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To investigate the effect of different welding configurations on the mechanical properties of friction stir welding (FSW) overlap joints. The application of FSW in an overlap configuration could be an attractive replacement to the riveting process for assembly of fuselage primary structures due to the similarity in tolerance management. However, the mechanical properties of welded overlap joints are often inferior to the respective riveted lap‐joint properties.

In order to quantify the static and fatigue strength of FSW overlap joints, numerical and experimental investigation on overlap welds were performed in the current work. Several single shear overlap joints welding configurations were investigated, including single and multiple pass friction stir welds. The static and fatigue behaviour of these joints was assessed through tensile and fatigue tests.

Static and fatigue behaviour were found to strongly depend on the welding process parameters and configuration. With respect to the static behaviour, it was found that values close to base material can be achieved. However, depending on configuration and process parameters, static properties can be as low as about 30% of the base material properties. As for the fatigue behaviour, the fatigue limit for all configurations tested was found to be unrealistic for structural applications.

The distance between the outermost welds in multiple pass welds were found to influence the mechanical properties, although no direct relationship can be derived. Indications have been found but no clear conclusion has been reached with respect to the optimum configuration. In some cases, specimens with superior tensile properties exhibited reduced fatigue properties whereas the exact opposite effect was observed for other configurations.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a FE based modeling procedure for describing the mechanical behavior of high‐performance leaf springs made of high‐strength steels under damaging driving manoeuvres.

The type and number of finite elements over the thickness of leaves, as well as the definition of contact, friction and clamping conditions, have been investigated to describe the mechanical behavior in an accurate and time‐effective manner. The proposed modeling procedure is applied on a multi‐leaf spring providing complex geometry and kinematics during operation. The calculation accuracy is verified based on experimental stress results.

A FE based modeling procedure is developed to describe the kinematics and mechanical behavior of high‐performance leaf springs subjected till up to extreme driving loads. Comparison of numerically determined stress distributions with corresponding experimental results for a serial front axle multi‐leaf spring providing complex geometry and subjected to vertical and braking loads confirms high calculation accuracy.

The proposed FE based model is restricted to linear elastic material behavior, which is, however, reasonable for the high‐strength steels used for leaf spring applications.

The proposed FE procedure can be applied for the design and optimization of automotive leaf springs, especially for trucks.

The proposed procedure is simple and can be applied in a very early design stage. It is able to describe accurately the leaf behavior, especially the stiffness and stress response under the most significant driving events. It goes far beyond today's practice for leaf spring design, which is based on analytical methods not covering complex axle and steering kinematics, large deformations and non‐linearities.

Steel heavy plates, grade S355, micro‐alloyed with Vanadium‐V and/or Niobium‐Nb plus Titanium‐Ti in thicknesses from 5 to 60 mm, 200.000‐350.000 t/y, are produced according to EN 10025 at STOMANA S.A., a company of the SIDENOR Group in Pernik Bulgaria, and are exported to the European Market. These plates fulfil high quality standards as they are used for constructions and engineering applications (e.g. high‐building constructions, bridges, shipping applications, cranes, etc.). Often intermediate and/or final products (slabs and plates, respectively) suffer from surface and/or internal defects, which deteriorate the final product's quality. The purpose of this paper is to look at the challenging task of eliminating the external and especially the internal defects.

ELKEME performs root‐cause analysis and proposes improvement actions. For these purposes light optical metallography (LOM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with EDS were applied. For the analysis a NIKON SMZ 1500 stereoscope (up to 100x), a NIKON epiphot 300 inverted metallographic microscope (up to 1000x) and a Philips XL‐40 SEM were used.

Most surface defects are attributed to copper (having its origin mainly from scrap or from mould's wear due to bad lubrication), or casting powder entrapping, cracks at deep oscillation mark points or transverse cracking, with the majority occurring during continuous casting. High‐copper amounts in the steel cause hot shortness issues. Hot tears in the surface of “as‐cast” material lead to flakes and tears in the plates after hot rolling. The torn surfaces are heavily oxidized and decarburized if oxidizing‐conditions exist in the reheating‐furnace. Internal defects are related with large‐concentrated MnS stringers and entrapped in the steel desoxidation products. Additionally, based on carbon amount of the cast steel, macro‐segregation can lead to crack initiation and propagation along the centreline.

This work refers to industrial research widely applied and focused. Sampling and root cause analysis is never easy in an industrial environment. The most difficult part is to identify the critical process conditions that reflect to negative quality issues in the final product.

Internal defects, especially centreline segregation and inclusion clustering, are important imperfections that deteriorate material properties and jeopardize the products’ structural integrity. The paper discusses possible root‐causes in relation to the overall production processes, concluding in improvement actions for in‐plant operation given the equipment limitations of the very specific production site.

The purpose of this paper is to identify a failure mechanism of an industrial tube and recommend corrective actions to improve the reliability of the entire unit.

Metallurgical failure investigation process included mainly stereo‐, light optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as the main analytical tools for material characterization and root cause analysis.

The investigation findings, obtained by fractographic and metallographic evaluation, suggest strongly that the failure was caused by the operation of low cycle fatigue (LCF) mechanism initiated from the inner side and propagated towards the outer tube surface, assisted by the superposition of applied and residual stress fields.

This paper deals with an industrial case history, providing the findings of failure investigation of a compact refrigeration system, presented principally from structural material/component standpoint and highlighting recommendations for improvement and failure prevention.

The purpose of this paper is to study the release of corrosion inhibitor from nanocontainers and to show that it can be released due to reaction with the substrate induced by corrosion. This is called self‐healing of corrosion. Raman spectroscopy was used to show that reaction after scratching of the surface and corrosion of the substrate.

TiO₂ nanocontainers loaded with 8‐hydroxyquinoline (8‐HQ) were placed onto a copper substrate and wetted with in 0.05 M NaCl solution. The Raman spectrum of the modified copper surface was attributed to the Cu(8‐Q)2 compound. The incorporation of loaded nanocontainers into epoxy coatings showed enhanced protection against corrosion. Artificial defects were formed on the coatings in order to evaluate the corrosion process and the possible self‐healing effect. The Raman spectra in the scratch tentatively assigned to Cu(8‐Q)2 compound. This result shows that the enhanced anti‐corrosive properties of the films with loaded nanocontainers can be attributed to the released inhibitor from the nanocontainer.

The authors found that the corrosion of copper substrate induces the release of hydroxyquinoline and formation of a chelate. This is the self‐healing phenomenon.

This can be employed for self‐healing in all structures, such as mechanical properties of bridges, etc.

Damage occurs in all structures: the cost is immense – millions of dollars. Damage also occurs after an earthquake, accidents, etc. Self‐repairing is the key issue in modern science, therefore this article is of great importance.

The originality is that the authors showed, with Raman spectroscopy, that the chemicals in the nanocontainers in the coatings are released by the corrosion induced in the metal. This is the first spectroscopic proof of self‐healing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of nanoindentation with a Berkovich indenter as a method of extracting equivalent stress‐strain curves for the base metal and the welded zone of a friction stir welded aluminum alloy.

Friction stir welding is a solid‐state joining process, which emerged as an alternative technique to be used in high strength alloys that were difficult to join with conventional joining techniques. This technique has a significant effect on the local microstructure and residual stresses combined with deformation. Nano‐ and micro‐indentation are the most commonly used techniques to obtain local mechanical properties of engineering materials. In order to test the reliability of nanoindentation technique and to connect nanoscale with macroscale, the indentation hardness‐depth relation established by Nix and Gao was applied on the experimental values.

The predictions of this model were found to be in good agreement with classical hardness measurements on AA 6082‐T6 aluminum alloy. Also, finite element method provides a numerical tool to calculate complex nanoindentation problems and in correlation with gradients theories forms a well‐seried tool in order to take into account size effects.

By studying this alloy, the paper reviews fundamental principles such as stress‐strain distribution, size effects rise during nanoindentation and the applicability of finite element method, in order to take into account these issues.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if the nanoindentation technique is a reliable method and whether it can be used to measure the surface hardness (H) in friction stir welded aluminum alloys. In order to test the reliability of nanoindentation technique, nanohardness values for friction stir welded aluminum alloys were compared to microhardness values. Additionally, the onset of plasticity (yielding) is investigated.

Nanoindentation experiments were performed for the determination of onset on plasticity (yielding) and comparison of local mechanical properties of both welded alloys. In order to test the reliability of nanoindentation technique, nanohardness values for friction stir welded AA6082 were compared to microhardness values. The specimen was tested using two different instruments – a Vickers microhardness tester and a nanoindenter tester for fine scale evaluation of H.

The results of this study indicate that nanohardness values with a Berkovich indenter reliably correlate with Vickers microhardness values. Nanoindentation technique can provide reliable results for analyzing friction stir welded aluminum alloys. The welding process definitely affects the material mechanical properties.

Microhardness and nanohardness obtained values can be correlated carefully, regarding the similarities and the differences of the two above mentioned techniques.

Lightweight alloys are of major concern, due to their applicability, in transport and industry applications. The purpose of this paper is to perform a comprehensive analysis of time dependent properties of aluminum alloy by nanoindentation technique, through investigation of creep behavior. Additionally, possible explanations on the time dependent behavior and the influence of the hold period at maximum load and the loading rate on the elastic modulus and hardness results are also analyzed and discussed.

In this work, a comprehensive analysis of time dependent properties of aluminum alloy by nanoindentation technique was performed, by varying the loading rate, the maximum applied load and the loading time. The stress exponent values are derived from the displacement‐holding time curves. The present experimental setup includes three different approaches: variation of loading rate, maximum applied load and loading time. The creep deformation mechanisms of the alloy, which are dependent on experiment setup, are discussed and the characteristic “elbow” behavior in the unloading part of the curves is also reported.

The authors found that the stress exponent values obtained are dependent on the applied peak loads and indentation loading rates. Nanoindentation creep testing of aluminum AA6082‐T6 revealed significant creep displacements, where the strain rate reached a steady state after a certain time and the stress decreased with time as the displacement increased during the creep process. The slopes of strain rate versus stress curves (exponent of power‐law creep) for different maximum loads and various holding times, were investigated.

The stress exponent of the constant‐load indentation creep, in all three types of experiments, was found to reduce at low load region. In case of different holding load and time, the stress exponent increased almost linearly and increased very rapidly as the indent size increased, exhibiting an intense size effect.

Bonded composite patches are ideal for aircraft structural repair as they offer enhanced specific properties, case‐tailored performance and excellent corrosion resistance. Bonding minimizes induced stress concentrations unlike mechanical fastening, whilst it seals the interface between the substrate and the patch and reduces the risk of fretting fatigue that could occur in the contact zone. The purpose of this paper is to assess the electrochemical corrosion performance and the environmentally induced mechanical degradation of aerospace epoxy adhesives when carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are used as an additive to the neat epoxy adhesive.

The galvanic effect between aluminium substrates and either plain or CNT enhanced carbon fibre composites, was measured using a standard galvanic cell. Also, rest potential measurements and cyclic polarizations were carried out for each of the studied systems. The effect of the CNT introduction to a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) on the adhesion efficiency, before and after salt‐spraying for 10, 20 and 30 days, was studied. The adhesion efficiency was evaluated by the single lap joint test.

The corrosion behaviour of the system is polymer matrix type dependent. CNT introduction to a CFRP may induce small scale localized degradation.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how the shear strength and the response to galvanic corrosion are affected by epoxy resins modified by carbon nanotubes.