摘要:
Ultrasonic imaging techniques for portraying and evaluating cumulative internal microstructural damage in engineering materials are described. A quantitative delineation of the damage is made in terms of acoustic attenuation obtained from computer analyses of digitized ultrasonic images. Acoustic attenuation data are a basic ingredient in previously developed models of damage processes in materials. The ultrasonic imaging methodology has been developed using filled polymer (inert solid rocket-propellant) samples subjected to progressive uniaxial tensile strain. Successive ultrasonic images taken at various levels of applied strain display dewetting and the evolving microvoid formation/growth which occurs. Both initially intact material and that with pre-existing cracks are of interest. Changes in acoustic attenuation with strain, derived from the processing of digital images, have provided results as to the degree of preferential damage accumulation at sites of filler particle agglomerations appearing on the ultrasonic images. Also, the quantitative extent of an asymmetry in the damage-field distribution near the tips of an extending crack was determined in precracked material. Iso-attenuation type contours generated by computer reveal that kidney-shaped damage zones occur in the neighborhood of the propagating crack tips, reminiscent of the plastic-zone shapes near crack tips in ductile metals under strain. Ultrasonic images of precracked samples show that before crack extension begins, the material damage in the neighborhood of the crack already extends over a relatively large volume of the specimen.
摘要:
A new experimental set-up combining X-ray topography and microbeam diffraction has been designed for the investigation of heterogeneous microstructures with features in the size range of more than 50μm. Built around a four-circle goniometer of 5/1000° angular resolution, this apparatus offers similar facilities to those obtained by TEM but at a different scale. In the Berg-Barrett position, grain and subgrain boundaries can be observed over large surface areas (typically 100 mm2). Based on topography observations, areas of interest of typically 100μm diameter can be precisely selected for microdiffraction measurements. A laser beam directed through the pinhole system of the X-ray microbeam collimating system permits one to directly visualize the irradiated zone. The divergence of the X-ray microbeam is typically 0.034° (full width at half maximum) and permits the measurement of lattice spacing variations (Δa/a) of the order of 10?4. While TEM permits one to examine very localized areas, this new device is appropriate to detect long-distance effects and phase interactions in materials with coarse distributed heterogeneities. In order to demonstrate the versatility of this new device, the orientation distribution, variation of lattice spacing and mosaic structure of dendrites in directionally solidified nickel-base alloys are analysed.