Fatigue crack non-propagation behavior of a gradient steel structure from induction hardened railway axles

Zhang, H.*; Wu, S. C.*; Ao, N.*; Zhang, J. W.*; Li, H.*; Zhou, L.*; 徐 平光; Su, Y. H.

International Journal of Fatigue, 166, p.107296_1 - 107296_11, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2022.107296

Abnormal damages in railway axles can lead to a significant hazard to running safety and reliability. To this end, a surface treatment was selected to effectively inhibit fatigue crack initiation and growth. In this study, a single edge notch bending fatigue test campaign with artificial notches was conducted to elucidate the fatigue crack non-propagation behavior in railway S38C axles subjected to an induction hardening process. The fatigue cracking behavior in the gradient structure was revealed by optical microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, and fractography. The microhardness distribution was measured using a Vickers tester. The obtained results show that the microhardness of the strengthening layer is nearly triple that of the matrix. Owing to the gradient microstructures and hardness, as well as compressive residual stress, the fatigue long crack propagates faster once it passes through the hardened zone (approximately 2.0 mm in the radial depth). Thereafter, local retarding (including deflection, branching, and blunting) of the long crack occurs because of the relatively coarse ferrite and pearlite in the transition region and matrix. Totally, this fatigue cracking resistance is reasonably believed to be due to the gradient microstructure and residual stress. These findings help to tailor a suitable detection strategy for maximum defects or cracks in railway axles.

Novel graphene-based foam composite as a highly reactive filter medium for the efficient removal of gemfibrozil from (waste)water

Khalil, A. M. E.*; Han, L.*; Maamoun, I.; Tabish, T. A.*; Chen, Y.*; Eljamal, O.*; Zhang, S.*; Butler, D.*; Memon, F. A.*

Advanced Sustainable Systems (Internet), 6(8), p.2200016_1 - 2200016_16, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.1002/adsu.202200016

Graphene-based materials have emerged as alternative adsorbents, but their success in removing pharmaceutical contaminants has been limited due to degradation caused by restacking and limited control over their sizes and porosities. Driven by this issue, in the current study, to counteract the restacking behavior, graphene sheets are supported on a thread/rod-like matrix structure in a boron nitride foam material, and a novel porous composite foam-supported graphene is synthesized. The as-prepared novel composite offers extraordinary features, such as high absorption kinetics, large available surface area, high porosity, ecofriendliness and cost-effective synthesis, and excellent affinity to emerging pharmaceutical contaminants. When batch-testing graphene-based foam material and porous graphene nanosheets to remove gemfibrozil (GEM) from wastewater samples, rapid adsorption kinetics (less than 5 min) are exhibited by the graphene-based foam. Column filter studies are conducted for both materials to test their performance in removing GEM from distilled water, synthetic graywater, and actual wastewater. Overall, the foam composite-based filter marginally outperforms the sand-supported graphene filter and significantly outperforms the unsupported graphene filter. A numerical MATLAB model is developed to simulate the reactive solute transport of GEM influent through the foam filter. Also, a formal sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify the key parameters influencing the model results.

Transport model comparison studies of intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions

Walter, H.*; Colonna, M.*; Cozma, D.*; Danielewicz, P.*; Ko, C. M.*; Kumar, R.*; 小野 章*; Tsang, M. Y. B*; Xu, J.*; Zhang, Y.-X.*; et al.

Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, 125, p.103962_1 - 103962_90, 2022/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppnp.2022.103962

原子核-原子核衝突や原子核の状態方程式の研究において、反応計算モデルは重要なツールとなり、世界中で開発が進んでいる。本論文は、原子力機構のJQMD-2.0を含め、現在開発中の複数のコード開発者の協力により、これらコードを同じ条件で比較することで共通点や差異を明らかにしたプロジェクトTransport Model Evaluation Project (TMEP)を総括したものである。参加したコードはBoltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck(BUU)法に基づく13のコードと、Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD)法に基づく12のコードであった。プロジェクトでは、Au原子核同士を衝突させてその終状態を観測する現実的な計算や、一辺が640nmの箱に核子を詰めて時間発展させる仮想的な計算を行った。その結果、BUU法コードとQMD法コードは計算原理が異なるため、計算の設定に関係なく系統的な差異が生じることが明らかになった。その一方で、同じ方法を採用するコード間の比較では、時間発展を細かく計算することでコード間の差は埋まっていき、一定の収束値を持つことが示された。この結果は今後開発される同分野のコードのベンチマークデータとして有用なものであるだけでなく、原子核基礎物理学の実験や理論研究の標準的な指針としても役に立つことが期待される。

Metalloid substitution elevates simultaneously the strength and ductility of face-centered-cubic high-entropy alloys

Wei, D.*; Wang, L.*; Zhang, Y.*; Gong, W.; 都留 智仁; Lobzenko, I.; Jiang, J.*; Harjo, S.; 川崎 卓郎; Bae, J. W.*; et al.

Acta Materialia, 225, p.117571_1 - 117571_16, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2021.117571

Recently-developed high-entropy alloys (HEAs) containing multiple principal metallic elements have ex-tended the compositional space of solid solutions and the range of their mechanical properties. Here we show that the realm of possibilities can be further expanded through substituting the constituent metals with metalloids, which are desirable for tailoring strength/ductility because they have chemical interactions and atomic sizes distinctly different from the host metallic elements. Specifically, the metalloid substitution increases local lattice distortion and short-range chemical inhomogeneities to elevate strength, and in the meantime reduces the stacking fault energy to discourage dynamic recovery and encourage defect accumulation via partial-dislocation-mediated activities. These impart potent dislocation storage to improve the strain hardening capability, which is essential for sustaining large tensile elongation. As such, metalloid substitution into HEAs evades the normally expected strength-ductility trade-off, enabling an unusual synergy of high tensile strength and extraordinary ductility for these single-phase solid solutions.

Field-tuned magnetic structure and phase diagram of the honeycomb magnet YbCl

Hao, Y. Q.*; Wo, H. L.*; Gu, Y. M.*; Zhang, X. W.*; Gu, Y. Q.*; Zheng, S. Y.*; Zhao, Y.*; Xu, G. Y.*; Lynn, J. W.*; 中島 健次; et al.

Science China; Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy, 64(3), p.237411_1 - 237411_6, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-020-1626-3

We report thermodynamic and neutron diffraction measurements on the magnetic ordering properties of the honeycomb lattice magnet YbCl. We find YbCl exhibits a Nel type long-range magnetic order at the wavevector (0, 0, 0) below T = 600 mK. This magnetic order is associated with a small sharp peak in heat capacity and most magnetic entropy release occurs above the magnetic ordering temperature. The magnetic moment lies in-plane, parallel to the monoclinic a-axis, whose magnitude m = 0.86(3) is considerably smaller than the expected fully ordered moment of 2.24 for the doublet crystal-field ground state. The magnetic ordering moment gradually increases with increasing magnetic field perpendicular to the ab-plane, reaching a maximum value of 1.6(2) at 4 T, before it is completely suppressed above 9 T. These results indicate the presence of strong quantum fluctuations in YbCl.

Extremely high dislocation density and deformation pathway of CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy at ultralow temperature

Naeem, M.*; He, H.*; Harjo, S.; 川崎 卓郎; Zhang, F.*; Wang, B.*; Lan, S.*; Wu, Z.*; Wu, Y.*; Lu, Z.*; et al.

Scripta Materialia, 188, p.21 - 25, 2020/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2020.07.004

The deformation behavior of CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy was investigated by in situ neutron diffraction at an ultralow temperature of 15 K. Analysis of the diffraction peak widths showed an extremely high dislocation density at 15 K, reaching 10 m. In addition, the dislocation density was found to closely follow the development of texture caused by deformation. In contrast to deformation by dislocation slip at room temperature, the ultralow-temperature deformation also involved stacking faults, twinning and serrations. The deformation pathway at ultralow temperature is outlined which is responsible for the extraordinary strength-ductility combination.

Cooperative deformation in high-entropy alloys at ultralow temperatures

Naeem, M.*; He, H.*; Zhang, F.*; Huang, H.*; Harjo, S.; 川崎 卓郎; Wang, B.*; Lan, S.*; Wu, Z.*; Wang, F.*; et al.

Science Advances (Internet), 6(13), p.eaax4002_1 - eaax4002_8, 2020/03

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax4002

High-entropy alloys exhibit exceptional mechanical properties at cryogenic temperatures, due to the activation of twinning in addition to dislocation slip. The coexistence of multiple deformation pathways raises an important question regarding how individual deformation mechanisms compete or synergize during plastic deformation. Using in situ neutron diffraction, we demonstrate the interaction of a rich variety of deformation mechanisms in high-entropy alloys at 15 K, which began with dislocation slip, followed by stacking faults and twinning, before transitioning to inhomogeneous deformation by serrations. Quantitative analysis showed that the cooperation of these different deformation mechanisms led to extreme work hardening. The low stacking fault energy plus the stable face-centered cubic structure at ultralow temperatures, enabled by the high-entropy alloying, played a pivotal role bridging dislocation slip and serration.

Comparison of heavy-ion transport simulations; Collision integral with pions and resonances in a box

小野 章*; Xu, J.*; Colonna, M.*; Danielewicz, P.*; Ko, C. M.*; Tsang, M. B.*; Wang, Y,-J.*; Wolter, H.*; Zhang, Y.-X.*; Chen, L.-W.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 100(4), p.044617_1 - 044617_35, 2019/10

AA2019-0025.pdf:2.76MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.100.044617

2017年4月に開催された国際会議Transport2017において、重イオン核反応モデルの国際的な比較が議論された。重イオン加速器の安全評価や宇宙飛行士の被ばく評価等で重要な役割を果たすため、世界中で重イオン核反応の様々な理論モデルが開発されている。本研究では、辺の長さが20fmの直方体に320個の中性子と陽子をランダム配置し、それらが70fm/cの間に起こす散乱の回数やエネルギーを計算した。ここでは、特にパイオンやその前駆体であるデルタ共鳴の生成に注目して比較を行った。参加コードは、個々の粒子の時間発展を追うQMD型コードと、粒子の位置や運動量の確率分布を決めておき、散乱や崩壊が発生したときそれらを乱数サンプリングするBUU型コードがあり、発表者が用いたJQMDは前者に属する。本研究により、計算における時間刻みが各コードによる結果の差の主な原因であることが分かった。さらに、今後のJQMDの改良方針の策定に有益な知見を得ることができた。

Evidence for singular-phonon-induced nematic superconductivity in a topological superconductor candidate SrBiSe

Wang, J.*; Ran, K.*; Li, S.*; Ma, Z.*; Bao, S.*; Cai, Z.*; Zhang, Y.*; 中島 健次; 河村 聖子; ermk, P.*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 10, p.2802_1 - 2802_6, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10942-2

Superconductivity mediated by phonons is typically conventional, exhibiting a momentum-independent -wave pairing function, due to the isotropic interactions between electrons and phonons along different crystalline directions. Here, by performing inelastic neutron scattering measurements on a superconducting single crystal of SrBiSe, a prime candidate for realizing topological superconductivity by doping the topo-logical insulator BiSe, we found that there exist singular phonons, with the linewidths of the acoustic phonons increasing substantially at long wavelengths, but only for those along the [001] direction. This observation indicates a large and singular electron-phonon coupling at small momenta, which we propose to give rise to the exotic -wave nematic superconducting pairing in the MxBiSe (M = Cu, Sr, Nb) superconductor family. Therefore, we show that these superconductors may be the first examples where electron-phonon interaction can induce more exotic superconducting pairing than the -wave.

Coexistence of ferromagnetic and stripe-type antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations in YFeGe

Wo, H.*; Wang, Q.*; Shen, Y.*; Zhang, X.*; Hao, Y.*; Feng, Y.*; Shen, S.*; He, Z.*; Pan, B.*; Wang, W.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 122(21), p.217003_1 - 217003_5, 2019/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.217003

We report neutron scattering measurements of single-crystalline YFeGe in the normal state, which has the same crystal structure as the 122 family of iron pnictide superconductors. YFeGe does not exhibit long-range magnetic order but exhibits strong spin fluctuations. Like the iron pnictides, YFeGe displays anisotropic stripe-type antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations at (). More interesting, however, is the observation of strong spin fluctuations at the in-plane ferromagnetic wave vector (). These ferromagnetic spin fluctuations are isotropic in the () plane, whose intensity exceeds that of stripe spin fluctuations. Both the ferromagnetic and stripe spin fluctuations remain gapless down to the lowest measured energies. Our results naturally explain the absence of magnetic order in YFeGe and also imply that the ferromagnetic correlations may be a key ingredient for iron-based materials.