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Niobium is an important alloying element in steels. In the present work an effort has been made to investigate the effect of electropulsing on the niobium carbide (NbC) at an elevated temperature (800 °C). The results show that the electropulsing treatment can generate an evenly distributed NbC by decreasing the kinetics barriers for precipitation. It has been also found that a semitransformed pearlite structure forms in such a way that the grains are oriented toward a direction parallel to that of the electric current flow. Furthermore, the electropulsed sample benefits from refined grain size. This is thought to be due to the electropulse-enhanced nucleation rate. Tensile testing has been carried out to compare the properties of electropulsed sample with that of without electropulsing. The results show that the sample with treatment has greater yield strength and ultimate tensile stress while its elongation is only 1% less that of the unelectropulsed samples. The improved mechanical properties of the sample with pulsing are attributed to its finer grain sizes as well as the elimination of precipitation free zones caused by the electropulsing treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlled motion of graphene and graphene oxide nanoflakes in a thin liquid film on metal surfaces was studied to unravel the significant variations of the electric field effects on the nanoparticles. It was found that graphene oxide flakes were negatively charged and migrated toward anode while the electrically neutral graphene flakes moved toward cathode. Therefore, thin layers of graphene as a protective coating were produced to inhibit corrosion of underlying metals and reduce friction and wear-related mechanical failures in moving mechanical systems. The method does not require an insulated substrate to confine the high electric field to the fluidic layer. The motion of the nano-particles under pulsed electric current was very efficient. The observed effects were interpreted in a possible mechanism associated to the effect of electric field on the mobility of different particles in different conductive media. This significant phenomenon, combined with unique properties of graphene and graphene oxides, represents an exciting platform for enabling diverse applications on the preparation of protective coatings on an arbitrary conductive substrate over large areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oriented sulphides parallel to the electric current direction have been experimentally observed when a pulsed electric current is passed through medium carbon steels with MnS inclusions. Two different configurations of sulphides occur after the application of the electric current: namely, oriented elongated ellipsoidal particles and oriented chain-like particles composed of two or three small spherical sulphides. Theoretical analysis indicates that this phenomenon is associated with minimization of the electrical resistance of the material. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electropulsing usually promotes a metastable phase to evolve towards its equilibrium state. This work reports an alternative case, where electropulsing promotes the decomposition of the stableδ-phase in duplex stainless steel at high temperature. This decomposition enables both theγ-phase and theσ-phase in the steel to survive and hence to strengthen it at high temperature. The hardness of the quenched sample with electropulsing treatment is 49.4% higher than that without electropulsing treatment. A fundamental understanding of the observation is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scheme for integrating grain growth model in phase transition and grain distortion calculation in plastic deformation is proposed, which enables the simulation of microstructure evolution in steel processing when phase transition takes place during rolling. The grain shape deformation is calculated by transforming grid coordinates according to homogeneous deformation matrix. Grain growth in phase transition is computed by phase-field model. Apart from the direct distortion effect of rolling on grain geometry, the change of interface geometry affects the interface propagation due to the anisotropic property of the interface energy. Finally, the method for integration of microstructure simulation with steel crystallography is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method using electropulsing to separate inclusions from molten steel is developed, based on the differences in electrical properties between the inclusions and liquid metal. The inclusions have different electrical resistivity from that of the liquid steel and hence are expelled to the surface of the metal by electropulsing. In comparison with the as-solidified untreated steel, the size of the inclusion is significantly larger at the surface of the molten steel due to the enhanced agglomeration. Moreover, the technique is efficient in eliminating particles smaller than 20μm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]