Aluminum alloys, known for their high strength-to-weight ratios and impressive electrical and thermal conductivities, are extensively used in numerous engineering sectors, such as aerospace, automotive, and construction. Recently, significant efforts have been made to develop novel aluminum alloys specifically tailored for additive manufacturing. These new alloys aim to provide an optimal balance between mechanical properties and thermal/ electrical conductivities. In this study, nine combinatorial samples with various alloy compositions were fabricated using direct energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing by adjusting the feeding speeds of Al6061 alloy and Al-12Si alloy powders. The effects of the alloying elements on the microstructure, electrical conductivity, and hardness were investigated. Generally, as the Si and Cu contents decreased, electrical conductivity increased and hardness decreased, exhibiting trade-off characteristics. However, electrical conductivity and hardness showed an optimal combination when the Si content was adjusted to below 4.5 wt%, which can sufficiently suppress the grain boundary segregation of the α- Si precipitates, and the Cu content was controlled to induce the formation of Al2Cu precipitates.

Soft magnetic powder materials are used throughout industries such as motors and power converters. When manufacturing Fe-based soft magnetic composites, the size and shape of the soft magnetic powder and the microstructure in the powder are closely related to the magnetic properties. In this study, Fe-Si-Al-P alloy powders were manufactured using various manufacturing process parameter sets, and the process parameters of the vacuum induction melt gas atomization process were set as melt temperature, atomization gas pressure, and gas flow rate. Process variable data that records are converted into 6 types of data for each powder recovery section. Process variable data that recorded minute changes were converted into 6 types of data and used as input variables. As output variables, a total of 6 types were designated by measuring the particle size, flowability, apparent density, and sphericity of the manufactured powders according to the process variable conditions. The sensitivity of the input and output variables was analyzed through the Pearson correlation coefficient, and a total of 6 powder characteristics were analyzed by artificial neural network model. The prediction results were compared with the results through linear regression analysis and response surface methodology, respectively.

In this study we manufacture a Ni-Cr-B-Si +WC/12Co composite coating layer on a Cu base material using a laser cladding (LC) process, and investigate the microstructural and mechanical properties of the LC coating and Ni electroplating layers (reference material). The initial powder used for the LC coating layer is a powder feedstock with an average particle size of 125 μm. To identify the microstructural and mechanical properties, OM, SEM, XRD, room and high temperature hardness, and wear tests are implemented. Microstructural observation of the initial powder and LC coating layer confirm the layer is composed mainly of γ-Ni phases and WC and Cr23C6 carbides. The measured hardness of the LC coating and Ni electroplating layers are 653 and 154 Hv, respectively. The hardness measurement from room up to high temperatures of 700°C result in a hardness decrease as the temperature increases, but the hardness of the LC coating layer is higher for all temperature conditions. Room temperature wear results show that the wear loss of the LC coating layer is 1/12 of the wear level of the Ni electroplating layer. The measured bond strength is also greater in the LC coating than the Ni electroplating.

Microstructural examination of the Nb-Si-B alloys at Nb-rich compositions is performed. The Nb-rich corner of the Nb-Si-B system is favorable in that the constituent phases are Nb (ductile and tough phase with high melting temperature) and T2 phase (very hard intermetallic compound with favorable oxidation resistance) which are good combination for high temperature structural materials. The samples containing compositions near Nb-rich corner of the Nb- Si-B ternary system are prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) process using T2 and Nb powders. T2 bulk phase is made in arc furnace by melting the Nb slug and the Si-B powder compact. The T2 bulk phase was subsequently ballmilled to powders. SPS is performed at 1300oC and 1400oC, depending on the composition, under 30 MPa for 600s, to produce disc-shaped specimen with 15 mm in diameter and 3 mm high. Hardness tests (Rockwell A-scale and micro Vickers) are carried out to estimate the mechanical property.

The Mg-enriched magnesium aluminum silicate (MAS) glass is known for its higher mechanical strength and chemical resistance. Among such glasses, cordierite (Mg2Al4Si5O18) is well known to have a low thermal expansion and low melting point. Polycrystalline engineering ceramics such as alumina can be strengthened by a surface modification with low thermal expansion materials. The present study involves the synthesis of cordierite by a sol-gel process and investigates the effect of glass penetration on the surface of alumina. The cordierite powders were prepared from Al(OC3H7)3, Mg(OC2H5)2 and tetraethyl orthosilicate by hydrolysis and condensation reaction. The cordierite powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD, Rigaku), scanning electron microscope (SEM, JEOL: JSM-5610), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS, JEOL: JSM-5610), and universal testing machine (UTM, INSTRON). The X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the synthesized particles were μ-cordierite calcined at 1100˚C for 1 h. The shape of synthesized cordierite was changed from μ-cordierite to α-cordierite with increasing calcination temperature. Synthesized cordierite was used for surface modification of alumina. Cordierite powders penetrated deeply into the alumina sample along grain boundaries with increasing temperature. The results of surface modification tests showed that the strength of the prepared alumina sample increased after surface modification. The strength of a surface modified with synthesized cordierite increased the most, to about 134.6MPa.

The effect of the alloy systems Al-Mg alloy and Al-Si alloy in this study on the characteristics of die-casting were investigated using solidification simulation software (MAGMAsoft). Generally, it is well known that the casting characteristics of Al-Mg based alloys, such as the fluidity, feedability and die soldering behaviors, are inferior to those of Al-Si based alloys. However, the simulation results of this study showed that the filling pattern behaviors of both the Al-Mg and Al-Si alloys were found to be very similar, whereas the Al-Mg alloy had higher residual stress and greater distortion as generated due to solidification with a larger amount of volumetric shrinkage compared to the Al-Si alloy. The Al-Mg alloy exhibited very high relative numbers of stress-concentrated regions, especially near the rib areas. Owing to the residual stress and distortion, defects were evident in the Al-Mg alloy in the areas predicted by the simulation. However, there were no visible defects observed in the Al-Si alloy. This suggests that an adequate die temperature and casting process optimization are necessary to control and minimize defects when die casting the Al-Mg alloy. A Tatur test was conducted to observe the shrinkage characteristics of the aluminum alloys. The result showed that hot tearing or hot cracking occurred during the solidification of the Al-Mg alloy due to the large amount of shrinkage.

Methods of producing hydrogen include steam reforming, electrochemical decomposition of water, and the SI process. Among these methods, the Sulfur iodine process is one of the most promising processes for hydrogen production. The thermochemical sulfur-iodine (SI) process uses heat from a high-temperature-gas nuclear reactor to produce H2 gas; this process is known for its production of clean energy as it does not emit CO2 from water. But the SI-process takes place in an extremely corrosive environment for the materials. To endure SI environments, the materials for the SI environment will have to have strong corrosion resistance. This work studies the corrosion resistances of the Fe-Si, Ni-Ti and Ni Alloys, which are tested in SI-process environments. Among the SI-process environments, the conditions of boiling sulfuric acid and decomposed sulfuric acid are selected in this study. Before testing in boiling sulfuric acid environments, the specimens of Fe-4.5Si, Fe-6Si, Ni-4.5Si, Ni-Ti-Si-Nb and Ni-Ti-Si-Nb-B are previously given heat treatment at 1000˚C for 48 hrs. The reason for this heat treatment is that those specimens have a passive film on the surface. The specimens are immersed for 3~14 days in 98wt% boiling sulfuric acid. Corrosion rates are measured by using the weight change after immersion. The corrosion rates of the Fe-6Si and Ni-Ti-Si-Nb-B are found to decrease as the time passes. The corrosion rates of Fe-6si and Ni-Ti-Si-Nb-B are measured at 0.056 mm/yr and 0.16 mm/yr, respectively. Hastelloy-X, Alloy 617, Alloy 800H and Haynes 230 are tested in the decomposed sulfuric acid for one day. Alloy 800H was found to show the best corrosion resistance among the materials. The corrosion rate of Alloy 800H is measured at -0.35 mm/yr. In these results, the corrosion resistance of materials depends on the stability of the oxide film formed on the surface. After testing in boiling sulfuric acid and in decomposed sulfuric acid environments, the surfaces and compositions of specimens are analyzed by SEM and EDX.

The hypereutectic Al-20 wt%Si powders including some amount of Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn were prepared by a gas atomization process. In order to get highly densified Al-Si bulk specimens, the as-atomized and sieved powders were extruded at , Microstructure and tensile properties of the extruded Al-Si alloys were investigated in this study. Relative density of the extruded samples was over 98%. Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) in stress-strain curves of the extruded powders increased after T6 heat treatments. Elongation of the samples was also increased from 1.4% to 3.2%. The fracture surfaces of the tested pieces showed a fine microstructure and the average grain size was about

The microstructural and mechanical properties of Al-Si alloyed powder, prepared by gas atomization fallowed by hot extrusion, were studied by optical and scanning electron microscopies, hardness and wear testing. The gas atomized Al-Si alloy powder exhibited uniformly dispersed Si particles with particle size ranging from 5 to . The hot extruded Al-Si alloy shows the average Si particle size of less than . After heat-treatment, the average particle size was increased from 2 to . Also, mechanical properties of extruded Al-Si alloy powder were analyzed before and after heat-treatment. As expected from the microstructural analysis, the heat-treated samples resulted in a decrease in the hardness and wear resistance due to Si particle growth. The friction coefficient of heat-treated Al-Si alloyed powder showed higher value tough all sliding speed. This behavior would be due to abrasive wear mechanism. As sliding speed increases, friction coefficient and depth and width of wear track increase. No significant changes occurred in the wear track shape with increased sliding speed.

In order to improve mechanical properties, the hypereutectic Al-20 wt%Si based prealloy powder was prepared by gas atomization process. Microstructure and compressibility of the atomized Al-Si powder were investigated. The average powder size was decreased with increasing the atomization gas pressure. Size of primary Si particles of the as-atomized powder was about . The as-atomized Al-Si powder such as AMB 2712 and AMB 7775 to increase compressibility and sinterability. Relative density of the mixed powder samples sintered at was reached about 96% of a theoretical density.

The microstructure and mechanical properties of the hypereutectic prealloyed Al-Si powders prepared by the gas atomization process were described in this paper. With increasing the gas pressure of the atomization, the average powder size was decreased from about . The primary eutectic Si particles were uniformly distributed in the Al matrix and their size varied in the range of . The high densified specimens with above 96% of the theoretical density were fabricated the hot pressing process. The UTS mechanical properties of VN1 specimens were much higher than that of conventional hypoeutectic Al-Si alloys.

AI-1wt%Si합금을 대상으로하여 가열주형을 이용한 수평식연속주조법에 의해 경면에면서 일방향고조직을 가진 주괴를 얻기위한 주조조건을 조사하였으며, 일방향응고된 주괴를 이용하여 신선가공하였을 경우의 다이스배열과 작업조건, 연속주조조건과 신선가공시의 단선율과의 관계를 검토하였다. 그 결과, 직경 8mm 및 4mm 주괴 모두 공정 Si상이 비교적 균일하게 분포되어 있음을 확인할 수 있었고, 이들 주괴를 중간소둔없이 20μm까지의 초극세선가공이 가능했다. 본 연구에서 실시한 극세선의 신선가공중에 발생한 단선은 신선가공중의 작업조건의 불충분에 기인하는 것으로 사료되었다. 따라서, 본 연구에서 얻어진 일방향응고주괴는 극세선제조에 매우 우수한 원소재임을 보여주었다.