13 Zentrale Universitätseinrichtungen

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    Investigation of oxide layer development of X6CrNiNb18-10 stainless steel exposed to high-temperature water
    (2024) Veile, Georg; Hirpara, Radhika; Lackmann, Simon; Weihe, Stefan
    The oxide layer development of X6CrNiNb18-10 (AISI 347) during exposure to high-temperature water has been investigated. Stainless steels are known to form a dual oxide layer in corrosive environments. The secondary Fe-rich oxide layer has no significant protective effect. In contrast, the primary Cr-rich oxide layer is known to reach a stabilized state, protecting the base metal from further oxidation. This study’s purpose was to determine the development of oxide layer dimensions over exposure time using SEM, TEM and EDX line scans. While a parabolic development of Cr in the protective primary layer and Fe in the secondary layer was observed, the dimensions of the Ni layer remained constant. Ni required the presence of a pronounced Fe-rich secondary layer before being able to reside on the outer secondary layer. With increasing immersion time, the Ni element fraction surpassed the Cr element fraction in the secondary layer. Oxide growth on the secondary layer could be observed. After 480 h, nearly the entire surface was covered by the outer oxide layer. In the metal matrix, no depletion of Cr or Ni could be observed over time; however, an increased presence of Cr and Ni in the primary layer was found at the expense of Fe content. The Nb-stabilized stainless steel was subject to the formation of Niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5), with the quantity and magnitude of element fraction increasing over exposure time.
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    Investigation of tool degradation during friction stir welding of hybrid aluminum-steel sheets in a combined butt and overlap joint
    (2024) Göbel, Robin; Schwertel, Stefanie; Weihe, Stefan; Werz, Martin
    Friction stir welding, as a solid-state welding technique, is especially suitable for effectively joining high-strength aluminum alloys, as well as for multi-material welds. This research investigates the friction stir welding of thin aluminum and steel sheets, an essential process in the production of hybrid tailor-welded blanks employed in deep drawing applications. Despite its proven advantages, the welding process exhibits variable outcomes concerning formability and joint strength when utilizing an H13 welding tool. To better understand these inconsistencies, multiple welds were performed in this study, joining 1 mm thick steel to 2 mm thick aluminum sheets, with a cumulative length of 7.65 m. The accumulation of material on the welding tool was documented through 3D scanning and weighing. The integrity of the resulting weld seam was analyzed through metallographic sections and X-ray imaging. It was found that the adhering material built up continuously around the tool pin over several welds totaling between 1.5 m and 2.5 m before ultimately detaching. This accretion of material notably affected the welding process, resulting in increased intermixing of steel particles within the aluminum matrix. This research provides detailed insights into the dynamics of friction stir welding in multi-material welds, particularly in the context of tool material interaction and its impact on weld quality.
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    Investigations of metallurgical differences in AISI 347 and their influence on deformation and transformation behaviour and resulting fatigue life
    (2024) Veile, Georg; Regitz, Elen; Smaga, Marek; Weihe, Stefan; Beck, Tillmann
    Due to variations in chemical composition and production processes, homonymous austenitic stainless steels can differ significantly regarding their initial microstructure, metastability, and thus, their fatigue behavior. Microstructural investigations and fatigue tests have been performed in order to evaluate this aspect. Three different batches and production forms of nominally one type of steel AISI 347 were investigated under monotonic tensile tests and cyclic loading under total strain and stress control in low and high cycle fatigue regimes, respectively. The deformation induced α’-martensite formation was investigated globally by means of in situ magnetic measurements and locally using optical light microscopy of color etching of micrographs. The investigation showed that the chemical composition and the different production processes influence the material behavior. In fatigue tests, a higher metastability and thus a higher level of deformation induced α’-martensite pronounced cyclic hardening, resulting in significantly greater endurable stresses in total strain-controlled tests and an increase in fatigue life in stress-controlled tests. For applications of non-destructive-testing, detailed knowledge of a component’s metastability is required. In less metastable batches and for lower stress levels, α’-martensite primarily formed at the plasticization zone of a crack. Furthermore, the formation and nucleation points of α’-martensite were highly dependent on grain size and the presence of δ-ferrite. This study provides valuable insights into the different material behavior of three different batches with the same designation, i.e., AISI 347, due to different manufacturing processes and differences in the chemical composition, metastability, and microstructure.
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    Microstructure-based lifetime assessment of austenitic steel AISI 347 in view of fatigue, environmental conditions and NDT
    (2021) Acosta, Ruth; Heckmann, Klaus; Sievers, Jürgen; Schopf, Tim; Bill, Tobias; Starke, Peter; Donnerbauer, Kai; Lücker, Lukas; Walther, Frank; Boller, Christian
    The assessment of metallic materials used in power plants’ piping represents a big challenge due to the thermal transients and the environmental conditions to which they are exposed. At present, a lack of information related to degradation mechanisms in structures and materials is covered by safety factors in its design, and in some cases, the replacement of components is prescribed after a determined period of time without knowledge of the true degree of degradation. In the collaborative project “Microstructure-based assessment of maximum service life of nuclear materials and components exposed to corrosion and fatigue (MibaLeb)”, a methodology for the assessment of materials’ degradation is being developed, which combines the use of NDT techniques for materials characterization, an optimized fatigue lifetime analysis using short time evaluation procedures (STEPs) and numerical simulations. In this investigation, the AISI 347 (X6CrNiNb18-10) is being analyzed at different conditions in order to validate the methodology. Besides microstructural analysis, tensile and fatigue tests, all to characterize the material, a pressurized hot water pipe exposed to a series of flow conditions will be evaluated in terms of full-scale testing as well as prognostic evaluation, where the latter will be based on the materials’ data generated, which should prognose changes in the material’s condition, specifically in a pre-cracked stage. This paper provides an overview of the program, while the more material’s related aspects are presented in the subsequent paper.
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    Energetics of point defects in D0a Ag3Sn : first‐principles calculations
    (2024) Zotov, Nikolay
    The Ag3Sn intermetallic compound is commonly found and acts as a strengthening factor in the key lead‐free solders based on Sn‐Ag‐Cu. The Ag3Sn phase exhibits also an asymmetric off‐stoichiometry, which necessitates the existence of constitutional point defects. The presence of point defects can, in general, sensitively affect the plastic deformation of materials and the strengthening role of Ag3Sn in particular. To understand the nature of the point defects and the compositional stability of Ag3Sn, the relaxed structures and the energies of single point defects (vacancies and antisite defects) in all three sublattices of Ag3Sn are calculated at 0 K using ab initio density functional theory (DFT) and the supercell method. The first‐principles‐based calculations predict that the AgSn antisite defect (Ag substitution for Sn) has the smallest enthalpy of formation, thus indicating that the AgSn antisite defect is the dominant point defect in Ag3Sn. The point defect concentrations as a function of Sn content are estimated using the DFT defect energies and the Wagner-Schottky model. The compositional dependence of the point defect concentrations gives new insights on the atomistic mechanisms of formation of nonstoichiometric Ag3Sn.
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    Investigation of the thermo-mechanical modeling of the manufacturing of large-scale wire arc additive manufacturing components with an outlook towards industrial applications
    (2025) Fritschle, Tim; Kaess, Moritz; Weihe, Stefan; Werz, Martin
    The simulation of additive manufacturing processes, such as Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), is becoming increasingly important to predict material and component properties in advance of the real-life manufacturing. In contrast to prior work focusing on the simulation of simplified WAAM parts, this paper presents an investigation into the thermo-mechanical finite element (FE) simulation of the manufacturing of large-scale WAAM components. The investigation focuses on various problems within the individual steps of the FE workflow wherein ABAQUS influences the modeling of large-scale components. The investigations are founded upon a thermo-mechanically coupled FE model in ABAQUS 2020. For this purpose, several thermo-mechanical simulation models are set up with the target of investigating the meshing, element activation and variation of process parameters. Appropriate discretization of WAAM components is found to be a major problem when setting up a simulation. The meshing of the component is limited by the element type and size and the meshing routines used. Also, differences in the axes of motion for the simulation and the real process cause the simulation to differ from reality. High element start temperatures are found to be beneficial for simulation stability and performance. An integrated parameter variation was made possible with the modeling techniques used.
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    Feasibility study on laser powder bed fusion of ferritic steel in high vacuum atmosphere
    (2025) Fritz, Steffen; Sewalski, Sven; Weihe, Stefan; Werz, Martin
    The boiling point of metals is dependent on the ambient pressure. Therefore, in laser-based fusion welding and additive manufacturing processes, the resulting process regime, ranging from heat conduction welding to the keyhole mode, is also influenced by the process pressure. While laser welding deliberately uses reduced process pressures to achieve the keyhole mode with a lower laser power input as well as a more stable keyhole, there are no positive findings on the laser powder bed fusion process (PBF-LB/M) under vacuum conditions so far. Furthermore, the literature suggests that the process window is significantly reduced, particularly in the high vacuum regime. However, this work demonstrates that components made of the ferritic steel 22NiMoCr3-7 can be successfully manufactured at low process pressures of 2 × 10-2 mbarusing a double-scanning strategy. The strategy consists of a first scan with a defocused laser beam, where the powder is preheated and partially sintered, followed by a second scan with a slightly defocused laser beam, in which the material within a single layer is completely melted. To test this manufacturing strategy, 16 test cubes were manufactured to determine the achievable relative densities and tensile specimens were produced to assess the mechanical properties. Metallographic analysis of the test cubes revealed that relative densities of up to 98.48 ± 1.43% were achieved in the test series with 16 different process parameters. The tensile strength determined ranged from 722 to 724 MPa. Additionally, a benchmark part with complex geometric features was successfully manufactured in a high vacuum atmosphere without the need for a complex parameterization of individual part zones in the scanning strategy.
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    Chemo-mineralogical changes in six european monumental stones caused by cyclic isothermal treatment at 600 °C
    (2025) Urbanek, Matea; Wriessnig, Karin; Artner, Werner; Pintér, Farkas; Ottner, Franz
    This experimental study analyses the extent of chemo-mineralogical changes that occur when a building stone encounters a cycling isothermal treatment at 600 °C. Four carbonate and two silicate European building stones were analysed in their fresh quarried and thermally treated conditions by means of colour measurements, in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), and optical microscopy. Furthermore, powdered samples were characterised by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, simultaneous thermal analysis, and cycling thermogravimetry (TG). The in situ XRD spectra revealed a surface-limited phase transformation of solid calcite and dolomite under isothermal conditions during the first 10 min at 600 °C and 500 °C, respectively. The onset of thermal decomposition and extent of phase transformation were governed by the microstructure of the solid samples. Inter- and intragranular microcracks are induced to varying degrees, and their incidence depended on the stone’s microstructure. Discolouration indicated a transformation of minor elements across the entire analysed sample volumes. Kaolinite was preserved even after three hours of thermal treatment at its dehydroxylation temperature due to its sheltering in confined pore spaces. Mass loss was more pronounced when cyclic treatment was employed compared to a non-periodic treatment, as determined by a TG analysis performed at same time intervals. Examining the chemo-mineralogical and microstructural changes caused by heat treatment allows us to study how and if regaining mechanical strength and restoring physical properties are possible for purposes of heritage restoration after fire damage.
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    Nano-zirconia as a protective and consolidant material for marble in architectural surfaces
    (2025) Urbanek, Matea; Gil-Díaz, Teba; Lützenkirchen, Johannes; Castelvetro, Valter
    Natural weathering of carbonate building surfaces exposed to outdoor conditions can be effectively tackled by appropriate products. The aim of this experimental study was to evaluate the effectiveness of nano-zirconia (n-ZrO2) as a consolidant for calcite surfaces. Sorption kinetics were investigated in batch experiments by applying aqueous dispersions of n-ZrO2 onto model, crushed Apuan marble samples of different bead sizes. Adsorption and desorption by the action of simulated rainwater as an environmentally relevant leaching solution were investigated. Adsorption studies revealed a good chemical affinity between n-ZrO2 and calcite, while desorption resulted in <6% release of n-ZrO2 and 100-fold lower solubility for 1 mm-sized beads compared to controls. These results suggest that n-ZrO2 may adsorb efficiently to calcite and protect the surface from dissolution. The results of further tests performed on artificially aged and consolidated samples of Apuan marble indicate that the application of n-ZrO2 only moderately affects water vapor permeability, water absorption coefficient, and drying behaviour. Therefore, no harmful effects are expected from the treatment. Micromechanical tests showed slightly increased mechanical strength after treatment. The obtained results highlight the effectiveness of n-ZrO2 as a surface consolidant and protective agent for calcite.
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    Method for determining the contact and bulk resistance of aluminum alloys in the initial state for resistance spot welding
    (2025) Fezer, Andreas; Weihe, Stefan; Werz, Martin
    In resistance spot welding (RSW), the total electrical resistance (dynamic resistance) as the sum of bulk and contact resistance is a key variable. Both of these respective resistances influence the welding result, but the exact ratio to the total resistance of a real existing sheet is not known. Due to the high scatter in the RSW of aluminum alloys compared to steel, it is of interest to be able to explicitly determine the individual resistance components in order to gain a better understanding of the relationship between the initial state and the lower reproducibility of aluminum welding in the future. So far, only the total resistance and the bulk resistance could be determined experimentally. Due to the different sample shapes, it was not possible to consistently determine the contact resistance from the measurements. In order to realize this, a method was developed that contains the following innovations with the aid of simulation: determination of the absolute bulk resistance at room temperature (RT), determination of the absolute contact resistance at RT and determination of the ratio of bulk and contact resistance. This method makes it possible to compare the resistances of the bulk material and the surface in the initial state quantitatively. This now allows the comparison of batches regarding the surface resistance, especially for welding processes. For the aluminum sheets (EN AW-5182-O, EN AW-6014-T4) investigated, the method showed that the contact resistance dominates and the bulk resistance is less than 20%. These data can also be used to make predictions about the weldability of the alloy using artificial intelligence (AI). If experimental data are available, the method can also be applied to higher temperatures.