Academic literature on the topic 'Refractory materials – Thermomechanical properties'

A combination of low density and good heat resistance is desirable for many applications. Porosity is used to develop low density, and high porosity materials are frequently associated with low thermal conductivity. Materials that display this property, coupled with heat resistance, may be useful for thermal applications. Porous materials can exhibit several different structural types. In this work the structures that can be formed from fire resistant materials to reduce the density are considered as three different types. The first structure is represented by a recently-developed composite material, which was created by TWI, Abington, Cambridge, and has been given the trade name Barrikade™. This material combines granules of an expandable natural mineral, vermiculite, with a sodium silicate binder, to produce an inexpensive material with high porosity and heat resistance. The structure of this material is that of a coarse agglomerate of particles, with much of the porosity being incorporated in the interparticle spaces. Possible applications are wide ranging, including the core material in domestic or marine fire doors, and as a low cost lagging material for industrial furnaces. A second structural type that is that of a fibre mat. An array of fibres, bonded at points or held together solely by friction and surface forces of the fibres, may include high levels of porosity in the spaces between fibres. Materials with this structure are made from melt spun mineral fibres, and exhibit a high degree of heat resistance. The example of these materials studied herein is Rockwool®, often used for building insulation purposes. The third structural type considered here is often used where low density is required; a foam. Foamed structures can have many attractive properties, but the fire resistance of the foams considered here, closed cell aluminium foams, has been frequently predicted to be favourable, without being demonstrated in controlled tests. Where the material properties are not already known, the microstructure, mechanical performance, fire and temperature resistance, creep behaviour and thermal conduction and expansion characteristics of the materials have been determined. The aim of the work is the assessment and ranking of the materials’ suitability for different applications, and determination of the critical aspects for the design of such systems.

Abstract Layered composite materials consisting of thin orthotropic layers offer for a designer many possibilities to tailor the structure: the behaviour and properties of the structure can be influenced not only by varying the geometry and thicknesses of the structure but also by varying the lay-up of the laminate. As new orthotropic materials having high specific strength and stiffness are used in structures, the tailoring is essential to utilize all the benefits of these materials. In this thesis tailoring and optimization of thermomechanical properties of layered composite structures are considered. The tailoring problemis formulated and solved as a constrained nonlinear optimization problem. Different types of global thermomechanical properties, such as stiffnesses, coefficients of thermal expansion and natural frequencies and buckling loads of composite plates, as well as layer-wise properties, such as stresses and strains in a certain lamina, are considered. Also, coupled thermalstructural problems are studied. When lay-up parameters, i.e. number of layers, and their orientations and thicknesses, are employed as design variables, global as well as layer-wise properties of the laminate can be considered. As relations between thermomechanical properties and lay-up parameters are highly nonlinear, optimization may suffer from various local optima. However, in tailoring the global minima or maxima are not the points of interest but rather the points of design space, where appropriate values for considered properties are achieved. In the thesis optimization of global thermomechanical properties is presented also by applying so-called lamination parameters as design variables. The lamination parameters are defined as integrals of the functions, which consist of sines and cosines of the lay-up angles of different layers multiplied by the powers of the thickness co-ordinate z, through the thickness of the laminate. Thus, information of the lay-up of the laminate can be compressed into these parameters and only twelve lamination parameters are needed to describe the behaviour of a common laminate. The use of these parameters as design variables is advantageous, because the number of parameters needed is small and often formulating a convex optimization problem is possible. After finding optimal lamination parameters, a procedure is needed to generate a lay-up corresponding to these parameters. Explicit equations are derived for generating lay-ups having optimal bending lamination parameters. For creating a laminate having both optimal in-plane and bending lamination parameters, a new optimization problem searching laminates having lamination parameters as close as possible to the optimal ones is formulated. In that problem, also layer-wise properties and restrictions of manufacturing are taken into account. Agenetic algorithmsearch is employed for solving that later problem as the value of the objective function can be computed efficiently. Also, often the thicknesses and orientations of different layers can have only discrete values, which can be handled easily in the GA search, where all design variables are discrete in character.

Les réfractaires alumine-carbone sont largement utilisés dans la coulée continue de l'acier. Ils sont responsables du contrôle du flux d'acier et de sa protection contre l'oxydation. Cependant, pour améliorer leur propre résistance à l'oxydation, plusieurs additifs tels que des carbures, des métaux, des composés à bas point de fusion et des frittes de verre sont ajoutés en tant qu'antioxydants. Dans cette étude, l'influence de ces additifs, ainsi que des conditions de cuisson, sur les propriétés liées à la résistance aux chocs thermiques des matériaux réfractaires à matrice carbonée a été étudiée. Des matériaux modèles, ayant une composition simplifiée par rapport aux matériaux industriels, ont été étudiés pour faciliter la compréhension des interactions entre les différents constituants du composite. Le comportement des matériaux réticulés (avant cuisson) et cuits a été étudié. La première partie de l'étude a montré que les antioxydants peuvent modifier les propriétés du réfractaire par différents mécanismes : cristallisation de la liaison carbone (B4C), guérison des microfissures (borax et fritte de verre) et formation de nouvelles phases (Al-Si). Cependant, puisque les additifs métalliques sont les antioxydants les plus largement utilisés dans les produits de Vesuvius, la deuxième partie de l'étude a porté sur leur impact (Al-Si,Al-Mg et Al) sur les propriétés clés influençant la résistance aux chocs thermiques. En plus, l'impact des conditions de cuisson (température et atmosphère) a également été étudié. Il a été prouvé que tous les antioxydants métalliques réagissent avec d'autres constituants pour former de nouvelles phases qui à la fois rigidifient le réfractaire et augmentent sa valeur du coefficient de dilatation thermique. Malheureusement, un tel comportement entraîne une détérioration de la résistance aux chocs thermiques. De plus, il s'est avéré que l'atmosphère de cuisson a une influence négligeable sur la réactivité des additifs et donc sur les propriétés finales du réfractaire. Ainsi, la température de cuisson est le paramètre qui a l'impact le plus important sur l'évolution réfractaire. Tous les résultats obtenus facilitent le choix des antioxydants et des conditions de cuisson pour obtenir les propriétés souhaitées du réfractaire<br>Alumina-carbon refractories are widely used in the continuous casting of steel. They are responsible for the steel flow control and its protection against oxidation. However, to improve their own oxidation resistance, several additives such as carbides, metals, low melting point compounds and glass frits are added as antioxidants. In this study, the influence of these additives, as well as firing conditions, on the properties related to the thermal shock resistance of carbon-bonded refractories was studied. Model materials, having simplified composition compared to the real industrial ones, were investigated tofacilitate the comprehension of interactions between different constituents of the composite. Behavior of both cured (before firing) and fired materials was studied. The first part of the study proved that antioxidants may modify the properties of the refractory through different mechanisms: crystallization of the carbon bond (B4C), microcracks healing (anhydrous borax and glass frit) and formation of new phases (Al-Si). However, since the metallic additives are the most widely used antioxidants in Vesuvius' products, the second part of the study was focused on their (Al-Si, Al-Mg and Al) impact on the key properties influencing the thermal shock resistance. What is more, the impact of firing conditions (temperature and atmosphere) was also investigated. It was proved that all metallic antioxidants react with other constituents to form new phases which both rigidify the refractory and increase its value of the coefficient of thermal expansion. Unfortunately, such behavior results in worsening of the thermal shock resistance. Moreover, it turned out that the firing atmosphere has a negligible influence on the additives reactivity and thus the final properties of the refractory. Thus, firing temperature is the parameter that has the most important impact on the refractory evolution. All the obtained results facilitate the choice of antioxidants and firing condition to obtain desired properties of the refractory

In this thesis, the thermomechanical approach with internal variables has been thoroughly analyzed. This approach is based on the combination of thermodynamic principles and continuum mechanics. Therefore it reflects the physical essence of constitutive behavior of materials. Based on this approach, a one-dimensional constitutive model for the two-way shape memory effect and a one-dimensional constitutive model for piezoceramics have been developed, respectively. In modeling the two-way shape memory effect, a residual stress σ_re is introduced as a controlling parameter for the two-way shape memory effect. A further refinement of the transformation kinetics expression for two-way shape memory is derived. It is demonstrated that the material parameters required by this model can be calculated or measured using a standard materials testing apparatus. A numerical study is conducted and the effectiveness of this model is verified. In the constitutive modeling of piezoceramics, a new internal state variable is introduced to relate the macroscopic behavior of a piezoceramic with its micro-properties. A phenomenological formulation of polarization reversal is proposed, and then a fully-coupled thermo-electro-mechanical model is developed. It is shown that the theory developed can describe the electromechanical behavior of piezoceramics well.<br>Master of Science

A tetrazole is a 5-membered ring containing 4 nitrogens and 1 carbon. Due to its energetic potential and structural similarity to carboxylic acids, this ring system has a wide number of applications. In this thesis, a new and safe sustainable process to produce tetrazoles was designed that acheived high yields under mild conditions. Also, a technique was developed to form a trityl-protected tetrazole in situ. The rest of this work involved the exploitation of the energetic potential of tetrazoles. This moiety was successfully applied in polymers, ionic liquids, foams, and gels. The overall results from these experiments illustrate the fact that tetrazoles have the potential to serve as a stable alternative to the troublesome azido group common in many energetic materials. Due to these applications, the tetrazole moiety is a very important entity.