On the interplay of friction and stress relaxation to improve stretch-flangeability of dual phase (DP600) steel.

Industrial servo presses have been used to successfully demonstrate improved formability when deforming sheet metals. While the time dependent viscoplastic behavior of material is attributed to the observed formability improvement, much less effort has been devoted to understand and quantify the underlying mechanisms. In this context, the hole expansion test (HET) of a dual phase steel was interrupted at pre-defined punch travel heights to understand the time-dependent effects on stretch-flangeability. The effect of pre-strain, hold time and edge quality on hole expansion ratio (HER) improvement was studied. The present study shows that the HER improves significantly in interrupted HET. This improved HER is due to the combined effects of stress relaxation and friction on deformation behavior. The ductility improvement estimated from uniaxial stress relaxation tests was used to estimate the contribution of stress relaxation and friction, respectively, in HET. This study shows that friction plays a significant role in improving HER at high pre-strain. It was also demonstrated that frictional effects are largely influenced by edge quality.

Grain boundary sliding and non-constancy strain during stress relaxation of pure Mg.

Stress relaxation during plastic deformation has been reported to improve ductility of metallic materials. In this study, the stress relaxation behaviour in pure magnesium is investigated during interrupted uniaxial tensile tests. During intermittent stopping of the machine for relaxation studies, the total strain is expected to remain constant. However, an anomalous non-constancy in total strain is observed in the present work. The total strain increases with relaxation time. Additional in-situ tensile tests indicate that the non-constant total strain is restricted only in the gauge area of the specimen, indicating a likely shear dominated deformation such as grain boundary sliding (GBS) responsible for the anomalous behaviour. The role of GBS during relaxation is studied using the deformation induced evolution of surface inhomogeneity. Determinations of surface profiling step heights at grain boundaries and inclination of grains were used to quantify the effect of GBS. The estimated activation volume of 4.35 b 3 further confirms the role of slip induced GBS on the deformation. A new stress relaxation model accommodating GBS is proposed and is found to fit the experimental data accurately.

Understanding Deformation Behavior in Uniaxial Tensile Tests of Steel Specimens at Varying Strain Rates.

Uniaxial tensile tests are routinely conducted to obtain stress-strain data for forming applications. It is important to understand the deformation behavior of test specimens at plastic strains, temperatures, and strain rates typically encountered in metal forming processes. In this study, the Johnson-Cook (J-C) flow stress model was used to describe the constitutive behavior of ASTM International (ASTM) A 1008 steel specimens during uniaxial tensile tests at three different average strain rates (10-5 s-¹, 10-³ s-¹, and 10-¹ s-¹). The digital image correlation (DIC) technique was used for displacement and strain measurement, and two-dimensional (2D) infrared (IR) imaging was employed for temperature measurement. Separate optimization studies involving relevant finite element (FE) modeling with appropriate measured data yielded optimum values of convective heat transfer coefficients, J-C parameters, and inelastic heat fraction variables. FE modeling employing these optimum parameter values was then used to study the mechanical behavior. While FE predictions matched measured strain localization and thermal field very well in the intermediate- and low-rate experiments, the high-rate test showed narrower strain localization and a sharper temperature peak in the experiment. Possible use of a higher steel thermal conductivity value and/or exclusion of material inhomogeneities may have resulted in discrepancies between computed and measured temperature and strain fields. The study shows that an optimized set of parameters obtained with a controlled test could be reasonably applied for other tests conducted at very different strain rates.

Thermal response of a composite floor system to the standard fire exposure.

This paper discusses the development of a finite element (FE) model of a full-scale composite floor system and application of this model to predict the heating of steel members when exposed to a standard fire during fire resistance experiments. The model is verified by comparing the predicted heating profile of steel members at several locations during the tests with measured data. Such a verified model can be used to characterize the uncertainties in the prediction of the thermal history of structural elements exposed to a damaging fire. The output of this model can be used in a subsequent structural analysis model to determine the nonlinear behavior of structural members due to both thermal and mechanical loads. Additionally, the thermal effect of possible concrete spalling events and the resultant fireproofing dislodgement from steel members were numerically investigated and compared with measured data to determine the efficacy of the heat transfer model.

Simulation of temperature, stress and microstructure fields during laser deposition of Ti-6Al-4V.

We study the evolution of prior columnar ß phase, interface L phase, and α phase during directional solidification of a Ti-6Al-4V melt pool. Finite element simulations estimate the solidification temperature and velocity fields in the melt pool and analyze the stress field and thermal distortions in the solidified part during the laser powder bed fusion process. A phase-field model uses the temperature and velocity fields to predict the formation of columnar prior-ß(Ti) phase. During the solidification of ß phase from an undercooled liquid, the residual liquid below the solidus temperature within the ß columns results in α phase. The finite element simulated stress and strain fields are correlated with the length scales and volume fractions of the microstructure fields. Finally, the coalescence behavior of the ß(Ti) cells during solidification is illustrated. The above analyses are important as they can be used for proactive control of the subsequent modeling of the heat treatment processes.

An analytical approach for estimating uncertainty in measured temperatures of concrete slab during fire.

To evaluate the fire resistance of concrete slabs used in composite floor systems, the temporal and spatial variation of measured temperatures must be accurately determined. Temperature profiles in a concrete section are a function of concrete thermophysical properties and boundary conditions. However, there can be considerable uncertainty in the estimates typically used for thermophysical properties and boundary conditions in fire. In this study, an analytical approach was developed to compute uncertainties in concrete slab temperatures during exposure to a fire and the results obtained with this approach were verified against those obtained with the Monte Carlo method. A simple 1-D heat flow model was constructed to demonstrate the usefulness of this approach. It is shown that uncertainty in gas temperatures has a substantial effect on the overall uncertainty in computed member temperatures. Also, uncertainties associated with computed concrete temperatures increase with increase in fire exposure time.

Mechanical properties of single-walled carbon nanotube reinforced polymer composites with varied interphase's modulus and thickness: A finite element analysis study.

The role of the interphase on mechanical performance of glassy polymer/single-walled carbon nanotube composites has been investigated by finite element (FE) method. The matrix and the interphase are modeled using continuum elements and the nanotube is analyzed by Timoshenko beam elements. Stress distribution and mechanical property of the nanocomposites are quantified as a function of the interphase's modulus and thickness. For composites that include an interphase, the predicted moduli are comparable to the values calculated by the rule of mixtures, but are much lower than those of an interphase-free composite. For composites consisting of only the CNT and the matrix, the predicted modulus values are in good agreement with those computed by the rule of mixtures and with theoretical data reported in the literature, although the predicted values are considerably higher than those of real polymer/CNT composites. Using Griffin's fracture analysis for dissimilar materials, we have proved that fracture stress of the weak boundary layer in the CNT/polymer interphase is lower than that of the CNT/polymer interface or of the matrix. The weak boundary layer, which is always existing in a CNT/polymer's three dimensional interphase, is proposed as the main reason for the large discrepancy between Young's moduli predicted by the model observed in this study and reported in the literature and those measured experimentally from real-world polymer/SWCNT composites.

Snapshot of moving and expanding clones of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and their global distribution assessed by spoligotyping in an international study.

The present update on the global distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex spoligotypes provides both the octal and binary descriptions of the spoligotypes for M. tuberculosis complex, including Mycobacterium bovis, from >90 countries (13,008 patterns grouped into 813 shared types containing 11,708 isolates and 1,300 orphan patterns). A number of potential indices were developed to summarize the information on the biogeographical specificity of a given shared type, as well as its geographical spreading (matching code and spreading index, respectively). To facilitate the analysis of hundreds of spoligotypes each made up of a binary succession of 43 bits of information, a number of major and minor visual rules were also defined. A total of six major rules (A to F) with the precise description of the extra missing spacers (minor rules) were used to define 36 major clades (or families) of M. tuberculosis. Some major clades identified were the East African-Indian (EAI) clade, the Beijing clade, the Haarlem clade, the Latin American and Mediterranean (LAM) clade, the Central Asian (CAS) clade, a European clade of IS6110 low banders (X; highly prevalent in the United States and United Kingdom), and a widespread yet poorly defined clade (T). When the visual rules defined above were used for an automated labeling of the 813 shared types to define nine superfamilies of strains (Mycobacterium africanum, Beijing, M. bovis, EAI, CAS, T, Haarlem, X, and LAM), 96.9% of the shared types received a label, showing the potential for automated labeling of M. tuberculosis families in well-defined phylogeographical families. Intercontinental matches of shared types among eight continents and subcontinents (Africa, North America, Central America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Far East) are analyzed and discussed.

Global distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis spoligotypes.

We present a short summary of recent observations on the global distribution of the major clades of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, the causative agent of tuberculosis. This global distribution was defined by data-mining of an international spoligotyping database, SpolDB3. This database contains 11708 patterns from as many clinical isolates originating from more than 90 countries. The 11708 spoligotypes were clustered into 813 shared types. A total of 1300 orphan patterns (clinical isolates showing a unique spoligotype) were also detected.

Differential expression of mycobacterial proteins following phagocytosis by macrophages.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis resides within the macrophages of the host, but the molecular and cellular mechanisms of survival are poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests that the attenuated vaccine strain Mycobacterium bovis BCG is both a deletion and regulatory mutant, yet retains both its immunoprotective and intra-macrophage survival potential. In an attempt to define M. bovis BCG genes expressed during interaction with macrophages, the patterns of protein synthesis were examined by both one- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of BCG while inside the human leukaemic macrophage cell line THP-1. This study demonstrated that BCG expresses proteins while resident inside macrophages that are not expressed during in vitro growth in culture media or under conditions of heat shock. Western blotting analysis revealed that some of the differentially expressed proteins are specifically recognized by human M. tuberculosis-infected sera. Proteome analysis by two-dimensional electrophoresis and MS identified six abundant proteins that showed increased expression inside macrophages: 16 kDa alpha-crystallin (HspX), GroEL-1 and GroEL-2, a 31.7 kDa hypothetical protein (Rv2623), InhA and elongation factor Tu (Tuf). Identification of proteins by such a strategy will help elucidate the molecular basis of the attenuation and the vaccine potential of BCG, and may provide antigens that distinguish infection with M. tuberculosis from vaccination with BCG.