Self-Healing of SiC-Al2O3-B4C Ceramic Composites at Low Temperatures

Self-healing ceramics have been researched at high temperatures, but few have been considered at lower temperatures. In this study, SiC-Al2O3-B4C ceramic composite was compacted by spark plasma sintering (SPS). A Vickers indentation was introduced, and the cracks were healed between 600 °C and 800 °C in air. Cracks could be healed completely in air above 700 °C. The ceramic composite had the best healing performance at 700 °C for 30 min, recovering flexural strength of up to 94.2% of the original. Good crack-healing ability would make this composite highly useful as it could heal defects and flaws autonomously in practical applications. The healing mechanism was also proposed to be the result of the oxidation of B4C.

High power selective laser melting of crack sensitive nickel-base alloy CM247LC, including dimensional analysis and modelling

Compared to reference parameters in the low power and scan velocity range, which lead to dense and crack-free CM247LC LPBF samples due to in-situ crack healing, high power, high scan velocities and increased laser beam diameters are investigated, to decrease the production time further. By keeping the maximum laser intensity from the reference and the laser power to scan velocity ratio constant, the intensity approach provides an initial estimation for the laser spot size regarding the measured Archimedean density and crack density in the high power and high scan velocity range. The investigated cracks are identified as re-melting cracks. Solidification or hot cracks are not observed, since the crack healing effect for those kinds of cracks still occurs. Furthermore, a melt pool depth range is discovered, where not only solidification cracks can be avoided, but also re-melting cracks, which are resulting from higher laser power inputs. This theory can be proven by further laser spot size optimization, where the melt pool depth comes closer to the mentioned range. The Archimedean density and crack density results, in case of the 600 W power parameter with 2400 mm/s scan velocity and a beam diameter of 164 µm, are close to the one obtained from the reference with 200 W, a scan velocity of 800 mm/s and a laser spot of 90 µm. With the intensity approach and laser beam diameter optimization, the production time can be reduced by 300%. Based on dimensional analysis, a model, which combines the samples density with the crack density through the melt pool depth, is presented. Six main and two additional process and laser parameters are taken into relation. The result from the model and the measured values from experiments are in good agreement. Additionally, the influence of the doubled layer thickness and an increased hatch distance by 50% with varying scan velocities on the Archimedean density and crack density is analysed.

Study on Mechanical Properties of crack Healing of low carbon Steel based on cyclic Phase Transformation Heat treatment

With the rapid development of materials, metal materials are used less and less, but at this stage, metal materials are still widely used, and iron and steel materials are the most widely used. Cracks often appear in the process of metal material processing and use, and these cracks will have a certain impact on the use of metal materials. The existence of microcracks will affect the mechanical properties of materials to some extent, but in most cases, the mechanical properties of materials will be greatly reduced, and in serious cases, metal materials will break directly in the process of use or processing. The crack healing process needed after the emergence of cracks can effectively change this situation, but so far, the research on metal crack healing is still not perfect. In this paper, taking the internal crack of low carbon steel as the object, the recovery of mechanical properties of low carbon steel by cyclic phase transformation heat treatment was studied. The results show that with the increase of the healing area, the microhardness of the area after crack healing also increases, and the tensile strength of the specimen also increases after the healing. When the healing area is similar, increasing the healing time and temperature will result in grain coarsening, resulting in the decrease of microhardness and tensile strength in the crack healing zone.