• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.739-744
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• 1994

The B4C-C system was investigated to gain an understanding of the sintering behaviors of B4C. In order to get sintered density of 97% TD, sintering temperature of 225$0^{\circ}C$ was necessary. Since such a high temperature operation is actually difficult on a commercial basis, our objective was to examine the possibility of decreasing the sintering temperature by adding SiC. The addition of SiC in B4C increases the sintering rate about at 210$0^{\circ}C$ and results in a fine microstructure with more than 98% relative density on 55 wt% B4C-40wt% SiC-5 wt% C composition. The probability of liquid phase sintering was investigated, but the evidences of liquid phase formation were not observed with XRD and TEM observation. It was proposed that the addition of SiC and carbon to B4C reduce interface energy during sintering, which results in enhanced grain-boundary diffusion. Thus, the enhanced grain-boundary diffusion and retarded grain growth by SiC improve densification.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.161-167
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• 2000

Mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder and ball-milled (Ni+Al) powder mixture were sintered by spark-plasma sintering(SPS) process. Mechanical alloying was performed in a horizontal attritor for 20 h with rotation speed of 600 rpm. (Ni+Al) powder mixtures were prepared by ball milling for 1 and 10 h with 120 rpm. Both powders were sintered at $1150^{\circ}C$ for 5 min under $10^{-3}$ torr vacuum with 50 MPa die pressure in a SPS facility. Sintered densities of 97% and 99% were obtained from mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder and (Ni+Al) powder mixture, respectively. The sintered compact of (Ni+Al) powder mixture showed large grain size by a very rapid grain growth, while the grain size of mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder compact after sintering was extremely fine(80 nm). The difference in densification behavior of both powders were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.155-162
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• 2024

SCr420H steel which is commonly utilized for automotive components requires the carburizing heat treatment process. Abnormal grain growth during this treatment significantly affects the mechanical properties of the steel parts. Consequently, a process designed to prevent abnormal grain growth at certain elevated temperatures is essential. For enhanced grain refinement, we considered the addition of Nb in SCr420H steel. The experimental condition of the carburizing heat treatment involved reheating the steel sample to temperatures between 940℃ and 1080℃. Using scanning electron microscopy, we examined the microstructure of specimens treated with the secondary solution, revealing an organization of bainite and ferrite. Transmission electron microscopy was utilized to determine the type, shape, and size of the carbonitrides, showing a high fraction of AlN at the secondary solution treatment temperature of approximately 1050℃ and of (Nb,Ti)(C,N) around 1200℃. AlN particles measured about 100 nm and (Nb,Ti)(C,N) about 50 nm. Optical microscopy was utilized to assess grain size variations at different secondary solution treatment temperatures. It is noted that the temperature at which abnormal grain coarsening occurred rose with increasing secondary solution treatment temperatures, indicating a greater influence of (Nb,Ti)(C,N) with higher heat treatment temperatures. This research provides reference data for preventing abnormal grain growth in Nb-added low alloy steels undergoing carburizing heat treatment.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.260-264
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• 1999

Effect of the particle size of $MgTiO_3$ and $CaTiO_3$ on the microstructural evolution during sintering of $0.93MgTiO_3-0.07CaTiO_3$ system was investigated. Microwave dielectric characteristics of the sintered ceramics were also measured. The microstructural evolutions were explained with an emphasis on the entrapping behavior of $CaTiO_3$ grain into the $MgTiO_3$ grain and were correlated with microwave dielectric characteristics. With an increasing particle size ratio between $CaTiO_3$and $MgTiO_3$, the fraction of entraped $CaTiO_3$ grains increased, which grain growth of $MgTiO_3$were concurrently accelerated due to decreasing drag force of its boundary migration. Besides, $CaTiO_3$-grain entrapment into the $MgTiO_3$grain interior led to decreaseing quality factor values.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.454-461
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• 2011

In this study, the relationship between corrosion resistance and microstructural characteristics such as grain size reduction, preferred orientation, and homogenous distribution of elements and impurity by mechanical milling of magnesium powder was investigated. Mechanical milling of pure magnesium powder exhibited a complex path to grain refinement and growth together with preferred orientation reversal with milling time. It was also found that anisotropic formation of dislocation on the basal plane of magnesium was initially the dominant mechanism for grain size reduction. After 60 hrs of milling, grain coarsening was observed and interpreted as a result of the strain relaxation process through recrystallization. In spite of the finer grain size and strong (002) texture developed in the sample prepared by spark plasma sintering at $500^{\circ}C$ for 5 min after mechanical milling for 2hrs, the sample showed a higher corrosion rate. The results from this study will be helpful for better understanding of the controlling factor for corrosion resistance and behaviors of mechanical milled magnesium powders.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.365-370
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• 2008

In this study, bottom-up powder processing and top-down severe plastic deformation processing approaches were combined in order to achieve both full density and grain refinement with least grain growth. The numerical modeling of the powder process requires the appropriate constitutive model for densification of the powder materials. The present research investigates the effect of representative powder yield function of the Shima-Oyane model and the critical relative density model. It was found that the critical relative density model is better than the Shima-Oyane model for powder densification behavior, especially for initial stage.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.309-314
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• 2003

A spark plasma sintering technique has been used for the fabrication of $Al_2O_3$-SiC nanocomposites at the low temperature of $1100^{\circ}C$∼$1500^{\circ}C$. The sintered $Al_2O_3$-SiC composites shows very homogeneous microstructure without any particular abnormal grain growth, indicating that the addition of nano-sized SiC particles is very effective to control grain growth and to induce the residual stress in the $Al_2O_3$ matrix, resulting in the intragranular fracture. These SiC particles are present in the grain boundaries and also intragrain, depending on the sintering condition, and improve remarkably the mechanical properties of $Al_2O_3$-SiC composite through the mechanisms of strengthening and toughening induced by crack diffraction and crack bridging.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2015

Under rate-controlled sintering, furnace power is controlled to maintain a specific specimen contraction rate. This thermal processing method guarantees continuous process with a minimum thermal energy applied over time and makes it possible to control the density of the sintered body precisely. In this study, the rate-controlled sintering is applied to the sintering of $B_4C$ in order to investigate how rate-controlled sintering variables can affect the sintering behavior and/or grain growth behavior of $B_4C$ and how the results can be interpreted using sintering theories to draw an optimal sintering condition of the rate-controlled sintering. Further, the applicability of the rate-controlled sintering into the study for sintering of unknown materials is also considered.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.76-81
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• 2002

In order to study the fatigue crack and retardation mechanism in variable loading, the effects of crack tip branching in crack growth retardation were examined. The characteristics of crack tip branching behavior were considered with respect to microstructure and crack tip branching angle was examined. Crack tip branching was observed along the grain boundary of finite and pearlite structure. It was found that the branching angle ranges from 25 to 53 degrees. Using the finite element method, the variable of crack driving farce to branching angle was examined. The effective crack driving farce (K$\_$eff/) decreased as the branching angle increased. The rate of decrease was 33% for kinked type and 29% for forked one. It was confirmed that the effect of crack tip branching is a very important factor in crack growth retardation. Therefore, crack branching effect should be considered in building the hypothetical model to predict crack growth retardation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.818-823
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• 2012

In order to predict necking behaviour of aluminium sheets, a crystal plasticity model is introduced in the finite element analysis of tensile test. Due to the computational limits of time and memory, only a small part of tensile specimen is subjected to the analysis. Grains having different orientations are subjected to numerical tensile tests and each grain is discretized by many elements. In order to predict the sudden drop of load carrying capacity after necking, a well-known Cockcroft-Latham damage model is introduced. The mismatch of grain orientation causes stress concentration at several points and damage is evolved at these points. This phenomenon is similar to void nucleation. In the same way, void growth and void coalescence behaviours are well predicted in the analysis. For the comparison of prediction capability of necking, same model is subjected to finite element analysis using uniform material properties of polycrystal with and without damage. As a result, it is shown that the crystal plasticity model can be used in prediction of necking and fracture behavior of materials accurately.