• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.147-155
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• 2011

The ceramic coatings are excellent materials of cutting tools and sliding parts. To evaluate the wear characteristics of very thin ceramic coated layer, it is very important to investigate its wear process microscopically. An effective method for investigating the wear of a thin layer is the observation of wear process in microscopic detail using in-situ system. In this study, using the SEM Tribosystem as in-situ system, the microscopic wear mode of TiN coatings was investigated in repeated sliding. As results, four modes were observed for TiN coatings: Ploughing, powder formation, flake formation and coating delimitation. The observation of the microscopic wear by in-situ system can clarify the allowable stress of TiN coating.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.88-97
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• 2013

Technical investigation to figure out the problems arising during in-situ heating electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis inside scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was carried out. EBSD patterns were successfully acquired up to $830^{\circ}C$ without degradation of EBSD pattern quality in steels. Several technical problems such as image drift and surface microstructure pinning were taking place during in-situ experiments. Image drift problem was successfully prevented in constant current supplying mode. It was revealed that the surface pinning problem was resulted from the $TiO_2$ oxide particle formation during heating inside SEM chamber. Surface pinning phenomenon was fairly reduced by additional platinum and carbon multi-layer coating before in-situ heating experiment, furthermore was perfectly prevented by improvement of vacuum level of SEM chamber via leakage control. Plane view in-situ observation provides better understanding on the overall feature of recrystallization phenomena and cross sectional in-situ observation provides clearer understanding on the recrystallization mechanism.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.113-120
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• 2024

An attempt was made to apply digital image correlation (DIC) strain analysis to in-situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations of bending deformation to quantify local strain distribution inside a ZnMgAl-alloy coating in deformation. Interstitial-free steel sheets were hot-dipped in a Zn-3Mg-6Al (mass%) alloy melt at 400 ℃ for 2 s. The specimens were deformed using a miniature-sized 4-point bending test machine inside the SEM chamber. The observed in situ SEM images were used for DIC strain analysis. The hot-dip ZnMgAl-alloy coating exhibited a solidification microstructure composed of a three-phase eutectic of fine Al (fcc), Zn (hcp), and Zn2Mg phases surrounding the primary solidified Al phases. The relatively coarsened Zn₂Mg phases were locally observed inside the ZnMgAl-alloy coating. The DIC strain analysis revealed that the strain was localized in the primary solidified Al phases and fine eutectic microstructure around the Zn₂Mg phase. The results indicated high deformability of the multi-phase microstructure of the ZnMgAl-alloy coating.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.36-43
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• 1999

The effect of microstructure on the fracture toughness of multi pass weld metal has been investigated. The micromechanisms of fracture process are identified by in-situ scanning electron microscopy(SEM) fracture observation using single edge notched specimen. The notches of the in-situ fracture specimens were carefully located such that the ends of the notches were in the as-deposited top bead and the reheated weld metal respectively. The observation of in-situ fracture process for as-deposited top bead indicated that as strains are applied, microcracks are formed at the interfaces between soft proeutectoid ferrite and acicular ferrite under relatively low stress intensity factor. Then, the microcracks propagate easily along the proeutectoid ferrite phase, leading to final fracture. These findings suggest that proeutectoid ferrite plays an important role in reducing the toughness of the weld metal. On the other hand, reheated regions showed that the microcrack initiated at the notch tip grows along the localized shear bands under relatively high stress intensity factor, confirming that reheated area showing momogeneous and fine microstructure would be beneficial to the fracture resistance of weld metal.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.100-107
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• 2011

To evaluate the wear characteristics of very thin ceramic coated layer, it is very important to investigate its wear process in great detail. An effective method for investigating the wear of a thin layer is the observation of wear process in microscopic detail, using in-situ system. In this study, based on the SEM Tribosystem as in-situ system, the microscopic wear mode of TiN coatings was investigated in repeated sliding. Consequently, four modes were revealed for TiN coatings: Ploughing, powder formation, flake formation and coating delimitation. Sc(Severity of contact) can clarify transition condition of those microscopic wear modes.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.203-213
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• 1996

In this study the subcritical crack growth behavior in an Al2O3-SiCw composite has been investigated using in situ fracture technique of applied moment double cantilever beam (AMDCB) specimens indside an SEM. This technique allows the detailed observation of whisker and grain bridging in the crack wake region. The experimental results indicated that the KI-a curve was deviated from the conventional powder law form and that the existed a region where the rate of microcrack growth was decreased with increasing the externally applied stress intensity factor. This behavior could be explained by arising crack growth resistance i.e. R-curve behavior which was associated with crack shielding due to whisker and grain bridging. The R-curve was also analyzed from the KI-a curve data in order to quantify the bridging effect in the Al2O3-SiCw composite.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2007

The in-situ scanning electron microscopy observation of real-time hillock evolution in pure hi thin films on glass substrate during Isothermal annealing was analyzed quantitatively to understand the compressive stress relaxation mechanism by focusing on the effect of Mo interlayer between Al film and glass substrate. There is a good correlation between the hillock-induced stress relaxation by in-situ scanning electron microscopy observation ana the measured stress relaxation by wafer curvature method. It is also clearly shown that the existence of Mo interlayer plays an important role in hillock formation probably due to the large difference in interfacial diffusivity of Al films.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.676-681
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• 2004

In-situ observation in SBM on the microfracture behavior of coating layer was performed for GA steel sheets that have various Fe contents and thickness of coating layer. In case of cross sectional side of coating layer that was in a tensile stress state during bending, fine perpendicular crack pre-induced during galvannealing grew and propagated rapidly toward the coating surface with the increase of strain. And then it grew and propagated along the ${\Gamma}/Fe$ matrix interface, and combined with the nearest another perpendicular crack. Consequently, flaking occurred. The more Fe content and thickness of coating layer increased, the more average crack interval and flaking resistivity increased. Exfoliation was little observed at coating surface in a tensile stress state.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.137-145
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• 2004

This study surveys the microscopic wear of CVD TiN coatings in repeated sliding, using the SEM Tribosystem as in-situ system. According to the research, the depth of wear groove and the specific wear amount are changed by the transition of the microscopic wear mode. This investigation leads to the fact that the change of wear characteristics produces the transition of the wear mode. In this survey, four modes are observed for CVD TiN coatings with the thickness of 1.6$\mu\textrm{m}$: ploughing, powder formation, flake formation and coating delimitation. The microscopic wear properties is quantitatively evaluated in terms with the microscopic wear mode and the specific wear amount. These relationships prove that the observation of wear modes with a SEM Tribosystem is useful to evaluate wear properties.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.787-796
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• 2009

The fracture toughness improvement of Ni-Mn-Ga-Fe ferromagnetic shape memory alloys containing ductile particles was explained by direct observation of microfracture processes using an in situ loading stage installed inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) chamber. The Ni-Mn-Ga-Fe alloys contained a considerable amount of ductile particles in the grains after the homogenization treatment at $800{\sim}1100^{\circ}C$. ${\gamma}$ particles were coarsened and distributed homogeneously along {$\beta}$ grain boundaries as well as inside {$\beta}$ grains as the homogenization temperature increased. The in situ microfracture observation results indicated that ${\gamma}$ particles effectively acted as blocking sites of crack propagation, and provided stable crack growth that could be confirmed by the R-curve analysis. This increase in fracture resistance with increasing crack length improved overall fracture properties of the alloys containing ${\gamma}$ particles.