Search NASA⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Harvey, Cayla Renee

Publications and source records attributed to Harvey, Cayla Renee.

Limitations of Thermal Stability Analysis via In-Situ TEM/Heating Experiments

This work highlights some limitations of thermal stability analysis via in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM)-annealing experiments on ultrafine and nanocrystalline materials. We provide two examples, one on nanocrystalline pure copper and one on nanocrystalline HT-9 steel, where in-situ TEM-annealing experiments are compared to bulk material annealing experiments. The in-situ TEM and bulk annealing experiments demonstrated different results on pure copper but similar output in the HT-9 steel. The work entails discussion of the results based on literature theoretical concepts, and expound on the inevitability of comparing in-situ TEM annealing experimental results to bulk annealing when used for material thermal stability assessment.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Shock-reshock of zirconium to explore the effect of microstructure on the alpha-omega phase transformation

Phase transformations play an important role in the mechanical behavior of materials subjected to extreme loading conditions. A series of shock-reshock experiments were fielded to determine whether the phase transitions in materials are significantly enhanced or inhibited by preexisting microstructural features. Polycrystalline zirconium samples were shock loaded using gas-gun plate impact and soft recovered to examine microstructure using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Drive conditions were varied to study the (hcp) alpha to (hexagonal) omega solidsolid phase transformation. Recovered samples were then subjected to a second shock loading event to determine the change in material behavior as a function of pre-shock microstructure. Crystallography of phase fragments in the final microstructure showed that prior twinning (formed during the shock to a peak stress below the transition threshold) appeared to suppress omega formation/retention after reshock. Conversely, when a material was initially shocked into the omega phase field, retained-omega was not found to have a large impact on subsequent omega formation during reshock. This suggests that nucleation and growth of omega phase are important processes, and the relative activity of nucleation vs. growth processes is modified by a pre-existing substructure. Additionally, orientation relationships reveal a reverse transformation pathway (omega to alpha) dominates the final microstructure, suggesting significant grain growth in the omega phase field is possible even for dynamic timescales.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Microstructural and micro-mechanical analysis of 14YWT nanostructured Ferritic alloy after varying thermo-mechanical processing paths into tubing

Microstructural analyses and micro-pillar compression were conducted on 14YWT nanostructured ferritic alloy (NFA) to compare different processing pathways: hydrostatic extrusion and Pilger processing with varying annealing temperatures into thin walled tubing, and after hot extrusion and cross-rolling into a plate. Hydrostatic extrusion at 815 °C resulted in the smallest grain sizes and highest yield strength of 1.20 GPa. Pilger processing with annealing at 800 °C had fine grained regions and bands of coarse grains, leading to a large variation in yield strength of 0.9–1.40 GPa. Higher annealing temperatures of 1200 °C after pilger processing significantly increased the grain size and lowered the yield strength to 1.01 GPa. These tubes showed a stronger (111) crystallographic texture in the normal direction and elongated grains in the extrusion direction. Characterization of the nano-oxides using TEM reveals more numerous, smaller oxides present in tubing processed at lower temperatures. Overall, this work shows NFA tubing after hydrostatic extrusion and pilger processing can lead to fine grained microstructures and texturing leading to higher yield strengths at lower annealing temperatures (e.g. 800 °C).

14YWT↗