Masayuki Okugawa

According to Hunt’s columnar-to-equiaxed transition (CET) criterion, which is generally accepted, a high-temperature gradient (G) in the solidification front is preferable to a low G for forming columnar grains. Here, we report the opposite tendency found in the solidification microstructure of stainless steels partially melted by scanning electron beam for powder bed fusion (PBF)-type additive manufacturing. Equiaxed grains were observed more frequently in the region of high G rather than in th

The high strength of Al-Si hypoeutectic alloys additively manufactured by powder-bed fusion is of great scientific interest. To date, the mechanism of grain refinement near the fusion line, which contradicts conventional Hunt’s columnar–equiaxed transition criteria, remains to be elucidated. Here we present the first report on the mechanism of grain refinement. When a laser was irradiated on cast Al-Si alloy consisting of coarse α-Al grain and α-Al/Si eutectic regions, grain refinement occurred

This paper addresses system identification and vibration control of a cantilever fabricated from piezoelectric materials, PZT, and shows how system identification and state estimation can be used to achieve self-maintenance of a self-sensing system. Currently, self-sensing systems that have concurrent actuation and sensing can be made by using a bridge circuit. However, hardware tuning is still needed due to the unstable nature of an imbalanced bridge circuit. This problem becomes serious in the

Solute segregation significantly affects material properties and is a critical issue in the laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM) of Ni-based superalloys. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a computational thermal-fluid dynamics (CtFD) simulation coupled multi-phase-field (MPF) simulation with a multicomponent-composition model of Ni-based superalloy to predict solute segregation under solidification conditions in LPBF. The MPF simulation of

Solute segregation significantly affects material properties and is an essential issue in the additive manufacturing (AM) process. In the present study, we have investigated (i) non-equilibrium segregation in solidification, and (ii) equilibrium segregation at grain boundary in Ni-based Hastelloy-X (HX) superalloy using the modified Scheil-Gulliver model (i.e., Scheil-Gulliver model with back diffusion) and a phase-field model. We have found that the concentrations of all solute elements on grai

We investigated the effect of low-flux electron irradiation with 125 keV to sputter-deposited amorphous germanium on the amorphous structure and electron-induced crystallization microstructure by TEM following our previous study on the effect of aging at room temperature. In samples aged for 3 days, coarse, spherical particles about 100 nm in diameter appear dominantly. By low-flux pre-irradiation to the samples, a reduction in the size and number of coarse particles, embedded in the matrix with

The structure of amorphous Ge (a-Ge) films prepared by sputter-deposition and the effects of aging at ambient temperature and pressure were studied by pair-distribution-function (PDF) analysis from electron scattering and molecular dynamics simulations. The PDFs of the as-deposited and aged samples for 3–13 months showed that the major peaks for Ge-Ge bonds decrease in intensity and broaden with aging for up to 7 months. In the PDFs of a-Ge of molecular dynamics simulation obtained by quenching

For aging social infrastructure, robot technology is effective for the inspection and maintenance. Such capabilities are similar to those required in the disaster response robots. The application of response robot technology to frequently-used maintenance robots for infrastructure accelerate the social implementation of the response robots. In the paper, the concept and outlines of Japan Virtual Robotics Challenge (JVRC) task development have been introduced, in which ordinal inspection tasks an

Following our previous studies on crystallization induced by electron irradiation, we have investigated the crystallization of sputter-deposited amorphous germanium films by heat treatments. On continuous heating, samples aged for 3 days and 4 months at room temperature crystallized at 500°C to form coarse spherical particles of a hexagonal structure, of about 100 nm in diameter, whereas samples aged for 7 months turned to homogeneous nanograins of the diamond cubic structure at 600°C. When the

Al alloy parts fabricated by powder bed fusion (PBF) have attracted much attention because of the degrees of freedom in both shapes and mechanical properties. We previously reported that the Si regions in Al-Si alloy that remain after the rapid remelting process in PBF act as intrinsic heterogeneous nucleation sites during the subsequent resolidification. This suggests that the Si particles are crucial for a novel grain refinement strategy. To provide guidelines for grain refinement, the effects

The crystallization behavior of sputter-deposited films of amorphous Si (a-Si) and SiGe alloys (a-SiGe) induced by electron irradiation at room temperature and by thermal annealing was investigated by in situ transmission electron microscopy. On electron irradiation at room temperature, extremely rapid crystallization, so-called explosive crystallization, occurred at a higher electron flux but not at a lower electron flux. On in situ thermal annealing, explosive crystallization occurred preferen

Abstract In amorphous germanium (a-Ge) and amorphous silicon films, extremely rapid crystallization, called explosive crystallization, is known to occur by instantaneous processes such as mechanical stimulation, laser irradiation, and electron irradiation. In the present study, using transmission electron microscopy, we have investigated crystallization of a-Ge induced by electron irradiation and flash-lamp annealing (FLA). We have found that the mode of crystallization depends on the amorphous

In order to avoid the formation of defects in additive manufacturing (AM) by powder bed fusion (PBF) process, it is crucial to understand the relationship between the quality of powder bed and a powder spreading process. In this study, the influences of conditions of powder raking process on the densities and homogeneity of powder bed have been examined by computer simulation using Discrete Element Method (DEM) and experiment of powder bed formation using a blade-type spreader for Ti–6Al–4V powd