Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

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Abstract: The horizontal continuous casting process has received a significant attention for near net shape casting of non ferrous metals and alloys. Numerical Simulation has been widely used for process design and optimization of continuous casting process. In the present study, a 3-dimensional heat flow model was developed to simulate the heat transfer and solidification in a horizontal billet continuous casting system in which the air gap formation and its effect on heat extraction rate from solidifying billet was also considered. In order to test the developed model, it was run to simulate the heat transfer and solidification for an industrial billet caster. The predicted temperature distribution within the mold and billet was compared with those measured on the industrial caster in which a good agreement was obtained. Finally, parametric studies were carried out by validated model to evaluate the effects of different parameters on solidification profile and temperature distribution within the model brass billet. The microstructure of cast billet was analyzed to determine the secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) under different cooling conditions. Based on measured SDAS and predicted solidification rate a correlation between SDAS and cooling rate was proposed for continuously cast brass billet.

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Abstract:Optimization of specimen geometry before subjecting it to hot torsion test (HTT) is essential for minimizingnon-uniform temperature distribution and obtaining uniform microstructure thought the specimen.In the present study, a nonlinear transient analysis was performed for a number of different geometries andtemperatures using the commercial finite element (FE) package ANSYSTM. FE thermal results then were applied tooptimize HTTspecimen produced from API-X 70 microalloyed steel taking into account the microstructurehomogeneity.  The thermodynamic software Thermo-calcTM was also used to analysis solubility of microalloyingelements and their precipitates that may exist at different equilibrium conditions. In addition the behavior of austenitegrain size during reheating was investigated. The results show high temperature gradient occurred in long specimens.This could lead to non homogeneous initial austenite grain size and alloying element or precipitates within the gaugesection of the specimen. The proposed optimization procedure can in general be used for other materials and reheatingscenarios to reduce temperature. This then creates more homogeneous initial microstructure prior to deformation andreduces errors in post processing of the HTTresults

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Combustion synthesis is a special thermophysico-chemical process applied for production of intermetallic compounds. In the present work, a reaction–diffusion numerical model was developed to analyze the combustion synthesis of aluminide intermetallics by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis process. In order to verify the reliability of the numerical model, an experimental setup was designed and used to perform the combustion synthesis of nickel and titanium aluminides. The developed model was further used to determine the temperature history of a powder mixture compact during self-propagating high-temperature synthesis. The effect of compact relative density on combustion temperature and wave propagation velocity was also studied.

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ABSTRACT Macrosegregation has been received high attention in the solidification modeling studies. In the present work, a numerical model was developed to predict the macrosegregation during the DC Casting of an Al-4.5wt%Cu billet. The mathematical model developed in this study consists of mass, momentum, energy and species conservation equations for a two-phase mixture of liquid and solid in an axisymmetric coordinates. The solution methodology is based on a standard Finite Volume Method. A new scheme called Semi-Implicit Method for Thermodynamically-Linked Equations (SIMTLE) was employed to link energy and species equations with phase diagram of the alloying system. The model was tested by experimental data extracted from an industrial scale DC caster and a relatively good agreement was obtained. It was concluded that a proper macrosegregation model needs two key features: a precise flow description in the two-phase regions and a capable efficient numerical scheme

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Abstract: Microwave processing is one of the novel methods for combustion synthesis of intermetallic compounds and
composites. This method brings about a lot of opportunities for processing of uniquely characterized materials. In this
study, the combustion synthesis of TiAl/Al2O3 composite via microwave heating has been investigated by the
development of a heat transfer model including a microwave heating source term. The model was tested and verified
by experiments available in the literature. Parametric studies were carried out by the model to evaluate the effects of
such parameters as input power, sample aspect ratio, and porosity on the rate of process. The results showed that
higher input powers and sample volumes, as well as the use of bigger susceptors made the reaction enhanced. It was
also shown that a decrease in the porosity and aspect ratio of sample leads to the enhancement of the process.

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Electrochemical coating processes are significantly affected by applied magnetic fields due to the generation of electromagnetic forces. The present research work has been undertaken to study the effect of coating parameters such as current density and alumina concentration on the characteristics of Ni-Al2O3 composite coating under static magnetic field. Ni-Al2O3 composite coating was applied on a mild steel substrate using conventional Watts solution containing Al2O3 particles with and without magnetic field. The coating microstructure and Al2O3 particle density in the coating layer were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that the applied magnetic field made the coating structure finer and leads to the increases of the particle content in the coating. However, the results confirmed that the magnetic forces inversely affected the particle density in the coating at higher current density than that of normal coating process.

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Variation in microstructural features of 2024 aluminum alloy plastically deformed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at room temperature, was investigated by X-Ray diffraction in this work. These include dislocation density dislocation characteristic and the cell size of crystalline domains. Dislocations contrast factor was calculated using elastic constants of the alloy such as C 11, C 22 and C 44 . The effect of dislocations contrast factor on the anisotropic strain broadening of diffraction profiles was considered for measuring the microstructural features on the base of the modified Williamson-Hall and Warren-Averbach methods. Results showed that the dislocations density of the solution annealed sample increased from 4.28×10 12m-2 to 2.41×10 14m-2 after one pass of cold ECAP and the fraction of edge dislocations in the solution annealed sample increased from 43% to 74% after deformation. This means that deformation changed the overall dislocations characteristic more to edge dislocations. Also the crystalline cell size of the solution annealed sample decreased from 0.83μm to about 210nm after one pass of ECAP process at room temperature