\n\tBetter understanding of steel fracturing<\/p>\n
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\n\tResearchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain, visualized step-by-step and on a microscopic level how certain steels fracture when extreme loads are applied to them. This could help to improve these materials, used in the automobile industry.<\/p>\n
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\n\tScientists from the UC3M Powder Technology Group (initialled GTP in Spanish) have carried out this research using a scanning electron microscope to obtain high-resolution images (around 10 nanometers; a nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter). The application of new techniques to characterize materials has made it possible to better understand the behavior of sintered steels (those produced from powders) on fracturing. In this way, they have been able to discover where the first cracks “\u2018nucleate’ and where they particularly extend to,” explain researchers.<\/p>\n
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\n\tThe materials that are the subject of the research are commercial sintered steels obtained through powder metallurgy or powder technology and are widely used in the automobile industry. Mechanical and on-site characterization tests performed in the scanning electron microscope have been essential in “understanding the mechanisms of fracture,” which, until this research, “we have never been able to determine, but instead only intuit,” explains one of the authors, Elena Bernardo.<\/p>\n
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\n\tIn this study several steels currently on the market were evaluated. Specifically, an Fe-C steel, a steel pre-alloyed with molybdenum (Astaloy Mo grade, H\u00f6gan\u00e4s AB) and the well-known Distaloy AE (H\u00f6gan\u00e4s AB), which is iron alloyed by diffusion with copper, nickel and molybdenum, were analyzed.<\/p>\n
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\n\tResults aid in understanding the connection between microstructure and properties which, in these materials, entails a technological challenge, as not only the phases but also the residual porosity that composes their microstructure come into play. Jos\u00e9 Manuel Torralba, full professor in the UC3M department of Materials Science and Engineering, stresses the fundamental role of porosity in these steels: “The research has revealed, among other things, that the most angular and irregular pores are the first points of \u2018nucleation,’ that is, those that initiate the breaking.”<\/p>\n
\n\tThis study makes changes in the microstructure of the material visible while it is being tested, says Torralba. Moreover, the methodology used “is applicable to any type of alloy” and not only to test its behavior under pressure, but “also its behavior at high temperatures.” Some of the research was carried out at the UC3M facilities and was completed at IMDEA Materials, a research institute financed by the regional government of Madrid and the European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain, visualized step-by-step and on a microscopic level how certain steels fracture when extreme loads are applied to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63082,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[446,439,466,454,440,441,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automobiles-and-ground-transportation","category-general","category-materials-properties-and-performance","category-metals-and-alloys","category-news","category-news-articles","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n