• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.693-700
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• 2020

Direct water quenching technique can be used in hot stamping process to obtain higher cooling rate compared to that of the normal die cooling method. In the direct water quenching process, setting proper water flow rate in consideration of material thickness and the size of the area directly cooled in the component is important to ensure uniform microstructure and mechanical properties. In this study, to derive proper water flow rate conditions that can achieve uniform microstructure and mechanical properties, microstructure and hardness distribution in various water flow rate conditions are measured for 3.2 mm thick boron steel sheet. Hardness distribution is uniform under the flow condition of 1.5 L/min or higher. However, due to the lower cooling rate in that area, the lower flow conditions result in a drastic decrease in hardness in some areas in the hot-stamped part, resulting in low martensite fraction. From these results, it is found that the selection of proper water flow rate is an important factor in hot stamping with direct water quenching process to ensure uniform mechanical properties.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2021

The present study deals with the microstructure and mechanical properties of 700 MPa-grade high-strength seismic resistant reinforced steel bars fabricated by various TempCore process conditions. For the steel bars, in the surface region tempered martensite was formed by water cooling and subsequent self-tempering during TempCore process, while in the center region there was ferrite-pearlite or bainite microstructure. The steel bar fabricated by the highest water flow and the lowest equalizing temperature had the highest hardness in all regions due to the relatively fine microstructure of tempered martensite and bainite. In addition, the steel bar having finer microstructures as well as the high fraction of tempered martensite in the surface region showed the highest yield and tensile strengths. The presence of vanadium precipitates and the high fraction of ferrite contributed to the improvement of seismic resistance such as high tensile-to-yield strength ratio and high uniform elongation.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2022

This study investigates the effect of process stopping and restarting on the microstructure and local nanoindentation properties of 316L stainless steel manufactured via selective laser melting (SLM). We find that stopping the SLM process midway, exposing the substrate to air having an oxygen concentration of 22% or more for 12 h, and subsequently restarting the process, makes little difference to the density of the restarted area (~ 99.8%) as compared to the previously melted area of the substrate below. While the microstructure and pore distribution near the stop/restart area changes, this modified process does not induce the development of unusual features, such as an inhomogeneous microstructure or irregular pore distribution in the substrate. An analysis of the stiffness and hardness values of the nano-indented steel also reveals very little change at the joint of the stop/restart area. Further, we discuss the possible and effective follow-up actions of stopping and subsequently restarting the SLM process.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to investigate effects of microstructure control on hydrogen diffusivity, trap activation energy, and cracking behaviors of high-strength steel using a range of experimental techniques. Results of this study showed that susceptibility to hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) was significantly associated with hydrogen diffusivity and trap activation energy, which were primarily influenced by the microstructure. On the other hand, microstructural modifications had no significant impact on electrochemical polarization behavior on the surface at an early corrosion stage. To ensure high resistance to HIC of the steel, it is recommended to increase the cooling rate during normalizing to avoid formation of banded pearlite in the microstructure. However, it is also essential to establish optimal heat treatment conditions to ensure that proportions of bainite, retained austenite (RA), and martensite-austenite (MA) constituents are not too high. Additionally, post-heat treatment at below A₁ temperature is desired to decompose locally distributed RA and MA constituents.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.431-441
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• 2023

The aim of this paper is to present a new sustainable ternary and quaternary binder by partially replacing ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with different percentages of supplementary cementitious materials. The motivation is to reduce our dependency on OPC to reduce CO₂ emission and carbon foot print. As the main substitute for the OPC, siliceous fly ash was used. Moreover, silica fume and nanosilica were also used. During examinations the main mechanical parameters of concrete composites, i.e., compressive strength (f_cm) and splitting tensile strength (f_ctm) were assed. The microstructure of these materials was also analysed. It was found that the concrete incorporating pozzolanic materials is characterized by a well-developed structure and has high values of mechanical parameters. The quaternary concrete containing: 80% OPC, 5% FA, 10% SF, and 5% nS have shown the best results in terms of good strength parameters as well as the most favourable microstructure, whereas the worst mechanical parameters with microstructure containing microcracks at phase interfaces were characterized by concrete with more content of FA additive in the concrete mix, i.e., 15%. Nevertheless, all concretes made on quaternary binders had better parameters than the reference one. It can be stated that sustainable concrete incorporating pozzolanic materials could be good substitute of ordinary concretes.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.45-60
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• 2023

Concrete in water environment is easily subjected to the attack of leaching, which causes its mechanical reduction and durability deterioration, and the key to improving the leaching resistance of concrete is to increase the compaction of its microstructure formed by the curing. This paper performs a numerical investigation on the intrinsic relationship between microstructures formed by the hydration of cement and slag and leaching resistance of concrete in water environment. Firstly, a shrinking-core hydration model of blended cement and slag is presented, in which the interaction of hydration process of cement and slag is considered and the microstructure composition is characterized by the hydration products, solution composition and pore structure. Secondly, based on Fick's law and mass conservation law, a leaching model of hardened paste is proposed, in which the multi-species ionic diffusion equation and modified Gérard model are established, and the model is numerically solved by applying the finite difference method. Finally, two models are combined by microstructure composition to form an integrated curing-leaching model, and it is used to investigate the relationship between microstructure composition and leaching resistance of slag-blended cement pastes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.813-823
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• 2023

In this study, microstructure, hardening layer hardness, and case depth were evaluated after induction hardening(IH) of base metal specimen(BM) treated with annealing and quenching-tempering specimen(QT) treated with quenching and tempering. The microstructure after IH was significantly influenced by the microstructure before IH and the induction coil heating movement speed, but the effect of the induction frequency was very small. The hardness of the hardened layer at an induction coil heating movement speed of 15 mm/s or less was more influenced by the microstructure before IH than the induction coil travel speed and induction frequency. The induction coil travel speed has the significantly effect on the case depth, the induction frequency has effect and the microstructure before IH has a small effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.367-373
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• 2023

600 MPa-grade deformed bar samples were manufactured by conventional hot rolling and subsequent Tempcore heat treatment processes. Considering the short-time water quenching step of the Tempcore process for hot-rolled steel, it is inevitable that the temperature profile of the deformed bar depends strongly on its position throughout the sample thickness. As a result, its microstructure can be easily divided into two regions, the surface and the core regions. The former is expected to have a fresh martensite microstructure under rapid cooling conditions, but self-tempering occurs due to the intense heat flow from the hot core region after the process. The latter is generally known to exhibit a mixed microstructure of ferrite and pearlite due to its slow cooling rate. In this study, detailed microstructural evolutions were examined through the thickness direction. The large variation of the microstructure through the thickness direction in the deformed bar samples is partly due to the easy carbon diffusion from the limited additions of alloying elements.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1993.04a
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• pp.89-92
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• 1993

This paper deals with the effect of siliceous slurry coatings on mortar microstructure under a damp environment. For estimation on effect of siliceous slurry coating, microstructure of coated mortar was observed through SEM. Crystal production in mivrosturcture of coated mortar was periodically increased, and more produced in mortar of high water-cement ratios. And they were generated mainly in mortar ranging from the surface to the inside about 2.5 or 3mm deep.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 1994

Effect of Sb2O3 addition on microstructure and the PTCR characteristic was investigated. The range of the Sb2O3 content and the sintering temperature showing semiconducting and PTCR characteristic, were 0.05~0.125 mol%, and over 130$0^{\circ}C$, respectively. We found that PTCR characteristic, that is, room-temperature resistivity and specific resistivity ration were dependent on the microstructure.