In the present work, the wear behaviour of different steels has been investigated under a three body abrasive environment at room and elevated temperatures. High-silicon steel (0.25C-1.42Si) was austempered at 300 and 320 ˚C in order to obtain two carbide-free bainitic steels with different mechanical properties. The same steel subjected to two different quench and temper heat treatments was used as a reference material for mechanical and wear testing. The steels were subjected to three-body abrasive wear by means of a high temperature continuous abrasion tester (HT-CAT). The tests were done at 25, 300 and 500 °C respectively. All samples showed similar wear rates at room temperature. At 500 °C, the material austempered at 320 ˚C showed the highest toughness and the lowest wear rate. High temperature hardness and impact toughness tests showed that abrasive wear is not only influenced by hardness but also by the toughness of the material. Owing to their good strength/toughness combination CFB steels could prove to be an important material for abrasive wear applications

An experimental technique has been developed which allows loading of heated sheet material under impact conditions with simultaneous measurement of the impact force history. The combined characteristics of impact loading at elevated temperature makes the experiment ideal for validation of models used to simulate the containment structure surrounding aircraft engines. In this paper experimental results for Alloy 718 are presented, a nickel based super alloy commonly used in hot parts of the containment structure. The experimental results are then compared to simulations in order to validate previously calibrated material parameters. The basic principle of the validation experiment is based on reverse ballistics, in which a thin circular specimen with free boundaries impacts the end of an instrumented rod. Using induction heating the specimen is heated to temperatures up to 650 °C and a gun driven by compressed air accelerates the specimens to desired velocity. In the reported work velocities are kept low enough to avoid cracking and thus the study is limited to plastic conditions, even though the technique is applicable also for fracture studies. The free boundaries of the experiment makes numerical modelling and simulation straightforward, making it valuable as a validation tool. All numerical simulations are performed using the commercial finite element code LS-Dyna and plastic behaviour of the material was modelled with the Johnson-Cook material model

During laser welding, residual stresses are thermally induced. They can have strong impact on the fatigue behavior and fatigue life. A standardized measurement method for the fatigue crack growth rate was expanded to identify residual stress along the cracking path. The second derivative of the measured crack opening and in turn the crack acceleration corresponded well with distinct acceleration maxima and minima and accordingly with tensile and compressive stress, as was basically proven by numerical simulation. The method is simple and extendable. It provides valuable information, as was demonstrated for various situations.

High-Si spring steel was heat treated in three different ways: Quenching and tempering at 460 °C to obtain a tempered martensite microstructure, and austempering at 300 and 350 °C, respectively, to obtain two different carbide-free bainitic microstructures. In the steel austempered at 350 °C, both the bainite lath thickness and retained austenite content were higher than those of the steel austempered at 300 °C. Rotating-bending fatigue tests were done in order to evaluate the effect of each heat treatment on the high-cycle fatigue behavior of the steel. When the austempering temperature was 300 °C, the endurance limit was increased by 25% despite a 5% reduction in tensile strength when compared with that of the quenched and tempered steel. The relationship between endurance limit [Rfat (50%)] and ultimate tensile strength (Rm) was higher for the austempered samples in comparison with that of the quenched and tempered material. Therefore, it is believed that the presence of retained austenite affects the relationship between endurance limit and tensile strength.

In hot forming processes at elevated temperatures like wire rolling, microstructural changes such as repeated dynamic recrystallisation and grain growth occur. An experimental method to obtain the flow stress behaviour and to capture the recrystallised microstructure for materials subjected to large deformations, high temperatures between 900 and 1200 °C and high strain rates around 5000 s− 1 is presented. The method is based on the split-Hopkinson pressure bar arrangement complemented with an inductive heat source. Furthermore, a momentum trap is added to ensure that the specimen is loaded only once. By quenching the specimen directly after the single loading, the dynamically recrystallised microstructure is preserved. The quenching is performed within 0.1 s of loading by dropping the specimen into a water bath. By applying the momentum trap technique, the compressive loading of the specimen could be interrupted at a strain level slightly above the strain level corresponding to the peak stress, which is a good estimation for the onset of dynamic recrystallisation.

Alloy 718 (Inconel™ 718), composed mainly of nickel, iron and chromium has properties that are of interest in many high temperature applications. One such application is the containment structure in aero engines which prevents fragments from penetrating the structure in case of blade failure. Impact of blade fragments on the containment structure includes both high strain rates and high temperatures and simulation models must therefore have their base in experimental conditions including transient loading and heating. An experimental method has been developed that utilizes induction heating in a high rate tensile test machine. Strain rates up to the order of 1000 s-1 and temperatures up to 650 °C have been included in the test program. Material parameters for the Johnson-Cook and the Zerilli-Armstrong models are evaluated from experimental data using optimisation. These parameters are then used to simulate a specially designed impact experiment and a direct comparison of a calculated and measured quantity can be made in order to validate model and parameters. The result from the validation experiment showed better agreement for the Johnson-Cook model than the Zerilli-Armstrong model

In order to characterise the mechanical response of materials in manufacturing processes, such as wire and bar rolling involving very high strain rates, temperatures and level of straining, an experimental device is presented. The device is suitable for testing at strain rates up to approximately 4000 s−1, temperatures up to 1200 °C (≈1500 K) and strains around 0.5. It is based on the classical split Hopkinson pressure bar and is complemented with an inductive heating source for achieving requested temperatures. By keeping the specimen separated from the Hopkinson bars just until an instant before impact (50 ms) considerable cooling and temperature gradients in the specimen are avoided. Three steel grades, two stainless steels and a high-speed steel, were tested. Four different material models whose parameters were fitted to the obtained experimental data were used for mechanical characterisation: two empirically based and two physically based. Overall, one of the physically based models showed the best agreement between experimental results and the predicted flow stresses.

Specially designed steels with carbon contents from 0.6 to 1.0 wt.% were isothermally transformed at very low temperatures, between 220 and 270 °C, in order to obtain a nano-structured bainitic microstructure. It is shown that the wear resistance in dry rolling-sliding of these nano-structured steels is significantly superior to that ofbainitic steels transformed at higher temperatures with similar hardness values.In addition to the highly refined microstructure, the transformation under strain to martensite (TRIP effect), contributes to the plasticity of the nano-scaled steels, increasing surface hardness during testing, thus reducing the wear rate.