ALBERT

Description: The mechanical characterization of textile composites is a challenging task, due to their nonuniform deformation and complicated failure phenomena. This article introduces a three-dimensional mesoscale finite element model to investigate the progressive damage behavior of a notched single-layer triaxially-braided composite subjected to axial tension. The damage initiation and propagation in fiber bundles are simulated using three-dimensional failure criteria and damage evolution law. A traction–separation law has been applied to predict the interfacial damage of fiber bundles. The proposed model is correlated and validated by the experimentally measured full field strain distributions and effective strength of the notched specimen. The progressive damage behavior of the fiber bundles is studied by examining the damage and stress contours at different loading stages. Parametric numerical studies are conducted to explore the role of modeling parameters and geometric characteristics on the internal damage behavior and global measured properties of the notched specimen. Moreover, the correlations of damage behavior, global stress–strain response, and the efficiency of the notched specimen are discussed in detail. The results of this paper deliver a throughout understanding of the damage behavior of braided composites and can help the specimen design of textile composites.

Description: A Ni-based superalloy CMSX-6 was directionally solidified at various drawing speeds (5–20 μm·s−1) and diameters (4 mm, 12 mm) under a 0.5 T weak transverse magnetic field. The results show that the application of a weak transverse magnetic field significantly modified the solidification microstructure. It was found that if the drawing speed was lower than 10 μm·s−1, the magnetic field caused extensive macro-segregation in the mushy zone, and a change in the mushy zone length. The magnetic field significantly decreases the size of γ’ and the content of γ-γ’ eutectic. The formation of macro-segregation under a weak magnetic field was attributed to the interdendritic solute transport driven by the thermoelectric magnetic convection (TEMC). The γ’ phase refinement could be attributed to a decrease in nucleation activation energy owing to the magnetic field during solid phase transformation. The change of element segregation is responsible for the content decrease of γ-γ’ eutectic.