This study aims to use beeswax, a readily available and cost-effective organic material, as a novel phase change material (PCM) within blends of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene (SEBS). LDPE and SEBS act as support materials to prevent beeswax leakage. The physicochemical properties of new blended phase change materials (B-PCM) were determined using an X-ray diffractometer and an infrared spectrometer, confirming the absence of a chemical reaction within the materials. A scanning electron microscope was used for microstructural analysis, indicating that the interconnection of the structure allowed better thermal conductivity. Thermal gravimetric analysis revealed enhanced thermal stability for the B-PCM when combined with SEBS, especially within its operating temperature range. Analysis of phase change temperature and latent heat with differential scanning calorimetry showed no major difference in the melting point of the various PCM blends created. During the melting/solidification process, the B-PCMs possess excellent performance as characterized by W70/P30 (112.45 J.g−1) > W70/P20/S10 (94.28 J.g−1) > W70/P10/S20 (96.21 J.g−1) of latent heat storage. Additionally, the blends tend to reduce supercooling compared to pure beeswax. During heating and cooling cycles, the B-PCM exhibited minimal leakage and degradation, especially in blends containing SEBS. In comparison to the rapid temperature drop observed during the cooling process of W70/P30, the temperature decline of W70/P30 was slower and longer, as demonstrated by infrared thermography. The addition of LDPE to the PCM reduced melting time, indicating an improvement in the thermal energy storage reaction time to the demand. According to the obtained findings, increasing the SEBS concentration in the composite increased the thermal stability of the resulting PCM blends significantly. Despite the challenges mentioned earlier, SEBS proved to be an effective encapsulating material for beeswax, whereas LDPE served well as a supporting material. Leak tests were performed to find the ideal mass ratio, and weight loss was analyzed after multiple cycles of cooling and heating at 70 °C. The morphology, thermal characteristics, and chemical composition of the beeswax/LDPE/SEBS composite were all examined. Beeswax proves to be a highly effective phase change material for storing thermal energy within LDPE/SEBS blends.

Deformation behaviour in the Nickel-base superalloy 625 has been studied by tensile testing at four temperatures: 295, 223, 173 and 77 K. The microstructure has been investigated using TEM, FIB-SEM, EBSD and ECCI techniques. Deformation in the alloy turns out to be a competitive course of events between at least two deformation mechanisms, namely dislocation slip and deformation twinning. Slip is the predominant deformation mechanism at higher temperatures. While at 77 K, deformation induced twinning gives an extra degree of freedom as one of the main deformation mechanisms, i.e., the material shows a twin induced plasticity, TWIP, behaviour. Ab initio calculations indicate that the influence of cryogenic/sub-zero temperatures on the stacking fault energy of this alloy can be limited and that the formation of deformation twins cannot be determined solely by the stacking fault energy. The results implies that it is the critical strain and strain hardening rate that influences the deformation twinning onset and twinning rate.

The demand for steel components with tailored properties is constantly growing. To obtain a specific variation of microstructures and mechanical properties along the component it must undergo a controllable cooling. One way to control the cooling rates along the component is by using different simultaneous water jet impingements on a hot austenitized surface. This can be done by a newly developed test rig for water Impinging Jet Quenching Technique (IJQT). This work discusses the effect of IJQT on mechanical properties and fracture behavior of 15 mm steel plates containing 0.27 and 0.38 mass-% carbon. The samples were cooled in a specifically designed setup of the technique to obtain simultaneous water and air cooling resulting in diverse microstructures. The mechanical property gradients of both steels were analyzed through hardness measurements and tensile tests. The fracture surfaces and the near fracture regions were observed using scanning electron microscope and light optical microscope respectively. The results from tensile tests showed that the larger part of the sample with higher carbon content was fully hardened, however smoothly transitioning to a more ductile region. The sample with lower carbon content combined various degrees of hardening and transitioned from higher to lower ultimate tensile strength values. Fracture behavior of higher carbon steel was predominantly brittle transitioning to a ductile, while the lower carbon steel had a small region showing brittle fracture transitioning to a larger region of predominant ductile fracture behavior.

Rising global energy consumption and the increase in emissions of greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2) causing global warming, make need for more sustainable power generation. This could be accomplished by increasing the efficiency of the biomass-fired power plants, which is achieved by increasing the temperature and pressure. In addition, flexible generation of power is critical if only renewable power generation is to be achieved and this will increase the number of start-and stop cycles. Cyclic condition in a long-term high temperature environment is an operation process that such materials must withstand, in order to satisfy the needs for future power generation.

Commonly austenitic stainless steel are used for critical components of power plants. Because of future change in operating conditions, further investigations are needed to verify that the demands on safety for cyclic long-term usage is fulfilled. This work includes investigation of two commercial austenitic steels: Esshete 1250 and Sanicro 25. The materials were exposed to thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) in strain control under In-Phase and Out-of-Phase conditions and main testing temperature ranges of 100-650°C and 100-800°C respectively. Some of the specimens were pre-aged to simulate prolonged service condition. Mechanical test data were obtained and analysed in order to define the TMF performance of the investigated alloys. The differences in performance were discussed in relation to mechanical and microstructural characterization.

This work investigates two austenitic stainless steels, Sanicro 25 which is a candidate for high temperature heavy section components of future power plants and Esshete 1250 which is used as a reference material. The alloys were subjected to out-of-phase (OP) thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) testing under strain-control in the temperature range of 100 ∘C to 650 ∘C. Both unaged and aged (650 ∘C, 3000 h) TMF specimens were tested to simulate service degradation resulting from long-term usage. The scanning electron microscopy methods electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to analyse and discuss active failure and deformation mechanisms. The Sanicro 25 results show that the aged specimens suffered increased plastic straining and shorter TMF-life compared to the unaged specimens. The difference in TMF-life of the two test conditions was attributed to an accelerated microstructural evolution that provided decreased the effectiveness for impeding dislocation motion. Ageing did not affect the OP-TMF life of the reference material, Esshete 1250. However, the structural stability and its resistance for cyclic deformation was greatly reduced due to coarsening and cracking of the strengthening niobium carbide precipitates. Sanicro 25 showed the higher structural stability during OP-TMF testing compare with the reference material.

A new accelerated creep assessment method to evaluate the creep performance of metals and alloys from high-temperature tensile tests, i.e. slow-strain-rate testing (SSRT), is proposed and evaluated. The method consists of decomposing the inelastic strain into a plastic and creep component by adopting general assumptions on the inelastic strain behaviour of materials, formulated using a state variable formalism and verified by tensile tests with intermediate dwell times at constant stress. Either, the plastic and creep strain components are considered non-interacting and additive, as observed in the stainless steel AISI 316L at 600 °C. Or, as in the case of the ductile cast iron EN-GJS-SiMo5-1 at 500 °C and the nickel-base superalloy Hastelloy X at 800 °C, the components are considered unified, meaning that the effect of inelastic straining is the same irrespective of whether it is caused through creep at constant stress or by plastic deformation due to an instantaneous stress increase. Based on these assumptions, the proposed method is used to assess the creep strain from SSRT in good agreement with conventional creep test results.

Microstructural evolution related to the mechanical response from isothermal dwell-fatigue testing at 700 °C of two austenitic steels, Esshete 1250 and Sanicro 25, is reported. Coherent Cu-precipitates and incoherent Nb-carbides were found to impede dislocation motion, increase hardening and improving the high temperature properties of Sanicro 25. Sparsely placed intergranular Cr- and Nb-carbides made Esshete 1250 susceptible to creep damage and intergranular crack propagation, mainly from interaction of the carbides and fatigue induced slip bands. Dynamic recrystallization of the plastic zone at the crack tip appeared to affect crack propagation of Sanicro 25 by providing an energetically privileged path.

This study investigates the anisotropic mechanical and microstructural behavior of the laser powder bed fusionLaser powder bed fusion (LPBF) manufactured Ni-based superalloy Hastelloy X (HX) by using slow strain rate (10⁻⁵ and 10⁻⁶s⁻¹) tensile testing (SSRT) at 700 °C. LPBF HX typically exhibits an elongated grain structure along the building direction (BD) and the texture analysis from the combination of neutron diffractionNeutron diffraction and EBSD discloses a major texture component <011> and a minor texture component <001> along BD, and a texture component <001> in the other two sample directions perpendicular to BD. Two types of tests have been performed, the horizontal tests where the loading direction (LD) is applied perpendicular to BD, and the vertical tests where LD is applied parallel to BD. The vertical tests exhibit lower strength but better ductility, which is explained by the texture effect and the elongated grain structure. A comparison of the mechanical behavior to the wrought HX shows that LPBF HX has better yield strength due to the high dislocation density as proved by TEM images. Creep voids are observed at grain boundaries in SSRT for both directions and are responsible for the poor ductility of the horizontal tests. The vertical ductility in SSRT maintains the same level as the reference tensile test at the strain rate of 10⁻³s⁻¹, due to the extra deformation capacity contributed by the discovered deformation twinningDeformation twinning and lattice rotation. The deformation twinningDeformation twinning, which is only observed in the vertical tests and has not been found in the conventionally manufactured HX, is beneficial to maintain the ductility but does not strengthen the material.