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The magnetic shape-memory alloy Ni–Mn–Ga shows, in monocrystalline form, a reversible magnetic-field-induced strain (MFIS) up to 10%. This strain, which is produced by twin boundaries moving solely by internal stresses generated by magnetic anisotropy energy, can be used in actuators, sensors and energy-harvesting devices. Compared with monocrystalline Ni–Mn–Ga, fine-grained Ni–Mn–Ga is much easier to process but shows near-zero MFIS because twin boundary motion is inhibited by constraints imposed by grain boundaries. Recently, we showed that partial removal of these constraints, by introducing pores with sizes similar to grains, resulted in MFIS values of 0.12% in polycrystalline Ni–Mn–Ga foams, close to those of the best commercial magnetostrictive materials. Here, we demonstrate that introducing pores smaller than the grain size further reduces constraints and markedly increases MFIS to 2.0–8.7%. These strains, which remain stable over >200,000 cycles, are much larger than those of any polycrystalline, active material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction and imaging experiments were performed at the Advanced Photon Source on two ancient Chinese bronzes from the Art Institute of Chicago with the goal to nondestructively study their microstructure. The first object, a bronze fragment from an early Western Zhou dynasty vessel (Hu, 11th/10th century B.C.), was investigated with spatially-resolved diffraction to reveal the depth and composition of the surface corrosion layer as well as the composition and grain size of the underlying bronze core. The second object, a bronze dagger-axe (Ge, 3rd/2nd century B.C.) with a silver-inlaid sheath, was studied under both diffraction and imaging conditions. It was found to have been cast as a single object, answering longstanding scholars’ questions on whether the ceremonial object concealed an interior blade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uniaxial compression tests were conducted on aluminum composites containing 34 and 37 vol pct submicron alumina particles, to study the effect of temperature and strain rate on their flow stress. For temperatures between 25°C and 600°C and strain rates between 10-3 and 1 s-1, the flow stress of the composites is significantly higher than that of unreinforced aluminum tested under similar conditions. This can be attributed to direct strengthening of the composites due to load sharing between the particles and the matrix, and an enhanced in-situ matrix flow stress resulting from a particle-induced increase in dislocation density. The composites, however, exhibit the same stress dependence on temperature and strain rate as unreinforced aluminum, indicating a common hardening mechanism, i.e., forest dislocation interactions. The forest hardening present under the explored testing conditions masks the effects of direct dispersion strengthening operative at lower deformation rates in these materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchrotron x-ray tomography was performed on titanium foams with aligned, elongated pores, initially created by sintering directionally freeze-cast preforms using two different powder sizes. Three-dimensional reconstructions of the pore structures were analyzed morphologically using interface shape and interface normal distributions. A smaller powder size leads to more completely sintered titanium walls separating the dendritic pores, which in turn created a more compact distribution of pore shapes as well as stronger pore directionality parallel to the ice growth direction. The distribution of pore shapes is comparable to trabecular bone reported in the literature, indicating the foam's potential as a bone replacement material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]