| 1. |
- Alvi, Sajid Ali
(author)
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Refractory High Entropy Alloys and Films for High Temperature Applications
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- High-entropy alloy (HEA) is a multi-component alloy constituting five or more principal elements in equi- or near equi-atomic percentages. The high configurational entropy in a HEA composition, in contrast to conventional alloys, leads to the stabilisation of the alloying elements in stable solid solutions of face-centred-cubic (FCC), body-centred-cubic (BCC) and/or amorphous structures. The characteristic properties of HEAs are mainly governed by lattice distortion, sluggish diffusion and entropy- and cocktail-effects. Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs), consisting of refractory elements, are considered as a paradigm shift in developing materials for high temperature applications.The current PhD project investigates four different aspects of RHEAs. First, it involves developing CuMoTaWV RHEA by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and utilising the cocktail effect of HEAs for high temperature tribological application. The use of the cocktail effect, defined as selecting favourable compositions for particular applications, is utilised for RHEA compositions in order to yield adaptive tribological behaviour at changing temperatures or environments. The sintered CuMoTaWV showed formation of BCC solid solution and a composite microstructure. The high temperature tribological investigations showed an adaptive behaviour at different temperatures. At lower temperatures Cu lowered the wear rate through formation of CuO, and at higher temperatures V enhanced the tribological resistance through formation of lubricating V2O5 phases.The second aspect involves studying the effect of lattice distortion on mechanical properties of magnetron sputtered thin film after adding Cu to the refractory elements of Mo, Ta, W and V. A target of CuMoTaWV was developed through partial sintering and used to deposit thin film on different substrates. The deposited film showed formation of BCC solid solution, which was verified through DFT calculations. The lattice distortion in CuMoTaWV film showed high hardness and nano-pillar compressive strength. Furthermore, the tribological properties were enhanced at temperatures up to 400oC due to the addition of Cu.The third aspect involves studying the effect of configurational entropy on the formation and high temperature stability of refractory high-entropy thin film metallic glass and its nitrides, by increasing the number of principal elements. A partially sintered target of TiVZrNbMoHfTaW was used to deposit thin films of metallic glass and nitrides through magnetron sputtering. The metallic glass thin films and its nitrides were found to have high hardness of 7.3 GPa and 19–43 GPa, respectively. Furthermore, the metallic glass thin films showed a high nano-pillar compressive strength of up to 3 GPa, almost twice as high as conventional metallic glass films. The phase stability of metallic glass and its nitride thin films were found to be stable at temperatures up to 750oC and 950oC, respectively. The exceptionally superior mechanical properties and high temperature stability has been attributed to the presence of high configurational entropy. The last part of this PhD thesis consists of studying high-entropy-based W-rich alloys for high temperature applications. A W-based alloy of composition W0.5(TaTiVCr)0.5 was consolidated using SPS. The resulting alloy revealed a BCC solid solution structure. The microstructure of W-rich alloys consist of a combination of W-rich, high-entropy and TiC phases. The BCC solid solution structure in W-rich alloys was found to be stable with exceptionally high compressional strength up to 1,400oC. A high compressive yield strength of 1136 ± 40 MPa, 830 ± 60 MPa and 425 ± 15 MPa was found at test temperatures of 1,000oC, 1,200oC and 1,400oC, respectively. The resulting high strength has been related to the formation of high-entropy phases, which in return induces sluggish diffusion at higher temperatures. The high temperature tribology at 400oC showed an average COF and low wear rate of 0.5 and 1.37 x 10-5 mm3/Nm, respectively. The high temperature wear resistance at 400oC was enhanced due to the presence of HEA and TiC phases. The studies carried out in this thesis suggest the possibility of utilising the full potential of the cocktail effect, lattice distortion and configurational entropy in designing new high-entropy compositions for applications requiring adaptive tribological behaviour, superior mechanical properties and high temperature phase stability.
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| 2. |
- Alvi, Sajid
(author)
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Synthesis and Characterization of High Entropy Alloy and Coating
- 2019
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- High entropy alloys (HEAs) are a new class of alloys that contains five or more principal elements in equiatomic or near-equiatomic proportional ratio. The configuration entropy in the HEAs tends to stabilize the solid solution formation, such as body-centered-cubic (BCC), face-centered-cubic (FCC) and/or hexagonal-closed-pack (HCP) solid solution. The high number of principal elements present in HEAs results in severe lattice distortion, which in return gives superior mechanical properties compared to the conventional alloys. HEAs are considered as a paradigm shift for the next generation high temperature alloys in extreme environments, such as aerospace, cutting tools, and bearings applications.The project is based on the development of refractory high entropy alloy and film. The first part of the project involves designing high entropy alloy of CuMoTaWV using spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1400 oC. The sintered alloy showed the formation of a composite of BCC solid solution (HEA) and V rich zones with a microhardness of 600 HV and 900 HV, respectively. High temperature ball-on-disc tribological studies were carried out from room temperature (RT) to 600 oC against Si3N4 counter ball. Sliding wear characterization of the high entropy alloy composite showed increasing coefficient of friction (COF) of 0.45-0.67 from RT to 400 oC and then it decreased to 0.54 at 600 oC. The wear rates were found to be low at RT (4 × 10−3 mm3/Nm) and 400 oC (5 × 10−3 mm3/Nm) and slightly high at 200 oC (2.3 × 10−2 mm3/Nm) and 600 oC (4.5 × 10−2 mm3/Nm). The tribology tests showed adaptive behavior with lower wear rate and COF at 400 oC and 600 oC, respectively. The adaptive wear behavior at 400 oC was due to the formation of CuO that protected against wear, and at 600 oC, the V-rich zones converted to elongated magneli phases of V2O5 and helped in reducing the friction coefficient.The second part of the project consists of sintering of novel CuMoTaWV target material using SPS and depositing CuMoTaWV refractory high entropy films (RHEF) using DC-magnetron sputtering on silicon and 304 stainless steel substrate. The deposited films showed the formation of nanocrystalline BCC solid solution. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies showed a strong (110) preferred orientation with a lattice constant and grain size of 3.18 Å and 18 nm, respectively. The lattice parameter were found to be in good agreement with the one from the DFT optimized SQS (3.16 Å). The nanoindentation hardness measurement at 3 mN load revealed an average hardness of 19 ± 2.3 GPa and an average Young’s modulus of 259.3 ± 19.2 GPa. The Rutherford backscattered (RBS) measurement showed a gradient composition in the cross-section of the film with W, Ta and Mo rich at the surface, while V and Cu were found to be rich at the substrate-film interface. AFM measurements showed an average surface roughness (Sa) of 3 nm. Nano-pillars of 440 nm diameter from CuMoTaWV RHEFs were prepared by ion-milling in a focused-ion-beam (FIB) instrument, followed by its compression. The compressional yield strength and Young’s modulus was calculated to be 10.7 ± 0.8 GPa and 196 ± 10 GPa, respectively. Room temperature ball-on-disc tribological test on the CuMoTaWV RHEF, after annealing at 300 oC, against E52100 alloy steel (Grade 25, 700-880 HV) showed a steady state COF of 0.25 and a low average wear rate of 6.4 x 10-6 mm3/Nm.
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| 3. |
- Alvi, Sajid, et al.
(author)
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Tribological performance of Ti6Al4V at elevated temperatures fabricated by electron beam powder bed fusion
- 2021
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In: Tribology International. - : Elsevier. - 0301-679X .- 1879-2464. ; 153
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Electron beam powder bed fusion (EBPBF) is a beneficial processing route to fabricate Ti6Al4V alloy for aerospace applications due to its relatively low lead time and the possibility of topology optimization. The dry sliding wear behavior of EBPBF-Ti6Al4V against steel and alumina counterballs from room temperature (RT) to 500 °C was investigated to evaluate the influence of EBPBF processing and microstructure on the wear properties for broadening the application criteria of this lightweight alloy. The wear tests revealed that the wear rate decreased with increasing temperature due to formation of stable oxide glaze layer. This study reveals elevated temperature sliding wear behavior, wear mechanisms and microstructural changes below the wear track of EBPBF Ti6Al4V alloy against steel and alumina counterbodies.
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| 4. |
- Antti, Lena, et al.
(author)
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A microwave applicator for on line wood drying : Temperature and moisture distribution in wood
- 1999
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In: Wood Science and Technology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0043-7719 .- 1432-5225. ; 33:2, s. 123-138
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An especially designed open microwave applicator was analysed using wood as the material to be heated and dried. The idea was to develop an on line microwave construction consisting of several small open applicators, each fed by a small standard magnetron (for example 1.4 kW main power). The process was analysed by measuring the wood temperature during heating using an IR-camera and detecting the moisture distribution during drying by CT-scanning. Pine and birch wood samples were used in the experiments, mainly 40 mm in thickness. The experiments show that the power distribution differs between dry wood and moist wood. The analysis of the temperature fields captured by the IR-camera during the first minutes allows a rather accurate determination of the MW power. Consequently, the drying proceeds unevenly in the wood specimens, especially in the longitudinal direction. The dimensions of the applicator and its relation to the wood dimension are very important. However, the wood was not destroyed, the temperature and moisture gradients did not affect the wood in terms of checks or deformations. The drying rate in different positions of the specimen varied between 0.30 and 0.80 percentage moisture content/min. The uneven energy, meaning temperature and field distribution, is to be compensated in the future by a moving wood load and by alternating the position of each applicator in a larger scale microwave pilot plant.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Antti, Lena, et al.
(author)
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Effects of microwave drying on biomass fatty acid composition and fuel pellet quality
- 2011
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In: Wood Material Science & Engineering. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1748-0272 .- 1748-0280. ; 6:1-2, s. 34-40
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Drying of biomass for fuel pellet production is a time- and energy-consuming process. The objective of this study was to investigate not only whether microwave drying could be an alternative drying method but also whether the microwave treatment brings beneficial chemical properties into the biomass feedstock in terms of, for example, fatty acid composition and, further, whether this could be advantageous in the production of wood pellets. Microwave drying tests were conducted using fresh sawdust from pinewood as a biomass model. In these tests sawdust was dried from weight-based moisture content 0.47 to final moisture contents in the interval 0.08-0.14. The chemical composition, pellet-making and mechanical properties of the pellets were then investigated. It was shown that 0.5 kg sawdust could be dried within 40 min of microwave exposure. The effects of microwave treatment on the fatty and resin acid composition indicated that some changes occurred, but the total amounts were not significantly different from those in oven-dried samples. However, the microwave treatment of sawdust significantly improved pellet density and pellet strength. These results indicate new possibilities to alter fatty and resin acid composition and to improve particle bonding within fuel pellets.
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| 7. |
- Antti, Lena, et al.
(author)
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Equalization of moisture in pre-dried pinewood using microwave power
- 2010
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In: Pro Ligno. - 1841-4737 .- 2069-7430. ; 6:2, s. 53-59
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Commonly, during air-circulation kiln drying moisture gradients within wood cross-sections are developed, i.e. the surfaces become drier than the interior. To minimize these gradients a conditioning step subsequent to the drying is needed. The aim with this study was to investigate the possibility to use microwave power for equalization of moisture within pinewood boards after air-circulation kiln drying to the average moisture content 0,14. Two dimensions of pinewood were tested; thickness 50 and 63 mm, in two different plants, generating 5 and 12 kW microwave power respectively. Results show that microwave energy give rise to a fast and advantageous moisture equalization within the wood. The higher microwave power density the faster heating and moisture redistribution in these wood dimensions. Required time for heating and redistribution of moisture was found to be as short as 3 minutes at the power density 500 kW/m3. In addition, split-tests indicate decreased or elimination of gap after microwave treatment in the investigated specimens.
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| 8. |
- Antti, Lena
(author)
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Heating and drying wood using microwave power
- 1999
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The potentials for moisture flux in wood during microwave heating have been investigated experimentally and theoretically. The experiments were performed in three different kinds of microwave applicators. A computer model based on the finite difference method was developed to describe and predict the heat and mass transfer. The main conclusions are that microwave energy of 2.45 GHz frequency makes it possible to heat and dry pine and spruce 20 - 30 times faster than with conventional methods without any deterioration in drying quality. Some hardwoods are dried in approximately half the time compared to the softwoods. The drying method evokes unique results either with diminishing colour changes or with possibilities to create such during drying. However, to avoid unevenness in the electromagnetic field distribution and considering the limitation in power penetration depth the drying should be performed on line where wood components continuously are fed through a microwave field.
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| 9. |
- Antti, Lena, et al.
(author)
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Investigation of the heating of wood in an industrial microwave applicator : theory and practice
- 2000
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In: Drying Technology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0737-3937 .- 1532-2300. ; 18:8, s. 1665-1676
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this work a comprehensive set of experimental results are used as an excellent means to understand the coupling that exists between the material and the electromagnetic fields in a specific industrial microwave applicator. The analysis of the infrared images allows an accurate map of the power and temperature distributions within the wood sample to be determined. This map, together with the simulation results of a previously developed computational electromagnetic model, can provide a detailed understanding of the design features of the microwave applicator. In particular, it is possible to locate the occurrence of localised hot spots and to examine the uniformity of the heat distribution throughout the sample. The simulation results provide the evolution of the electromagnetic fields inside the entire applicator and the sample. The coupling of theory and practice is the best way to proceed in optimising the design and for proposing new applicator geometry that can heat the material more effectively.
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