• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.12
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• pp.924-929
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• 2011

It is well known that grain boundary cavitation is the main failure mechanism in austenitic stainless steel under tensile hold creep-fatigue interaction conditions. The cavities are nucleated at the grain boundary during cyclic loading and grow to become grain boundary cracks. The attenuation of ultrasound depends on scattering and absorption in polycrystalline materials. Scattering occurs when a propagation wave encounters microstructural discontinuities, such as internal voids or cavities. Since the density of the creep-fatigue cavities increases with the fatigue cycles, the attenuation of ultrasound will also be increased with the fatigue cycles and this attenuation can be detected nondestructively. In this study, it is found that individual grain boundary cavities are formed and grow up to about 100 cycles and then, these cavities coalesce to become cracks. The measured ultrasonic attenuation increased with the cycles up to cycle 100, where it reached a maximum value and then decreased with further cycles. These experimental measurements strongly indicate that the open pores of cavities contribute to the attenuation of ultrasonic waves. However, when the cavities develop, at the grain boundary cracks whose crack surfaces are in contact with each other, there is no longer any open space and the ultrasonic wave may propagate across the cracks. Therefore, the attenuation of ultrasonic waves will be decreased. This phenomenon of maximum attenuation is very important to judge the stage of grain boundary crack development, which is the indication of the dangerous stage of the structures.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1337-1342
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• 2008

The whisker grows at the plating of a lead frame so that it causes the serious problem like the short. To prove this case, many people have studied the cause and influence of the tin whisker growth. This study explains the grain size affects the growth of the whisker in the lead frame. By these studies about the whisker, the whisker growth is discovered by stresses generated by the intermetallic compound and CTE mismatch in both plating and base metal. The stresses or lattice defect generated in the plating process changes grain structure of plating. Consequently, these various stresses are stabilized by forming unspecified whiskers through lots of grain boundaries. Because the grain boundary is the path of the whisker growth, the smaller grain size exists, the more whiskers grow.

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• v.9
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• pp.1-5
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• 1999

The critical currents I$_c$ of the YBCO grain boundaries of 90-degree [100] symmetric tilt showed a hysteretic behavior depending on how the external magnetic fields were applied. Near 77K for fields less than ${\sim}$1 T, the field-cooled I$_c$ of grain boundaries was larger than the zero-field-cooled I$_c$. This result is consistent with the model in which the grain-boundary vortices can be pinned by neighboring Abrikosov vortices in the nearby grains.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05b
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• pp.123-128
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• 1997

The effects of heat treatment on fatigue crack growth rates (FCGRs) of Inconel 690 have been investigated in terms of carbide morphology and grain size. Cycling tests in air at room temperature have shown that FCGR in low stress intensity factor range (ΔK) region can be effectively reduced by increasing the grain boundary carbide precipitate size and grain size. Decrease in FCGR is attributed to the crack tip blunting at the precipitates of grain boundary chromium carbides.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.122-127
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• 2000

Microstructural evolutions in ceria-stabilized zirconia (Ce-TZP) and alumina-dispersed Ce-TZP ceramics were investigated as functions of doping and annealing conditions. All of sintered specimens showed the relative density over 99 %. Sintered specimens had linear grain boundaries and normal grain shapes, but ceria-doped specimens had irregular grain shapes and nonlinear grain boundaries due to the diffusion-induced grain boundary migration during annealing at $1650^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. Mean grain boundary length of Ce-TZP with irregular grain shapes was higher than that of normal grain shapes, and was a value of 23pm at the maximum. Alumina particles dispersed in Ce-TZP inhibited the grain growth of zirconia particles. $Al_2O_3$Ce-TZP doped with ceria and annealed at $1650^{\circ}C$ for 2 h showed irregular grain shapes as well as small grain size. Added alumina particles showed the grain growth during sintering or annealing, and they changed the position from grain boundary to inside of the grains during the annealing. The specimens with normal grain shapes showed an intergranular fracture mode, whereas the specimens with irregular grain shapes showed a transgranular fracture mode during the crack propagation.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07d
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• pp.1738-1740
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• 1999

This paper deals with a novel structure of poly-Si solar cell. A solar cell conversion efficiency was degraded by grain boundary effect in Polycrystalline silicon. To reduce grain boundary effect, we performed a preferential grain boundary etching, $POCl_3$ n-type emitter doping, and then ITO film growth on poly-Si. Among the various preferential etchants, Schimmel etch solution exhibited the best result having grain boundary etch depth about $10{\mu}m$. RF magnetron sputter grown ITO films showed a low resistivity of $10^{-4}\Omega-cm$ and high transmittance of 85%. With well fabricated poly-Si solar cells. we were able to achieve as high as 15% conversion efficiency at the input power of 20mW/$cm^2$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.301-307
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• 2012

SiAlON glasses are silicates or alumino-silicates, containing Mg, Ca, Y or rare earth (RE) ions as modifiers, in which nitrogen atoms substitute for oxygen atoms in the glass network. These glasses are found as intergranular films and at triple point junctions in silicon nitride ceramics and these grain boundary phases affect their fracture behaviour. This paper provides an overview of the preparation of M-SiAlON glasses and outlines the effects of composition on properties. As nitrogen substitutes for oxygen in SiAlON glasses, increases are observed in glass transition temperatures, viscosities, elastic moduli and microhardness. These property changes are compared with known effects of grain boundary glass chemistry in silicon nitride ceramics. Oxide sintering additives provide conditions for liquid phase sintering, reacting with surface silica on the $Si_3N_4$ particles and some of the nitride to form SiAlON liquid phases which on cooling remain as intergranular glasses. Thermal expansion mismatch between the grain boundary glass and the silicon nitride causes residual stresses in the material which can be determined from bulk SiAlON glass properties. The tensile residual stresses in the glass phase increase with increasing Y:Al ratio and this correlates with increasing fracture toughness as a result of easier debonding at the glass/${\beta}-Si_3N_4$ interface.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.7
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• pp.49-58
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• 1987

To investigate the effect of the Retrogression and Reaging (RRA) treatment on the strength and the stress corrosion cracking in AA 7039 the measurement of hardness, tensile properties and the time to failure in a constant rate method were measured. Transmission electron microscope was used to examine the microstructural changes within graln and grain boundary. The results show that the RRA treatment of the T6 condition results in a significant increase in the time to failure without sacrifying the original T6 strength. It is believed that high density and even distribution of precipitates in RRA condition were observed within grain so that the RRA condition could have similar strength to the T6 condition. The presence of fine dispersion of semicohernt ${\eta}^{\prime}$ transition phase is also believed to contribute to that effect. Examination of the grain boundary microstructure shows that the RRA treatments increases significantly the average size of the grain boundary preciptates. It is suggested that the benificial effect of the RRA treatment on the susceptibility to SCC be due to the increase in the size of grain boundary precipitates obtained during the retrogression treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.54-60
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• 1985

This study is concerned with the mechanism of PTCR in $BaTiO_3$ ceramics doped by $Nb^{+5}$ Since the vacancy compensation layer at the grain boundary of n-type doped $BaTiO_3$ ceramics has been known as a major factor for surface state to give PTCR phenomena the dependence of PTCR on such vacancy compensation layer was attemped to be confirmed experimentally in this study. For the experiment quenching and annealing at various temperature after sintering were adopted to induce difference in the thickness of vacancycompensation layer so as to exihibit difference of PTCReffect eachother. The TEX>$Ba^{++}$ cocentration at the grain and grain boundary was measured by EDAX to confirm the formation of the vacancy compensation layer. It was found that i)either decrease in the temperature for quenching ii) or increase in the temperature for annealing improves the PTCR effect clearly iii)increase in TEX>$Ba^{++}$ concentration at the grain boundary results in the improvement of PTCR effect. It was concluded that all the experimental results gave the evidence for the dependence of PTCR effect on the vacancy compensation layer at the grain boundary which had been induced possibly by the $Ba^{++}$ diffusion by the heat treatment conducted.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.682-688
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• 2016

In $TiO_2$-CuO systems, low-temperature sinterability was investigated by a conventional sintering method. Sintering temperatures were set at under $950^{\circ}C$, at which the volume diffusion is inactive. The temperatures are less than the melting point of Ag ($961^{\circ}C$), which is often used as an internal conductor in low-temperature co-fired ceramic technology. To optimize the amount of CuO dopant, various dopant contents were added. The optimum level for enhanced densification was 2 wt% CuO. Excess dopants were segregated to the grain boundaries. The segregated dopants supplied a high diffusion path, by which grain boundary diffusion improved. At lower temperatures in the solid state region, grain boundary diffusion was the principal mass transport mechanism for densification. The enhanced grain boundary diffusion, therefore, improved densification. In this regard, the results of this study prove that the sintering mechanism was the same as that of activated sintering.