameter of the IMC grain with a rough surface is smaller than 2 but it is larger than 2 in the case of faceted grains.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.900-906
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• 2001

We prepared tunnel magnetoresistance(TMR) devices of Ta($50\AA$)/NiFe($50\AA$)/IrMn(150$\AA$)/CoFe($50\AA$)/Al ($13\AA$)-O/CoFe($40\AA$)/NiFe($400\AA$)/Ta(50$\AA$) structure which has 100$\times$100 $\mu\textrm{m}^2$ junction area on $2.5\Times2.5 cm^{2}$ $Si/SiO_2$ ($1000\AA$) substrates by a inductively coupled plasma(ICP) magnetron sputter. We fabricated the insulating layer using a ICP plasma oxidation method by varying oxidation time from 80 sec to 360 sec, and measured resistances and magnetoresistance(MR) ratios of TMR devices. We used a high resolution transmission electron microscope(HRTEM) to investigate microstructural evolution of insulating layer. The average resistance of devices increased from 16.38 $\Omega$ to 1018 $\Omega$ while MR ratio decreased from 30.31 %(25.18 %) to 15.01 %(14.97 %) as oxidation time increased from 80 sec to 360 sec. The values in brackets are calculated values considering geometry effect. By comparing cross-sectional TEM images of 220 sec and 360 sec-oxidation time, we found that insulating layer of 360 sec-oxidized was 30 % and 40% greater than that of 150 sec-oxidized in thickness and thickness variation, respectively. Therefore, we assumed that increase of thickness variation with oxidation time is major reason of MR decrease. The resistance of 80 sec-oxidized specimen was 160 k$\Omega$$\mu\textrm{m}^2$ which is appropriate for industrial needs of magnetic random access memory(MRAM) application.