International Journal of Modern Physics B

In the present paper we consider two representative methods for residual stress evaluation at the micro-scale: a (semi-)destructive method involving material removal and the measurement of strain relief; and a non-destructive X-ray diffraction technique involving the use of micro-focused synchrotron X-ray beam. A recently developed strain relief approach is described using a Focused Ion Beam (FIB) to create a circular trench of progressively increasing depth around a circular "island". Residual stress is evaluated by the comparison of the strain relief (measured by digital correlation of displacements or strains) with Finite Element simulations. The technique is illustrated for a thin TiN coating layer. The second approach uses focused synchrotron X-ray beams for white beam Laue diffraction. Demonstration experiments described involve in situ loading of commercially pure nickel foil. Procedures for validation and improvement of accuracy are discussed.

The results of a strain gradient finite element model of polycrystalline plastic deformation in an HCP alloy were analysed in terms of orientation-related meso-scale grain groups. The predictions for meso-scale elastic strains were post-processed to construct energy dispersive diffraction peak patterns. Synchrotron X-ray polycrystalline diffraction was thereafter employed to record experimentally multiple peaks from deformed samples of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Model parameters were adjusted to provide the best simultaneous match to multiple peaks in terms of intensity, position and shape. The framework provides a rigorous means of validating polycrystal plasticity finite element model. The study represents an example of the parallel development of modelling and experimental tools that is useful for the study of statistically stored dislocations (SSDs) and geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) effects on the deformation behaviour of (poly)crystals.

The deformation microstructures generated by nanoindentation of multilayer coatings consisting of TiSiN layers alternating with ten TiN interlayers, were examined by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM). Two multilayered coatings were studied: a thin TiSiN coating interlayered with thick TiN interlayer and a thick TiSiN coating alternated with thin TiN layers. A monolithic TiSiN coating was also examined for comparison. Surface morphology of the samples was found to be variable. Both surface roughness and coating hardness increase with the thickness of the outermost TiSiN layer. All samples show columnar structures, and for the multilayer coatings, epitaxial growth of these columnar grains through the TiSiN/TiN multilayers was observed. Stair-shaped shear cracks can be seen in the multilayer coating alternated with thick TiN interlayers, whereas radial and edge cracks are observed in the coating multilayered with thin TiN layers and in the monolithic coating. TEM analysis also suggests that columnar grains help to resist the initiation of edge cracks. Compared to other studies on similar coating systems with fewer periods of interlayers, the deformation observed here appears less severe, indicating an improvement in the strength of the coating through increasing the number of interlayers.

As non-traditional applications of hard disk drives (HDDs) emerge, the interest in the effects of shock and vibration on small form factor (SFF) drives has come into currency due to the increasingly hostile environments encountered in the usage of the portable computer as well as the application in consumer devices. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of an SFF drive were investigated using both experimental and numerical techniques, including modal analysis and damping measurement of the head arm assembly (HAA) of the drive. A finite element (FE) model of the HAA was created to perform numerical analysis. The FE model was verified and modified according to numerical results and experimental results. It is found that numerical results of the HAA in it free state and those in its preloading state coincide well with those of experiments, and/or those by other researchers.

ZrB₂, W, WN_x coatings and ZrB₂/W, ZrB₂/WN_x multilayered coatings have been synthesized by ion beam assisted deposition at room temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD), XP-2 surface profiler, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nano indenter were employed to investigate the influence of modulation periods and N⁺ beam bombardment on microstructure and mechanical properties of the coatings. The low-angle XRD patterns and cross-sectional SEM indicate a well-defined composition modulation and layer structure of the multilayers. The multilayers with modulation periods ranging from 9 to 16 nm without N⁺ bombardment possessed higher hardness and elastic modulus than the rule-of-mixtures value of monolithic ZrB₂ and W coatings. The highest hardness was 24 GPa. N⁺ bombardment to growing multilayers gave a significant contribution to mechanical property enhancement. When modulation period is 9.6 nm, ZrB₂/WN_x multilayer with 200 eV N⁺ bombardment reveals the highest hardness (30.2 GPa) and elastic modulus. This hardest multilayer also showed the improved residual stress and fracture resistance.

TiB₂/Si₃N₄ nano multilayers have been synthesized under different deposition parameters related to substrate by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). XRD, Nano indenter, profiler, and multi-functional tester for material surface properties were used to characterize the microstructure and mechanical properties of the multilayers. The results indicated a well-defined composition modulation and layer structure of the multilayers. To the multilayers with constant modulation ratio of 15.4:1 and modulation period of 11.8 nm, the multilayer deposited on Al₂O₃(111) substrate with 38 nm-thick Ti buffer layer at deposition temperature of 225°C revealed the highest hardness (37.4 GPa) and elastic modulus. This hardest multilayer also showed the improved residual stress, friction coefficient, and fracture resistance.

Specimens of nanocrystalline pure gold were prepared by the gas deposition method. The formation of helium bubbles in the specimens and their annealing behavior were studied in order to confirm their effect on thermal stabilities of grain size and mechanical properties. The specimens with 10-25nm mean grain size were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. Spherical helium bubbles, about 5nm in diameter, were formed, the same as in the case of helium ion implantation. After annealing at 573K for 1h in vacuum, most of the bubbles had not disappeared and some were trapped at the grain boundaries. Larger numbers of bubbles were trapped at grain boundaries in the specimens with high thermal stability than for low thermal stability specimens. Helium bubbles trapped at grain boundaries can be considered as local barriers to grain growth and to contribute to thermal stability of mechanical properties.

Polymer composites in various forms and configuration are being developed in an effort to provide lighter weight construction, better optical and thermal properties to maintain adequate strength and stability. To this end thin film polymer (PMMA) nanocomposites synthesized for purpose of influencing optical luminescence using CdS nanocrystals as filler without incurring losses in mechanical properties, were examined to determine elastic modulus and degree of dispersion. Optical absorption spectroscopy has been used for finding discrete energy levels in CdS/polymer.

Calcium Sulphate [CaSO₄] was synthesized by in-situ deposition technique and its nano size (60 to 100 nm) was confirmed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Composites of the filler CaSO₄ (micro and nano) and the matrix poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) were prepared with different filler loading (0-5 wt. %) by melt mixing. The Brabender torque rheometer equipped with an internal mixer was used for preparation and evaluation of fusion behaviour of composites of different formulations. The effect of nano and micro-CaSO₄ content on the structure and properties of composites was studied. The nanostructures and dispersion were studied by wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mechanical and thermal properties of PVC/ micro and nano-CaSO₄ composites were characterized using Universal Testing Machine (UTM) and Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer (TGA). From the results of WAXD and SEM the flocculation of CaSO₄ nanoparticles were observed on the surfaces of PVC matrix. The thermal analysis results showed that the first thermal degradation onset (T onset) of PVC/nano-CaSO₄ composites for 1 wt. % of filler were higher as compared with corresponding microcomposites and pristine PVC. However, the tensile strength was decreasing with increasing filler content while, it shows increment in magnitude at 1 and 2 wt. % of nano-CaSO₄ as compared with corresponding micro-CaSO₄ as well as pristine PVC.

The effect of hydrothermal crystallization and adding reinforced intermediate layers on improving the tensile adhesion of plasma-sprayed HA coatings (HAC) was investigated. The experimental results show that the index of crystallinity (IOC) and phase purity of hydrothermally-treated HAC (HT-HAC) are increased by the low-temperature hydrothermal treatment. The microstructural healing effect with nano-size HA crystallites is significant to diminish the defects and prevent mechanical strength degradation for the HT-HAC. XPS analysis demonstrates that hydrothermal crystallization helps to promote the interfacial Ti–OH chemical reaction. HA composite coatings with CP-Ti and ZrO₂ intermediate layers provide another strengthening effect compared with the hydrothermal-heating method. The inter-diffusion of Ca results in a chemical bonding at the HA/ZrO₂ interface, which results in the increase of the adhesive strength of composite coatings. The fracture behavior is different between the crystallization-induced HAC and the composite coatings. The HT-HAC remains on the substrate with an evident cohesive failure. The adhesive failure occurred at HA/intermediate layers for composite coatings. Failures with less percentage area of interfacial fracture are indicative of a higher strength of a coating.

This paper reports experimental study on the hardness and wear behavior of NiTi Thin Film Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) at micrometer scales. A triboindenter (Hysitron Inc., Minneapolis, USA) was used to conduct a series of indentations under various loads (the corresponding maximum indentation depth from 18.52nm to 333.53nm) and wear by scanning scratch method at temperatures from 25°C to 120°C. It was found that with increasing temperature, the hardness of NiTi thin film increased while its wear resistance decreased. The observed anomalous variation of wear resistance with hardness value is further analyzed by the interplay of phase transition and plasticity.

Attempts have been made to fabricate the superhard coatings with the purpose to reduce the wear and to improve the tribological performance of the coatings for industrial applications. Several coatings have been produced by the use of direct current and radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique using titanium and TiB₂ as material targets and high speed steel as substrate. The resultant TiB₂ coatings were characterised by a variety of experimental techniques. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed for coating failure behaviour investigation. Nanoindentation and Micro-scratch were used to extract the intrinsic hardness and elastic modulus evaluation and critical load to the coating failure, respectively. Ball-on-disc sliding test under unlubricated sliding was employed for tribological measurement, for instance, friction coefficient and coating wear-life. The experimental results showed that under unlubricated sliding against an alumina ball, the TiB₂ coatings produced under various deposition conditions obviously increase the wear resistance of high speed steel by more than three times but extremely excellent wear resistance with encountering steel ball.

This article presents the experimental methodology which elucidates the stress-state dependency of the deformation behavior of a soft polymer coating adhering to titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V). The methodology included in situ observations of the evolution of the deformation behavior of elastic film and a rigid substrate under a micro-indenter. The tip of indenter is driven to the polymer film coating at constant displacement rate until interfacial fracture is observed. However, the stress and strain fields which develop in the coating during penetration have been calculated using finite element analysis. For the experimental results, the interfacial stresses are affected by the constraint of the rigid substrate. When the crack was constant, the region in which the stress field increased with time. In addition, the maximum shear stress and the initiation of the interfacial crack were in this region. Furthermore, the high interfacial shear stresses are distributed over a large radial distance, which lead to the fracture initiation in the region of interface.

A new micro-shaft-poking (MSP) apparatus has been applied for characterizing the mechanical properties of hydrogel-based contact lens. The instrument allows measurement of the force-displacement curve of the contact lens under a wide range of strain and strain rate. The materials display hysteresis and stress relaxation (50-60%) manifested in the experimental compliance curves. In parallel, a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) modeling incorporated with nonlinear elasticity has been performed for simulating the contact lens under large deformation. Through comparison between the simulated results and experimental data, the mechanical properties, e.g., stiffness, of the lens can be quantitatively determined. The viscoelastic characteristic of the lens has also been parametric fitted based on a five-parameter quasi-viscoelastic model.

A variety of bioactive composites have been invested over the last two decades as substitute materials for diseased or damaged tissues in the human body. In this paper, bioactive composites were prepared using polycaprolactone (PCL) and hydroxyapatite (HA). The influence of micro-sized and nano-sized HA on composite properties was investigated. The nano-HA was prepared by wet chemical co-precipitation reaction method. Studies of biocomposite specimen morphology were performed by Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) and DSC (Differential scanning calorimetry) were used to assess the crystal structure of HA and thermal properties of the composites, respectively. The synthesized nano-HA is found to be of high purity HA structure. The relationship between composition, structure and properties was studied. Different methods to prepare uniform composites were tried, and the outcome of this work suggests that by proper manipulation of biodegradable polymers and bioactive ceramics through material design, bioactive composites with controlled properties might be achievable.

This paper presents recent studies on the processing and characterization of epoxy-alumina nanocomposites. Nano-sized alumina particles are incorporated into epoxy resin via solvent-assisted method, so that the particles are dispersed homogeneously in the epoxy matrix. The morphologies, mechanical and thermomechanical properties of the resulting nanocomposites are studied using transmission electron microscope (TEM), conventional tensile testing and thermomechanical testing methods. TEM results show that the alumina nano-particles with a higher specific surface area tend to agglomerate. Furthermore platelet shape particles shows a better dispersion homogeneity as well as better improvement in the mechanical properties of the composites compared to the rod shape particles.

Organo layered silicates (OLS) were successfully synthesized from Tapanuli clay through an intercalated ultrasonic method using hexadecyltrimethylamonium bromide (HDTMABr) as a cation exchange agent. Tapanuli clay–epoxy nanocomposites were also successfully synthesized with an in-situ polymerization. X-Ray Diffraction and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) results demonstrated a pattern of clay morphology typically found in nanocomposite systems. Although the nanocomposites' diffractogram showed an exfoliation structure, the TEM findings confirmed that the OLS d-spacing is between 2.58 nm (the minimum value) up to 14.74 nm (the maximum value); which indicates the nanocomposites posses a mixed structure between intercalated and exfoliated structures. It was found that the presence of 1wt% Tapanuli organo clay in the epoxy systems provides higher stiffness and higher Heat Deflection Temperature by 30 % and 7 % respectively.

When one cuts himself, it is amazing to watch how quickly the body acts to mend the wound. Immediately, the body works to pull the skin around the cut back together. The concept of repair by bleeding of enclosed functional agents serves as the biomimetic inspiration of synthetic self repair systems. Such synthetic self repair systems are based on advancement in polymeric materials; the process of human thrombosis is the inspiration for the application of self healing fibres within the composite materials. Results based on flexural 3 point bend test on the prepared samples have shown that the doubled layer healed hollow fibre laminate subjected to a healing regime of 3 weeks has a healed strength increase of 27% compared to the damaged baseline laminate. These results gave us confidence that there is a great potential to adopt such self healing mechanism on actual composite parts like in aircraft's composite structures.

In the current work, a test scheme to evaluate solder joint interface fracture toughness using double cantilever beam (DCB) test has been successfully demonstrated. The obtained results, in terms of critical energy release rate, predict the joint failure based on the principle of fracture mechanics. The results can be used as a materials property in the reliability design of various types of solder-ball joined packages. DCB specimens made of 99.9 wt% copper were selected in the current work. Eutectic Sn-37Pb and lead-free Sn-3.5Ag-0.5Cu solders were used to join two pieces of the copper beams with controlled solder thickness. The test record showed steady propagation of the crack along the solder / copper interface, which verifies the viability of such a testing scheme. Interface fracture toughness for as-joined, extensively-reflowed and thermally aged samples has been measured. Both the reflow treatment and the thermal aging lead to degradation of the solder joint fracture resistance. Reflow treatment was more damaging as it induces much faster interface reaction. Fractographic analysis established that the fracture has a mixed micromechanism of dimple and cleavage. The dimples are formed as a result of the separation between the hard intermetallic compound (IMC) particles and the soft solder material, while the cleavage is formed by the brittle split of the IMCs. When the IMC thickness is increased due to extended interface reaction, the proportion of IMC cleavage failure increases, and this was reflected in the decrease of the critical energy release rate.

This paper presents a durability analysis of two types of copper leadframe, i.e. the un-oxidised leadframe and the oxidised leadframe. Both leadframe types were used in the fabrication process of a Quad Flat No-Lead (QFN) package, which can be said as a recent type of the 3D stacked die semiconductor package. This study involved the durability test and analysis on QFN packages when these packages were subjected under constant cyclic loadings. In order to perform the cyclic test, the procedure of the three-point cyclic bending test has been employed on the packages. In addition, a strain gauge which was connected to the dynamic data acquisition system was used for each tested QFN package for determining the response of the captured cyclic strain signal. It has been found that the variable amplitude pattern of signal response has been obtained during the constant cyclic test. The obtained response signals for both type of leadframe were then analysed using the approaches of signal processing technique, which is relatively new in this field. The collected response signal were analysed using the normal statistical methods, the Power Spectrum Density (PSD) calculation and also the time-frequency localization analysis. From the detail signal analysis, it has been found that the un-oxidised leadframe showed a lower range of strain response compared to the oxidised leadframe, indicating higher lifetime. As a result, this finding lead to the durability conclusion, for which the un-oxidised leadframe has more durability effects and it also has higher lifetime compared to the oxidised leadframe. Finally, a micro-crack phenomenon at the epoxy interface between the die and the leadframe was also observed for the QFN package with the oxidised leadframe.

Tungsten and copper, two metals of complete mutual immiscibility, show a variety of densification behaviors due to the processing condition in the sintering stage. In this regard, the presence of different impurities during the densification process, have different influences on the consolidation of the primary powder. In this work, the effects of impurities introduced to the powder by the precursor salt in a novel thermo-chemical homogeneous co-precipitation method were investigated. Addition of sodium tungstate to the aqueous solution of copper nitrate saturated in aqueous ammonia solution, will result in precipitation of CuWO₄·2H₂O which will float in a mass of wandering Na⁺ ions in the solution. Removal of these sticking ions by multi stage washing has a certain effect on the final density of the sintered powder. The density of the sintered product was evaluated both with and without the removal of the Na and the mechanism by which this impurity deteriorates the densification was discussed in this work.

The observation of scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed that Tumblebug elytra consist of almost parallel upper and lower cuticles. Both of which are a kind of chitin-fiber-reinforced composite. There is a kind of chitin-fiber-reinforced composite pillars between the upper and lower cuticles, which support and connect the upper and lower cuticles uprightly. More careful observation showed that the chitin fibers in the pillars smoothly extend to the upper and lower composite cuticles forming a kind of fiber-continuous pillar-board composite (FCPBC) structure. Based on the observation, two kinds of pillar-board composite structure specimens, respective with continuous and discontinuous glass fibers, were fabricated with molding and felting processes. The rupture strengths of the two kinds of the specimens were tested and compared. It showed that the rupture strength of the specimens of the FCPBC structure is markedly larger than that of the specimens of the fiber-discontinuous pillar-board composite (FDPBC) structure. At last, the experimental result was analyzed for illumining the mechanism of the FCPBC structure in the enhancement of the strength.

Bone possesses excellent mechanical properties, which are closely related to its favorable microstructures optimized by nature through millions of years. In this work, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to observe the microstructures of a shankbone. It showed that the bone is a kind of bioceramic composite consisting of hydroxyapatite layers and collagen protein matrix. The hydroxyapatite layers are further composed of long and thin hydroxyapatite sheets. The hydroxyapatite sheets in different hydroxyapatite layers distribute along different orientations, which composes a kind of intersectant microstructure. The maximum pullout force of the intersectant microstructure was investigated and compared with that of 0° microstructure with their representative models. The result indicated that the maximum pullout force of the intersectant microstructure is markedly larger than that of the 0° microstructure, which was experimentally verified.

The interest in the effects of shock on HDDs has come into currency due to the reduction of the flying height of the head/disk interface and the increasingly hostile environments encountered in the usage of many consumer electronics and portable devices. This paper discusses the shock pulse amplitude and width effects on the shock response of an operational disk drive. The drive is subjected to half sine acceleration shock pulse with varying amplitude and width. A finite element model of the hard disk drive is developed in the commercially available finite element package, ANSYS/LSDYNA. The air bearing between the disk and the slider is modeled by nonlinear springs. The contact between the disk and the slider is also considered. It is found that the shock response of the drive is sensitive to both the shock pulse amplitude and width.

Single crystalline hydroxyapatite nanorods (HAp-NRs) were synthesized using a simple hydrothermal method. The synthesized HApNRs have an aspect ratio of about 8-10. A closer inspection of the nanostructure of a single nanorod revealed a highly regular and defect-free lattice with unique crystallographic plane orientations. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) pattern shows the highly crystalline nature of the product. The Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopic (FESEM) image shows the uniform size distributed rod like morphology of length 100-150nm and diameter of about 15-20nm. Transmission Electron Microscopic analysis (TEM) and High-Resolution TEM (HRTEM) images provide further insight into the microstructure and morphology of the product. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern confirms that the nanorods are single crystal in nature. The mechanical strength of hydroxyapatite was studied by reinforcing hydroxyapatite with High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (HMWPE). It clearly shows that the mechanical properties of the nanorods are high when compared to that of bulk HAp. Finally the composites were characterized by means of thermal analysis including thermogravimetry analysis and differential thermal analysis (TGA-DTA) in order to study the thermal stability of the composite and the effect of filler in HMWPE.

Theoretical analysis and computational modeling have been performed to carry out constant-indentation strain rate tests. Results show that both the indentation pressure and indentation strain rate become constant after a lapse of loading time. Moreover, the finite element simulation reveals that the contour-line patterns of equivalent stress and equivalent plastic stain rate underneath a conical indenter evolve with geometrical self-similarity corresponding to indenter displacement. This finding confirms that pseudo-steady indentation creep occurs in the region beneath the indenter. We define representative points in the underlying material as those with equivalent stress equal to the indentation pressure divided by a constraint coefficient of 3. During the pseudo-steady indentation creep of a power-law material, the equivalent plastic strain rate at these points is proportional to the indentation strain rate for compatibility. These results point out that a constitutive equation for the tensile creep of a power-law material can be predicted by constant-indentation strain rate tests.

The effects of power-law plasticity (yield strength and strain hardening exponent) on the plastic strain distribution underneath a Vickers indenter was systematically investigated by recourse to three-dimensional finite element analysis, motivated by the experimental macro- and micro-indentation on heat-treated Al-Zn-Mg alloy. For meaningful comparison between simulated and experimental results, the experimental heat treatment was carefully designed such that Al alloy achieve similar yield strength with different strain hardening exponent, and vice versa. On the other hand, full 3D simulation of Vickers indentation was conducted to capture subsurface strain distribution. Subtle differences and similarities were discussed based on the strain field shape, size and magnitude for the isolated effect of yield strength and strain hardening exponent.

In this study we have modeled the Berkovich indentation response of elastic-plastic thin films on elastic-plastic substrates, the modulus of film and substrate being equivalent, using FEM. The stimulus for this investigation was experimental indentation data of rapidly quenched nickel thin films on stainless steel substrates, for which depth-dependent, significantly low (>50% decrease) moduli were extracted via the Oliver-Pharr method. This was notable because both film and substrate had the same elastic modulus. Previous studies showed that differences in plastic behavior could elicit such a modulus drop, for extremely hard films on substrates. In this study, we performed further FEM models to explore the modulus decrease, using aspects of continuum plastic behavior that could be hypothesized from microstructural observations. Specifically, we used plastic anisotropy and significant delayed hardening that would be expected from the nano-scale, highly columnar grain structure as input, and results showed a significant modulus decrease for reasonable values of hardness.

The commonly-used nanoindentation experiments for measuring hardness of thin films may not give the accurate results when the thickness of the film is in the range of few hundred nanometers or less due to the unavoidable substrate effects. The available analysis methods usually work well when the indentation depth is less than one tenth of the total thickness of the film; otherwise, it is very difficult to determine the film-only properties without substrate effects. This work proposes an alternative analysis to measure the hardness of ultra-thin film from nanoindentation data. This method is tested for numbers of bulk materials and the results agreed well with literature reported values; the method is then applied to thin films. It is found that this analysis can give very accurate results for different kind of film-substrate systems such as soft-films on hard-substrate and hard-film on soft-substrate. As the proposed method is based on the measurement of hardness at each indentation step therefore, it is also capable to show at what indentation depth the substrate starts affecting the indentation-measured hardness values.

In the present study, nanoindentation studies of the 95.8Sn-3.5Ag-0.7Cu lead-free solder were conducted over a range of maximum loads from 20 mN to 100 mN, under a constant ramp rate of 0.05 s^-1. The indentation scale dependence of creep behavior was investigated. The results revealed that the creep rate, creep strain rate and indentation stress are all dependent on the indentation depth. As the maximum load increased, an increasing trend in the creep rate was observed, while a decreasing trend in creep strain rate and indentation stress were observed. On the contrary, for the case of stress exponent value, no trend was observed and the values were found to range from 6.16 to 7.38. Furthermore, the experimental results also showed that the creep mechanism of the lead-free solder is dominated by dislocation climb.

Laue diffraction, energy scanning and reciprocal space mapping are three micro-beam synchrotron X-ray diffraction techniques allowing the investigation of local misorientation induced by the dislocation substructure. In this paper a comparison between the three methods is presented, based on the mapping of a single 311 reflection from a grain within a Ni polycrystal specimen deformed to a tensile plastic strain of ~9%. Qualitatively it is observed that the maps obtained by different techniques all share the same features, although some deviations exist due to experimental limitations associated with each of the measurement techniques.

The present paper investigates the cross-sectional morphology of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs) restrained radially and circumferentially by an infinite surrounding elastic medium, subjected to uniform external hydrostatic pressure. In this study, a two-dimensional plane strain model is developed, assuming no variation of load and deformation along the tube axis. We find some characteristic cross-sectional shapes from the elastic buckling analysis. The effect of the surrounded elastic medium on the cross-sectional shape which occurs due to pressure buckling is focused on by the comparison with the shape for no elastic medium case in our discussion. It is suggested that in no embedded elastic medium cases, the cross-sectional shapes of inner tubes maintain circle or oval; on the other hand, an embedded medium may cause inner tube corrugation modes especially when the number of shells for MWNTs is small.

Void growth and interaction in a soft material is explored numerically in this work in a three-dimensional context. Discrete initially spherical voids are explicitly modeled ahead of a crack front under small-scale yielding. While a multiple void interaction mechanism can be identified in our study, computations show a qualitatively similar void growth exhibited for the initial void volume fractions considered, f₀ = 0.1% and 1%. Extensive void growth in the damage process zone are observed upon application of load, with the resultant deformed voids taking on a prolated void shape. A micromechanical analysis of void growth is also carried out and the numerical results suggest a failure mechanism in the soft material not attributed to void coalescence but by a mechanism analogous to tearing.

In this study a nanometer-sized metallic glass (nano-MG) Ti₅₀Cu₅₀ was generated with constrained atoms at both ends and was extended until fracture under a tensile load by molecular dynamics simulation using the general embedded-atom model (GEAM) potential. Totally different mechanical behavior was observed in the nano-MG, such as strain hardening and necking, both of which have been discovered in a few real and simulated MGs and can be related to the generation of shear transformation zones (STZs). A dramatic drop in Young's modulus was found due to the surface effect. Such effect results from the large fraction of surface atoms which have a different surrounding configuration from bulk atoms. At fracture the nano-MG breaks by atomic separation as reported in metal nanowires. The fracture strain is as large as about 120%, indicating that nano-MGs are intrinsically ductile.