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This thesis presents a study of the microstructure and mechanical properties of Yttrium-Zinc (YZn) thin films. Rare-earth intermetallic compounds have gained significant attention in recent years due to their unique structural and mechanical properties, making them suitable for various applications. However, studies on the Y-Zn system are scarce and there

This thesis presents a study of the microstructure and mechanical properties of Yttrium-Zinc (YZn) thin films. Rare-earth intermetallic compounds have gained significant attention in recent years due to their unique structural and mechanical properties, making them suitable for various applications. However, studies on the Y-Zn system are scarce and there are very few published reports on YZn thin films. The main objective of this study is to investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties of YZn thin films using various experimental techniques.In this study, YZn films of various thicknesses were synthesized via magnetron co-sputtering: 200 nm, 500 nm, 1 µm, 2 µm and 11.5 µm. Then these samples were annealed at 250°C, 300°C, 350°C and 400°C to investigate their microstructural evolution and mechanical properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) based techniques have been used to analyze the microstructure and chemical composition of these compounds. The mechanical properties such as hardness and elastic modulus have been measured using nanoindentation. The results show that the microstructure of YZn thin films is dependent on the annealing conditions. The microstructure of samples deposited at room temperature and those annealed at 250°C and 300°C were found to be amorphous except for the 200 nm YZn film. Annealing at higher temperatures leads to crystallization of the films. Moreover, the results demonstrate that YZn intermetallic thin films have high hardness, which varies with the film thickness and annealing treatment. This work represents an initial effort to understand the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of YZn thin films as a function of film thickness and annealing temperatures. The results of this study can be used to guide the design and development of YZn thin films with tailored microstructures and mechanical properties for various applications.
ContributorsAkkarakaduppil, Riju Philip James (Author) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Thesis advisor, Committee member) / Peralta, Pedro (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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Description
A finite element model that replicates the experimental procedure to test and certify soft body armor has been developed. The model consists of four components: bullet, clay, straps, and shoot pack with different material models that closely capture the behavior of each component when subjected to ballistic impact loading. To

A finite element model that replicates the experimental procedure to test and certify soft body armor has been developed. The model consists of four components: bullet, clay, straps, and shoot pack with different material models that closely capture the behavior of each component when subjected to ballistic impact loading. To test the fidelity of the model, three metrics are used - back face signature (BFS), the number of penetrated shoot pack layers, and the number of damaged shoot pack layers on the clay side of the shoot pack assembly. In addition, the shape and size of the bullet, and the shape and size of the hole in the shoot pack are also considered as qualitative measures to assess the developed model. The focus of this research work is to improve the shoot pack material model, while the constitutive model for the components is taken from earlier work done at ASU. Results show considerable improvement in the model in terms of capturing the number of penetrated layers, the size and shape of the holes in the shoot pack layer, and the predicted BFS. The developed finite element models can be used to predict the behavior of soft body armor for different initial conditions, shoot pack materials, and arrangement of the layers.
ContributorsPechetti, Sateesh (Author) / Rajan, Subramaniam (Thesis advisor) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
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Description
Improved knowledge connecting the chemistry, structure, and properties of polymers is necessary to develop advanced materials in a materials-by-design approach. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide tremendous insight into how the fine details of chemistry, molecular architecture, and microstructure affect many physical properties; however, they face well-known restrictions in their

Improved knowledge connecting the chemistry, structure, and properties of polymers is necessary to develop advanced materials in a materials-by-design approach. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide tremendous insight into how the fine details of chemistry, molecular architecture, and microstructure affect many physical properties; however, they face well-known restrictions in their applicable temporal and spatial scales. These limitations have motivated the development of computationally-efficient, coarse-grained methods to investigate how microstructural details affect thermophysical properties. In this dissertation, I summarize my research work in structure-based coarse-graining methods to establish the link between molecular-scale structure and macroscopic properties of two different polymers. Systematically coarse-grained models were developed to study the viscoelastic stress response of polyurea, a copolymer that segregates into rigid and viscous phases, at time scales characteristic of blast and impact loading. With the application of appropriate scaling parameters, the coarse-grained models can predict viscoelastic properties with a speed up of 5-6 orders of magnitude relative to the atomistic MD models. Coarse-grained models of polyethylene were also created to investigate the thermomechanical material response under shock loading. As structure-based coarse-grained methods are generally not transferable to states different from which they were calibrated at, their applicability for modeling non-equilibrium processes such as shock and impact is highly limited. To address this problem, a new model is developed that incorporates many-body interactions and is calibrated across a range of different thermodynamic states using a least square minimization scheme. The new model is validated by comparing shock Hugoniot properties with atomistic and experimental data for polyethylene. Lastly, a high fidelity coarse-grained model of polyethylene was constructed that reproduces the joint-probability distributions of structural variables such as the distributions of bond lengths and bond angles between sequential coarse-grained sites along polymer chains. This new model accurately represents the structure of both the amorphous and crystal phases of polyethylene and enabling investigation of how polymer processing such as cold-drawing and bulk crystallization affect material structure at significantly larger time and length scales than traditional molecular simulations.
ContributorsAgrawal, Vipin (Author) / Oswald, Jay (Thesis advisor) / Peralta, Pedro (Committee member) / Chamberlin, Ralph (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is a phenomenon that affects both the physical and chemical properties of several intrinsically ductile metals. Consequently, understanding the mechanisms behind HE has been of particular interest in both experimental and modeling research. Discrepancies between experimental observations and modeling results have led to various proposals for HE

Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is a phenomenon that affects both the physical and chemical properties of several intrinsically ductile metals. Consequently, understanding the mechanisms behind HE has been of particular interest in both experimental and modeling research. Discrepancies between experimental observations and modeling results have led to various proposals for HE mechanisms. Therefore, to gain insights into HE mechanisms in iron, this dissertation aims to investigate several key issues involving HE such as: a) the incipient crack tip events; b) the cohesive strength of grain boundaries (GBs); c) the dislocation-GB interactions and d) the dislocation mobility.

The crack tip, which presents a preferential trap site for hydrogen segregation, was examined using atomistic methods and the continuum based Rice-Thompson criterion as sufficient concentration of hydrogen can alter the crack tip deformation mechanism. Results suggest that there is a plausible co-existence of the adsorption induced dislocation emission and hydrogen enhanced decohesion mechanisms. In the case of GB-hydrogen interaction, we observed that the segregation of hydrogen along the interface leads to a reduction in cohesive strength resulting in intergranular failure. A methodology was further developed to quantify the role of the GB structure on this behavior.

GBs play a fundamental role in determining the strengthening mechanisms acting as an impediment to the dislocation motion; however, the presence of an unsurmountable barrier for a dislocation can generate slip localization that could further lead to intergranular crack initiation. It was found that the presence of hydrogen increases the strain energy stored within the GB which could lead to a transition in failure mode. Finally, in the case of body centered cubic metals, understanding the complex screw dislocation motion is critical to the development of an accurate continuum description of the plastic behavior. Further, the presence of hydrogen has been shown to drastically alter the plastic deformation, but the precise role of hydrogen is still unclear. Thus, the role of hydrogen on the dislocation mobility was examined using density functional theory and atomistic simulations. Overall, this dissertation provides a novel atomic-scale understanding of the HE mechanism and development of multiscale tools for future endeavors.
ContributorsAdlakha, Ilaksh (Author) / Solanki, Kiran (Thesis advisor) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Committee member) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Liu, Yongming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Fracture phenomena have been extensively studied in the last several decades. Continuum mechanics-based approaches, such as finite element methods and extended finite element methods, are widely used for fracture simulation. One well-known issue of these approaches is the stress singularity resulted from the spatial discontinuity at the crack tip/front. The

Fracture phenomena have been extensively studied in the last several decades. Continuum mechanics-based approaches, such as finite element methods and extended finite element methods, are widely used for fracture simulation. One well-known issue of these approaches is the stress singularity resulted from the spatial discontinuity at the crack tip/front. The requirement of guiding criteria for various cracking behaviors, such as initiation, propagation, and branching, also poses some challenges. Comparing to the continuum based formulation, the discrete approaches, such as lattice spring method, discrete element method, and peridynamics, have certain advantages when modeling various fracture problems due to their intrinsic characteristics in modeling discontinuities.

A novel, alternative, and systematic framework based on a nonlocal lattice particle model is proposed in this study. The uniqueness of the proposed model is the inclusion of both pair-wise local and multi-body nonlocal potentials in the formulation. First, the basic ideas of the proposed framework for 2D isotropic solid are presented. Derivations for triangular and square lattice structure are discussed in detail. Both mechanical deformation and fracture process are simulated and model verification and validation are performed with existing analytical solutions and experimental observations. Following this, the extension to general 3D isotropic solids based on the proposed local and nonlocal potentials is given. Three cubic lattice structures are discussed in detail. Failure predictions using the 3D simulation are compared with experimental testing results and very good agreement is observed. Next, a lattice rotation scheme is proposed to account for the material orientation in modeling anisotropic solids. The consistency and difference compared to the classical material tangent stiffness transformation method are discussed in detail. The implicit and explicit solution methods for the proposed lattice particle model are also discussed. Finally, some conclusions and discussions based on the current study are drawn at the end.
ContributorsChen, Hailong (Author) / Liu, Yongming (Thesis advisor) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Oswald, Jay (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
The objective of this research is to develop robust, accurate, and adaptive algorithms in the framework of the extended finite element method (XFEM) for fracture analysis of highly heterogeneous materials with complex internal geometries. A key contribution of this work is the creation of novel methods designed to automate the

The objective of this research is to develop robust, accurate, and adaptive algorithms in the framework of the extended finite element method (XFEM) for fracture analysis of highly heterogeneous materials with complex internal geometries. A key contribution of this work is the creation of novel methods designed to automate the incorporation of high-resolution data, e.g. from X-ray tomography, that can be used to better interpret the enormous volume of data generated in modern in-situ experimental testing. Thus new algorithms were developed for automating analysis of complex microstructures characterized by segmented tomographic images.

A centrality-based geometry segmentation algorithm was developed to accurately identify discrete inclusions and particles in composite materials where limitations in imaging resolution leads to spurious connections between particles in close contact.To allow for this algorithm to successfully segment geometry independently of particle size and shape, a relative centrality metric was defined to allow for a threshold centrality criterion for removal of voxels that spuriously connect distinct geometries.

To automate incorporation of microstructural information from high-resolution images, two methods were developed that initialize signed distance fields on adaptively-refined finite element meshes. The first method utilizes a level set evolution equation that is directly solved on the finite element mesh through Galerkins method. The evolution equation is formulated to produce a signed distance field that matches geometry defined by a set of voxels segmented from tomographic images. The method achieves optimal convergence for the order of elements used. In a second approach, the fast marching method is employed to initialize a distance field on a uniform grid which is then projected by least squares onto a finite element mesh. This latter approach is shown to be superior in speed and accuracy.

Lastly, extended finite element method simulations are performed for the analysis of particle fracture in metal matrix composites with realistic particle geometries initialized from X-ray tomographic data. In the simulations, particles fracture probabilistically through a Weibull strength distribution. The model is verified through comparisons with the experimentally-measured stress-strain response of the material as well as analysis of the fracture. Further, simulations are then performed to analyze the effect of mesh sensitivity, the effect of fracture of particles on their neighbors, and the role of a particles shape on its fracture probability.
ContributorsYuan, Rui (Author) / Oswald, Jay (Thesis advisor) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Committee member) / Liu, Yongming (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Chen, Kangping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Uranium Dioxide (UO2) is a significant nuclear fission fuel, which is widely used

in nuclear reactors. Understanding the influence of microstructure on thermo-mechanical behavior of UO2 is extremely important to predict its performance. In particular, evaluating mechanical properties, such as elasticity, plasticity and creep at sub-grain length scales is key to

Uranium Dioxide (UO2) is a significant nuclear fission fuel, which is widely used

in nuclear reactors. Understanding the influence of microstructure on thermo-mechanical behavior of UO2 is extremely important to predict its performance. In particular, evaluating mechanical properties, such as elasticity, plasticity and creep at sub-grain length scales is key to developing this understanding as well as building multi-scale models of fuel behavior with predicting capabilities. In this work, modeling techniques were developed to study effects of microstructure on Young’s modulus, which was selected as a key representative property that affects overall mechanical behavior, using experimental data obtained from micro-cantilever bending testing as benchmarks. Beam theory was firstly introduced to calculate Young's modulus of UO2 from the experimental data and then three-dimensional finite element models of the micro-cantilever beams were constructed to simulate bending tests in UO2 at room temperature. The influence of the pore distribution was studied to explain the discrepancy between predicted values and experimental results. Results indicate that results of tests are significantly affected by porosity given that both pore size and spacing in the samples are of the order of the micro-beam dimensions. Microstructure reconstruction was conducted with images collected from three-dimensional serial sectioning using focused ion beam (FIB) and electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) and pore clusters were placed at different locations along the length of the beam. Results indicate that the presence of pore clusters close to the substrate, i.e., the clamp of the micro-cantilever beam, has the strongest effect on load-deflection behavior, leading to a reduction of stiffness that is the largest for any location of the pore cluster. Furthermore, it was also found from both numerical and i

analytical models that pore clusters located towards the middle of the span and close to the end of the beam only have a very small effect on the load-deflection behavior, and it is concluded that better estimates of Young's modulus can be obtained from micro- cantilever experiments by using microstructurally explicit models that account for porosity in about one half of the beam length close to the clamp. This, in turn, provides an avenue to simplify micro-scale experiments and their analysis.
ContributorsGong, Bowen (Author) / Peralta, Pedro (Thesis advisor) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) are attractive structural materials due to their high stiffness to low weight ratio. However, unidirectional PMCs have low shear strength and failure can occur along kink bands that develop on compression due to plastic microbuckling that carry strains large enough to induce nonlinear matrix deformation. Reviewing

Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) are attractive structural materials due to their high stiffness to low weight ratio. However, unidirectional PMCs have low shear strength and failure can occur along kink bands that develop on compression due to plastic microbuckling that carry strains large enough to induce nonlinear matrix deformation. Reviewing the literature, a large fraction of the existing work is for uniaxial compression, and the effects of stress gradients, such as those present during bending, have not been as well explored, and these effects are bound to make difference in terms of kink band nucleation and growth. Furthermore, reports on experimental measurements of strain fields leading to and developing inside these bands in the presence of stress gradients are also scarce and need to be addressed to gain a full understanding of their behavior when UDCs are used under bending and other spatially complex stress states.

In a light to bridge the aforementioned gaps, the primary focus of this work is to understand mechanisms for kink band evolution under an influence of stress-gradients induced during bending. Digital image correlation (DIC) is used to measure strains inside and around the kink bands during 3-point bending of samples with 0°/90° stacking made of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Fibers. Measurements indicate bands nucleate at the compression side and propagate into the sample carrying a mixture of large shear and normal strains (~33%), while also decreasing its bending stiffness. Failure was produced by a combination of plastic microbuckling and axial splitting. The microstructure of the kink bands was studied and used in a microstructurally explicit finite element model (FEM) to analyze stresses and strains at ply level in the samples during kink band evolution, using cohesive zone elements to represent the interfaces between plies. Cohesive element properties were deduced by a combination of delamination, fracture and three-point bending tests used to calibrate the FEMs. Modeling results show that the band morphology is sensitive to the shear and opening properties of the interfaces between the plies.
ContributorsPatel, Jay K (Author) / Peralta, Pedro D (Thesis advisor) / Oswald, Jay (Committee member) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Ayyar, Adarsh (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Aluminum alloys and their composites are attractive materials for applications requiring high strength-to-weight ratios and reasonable cost. Many of these applications, such as those in the aerospace industry, undergo fatigue loading. An understanding of the microstructural damage that occurs in these materials is critical in assessing their fatigue resistance. Two

Aluminum alloys and their composites are attractive materials for applications requiring high strength-to-weight ratios and reasonable cost. Many of these applications, such as those in the aerospace industry, undergo fatigue loading. An understanding of the microstructural damage that occurs in these materials is critical in assessing their fatigue resistance. Two distinct experimental studies were performed to further the understanding of fatigue damage mechanisms in aluminum alloys and their composites, specifically fracture and plasticity. Fatigue resistance of metal matrix composites (MMCs) depends on many aspects of composite microstructure. Fatigue crack growth behavior is particularly dependent on the reinforcement characteristics and matrix microstructure. The goal of this work was to obtain a fundamental understanding of fatigue crack growth behavior in SiC particle-reinforced 2080 Al alloy composites. In situ X-ray synchrotron tomography was performed on two samples at low (R=0.1) and at high (R=0.6) R-ratios. The resulting reconstructed images were used to obtain three-dimensional (3D) rendering of the particles and fatigue crack. Behaviors of the particles and crack, as well as their interaction, were analyzed and quantified. Four-dimensional (4D) visual representations were constructed to aid in the overall understanding of damage evolution. During fatigue crack growth in ductile materials, a plastic zone is created in the region surrounding the crack tip. Knowledge of the plastic zone is important for the understanding of fatigue crack formation as well as subsequent growth behavior. The goal of this work was to quantify the 3D size and shape of the plastic zone in 7075 Al alloys. X-ray synchrotron tomography and Laue microdiffraction were used to non-destructively characterize the volume surrounding a fatigue crack tip. The precise 3D crack profile was segmented from the reconstructed tomography data. Depth-resolved Laue patterns were obtained using differential-aperture X-ray structural microscopy (DAXM), from which peak-broadening characteristics were quantified. Plasticity, as determined by the broadening of diffracted peaks, was mapped in 3D. Two-dimensional (2D) maps of plasticity were directly compared to the corresponding tomography slices. A 3D representation of the plastic zone surrounding the fatigue crack was generated by superimposing the mapped plasticity on the 3D crack profile.
ContributorsHruby, Peter (Author) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Thesis advisor) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Liu, Yongming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Shock loading is a complex phenomenon that can lead to failure mechanisms such as strain localization, void nucleation and growth, and eventually spall fracture. The length scale of damage with respect to that of the surrounding microstructure has proven to be a key aspect in determining sites of failure initiation.

Shock loading is a complex phenomenon that can lead to failure mechanisms such as strain localization, void nucleation and growth, and eventually spall fracture. The length scale of damage with respect to that of the surrounding microstructure has proven to be a key aspect in determining sites of failure initiation. Studying incipient stages of spall damage is of paramount importance to accurately determine initiation sites in the material microstructure where damage will nucleate and grow and to formulate continuum models that account for the variability of the damage process due to microstructural heterogeneity, which is the focus of this research. Shock loading experiments were conducted via flyer-plate impact tests for pressures of 2-6 GPa and strain rates of 105/s on copper polycrystals of varying thermomechanical processing conditions. Serial cross sectioning of recovered target disks was performed along with electron microscopy, electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD), focused ion beam (FIB) milling, and 3-D X-ray tomogrpahy (XRT) to gain 2-D and 3-D information on the spall plane and surrounding microstructure. Statistics on grain boundaries (GB) containing damage were obtained from 2-D data and GBs of misorientations 25° and 50° were found to have the highest probability to contain damage in as-received (AR), heat treated (HT), and fully recrystallized (FR) microstructures, while {111} Σ3 GBs were globally strong. The AR microstructure’s probability peak was the most pronounced indicating GB strength is the dominant factor for damage nucleation. 3-D XRT data was used to digitally render the spall planes of the AR, HT, and FR microstructures. From shape fitting the voids to ellipsoids, it was found that the AR microstructure contained greater than 55% intergranular damage, whereas the HT and FR microstructures contained predominantly transgranular and coalesced damage modes, respectively. 3-D reconstructions of large volume damage sites in shocked Cu multicrystals showed preference for damage nucleation at GBs between adjacent grains of a high Taylor factor mismatches as well as an angle between the shock direction and the GB physical normal of ~30°-45°. 3-D FIB sectioning of individual voids led to the discovery of uniform plastic zones ~25-50% the size of the void diameter and plastic deformation directions were characterized via local average misorientation maps. Incipient transgranular voids revealed from the sectioning process were present in grains of high Taylor factors along the shock direction, which is expected as materials with a low Taylor factor along the shock direction are susceptible to growth due their accomodation of plastic deformation. Fabrication of square waves using photolithography and chemical etching was developed to study the nature of plasticity at GBs away from the spall plane. Grains oriented close to <0 1 1> had half the residual amplitudes than grains oriented close to <0 0 1>.
ContributorsBrown, Andrew (Author) / Peralta, Pedro (Committee member) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Sieradzki, Karl (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015