• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2019

The rich recipe of ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) offers the higher mechanical, durability and dense microstructure property. The variable like cement/sand ratio, amount of supplementary cementitious material, water/binder ratio, amount of fiber etc. alters the UHPC hardened properties to any extent. Therefore, to understand the effects of these variables on the performance of UHPC, inevitably a stage-wise development is required. In the present experimental study, the effect of sand/cement ratio, the addition of finer material (fly ash and quartz powder) and, hybrid fiber on the fresh, compressive and microstructural property of UHPC is evaluated. The experiment is conducted in three phases; the first phase evaluates the flow value and strength attainment of ingredients, the second phase evaluates the efficiency of finer materials (fly ash and quartz powder) to develop the UHPC and the third phase evaluate the effect of hybrid fiber on the flow value and strength of ultra high performance hybrid fiber reinforced concrete (UHP-HFRC). It has been seen that the addition of fly ash improves the flow value and compressive strength of UHPC as compared to quartz powder. Further, the usage of hybrid fiber in fly ash contained matrix decreases the flow value and improves the strength of the UHP-HFRC matrix. The dense interface between matrix and fiber and, a higher amount of calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) in fly ash contained UHP-HFRC is revealed by SEM and XRD respectively. The dense interface (bond between the fiber and the UHPC matrix) and the higher CSH formation are the reason for the improvement in the compressive strength of fly ash based UHP-HFRC. The differential thermal analysis (DTA/TGA) shows the similar type of mass loss pattern, however, the amount of mass loss differs in fly ash and quartz powder contained UHP-HFRC.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.194-202
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• 2010

Application of a stronger and more durable material for reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) might be an effective way to insure the integrity and increase the efficiency of nuclear power plants. A series of research projects to apply the SA508 Gr.4 steel in ASME code to RPVs are in progress because of its excellent strength and durability compared to commercial RPV steel (SA508 Gr.3 steel). In this study, the microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of SA508 Gr.3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel and SA508 Gr.4N Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel were investigated. The differences in the stable phases between these two low alloy steels were evaluated by means of a thermodynamic calculation using ThermoCalc. They were then compared to microstructural features and correlated with mechanical properties. Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel shows the upper bainite structure that has coarse cementite in the lath boundaries. However, Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel shows the mixture of lower bainite and tempered martensite structure that homogeneously precipitates the small carbides such as $M_{23}C_6$ and $M_7C_3$ due to an increase of hardenability and Cr addition. In the mechanical properties, Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel has higher strength and toughness than Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel. Ni and Cr additions increase the strength by solid solution hardening. In addition, microstructural changes from upper bainite to tempered martensite improve the strength of the low alloy steel by grain refining effect, and the changes in the precipitation behavior by Cr addition improve the ductile-brittle transition behavior along with a toughening effect of Ni addition.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.617-626
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• 2008

This study is concerned with the effect of Cu and B addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of high-strength bainitic steels. Six kinds of steels were fabricated by varying alloying elements and hot-rolling conditions, and their microstructures and tensile and Charpy impact properties were investigated. Their effective grain sizes were also characterized by the electron back-scatter diffraction analysis. The tensile test results indicated that the B- or Cu-containing steels had the higher yield and tensile strengths than the B- or Cu-free steels because their volume fractions of bainitic ferrite and martensite were quite high. The B- or Cu-free steels had the higher upper shelf energy than the B- or Cu-containing steels because of their higher volume fraction of granular bainite. In the steel containing 10 ppm B without Cu, the best combination of high strengths, high upper shelf energy, and low energy transition temperature could be obtained by the decrease in the overall effective grain size due to the presence of bainitic ferrite having smaller effective grain size.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.221-226
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• 2021

We fabricate the non-equiatomic high-entropy alloy (NE-HEA) Fe_49.5Mn₃₀Co₁₀Cr₁₀C_0.5 (at.%) using spark plasma sintering under various sintering conditions. Each elemental pure powder is milled by high-energy ball milling to prepare NE-HEA powder. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the sintered samples are investigated using various methods. We use the X-ray diffraction (XRD) method to investigate the microstructural characteristics. Quantitative phase analysis is performed by direct comparison of the XRD results. A tensile test is used to compare the mechanical properties of small samples. Next, electron backscatter diffraction analysis is performed to analyze the phase fraction, and the results are compared to those of XRD analysis. By combining different sintering durations and temperature conditions, we attempt to identify suitable spark plasma sintering conditions that yield mechanical properties comparable with previously reported values. The samples sintered at 900 and 1000℃ with no holding time have a tensile strength of over 1000 MPa.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.445-451
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• 2022

Ultrasonic sensor is suitable as a next-generation autonomous driving assist device because its lower price compared to that of other sensors and its sensing stability in the external environment. Although Pb(Zr, Ti)O₃ (PZT)-relaxor ferroelectric system has excellent piezoelectric properties, the change in capacitance is large in the daily operating temperature range due to the low phase transition temperature. Recently, many studies have been conducted to improve the temperature stability of ferroelectric ceramics by controlling the grain size and crystal structure, so it is necessary to study the effect of the grain size on the piezoelectric properties and the temperature stability of PZT-relaxor ferroelectric system. In this study, the piezoelectric properties, phase transition temperature, and temperature coefficient of capacitance (TCC) of 0.9 Pb(Zr_1-xTi_x)O₃-0.1 Pb(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ (PZT_x-PZN) ceramics with various grain sizes were investigated. PZT_x-PZN ceramics with larger grain size showed higher piezoelectric properties and temperature stability, and are expected to be suitable for ultrasonic devices in the future.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.273-280
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• 2022

Although the mechanical properties of high-entropy alloys depend on the annealing conditions, limited works were established to investigate the annealing effect on the mechanical properties of Mo-added high-entropy alloys. Therefore, in the present work, the annealing effects on the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of Mo-added high-entropy alloy were investigated. As a result, incomplete recrystallization from the limited annealing time not only suppresses deformation-induced phase transformation during cryogenic tensile test but also induces a deformation instability that results into the ductility reduction compare with the fully recrystallized sample. This result represents adjustment of annealing time is useful to control both transformation-induce plasticity and deformation instability of high-entropy alloys, and this can be applied to control the mechanical properties of metallic alloys by combining pre-straining and subsequent annealing.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.311-320
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• 2022

TBM concrete segment requires a higher level of material properties compared to general concrete structures due to difficulties in maintenance and uncertainty in ground conditions. In this regard, recently, as one of the methods to achieve enhancement effect on concrete strength, many researchers have been focusing on adding CNTs to concrete mixture. However, even CNTs do not compensate the weakness that concrete exhibits brittle behavior after cracking. Separately, over the past few decades, a number of studies have been conducted on fiber reinforced concrete which exhibits ductile behavior due to fibers bridging cracks. However, only limited studies have been conducted to employ the advantages of the both materials together. In this study, an experimental program has been conducted to investigate the effect of CNTs on the workability and the compressive behavior of PVA-ECC which exhibits ductile tensile behavior with well-distributed cracks even without a conventional rebar. In addition to the compression test, SEM analysis has been also conducted for detailed investigation in the microstructure. The variable was the CNTs mix ratio, which were set to 0.00, 0.25, and 0.50 wt.% to the binding materials. It was observed though the test results that as the CNTs mix ratio increased, the workability considerably decreased with the reduced slump and slump flow. From the compression test results, it was also investigated that the compressive behavior was improved since the compressive strength, the strain corresponding to the compressive strength, and the modulus of elasticity increased with an increase of CNTs mix ratio. The contents of this paper will be useful for relevant research areas such as fiber reinforced concrete with CNTs which might be applied for high performance TMB concrete segments.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.466-473
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• 2022

The effect of Cr and Mo contents on the hydrogen embrittlement of tempered martensitic steels was investigated in this study. After the steels with different Cr and Mo contents were austenitized at 820 ℃ for 90 min, they were tempered at 630 ℃ for 120 min. The steels were composed of fully tempered martensite with a lath-type microstructure, but the characteristics of the carbides were dependent on the Cr and Mo contents. As the Cr and Mo contents increased, the volume fraction of film-like cementite and prior austenite grain size decreased. After hydrogen was introduced into tensile specimens by electrochemical charging, a slow strain-rate test (SSRT) was conducted to investigate hydrogen embrittlement behavior. The SSRT results revealed that the steel with lower Cr or lower Mo content showed relatively poor hydrogen embrittlement resistance. The hydrogen embrittlement resistance of the tempered martensitic steels increased with increasing Mo content, because the reduction in the film-like cementite and prior austenite grain size plays an important role in improving hydrogen embrittlement resistance. The results indicate that controlling the Cr and Mo contents is essential to achieving a tempered martensitic steel with a combination of high strength and excellent hydrogen embrittlement resistance.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.161-170
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• 2023

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is produced using high amount of cementitious materials, very low water/cementitious materials ratio, fine-sized fillers, and steel fibers. Due to the dense microstructure of UHPC, it possesses very high strength, elasticity, and durability. Besides that, the UHPC exhibits high ductility and fracture toughness due to presence of fibers in its matrix. While the high ductility of UHPC allows it to undergo high strain/deflection before failure, the high fracture toughness of UHPC greatly enhances its capacity to absorb impact energy without allowing the formation of severe cracking or penetration by the impactor. These advantages with UHPC make it a suitable material for construction of the structural members subjected to special loading conditions. In this research work, the UHPC mixtures having three different dosages of steel fibers (2%, 4% and 6% by weight corresponding to 0.67%, 1.33% and 2% by volume) were characterized in terms of their mechanical properties including facture toughness, before using these concrete mixtures for casting the slab specimens, which were tested under high-energy impact loading with the help of a drop-weight impact test setup. The effect of fiber content on the impact energy absorption capacity and central deflection of the slab specimens were investigated and the equations correlating fiber content with the energy absorption capacity and central deflection were obtained with high degrees of fit. Finite element modeling (FEM) was performed to simulate the behavior of the slabs under impact loading. The FEM results were found to be in good agreement with their corresponding experimentally generated results.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.282-287
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• 2023

The effect of stress relief heat treatment temperature and duration time on the microstructure, residual stress and Vickers hardness of additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V alloy using laser powder bed fusion process was clarified. As a result of stress relief heat treatment for 240 minutes at 823 K and 60 minutes or more at 873 K, residual stress was decreased less than 30 MPa without grain growth and phase transformation which causes dimensional distortion and deterioration of mechanical properties. In addition, hardness was increased with increasing heat treatment temperature and duration time. It was deduced that the refinement of acicular martensitic α' phase due to the increasing duration time of isothermal heat treatment at 773~873 K, which was not detected by XRD and phase map analysis using SEM-EBSD, probably increases the hardness.