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Description
Widespread knowledge of fracture mechanics is mostly based on previous models that generalize crack growth in materials over several loading cycles. The objective of this project is to characterize crack growth that occurs in titanium alloys, specifically Grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V, at the sub-cycle scale, or within a single loading cycle.

Widespread knowledge of fracture mechanics is mostly based on previous models that generalize crack growth in materials over several loading cycles. The objective of this project is to characterize crack growth that occurs in titanium alloys, specifically Grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V, at the sub-cycle scale, or within a single loading cycle. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), imaging analysis is performed to observe crack behavior at ten loading steps throughout the loading and unloading paths. Analysis involves measuring the incremental crack growth and crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) of specimens at loading ratios of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5. This report defines the relationship between crack growth and the stress intensity factor, K, of the specimens, as well as the relationship between the R-ratio and stress opening level. The crack closure phenomena and effect of microcracks are discussed as they influence the crack growth behavior. This method has previously been used to characterize crack growth in Al 7075-T6. The results for Ti-6Al-4V are compared to these previous findings in order to strengthen conclusions about crack growth behavior.
ContributorsNazareno, Alyssa Noelle (Author) / Liu, Yongming (Thesis director) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
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Description
Cubic boron nitride (c-BN), hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and semiconducting diamond all have physical properties that make them ideal materials for applications in high power and high frequency electronics, as well as radiation detectors. However, there is limited research on the unique properties and growth of c-BN or h-BN thin

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN), hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and semiconducting diamond all have physical properties that make them ideal materials for applications in high power and high frequency electronics, as well as radiation detectors. However, there is limited research on the unique properties and growth of c-BN or h-BN thin films. This dissertation addresses the deposition of c-BN via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) on boron doped diamond substrates. In-Situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is used to characterize the thickness and hexagonal to cubic ratio of boron nitride thin films. The effects of hydrogen concentration during the deposition of boron nitride are investigated. The boron nitride deposition rate is found to be dependent on the hydrogen gas flow. The sp2 to sp3 bonding is also found to be dependent on the hydrogen gas flow. Preferential growth of h-BN is observed when an excess of hydrogen is supplied to the reaction, while h-BN growth is suppressed when hydrogen flow is reduced to be the limiting reactant. Reduced hydrogen flow is also observed to promote preferential growth of c-BN. The hydrogen limited reaction is used to deposit c-BN on single crystal (100) boron-doped diamond substrates. In-situ ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and XPS are used to deduce the valence band offset of the diamond/c-BN interface. A valence band offset of -0.3 eV is measured with the diamond VBM above the VBM of c-BN. This value is then discussed in context of previous experimental results and theoretical calculations. Finally, UPS and XPS are used to characterize the surface states of phosphorus-doped diamond. Variations within the processing parameters for surface preparation and the effects on the electronic surface states are presented and discussed.
ContributorsBrown, Jesse (Author) / Nemanich, Robert J (Thesis advisor) / Alarcon, Ricardo (Committee member) / Lindsay, Stuart (Committee member) / Zaniewski, Anna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Description
Cellular metamaterials arouse broad scientific interests due to the combination of host material and structure together to achieve a wide range of physical properties rarely found in nature. Stochastic foam as one subset has been considered as a competitive candidate for versatile applications including heat exchangers, battery electrodes, automotive, catalyst

Cellular metamaterials arouse broad scientific interests due to the combination of host material and structure together to achieve a wide range of physical properties rarely found in nature. Stochastic foam as one subset has been considered as a competitive candidate for versatile applications including heat exchangers, battery electrodes, automotive, catalyst devices, magnetic shielding, etc. For the engineering of the cellular foam architectures, closed-form models that can be used to predict the mechanical and thermal properties of foams are highly desired especially for the recently developed ultralight weight shellular architectures. Herein, for the first time, a novel packing three-dimensional (3D) hollow pentagonal dodecahedron (HPD) model is proposed to simulate the cellular architecture with hollow struts. An electrochemical deposition process is utilized to manufacture the metallic hollow foam architecture. Mechanical and thermal testing of the as-manufactured foams are carried out to compare with the HPD model. Timoshenko beam theory is utilized to verify and explain the derived power coefficient relation. Our HPD model is proved to accurately capture both the topology and the physical properties of hollow stochastic foam. Understanding how the novel HPD model packing helps break the conventional impression that 3D pentagonal topology cannot fulfill the space as a representative volume element. Moreover, the developed HPD model can predict the mechanical and thermal properties of the manufactured hollow metallic foams and elucidating of how the inevitable manufacturing defects affect the physical properties of the hollow metallic foams. Despite of the macro-scale stochastic foam architecture, nano gradient gyroid lattices are studied using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation. The simulation result reveals that, unlike homogeneous architecture, gradient gyroid not only shows novel layer-by-layer deformation behavior, but also processes significantly better energy absorption ability. The deformation behavior and energy absorption are predictable and designable, which demonstrate its highly programmable potential.
ContributorsDai, Rui (Author) / Nian, Qiong (Thesis advisor) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Kwon, Beomjin (Committee member) / Liu, Yongming (Committee member) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Description
In this dissertation, atomic layer processing and surface characterization techniques were used to investigate surface conditions of wide band gap materials, gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium oxide (Ga2O3). These studies largely focused on mitigation and removal of defect formation induced by ions used in conventional plasma-based dry etching techniques. Band

In this dissertation, atomic layer processing and surface characterization techniques were used to investigate surface conditions of wide band gap materials, gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium oxide (Ga2O3). These studies largely focused on mitigation and removal of defect formation induced by ions used in conventional plasma-based dry etching techniques. Band bending measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to characterize charge compensation at the surface of GaN (0001) and determine densities of charged surface states produced by dry etching. Mitigation and removal of these dry-etch induced defects was investigated by varying inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching conditions, performing thermal and plasma-based treatments, and development of a novel low-damage, self-limiting atomic layer etching (ALE) process to remove damaged material. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) and ALE techniques were developed for Ga2O3 using trimethylgallium (TMG). Ga2O3 was deposited by ALD on Si using TMG and O2 plasma with a growth rate of 1.0 ± 0.1 Å/cycle. Ga2O3 films were then etched using HF and TMG using a fully thermal ALE process with an etch rate of 0.9 ± Å/cycle. O2 plasma oxidation of GaN for surface conversion to Ga2O3 was investigated as a pathway for ALE of GaN using HF and TMG. This process was characterized using XPS, in situ multi-wavelength ellipsometry, and transmission electron microscopy. This study indicated that the etch rate was lower than anticipated, which was attributed to crystallinity of the converted surface oxide on GaN (0001).
ContributorsHatch, Kevin Andrew (Author) / Nemanich, Robert J (Thesis advisor) / Ponce, Fernando A (Committee member) / Smith, David J (Committee member) / Zhao, Yuji (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Description
In this dissertation, the surface interactions of fluorine were studied during atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) of wide band gap materials. To enable this research two high vacuum reactors were designed and constructed for thermal and plasma enhanced ALD and ALE, and they were equipped for

In this dissertation, the surface interactions of fluorine were studied during atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) of wide band gap materials. To enable this research two high vacuum reactors were designed and constructed for thermal and plasma enhanced ALD and ALE, and they were equipped for in-situ process monitoring. Fluorine surface interactions were first studied in a comparison of thermal and plasma enhanced ALD (TALD and PEALD) of AlF3 thin films prepared using hydrogen fluoride (HF), trimethylaluminum (TMA), and H2-plasma. The ALD AlF3 films were compared ¬in-situ using ellipsometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Ellipsometry showed a growth rate of 1.1 Å/ cycle and 0.7 Å/ cycle, at 100°C, for the TALD and PEALD AlF3 processes, respectively. XPS indicated the presence of Al-rich clusters within the PEALD film. The formation of the Al-rich clusters is thought to originate during the H2-plasma step of the PEALD process. The Al-rich clusters were not detected in the TALD AlF3 films. This study provided valuable insight on the role of fluorine in an ALD process. Reactive ion etching is a common dry chemical etch process for fabricating GaN devices. However, the use of ions can induce various defects, which can degrade device performance. The development of low-damage post etch processes are essential for mitigating plasma induced damage. As such, two multistep ALE methods were implemented for GaN based on oxidation, fluorination, and ligand exchange. First, GaN surfaces were oxidized using either water vapor or O2-plasma exposures to produce a thin oxide layer. The oxide layer was addressed using alternating exposures of HF and TMG, which etch Ga2O3 films. Each ALE process was characterized using in-situ using ellipsometry and XPS and ex-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). XPS indicated F and O impurities remained on the etched surfaces. Ellipsometry and TEM showed a slight reduction in thickness. The very low ALE rate was interpreted as the inability of the Ga2O3 ALE process to fluorinate the ordered surface oxide on GaN (0001). Overall, these results indicate HF is effective for the ALD of metal fluorides and the ALE of metal oxides.
ContributorsMessina, Daniel C (Author) / Nemanich, Robert J (Thesis advisor) / Goodnick, Stephen (Committee member) / Ponce, Fernando A (Committee member) / Smith, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Description
Phase change materials (PCMs) are combined sensible-and-latent thermal energy storage materials that can be used to store and dissipate energy in the form of heat. PCMs incorporated into wall-element systems have been well-studied with respect to energy efficiency of building envelopes. New applications of PCMs in infrastructural concrete, e.g., for

Phase change materials (PCMs) are combined sensible-and-latent thermal energy storage materials that can be used to store and dissipate energy in the form of heat. PCMs incorporated into wall-element systems have been well-studied with respect to energy efficiency of building envelopes. New applications of PCMs in infrastructural concrete, e.g., for mitigating early-age cracking and freeze-and-thaw induced damage, have also been proposed. Hence, the focus of this dissertation is to develop a detailed understanding of the physic-chemical and thermo-mechanical characteristics of cementitious systems and novel coating systems for wall-elements containing PCM. The initial phase of this work assesses the influence of interface properties and inter-inclusion interactions between microencapsulated PCM, macroencapsulated PCM, and the cementitious matrix. The fact that these inclusions within the composites are by themselves heterogeneous, and contain multiple components necessitate careful application of models to predict the thermal properties. The next phase observes the influence of PCM inclusions on the fracture and fatigue behavior of PCM-cementitious composites. The compliant nature of the inclusion creates less variability in the fatigue life for these composites subjected to cyclic loading. The incorporation of small amounts of PCM is found to slightly improve the fracture properties compared to PCM free cementitious composites. Inelastic deformations at the crack-tip in the direction of crack opening are influenced by the microscale PCM inclusions. After initial laboratory characterization of the microstructure and evaluation of the thermo-mechanical performance of these systems, field scale applicability and performance were evaluated. Wireless temperature and strain sensors for smart monitoring were embedded within a conventional portland cement concrete pavement (PCCP) and a thermal control smart concrete pavement (TCSCP) containing PCM. The TCSCP exhibited enhanced thermal performance over multiple heating and cooling cycles. PCCP showed significant shrinkage behavior as a result of compressive strains in the reinforcement that were twice that of the TCSCP. For building applications, novel PCM-composites coatings were developed to improve and extend the thermal efficiency. These coatings demonstrated a delay in temperature by up to four hours and were found to be more cost-effective than traditional building insulating materials.

The results of this work prove the feasibility of PCMs as a temperature-regulating technology. Not only do PCMs reduce and control the temperature within cementitious systems without affecting the rate of early property development but they can also be used as an auto-adaptive technology capable of improving the thermal performance of building envelopes.
ContributorsAguayo, Matthew Joseph (Author) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Underwood, Benjamin (Committee member) / Liu, Yongming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Fatigue is a degradation process of materials that would lead to failure when materials are subjected to cyclic loadings. During past centuries, various of approaches have been proposed and utilized to help researchers understand the underlying theories of fatigue behavior of materials, as well as design engineering structures so that

Fatigue is a degradation process of materials that would lead to failure when materials are subjected to cyclic loadings. During past centuries, various of approaches have been proposed and utilized to help researchers understand the underlying theories of fatigue behavior of materials, as well as design engineering structures so that catastrophic disasters that arise from fatigue failure could be avoided. The stress-life approach is the most classical way that academia applies to analyze fatigue data, which correlates the fatigue lifetime with stress amplitudes during cyclic loadings. Fracture mechanics approach is another well-established way, by which people regard the cyclic stress intensity factor as the driving force during fatigue crack nucleation and propagation, and numerous models (such as the well-known Paris’ law) are developed by researchers.

The significant drawback of currently widely-used fatigue analysis approaches, nevertheless, is that they are all cycle-based, limiting researchers from digging into sub-cycle regime and acquiring real-time fatigue behavior data. The missing of such data further impedes academia from validating hypotheses that are related to real-time observations of fatigue crack nucleation and growth, thus the existence of various phenomena, such as crack closure, remains controversial.

In this thesis, both classical stress-life approach and fracture-mechanics-based approach are utilized to study the fatigue behavior of alloys. Distinctive material characterization instruments are harnessed to help collect and interpret key data during fatigue crack growth. Specifically, an investigation on the sub-cycle fatigue crack growth behavior is enabled by in-situ SEM mechanical testing, and a non-uniform growth mechanism within one loading cycle is confirmed by direct observation as well as image interpretation. Predictions based on proposed experimental procedure and observations show good match with cycle-based data from references, which indicates the credibility of proposed methodology and model, as well as their capability of being applied to a wide range of materials.
ContributorsLiu, Siying (Author) / Liu, Yongming (Thesis advisor) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Nian, Qiong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Advanced material systems refer to materials that are comprised of multiple traditional constituents but complex microstructure morphologies, which lead to their superior properties over conventional materials. This dissertation is motivated by the grand challenge in accelerating the design of advanced material systems through systematic optimization with respect to material microstructures

Advanced material systems refer to materials that are comprised of multiple traditional constituents but complex microstructure morphologies, which lead to their superior properties over conventional materials. This dissertation is motivated by the grand challenge in accelerating the design of advanced material systems through systematic optimization with respect to material microstructures or processing settings. While optimization techniques have mature applications to a large range of engineering systems, their application to material design meets unique challenges due to the high dimensionality of microstructures and the high costs in computing process-structure-property (PSP) mappings. The key to addressing these challenges is the learning of material representations and predictive PSP mappings while managing a small data acquisition budget. This dissertation thus focuses on developing learning mechanisms that leverage context-specific meta-data and physics-based theories. Two research tasks will be conducted: In the first, we develop a statistical generative model that learns to characterize high-dimensional microstructure samples using low-dimensional features. We improve the data efficiency of a variational autoencoder by introducing a morphology loss to the training. We demonstrate that the resultant microstructure generator is morphology-aware when trained on a small set of material samples, and can effectively constrain the microstructure space during material design. In the second task, we investigate an active learning mechanism where new samples are acquired based on their violation to a theory-driven constraint on the physics-based model. We demonstrate using a topology optimization case that while data acquisition through the physics-based model is often expensive (e.g., obtaining microstructures through simulation or optimization processes), the evaluation of the constraint can be far more affordable (e.g., checking whether a solution is optimal or equilibrium). We show that this theory-driven learning algorithm can lead to much improved learning efficiency and generalization performance when such constraints can be derived. The outcomes of this research is a better understanding of how physics knowledge about material systems can be integrated into machine learning frameworks, in order to achieve more cost-effective and reliable learning of material representations and predictive models, which are essential to accelerate computational material design.
ContributorsCang, Ruijin (Author) / Ren, Yi (Thesis advisor) / Liu, Yongming (Committee member) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Nian, Qiong (Committee member) / Zhuang, Houlong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The motivation of this work is based on development of new construction products with strain hardening cementitious composites (SHCC) geared towards sustainable residential applications. The proposed research has three main objectives: automation of existing manufacturing systems for SHCC laminates; multi-level characterization of mechanical properties of fiber, matrix, interface and composites

The motivation of this work is based on development of new construction products with strain hardening cementitious composites (SHCC) geared towards sustainable residential applications. The proposed research has three main objectives: automation of existing manufacturing systems for SHCC laminates; multi-level characterization of mechanical properties of fiber, matrix, interface and composites phases using servo-hydraulic and digital image correlation techniques. Structural behavior of these systems were predicted using ductility based design procedures using classical laminate theory and structural mechanics. SHCC sections are made up of thin sections of matrix with Portland cement based binder and fine aggregates impregnating continuous one-dimensional fibers in individual or bundle form or two/three dimensional woven, bonded or knitted textiles. Traditional fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) use random dispersed chopped fibers in the matrix at a low volume fractions, typically 1-2% to avoid to avoid fiber agglomeration and balling. In conventional FRC, fracture localization occurs immediately after the first crack, resulting in only minor improvement in toughness and tensile strength. However in SHCC systems, distribution of cracking throughout the specimen is facilitated by the fiber bridging mechanism. Influence of material properties of yarn, composition, geometry and weave patterns of textile in the behavior of laminated SHCC skin composites were investigated. Contribution of the cementitious matrix in the early age and long-term performance of laminated composites was studied with supplementary cementitious materials such as fly ash, silica fume, and wollastonite. A closed form model with classical laminate theory and ply discount method, coupled with a damage evolution model was utilized to simulate the non-linear tensile response of these composite materials. A constitutive material model developed earlier in the group was utilized to characterize and correlate the behavior of these structural composites under uniaxial tension and flexural loading responses. Development and use of analytical models enables optimal design for application of these materials in structural applications. Another area of immediate focus is the development of new construction products from SHCC laminates such as angles, channels, hat sections, closed sections with optimized cross sections. Sandwich composites with stress skin-cellular core concept were also developed to utilize strength and ductility of fabric reinforced skin in addition to thickness, ductility, and thermal benefits of cellular core materials. The proposed structurally efficient and durable sections promise to compete with wood and light gage steel based sections for lightweight construction and panel application
ContributorsDey, Vikram (Author) / Mobasher, Barzin (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Committee member) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Underwood, Benjamin (Committee member) / Liu, Yongming (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