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By S. N. Monteiro, E. B. Zanelato, J. Alexandre, M. T. Marvila, A. R. G. Azevedo, G. C. Xavier

One of the parameters used in the study of mortars is the adhesion resistance, which indicate show much the mortar adhered to the substrate. The usual study is done at 28 days, to worldwide standardization. Few researchers study the adhesion of mortars to ages other than 28 days. In this scenario, the adhesion strength tests of conventional mortar with a 1:1:6 mass scale (cement, and sand) at 7, 14, 28, 56, 91, 182 and 364 days were performed in order to understand the behavior of this material. The usual characterization tests of the mortars were carried out to correlate the values obtained with the adhesion results. The obtained results demonstrate that the mortar continues to gain resistance with the passage of time. For the trait studied the gain was considerable, indicating that over time the cement continues to hydrate, reacting and contributing to the strength of the material.

Mar 1, 2018

By Gen Kamimura, Hiroyuki Matsuura, Wonjin Choi

Control of non-metallic inclusions in terms of morphology, number density or composition is essential to produce steel products having the desired mechanical properties.Though many studies have been conducted to clarify various properties and evolution mechanisms of inclusions at steelmaking temperature, it has been reported that the states of inclusions in final products are significantly different from those in crude steels for some steel grades. The present study has focused on the evolution of oxide and nitride inclusions in solid Fe–Al–Ti–N alloys during heating to increase the understanding of inclusion evolution in a simplified metal system. Compositional and morphological change of initial inclusions, as well as precipitation and growth of new inclusions have been observed even when the alloy was in a solid state.This behavior has been observed due to the change of thermodynamic stability and solubility of existing phases in inclusions.

Mar 1, 2017

By Ping-Ping Fan, Yong-Quan Wu

The polarized Brillouin scattering spectra were systematically measured to study the elastic properties of bulk hexagonal close-packed (hcp) ZnO single crystal in this paper. The peak polarizations of all modes in spectra were analyzed firstly. The elastic properties, such as the whole set of Elastic constants were accordingly calculated and compared with the previous literatures. Also investigated were the effects of the rotation of the sample in the (0001) plane perpendicular to the z axis on different acoustic modes. The results show that the quasi-longitudinal and quasi-transverse modes perpendicular to the (0001) plane act as the expected trigonometric function of the rotation angle,while the longitudinal and transverse modes on the (0001) plane remain constant.

Mar 1, 2017

By Bart Blanpain, Muxing Guo, Bin Yang, Fei Wang

An experimental investigation of the precipitation behavior of the Dy2O3 containing slag during cooling was carried out in this work. The slag with composition 45 wt% SiO2—49 wt% CaO—6 wt% Dy2O3 was equilibrated at 1673, 1773 and 1873 K for 24 h in an argon atmosphere, and then quenched in water to determine the phase relations. The composition and microstructure of the equilibrated phases of the systems were determined by EPMA/WDS. The precipitation behavior of the REEs containing phases during cooling was studied by using an in-situ confocal scanning laser microscope (CLSM) observation technique combined with an infrared imaging furnace heating (IIF). Data resulting from this work aims to support further investigation on separation of rare earths from metallurgical slags.

Mar 1, 2018

By Jannette L. Chorney, Katie J. Schumacher, Katelyn M. Lyons, Jerome P. Downey

The Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department at Montana Tech is investigating a new method of extracting and refining rare earth elements (REEs) from mineral ores and concentrates. The relative stabilities of various REE compounds and differences in vapor pressures are exploited to selectively separate rare earth chlorides, with dysprosium and europium chlorides used as proof-of-concept experimental materials.

Mar 1, 2017

By Peiye Yan, Huiqing Tang

To reduce coke consumption in blast furnace ironmaking, this study proposed a new method of applying iron-coke briquette prepared using hematite powder and pulverized coal to protect coke in BF iron making. Results showed that, with a ratio of hematite to coal of 2.0, the iron-coke briquette could obtain a satisfying compressive strength of more than 1500 N both before gasification and after being gasified by CO2 for 1 h. The activation energy of the iron-coke briquette was 93–135 kJ/mol, which is lower than the coke and therefore could protect the coke in BF. The agglomeration and stratification of iron particles occur in the course of iron-coke briquette gasi fication and is bene ficial to the improvement of the iron-coke briquette strength.

Mar 1, 2018

By Wenjun Duan, Zhimei Wang, Tianwei Wu, Qingbo Yu

In order to recover the waste heat of molten blast furnace slag, a reactor with top-submerged lance was established. The numerical simulation and experiment study of the flow characteristic in the reactor were conducted. The mathematical model of reactor was established and the Euler-Euler model was employed to simulate the gas-liquid flow in molten slag bath. Meanwhile, the experiment results were obtained and compared with the simulation to testify the accuracy of the established model. According to the bubble behavior in bath, there were four stages: initial expansion stage, bubble detachment stage, freedom lift up stage and bubble broken stage. When the flow field in bath fully developed, the gas fraction decreased with the increasing of bath depth. During injection process, the area near the nozzle and lower the bath would first generate two symmetric heliciform flow regime, and then the flow regime in whole bath would become irregular because of bubble lifting up and rupturing. The gas fraction in bath, the average velocity and turbulence energy of slag would decrease before it increased to maximum and then it would keep fluctuate in a range.

Mar 1, 2018

By Tianzu Yang, Weifeng Liu, Lin Chen, Xinxin Fu, Shuai Rao, DUCHAO ZHANG

It is well known that the gold ores containing a high content of arsenic and antimony are very refractory. In this paper, the adverse effect of antimony on the extraction of gold by pretreatment-cyanide leaching was discussed in detail. Moreover, these processes of removing and recovering antimony from alkaline sodium sulfide or hydrochloric acid systems were introduced. Last bu not the least, a novel cleaning technology for recovering antimony from refractory gold ores was proposed. Antimony was dissolved into the solution with sodium sulfide and sodium hydroxide as leaching agents. And then pressure oxidation technology was applied to prepare sodium pyroantimonate from sodium thioantimonite solutions. This process is more promising owing to its high removal ratio of antimony, low production cost and environment friendly, which provides a positive guidance for the extraction of antimony from antimonial refractory gold ores.

Mar 1, 2017

By You-Hai Wen, Yinkai Lei, Tian-Le Cheng

A phase field model is developed to simulate the performance of SOFC electrodes. By solving the conduction equations on both the electrolyte and electrode phases, and incorporating the three-dimensional microstructure and reaction front at triple phase boundaries, the current-voltage relation of an electrode is directly simulated. By further coupling it to our recently developed coarsening model, we are able to investigate the effect of initial microstructure on the performance degradation in SOFC electrode. This model is applied to LSM-YSZ cathodes with different LSM volume fraction. The volume fraction effect on the electrode performance and its degradation rate has been analyzed and discussed.

Mar 1, 2018

By Fuming Wang, Changrong Li, Dan Wu, Wei Shen, Yaxu Zheng

In order to improve the oxidation resistance of Cr–Mo–V steel for high-speed railway brake discs, a higher Cr was added to the steel. Effect of temperature on the oxidation behavior of brake disc steel with different Cr contents was studied by OM, SEM and XRD. The results show that the oxidation curves at 500 °C obey a linear oxidation law in 0–2 h and 2–20 h, respectively. The oxide layer is thin and the oxidation products are Fe2O3 and Fe3O4. The oxidation curve at 700 °C follows a linear law within 2 h. With the oxidation time extending, the oxidation curves follow a parabolic law and the oxide layer becomes thicker. Moreover, the oxide layer is divided into two layers. The outer oxide layer is loose and is mainly Fe2O3, while the inner layer is denser and consists of FeO and FeCr2O4. The oxide layer thickness reduces and the oxidation resistance of the steel is improved with Cr content is increased.

Mar 1, 2018

By Shengli Wu, Feng Chang, Hua Lu, Jianliang Zhang

Kinetic studies of the blast furnace dust (BFD) reduction process have been carried out under non-isothermal conditions. BFD pellets were made with bentonite as the binder. A Comprehensive Thermal Analyzer (TG-DSC) was used to determine the mass loss of pellets, which were heated at three heating rates of 10, 20, 30 K/min up to 1493 K. Furthermore, the metallization rate and mineral composition of BFD pellets heated to several different temperatures were analyzed by chemical analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that, with its inherent carbon resources as the reducing agent, the metallization rate of BFD pellets could reach 88% at most. The reduction and weight loss process of iron oxides mainly happens above 1273 K. In addition, from application of the Coats-Redfern equation the apparent activation energy of the reduction from wustite to Fe was 443 kJ/mol and the mechanism was interface reaction R..

Mar 1, 2017

By Kristine Bruce Wanderley, Denise Crocce Romano Espinosa, Jorge A. Soares Tenório

Mining of nickel ores generates large volumes of waste that must be removed in order to eliminate water contamination and reduce environmental impacts created by waste barriers. In this context, the need for innovations concerning the recovery of magnesium present in the liquor produced by the leaching of nickel laterite with sulfuric acid arises. Therefore, this work aims to develop a study regarding the crystallization of magnesium from a synthetic liquor solution using a batch autoclave system at high temperature. Agitation speed was kept constant at 1000 rpm throughout the 3 h of batch reaction for temperatures of 230 and 200 °C. Aliquots taken at each hour were analyzed by ion chromatography to measure magnesium concentration. The highest magnesium removal was observed for temperature 230 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (EDS-SEM) analysis proved that the product formed was magnesium sulphate monohydrate crystals. Thermogravimetric analysis coupled with a mass spectrometer was used for the evaluation of the thermal stability of magnesium sulphate monohydrate. It was found that MgO and SO2 were formed by the decomposition of the salt at 1100 °C.

Mar 1, 2017

By M. X. Huang, Y. Z. Li

The titanium diboride (TiB2)-reinforced steel composite, designed for automotive applications, exhibits a combination of high isotropic Young’s modulus and low density as compared to existing advanced high strength steels (AHSS). The steel-based composite is produced by in situ precipitation of TiB2 particles during eutectic solidification followed by hot rolling, and its microstructure displays a homogeneous distribution of both large primary TiB2 and small eutectic TiB2 particles in the ferrite matrix. Instead of interfacial debonding, particle cracking is the primary mode of damage, revealing very high interfacial strength. To investigate the intrinsic interfacial strength, a hybrid method combining both nanoindentation and finite element analysis (FEA) was used. A micron-sized sample containing a single crystal TiB2 attached to the ferrite matrix was fabricated by focused iron beam (FIB), and was compressed using nanoindentation with a flat indentation tip. By combining the compression and FEA results, the interfacial strength was therefore determined.

Mar 1, 2017

By Wen-long Zhan, Chun-en Zhu, Xiao-dong Du, Yong Zhao, Keng Wu

In view of the traditional evaluation index of sintering basic character- istics ignoring process information, several high temperature characteristic num- bers, which contain process information, were used to evaluate the sintering basic characteristics more comprehensively in this paper. The evaluation model of iron ore properties was established based on the high temperature characteristic numbers with employing fuzzy mathematics. Then, with the constraint of sinter properties and the raw materials, the ore blending model was built, whose target was to obtain the lowest cost and the best sinter properties. A multi-objective fuzzy linear pro- gramming was used to solve the model in order to get the best ore matching schemes. The ore blending model was then applied to the practical production, which was proved to be dependable.

Mar 1, 2018

By Weizhi Zeng, Michael L. Free, Sayan Sarkar, Prashant K. Sarswat

Black Phosphorus was recently discovered as a 2D material and it exemplified huge prospects for application in electronics, optoelectronics, photonics and catalysis. It is a direct band semiconductor with tunable band gap varying from 0.35 eV (bulk) to 2 eV (single layer). But the layer dependent band gap of black phosphorus restricts it to make use of the full spectra of sunlight for absorption. First principle calculations were performed using ‘Quantum Wise Atomistic Toolkit’ package with Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange-correlation for black phosphorus doped with non-metallic dopants of B, S and Se and metallic dopants of Ti, Mg and In. It has been found that doping with non-metallic impurities result in a small diminution of the band edges (0.96–0.57 eV), whereas doping with metallic impurities decrease the band edge drastically (0.85–0.025 eV). Moreover, it was also observed that dopants with an even number of valence electrons incorporated a metallic nature of black phosphorus, whereas dopants with odd number of valence electrons further attributed to its semiconducting features. Thus in a holistic discernment, black phosphorus with the incorporation of some dopants in appropriate amounts can absorb more visible range of the optical spectra, making it ideal for use in photovoltaics.

Mar 1, 2017

By Zan Yao, Sha Lv, Geoff Wang, Baojun Zhao, Zongze Huang, Jin Zou, Xiaodong Ma, Zhouhua Jiang

55SiCr steel is one of the important spring steels widely used in automobile manufacturing. The presence of micro inclusions in the steel can significantly influence a number of spring properties such as fatigue strength. It is important to understand the mechanism of the inclusion formation so that size and proportion of the inclusions can be controlled. Inclusions in Si-killed 55SiCr spring steel have been analysed by scanning electronic microscopy and electron probe X-ray microanalysis. The chemistry of the inclusions observed in 55SiCr steels can be represented by the SiO2–Al2O3–CaO–MgO system. It was found that the compositions of the inclusions cover a wide composition range, which indicates that these inclusions were formed from different reactions. The possible mechanisms of the inclusion formation are discussed. It would be possible to characterize and manage the inclusions in the spring steels deoxidized by Si.

Mar 1, 2017

By G. Djambazov, D. Shevchenko, D. Burnard, V. Bojarevics, K. A. Pericleous, W. Griffiths

Contactless ultrasound treatment can be useful for high-temperature or reactive alloys in the liquid state, where contact with an immersed vibrating probe is undesirable. The alternating component of the Lorentz force can generate sound pressure levels leading to cavitation of gas bubbles in the melt, through acoustic resonance. Resonance is a function of the speed of sound in the liquid, the shape of the volume containing it and surrounding boundary conditions. Induction forces applied to a crucible lead to bulk stirring and in general deform the free surface, whose precise shape may influence the resonance conditions. This effect is investigated here b ymulti-physics computer modelling. Calculated results for aluminium melts are compared with experimental data and conclusions are drawn as to the sensitivity to process parameters and the reliability of this type of ultrasound metal processing.

Mar 1, 2017

By Dachun Liu, Xutao Guo, Wenlong Jiang, Baoqiang Xu, Bin Yang, Yong Deng, Heng Xiong

Typical copper dross, the byproduct of lead bullion pyrometallurgical refining for copper removal, mainly contains Pb, Cu, S, As, Sb and Sn etc. In traditional treatment process, copper dross is transformed to be copper matte by smelting with iron scarp and iron pyrite. Here, a new treatment process of converting-vacuum distillation (CVD) was proposed and investigated. Based on this concept, the converting process was tentatively investigated in this paper. The results of element distribution of converting samples showed the sample has three layers. The upper layer is mainly sulfides of lead and copper, the middle layer is mainly copper arsenide, and the lower layer is lead arsenide and crude lead. On the condition of oxygen flow rate 400 ml/min, the converting temperature 1000 °C, the holding time 1 h, the converting time 10 min, the lead copper alloy containing 0.17% S was obtained.

Mar 1, 2018

By M. A. Kader, M. A. Islam, P. J. Hazell, M. Saadatfar, J. P. Escobedo, A. D. Brown

The present study investigates the dynamic deformation mechanisms of closed-cell aluminium foams during low velocity drop weight impact with experimental analyses and finite element (FE) simulation.The evolution of foam collapse was explored with FE simulation using ABAQUS/Explicit. X-ray computed tomography (XRT) based geometry was reconstructed to understand the actual microstructural changes during impact. The experimenta lstress-strain response was compared with FE simulation with reasonably good agreement observed between FE prediction and experimental data. A vertical cross-sectional XRT slice was analysed at different strains from FE simulation to understand the pore collapse mechanisms.

Mar 1, 2017

By Marcos Paulo Kohler Caldas, Jorge Alberto Soares Tenório, Mariana Alves de Carvalho, Denise Crocce Romano Espinosa

The massive application of electrical and electronic equipments increased the production and industry development, which leads to a rising envronmental and economic problem: the increase of e-waste’s generation. The main cause to explain this problem is the combination between the diversification of electric and electronic device’s applications and programmed obsolescence, which promotes a high generation the so-called waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE). Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are present in almost all WEEE and their heterogenous composition have a considerable amount of metals, including some preciousones. It is necessary to think about viable alternatives for the destination of WEEE, mostly PCBs’. Recycling is an environmental friendly purpose for PCBs’ destination, combined with economic advantage from the recovery of metals. The choice of correct process to recycling depends on the composition of the PCBs, so the correct characterization is required. This work aims to characterize two different PCBs from obsolete computers: motherboard and memory board, concluding that they have 35.5 and 18.92% of metals, respectively, including precious metals as silver and gold. Also, memory board has 0.122% of these precious metals to the detriment of 0.047% from motherboard. )

Mar 1, 2018