TY - JOUR A1 - Laquai, Rene A1 - Gouraud, Fanny A1 - Müller, Bernd Randolf A1 - Huger, Marc A1 - Chotard, Thierry A1 - Antou, Guy A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Evolution of Thermal Microcracking in Refractory ZrO2-SiO2 after Application of External Loads at High Temperatures JF - Materials N2 - Zirconia-based cast refractories are widely used for glass furnace applications. Since they have to withstand harsh chemical as well as thermo-mechanical environments, internal stresses and microcracking are often present in such materials under operating conditions (sometimes in excess of 1700 °C). We studied the evolution of thermal (CTE) and mechanical (Young’s modulus) properties as a function of temperature in a fused-cast refractory containing 94 wt.% of monoclinic ZrO2 and 6 wt.% of a silicate glassy phase. With the aid of X-ray refraction techniques (yielding the internal specific surface in materials), we also monitored the evolution of microcracking as a function of thermal cycles (crossing the martensitic phase transformation around 1000 °C) under externally applied stress. We found that external compressive stress leads to a strong decrease of the internal surface per unit volume, but a tensile load has a similar (though not so strong) effect. In agreement with existing literature on β-eucryptite microcracked ceramics, we could explain these phenomena by microcrack closure in the load direction in the compression case, and by microcrack propagation (rather than microcrack nucleation) under tensile conditions. KW - electro-fused zirconia KW - microcracking KW - synchrotron x-ray refraction radiography (SXRR) KW - thermal expansion Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12071017 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 12 IS - 7 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Buljak, Vladimir A1 - Oesch, Tyler A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Simulating Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Mechanical Performance Using CT-Based Fiber Orientation Data JF - Materials N2 - The main hindrance to realistic models of fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) is the local materials property variation, which does not yet reliably allow simulations at the structural level. The idea presented in this paper makes use of an existing constitutive model, but resolves the problem of localized material variation through X-ray computed tomography (CT)-based pre-processing. First, a three-point bending test of a notched beam is considered, where pre-test fiber orientations are measured using CT. A numerical model is then built with the zone subjected to progressive damage, modeled using an orthotropic damage model. To each of the finite elements within this zone, a local coordinate system is assigned, with its longitudinal direction defined by local fiber orientations. Second, the parameters of the constitutive damage model are determined through inverse analysis using load-displacement data obtained from the test. These parameters are considered to clearly explain the material behavior for any arbitrary external action and fiber orientation, for the same geometrical properties and volumetric ratio of fibers. Third, the effectiveness of the resulting model is demonstrated using a second, control experiment. The results of the control experiment analyzed in this research compare well with the model results. The ultimate strength was predicted with an error of about 6%, while the work-of-load was predicted within 4%. It demonstrates the potential of this method for accurately predicting the mechanical performance of FRC components. KW - Fiber-reinforced concrete KW - X-ray computed tomography (CT) KW - anisotropic fiber orientation KW - inverse analysis Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12050717 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 12 IS - 5 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nadammal, Naresh A1 - Cabeza, Sandra A1 - Mishurova, Tatiana A1 - Thiede, Tobias A1 - Kromm, Arne A1 - Seyfert, Christoph A1 - Farahbod, Lena A1 - Haberland, Christoph A1 - Schneider, Judith Ann A1 - Portella, Pedro Dolabella A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Effect of hatch length on the development of microstructure, texture and residual stresses in selective laser melted superalloy Inconel 718 JF - Materials & Design N2 - In the present study, samples fabricated by varying the deposition hatch length during selective laser melting of nickel based superalloy Inconel 718 were investigated. Microstructure and texture of these samples was characterized using scanning electron microscopy, combined with electron back-scattered diffraction, and residual stress assessment, using neutron diffraction method. Textured columnar grains oriented along the sample building direction were observed in the shorter hatch length processed sample. A ten-fold increase in the hatch length reduced the texture intensity by a factor of two attributed to the formation of finer grains in the longer hatch length sample. Larger gradients of transverse residual stress in the longer hatch length sample were also observed. Along the build direction, compressive stresses in the shorter hatch length and negligible stresses for the longer hatch length specimen were observed. Changes to the temperature gradient (G) in response to the hatch length variation, influenced the G to growth rate (R) ratio and the product GxR, in agreement with the microstructures and textures formed. For the residual stress development, geometry of the part also played an important role. In summary, tailored isotropy could be induced in Inconel 718 by a careful selection of parameters during selective laser melting. KW - Additive manufacturing KW - Nickel-based superalloy KW - Microstructure and texture KW - Residual stress KW - Electron back-scattered diffraction KW - Neutron diffraction Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2017.08.049 SN - 0264-1275 SN - 1873-4197 VL - 134 SP - 139 EP - 150 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mishurova, Tatiana A1 - Artzt, Katia A1 - Haubrich, Jan A1 - Requena, Guillermo A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Exploring the correlation between subsurface residual stresses and manufacturing parameters in laser powder bed fused Ti-6Al-4V JF - Metals N2 - Subsurface residual stresses (RS) were investigated in Ti-6Al-4V cuboid samples by means of X-ray synchrotron diffraction. The samples were manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) applying different processing parameters, not commonly considered in open literature, in order to assess their influence on RS state. While investigating the effect of process parameters used for the calculation of volumetric energy density (such as laser velocity, laser power and hatch distance), we observed that an increase of energy density led to a decrease of RS, although not to the same extent for every parameter variation. Additionally, the effect of support structure, sample roughness and LPBF machine effects potentially coming from Ar flow were studied. We observed no influence of support structure on subsurface RS while the orientation with respect to Ar flow showed to have an impact on RS. We conclude recommending monitoring such parameters to improve part reliability and reproducibility. KW - residual stress KW - synchrotron X-ray diffraction KW - additive manufacturing KW - Ti-6Al-4V Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/met9020261 SN - 2075-4701 VL - 9 IS - 2 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mishurova, Tatiana A1 - Sydow, Benjamin A1 - Thiede, Tobias A1 - Sizova, Irina A1 - Ulbricht, Alexander A1 - Bambach, Markus A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Residual stress and microstructure of a Ti-6Al-4V Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing hybrid demonstrator JF - Metals N2 - Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) features high deposition rates and, thus, allows production of large components that are relevant for aerospace applications. However, a lot of aerospace parts are currently produced by forging or machining alone to ensure fast production and to obtain good mechanical properties; the use of these conventional process routes causes high tooling and material costs. A hybrid approach (a combination of forging and WAAM) allows making production more efficient. In this fashion, further structural or functional features can be built in any direction without using additional tools for every part. By using a combination of forging basic geometries with one tool set and adding the functional features by means of WAAM, the tool costs and material waste can be reduced compared to either completely forged or machined parts. One of the factors influencing the structural integrity of additively manufactured parts are (high) residual stresses, generated during the build process. In this study, the triaxial residual stress profiles in a hybrid WAAM part are reported, as determined by neutron diffraction. The analysis is complemented by microstructural investigations, showing a gradient of microstructure (shape and size of grains) along the part height. The highest residual stresses were found in the transition zone (between WAAM and forged part). The total stress range showed to be lower than expected for WAAM components. This could be explained by the thermal history of the component. KW - residual stress KW - WAAM KW - Ti-6Al-4V KW - additive manufacturing KW - neutron KW - diffraction KW - hybrid manufacturing Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/met10060701 SN - 2075-4701 VL - 10 IS - 6 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oesch, Tyler A1 - Weise, Frank A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Detection and quantification of cracking in concrete aggregate through virtual data fusion of X-ray computed tomography images JF - Materials N2 - In this work, which is part of a larger research program, a framework called "virtual data fusion" was developed to provide an automated and consistent crack detection method that allows for the cross-comparison of results from large quantities of X-ray computed tomography (CT) data. A partial implementation of this method in a custom program was developed for use in research focused on crack quantification in alkali-silica reaction (ASR)-sensitive concrete aggregates. During the CT image processing, a series of image analyses tailored for detecting specific, individual crack-like characteristics were completed. The results of these analyses were then "fused" in order to identify crack-like objects within the images with much higher accuracy than that yielded by any individual image analysis procedure. The results of this strategy demonstrated the success of the program in effectively identifying crack-like structures and quantifying characteristics, such as surface area and volume. The results demonstrated that the source of aggregate has a very significant impact on the amount of internal cracking, even when the mineralogical characteristics remain very similar. River gravels, for instance, were found to contain significantly higher levels of internal cracking than quarried stone aggregates of the same mineralogical type. KW - X-ray computed tomography (CT) KW - concrete KW - alkali-silica reaction (ASR) KW - ASR-sensitive aggregate KW - solubility test KW - specific surface area KW - crack KW - detection KW - automated image processing KW - damage quantification Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13183921 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 13 IS - 18 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Léonard, Fabien A1 - Zhang, Zhen A1 - Krebs, Holger A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Structural and morphological quantitative 3D characterisation of ammonium nitrate prills by X-ray computed tomography JF - Materials N2 - The mixture of ammonium nitrate (AN) prills and fuel oil (FO), usually referred to as ANFO, is extensively used in the mining industry as a bulk explosive. One of the major performance predictors of ANFO mixtures is the fuel oil retention, which is itself governed by the complex pore structure of the AN prills. In this study, we present how X-ray computed tomography (XCT), and the associated advanced data processing workflow, can be used to fully characterise the structure and morphology of AN prills. We show that structural parameters such as volume fraction of the different phases and morphological parameters such as specific surface area and shape factor can be reliably extracted from the XCT data, and that there is a good agreement with the measured oil retention values. Importantly, oil retention measurements (qualifying the efficiency of ANFO as explosives) correlate well with the specific surface area determined by XCT. XCT can therefore be employed non-destructively; it can accurately evaluate and characterise porosity in ammonium nitrate prills, and even predict their efficiency. KW - ANFO KW - explosives KW - specific surface area KW - porosity KW - XCT KW - data processing Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13051230 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 13 IS - 5 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Magkos, Sotirios A1 - Kupsch, Andreas A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Suppression of cone-beam artefacts with Direct Iterative Reconstruction Computed Tomography Trajectories (DIRECTT) JF - Journal of imaging : open access journal N2 - The reconstruction of cone-beam computed tomography data using filtered back-projection algorithms unavoidably results in severe artefacts. We describe how the Direct Iterative Reconstruction of Computed Tomography Trajectories (DIRECTT) algorithm can be combined with a model of the artefacts for the reconstruction of such data. The implementation of DIRECTT results in reconstructed volumes of superior quality compared to the conventional algorithms. KW - iteration method KW - signal processing KW - X-ray imaging KW - computed tomography Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging7080147 SN - 2313-433X VL - 7 IS - 8 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oster, Simon A1 - Fritsch, Tobias A1 - Ulbricht, Alexander A1 - Mohr, Gunther A1 - Bruno, Giovanni A1 - Maierhofer, Christiane A1 - Altenburg, Simon T1 - On the registration of thermographic in situ monitoring data and computed tomography reference data in the scope of defect prediction in laser powder bed fusion JF - Metals : open access journal N2 - The detection of internal irregularities is crucial for quality assessment in metal-based additive manufacturing (AM) technologies such as laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). The utilization of in-process thermography as an in situ monitoring tool in combination with post-process X-ray micro computed tomography (XCT) as a reference technique has shown great potential for this aim. Due to the small irregularity dimensions, a precise registration of the datasets is necessary as a requirement for correlation. In this study, the registration of thermography and XCT reference datasets of a cylindric specimen containing keyhole pores is carried out for the development of a porosity prediction model. The considered datasets show variations in shape, data type and dimensionality, especially due to shrinkage and material elevation effects present in the manufactured part. Since the resulting deformations are challenging for registration, a novel preprocessing methodology is introduced that involves an adaptive volume adjustment algorithm which is based on the porosity distribution in the specimen. Thus, the implementation of a simple three-dimensional image-to-image registration is enabled. The results demonstrate the influence of the part deformation on the resulting porosity location and the importance of registration in terms of irregularity prediction. KW - selective laser melting (SLM) KW - laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) KW - additive KW - manufacturing (AM) KW - process monitoring KW - infrared thermography KW - X-ray KW - micro computed tomography (XCT) KW - defect detection KW - image registration Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/met12060947 SN - 2075-4701 VL - 12 IS - 6 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ulbricht, Alexander A1 - Mohr, Gunther A1 - Altenburg, Simon J. A1 - Oster, Simon A1 - Maierhofer, Christiane A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Can potential defects in LPBF be healed from the laser exposure of subsequent layers? BT - A quantitative study JF - Metals : open access journal N2 - Additive manufacturing (AM) of metals and in particular laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) enables a degree of freedom in design unparalleled by conventional subtractive methods. To ensure that the designed precision is matched by the produced LPBF parts, a full understanding of the interaction between the laser and the feedstock powder is needed. It has been shown that the laser also melts subjacent layers of material underneath. This effect plays a key role when designing small cavities or overhanging structures, because, in these cases, the material underneath is feed-stock powder. In this study, we quantify the extension of the melt pool during laser illumination of powder layers and the defect spatial distribution in a cylindrical specimen. During the LPBF process, several layers were intentionally not exposed to the laser beam at various locations, while the build process was monitored by thermography and optical tomography. The cylinder was finally scanned by X-ray computed tomography (XCT). To correlate the positions of the unmolten layers in the part, a staircase was manufactured around the cylinder for easier registration. The results show that healing among layers occurs if a scan strategy is applied, where the orientation of the hatches is changed for each subsequent layer. They also show that small pores and surface roughness of solidified material below a thick layer of unmolten material (>200 mu m) serve as seeding points for larger voids. The orientation of the first two layers fully exposed after a thick layer of unmolten powder shapes the orientation of these voids, created by a lack of fusion. KW - selective laser melting (SLM) KW - additive manufacturing (AM) KW - process KW - monitoring KW - infrared thermography KW - optical tomography KW - X-ray computed KW - tomography (XCT) KW - healing KW - in situ monitoring Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/met11071012 SN - 2075-4701 VL - 11 IS - 7 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -