15,952 research outputs found
Enhancing ductility and strength of nanostructured Mg alloy by in-situ powder casting during spark plasma sintering
Due to internal processing defects, bulk nanostructured Mg alloys have high strength but extremely poor ductility. A novel and facile process was designed and in-situ powder casting was initiated during spark plasma sintering. This process significantly reduced processing induced defects, enhanced inter-particle bonding and introduced significant precipitation without extra ageing treatment, leading to improvement of the compressive strength and ductility. The compressive strain of bulk sample consisting of pure cryomilled powder was 3.6% with an ultimate strength of 500 MPa, while cryomilled powder mixed with eutectic Mg-Zn alloy powder obtained a compressive strain of 6.6% and ultimate strength of 506 MPa. The ductility of the sample with mixed powder was increased by 83% without any sacrifice of strength compared to the sample consisting of only pure cryomilled powder
Thermal Stability of Cryomilled Mg Alloy Powder
In this paper, the thermal stability of cryomilled nanocrystalline (NC) AZ31 powder was evaluated by annealing at elevated temperature ranging from 350 to 450 °C. The results show the NC AZ31 powder exhibited excellent thermal stability during short anneals at 350–450 °C, and the mechanisms were investigated in detail. There were two separate growth stages with a transition point at around 400 °C. More specifically, between 350 and 400 °C, NC Mg grains were stable at approximately 32 nm, even after 1 h annealing. At 450 °C, the nano grains grew to 37 nm in the first 5 min and grew quickly to approximately 60 nm after 15 min. However, the grain growth was limited when the annealing time was increased to 60 min. The average grain size remained stable less than approximately 60 nm even after long anneals at temperatures as high as 450 °C (0.78 T/TM), indicating an outstanding degree of grain size stability. This excellent thermal stability can be mainly attributed to solute drag and Zener pinning
Examining the thermal stability of an Al-Mg-Sc alloy processed by High-Pressure Torsion
An Al-3%Mg-0.2%Sc alloy was solution treated and subjected to 10 turns of high-pressure torsion (HPT). Thereafter, the HPT-processed material was annealed for 1 hour at temperatures ranging from 423 to 773 K and its mechanical properties and microstructural evolution were examined using microhardness measurements and EBSD analysis. The results demonstrate that the Al-Mg-Sc alloy exhibits an average microhardness of ~190 Hv and an average grain size of ~140 nm immediately after HPT processing and also after further annealing at 423 K. Conversely, it is shown that annealing at temperatures above 473 K leads to a substantial decrease in the hardness values as well as a sharp increase in the grain size of the material previously processed by HPT. In addition, detailed EBSD analysis revealed the formation of a bi-modal distribution of grains after annealing at temperatures from 623 to 773 K, and this becomes more uniform with increasing temperatures
Study on the Mg-Li-Zn ternary alloy system with improved mechanical properties, good degradation performance and different responses to cells
Novel Mg-(3.5, 6.5wt%)Li-(0.5, 2, 4wt%)Zn ternary alloys were developed as new kinds of biodegradable metallic materials with potential for stent application. Their mechanical properties, degradation behavior, cytocompatibility and hemocompatibility were studied. These potential biomaterials showed higher ultimate tensile strength than previously reported binary Mg-Li alloys and ternary Mg-Li-X (X=Al, Y, Ce, Sc, Mn and Ag) alloys. Among the alloys studied, the Mg-3.5Li-2Zn and Mg-6.5Li-2Zn alloys exhibited comparable corrosion resistance in Hank's solution to pure magnesium and better corrosion resistance in a cell culture medium than pure magnesium. Corrosion products observed on the corroded surface were composed of Mg(OH)2, MgCO3 and Ca-free Mg/P inorganics and Ca/P inorganics. In vitro cytotoxicity assay revealed different behaviors of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) and Human Aorta Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells (VSMCs) to material extracts. HUVECs showed increasing nitric oxide (NO) release and tolerable toxicity, whereas VSMCs exhibited limited decreasing viability with time. Platelet adhesion, hemolysis and coagulation tests of these Mg-Li-Zn alloys showed different degrees of activation behavior, in which the hemolysis of the Mg-3.5Li-2Zn alloy was lower than 5%. These results indicated the potential of the Mg-Li-Zn alloys as good candidate materials for cardiovascular stent applications. Statement of significance: Mg-Li alloys are promising as absorbable metallic biomaterials, which however have not received significant attention since the low strength, controversial corrosion performance and the doubts in Li toxicity. The Mg-Li-Zn alloy in the present study revealed much improved mechanical properties higher than most reported binary Mg-Li and ternary Mg-Li-X alloys, with superior corrosion resistance in cell culture media. Surprisingly, the addition of Li and Zn showed increased nitric oxide release. The present study indicates good potential of Mg-Li-Zn alloy as absorbable cardiovascular stent material.Accepted Author ManuscriptBiomaterials & Tissue Biomechanic
Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP) : randomized trial to assess the effects of lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol among 9,438 patients with chronic kidney disease
BACKGROUND: Lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol with statin therapy has been shown to reduce the incidence of atherosclerotic events in many types of patient, but it remains uncertain whether it is of net benefit among people with chronic kidney disease (CKD).METHODS: Patients with advanced CKD (blood creatinine ≥ 1.7 mg/dL [≥ 150 μmol/L] in men or ≥ 1.5 mg/dL [ ≥ 130 μmol/L] in women) with no known history of myocardial infarction or coronary revascularization were randomized in a ratio of 4:4:1 to ezetimibe 10 mg plus simvastatin 20 mg daily versus matching placebo versus simvastatin 20 mg daily (with the latter arm rerandomized at 1 year to ezetimibe 10 mg plus simvastatin 20 mg daily vs placebo). The key outcome will be major atherosclerotic events, defined as the combination of myocardial infarction, coronary death, ischemic stroke, or any revascularization procedure.RESULTS: A total of 9,438 CKD patients were randomized, of whom 3,056 were on dialysis. Mean age was 61 years, two thirds were male, one fifth had diabetes mellitus, and one sixth had vascular disease. Compared with either placebo or simvastatin alone, allocation to ezetimibe plus simvastatin was not associated with any excess of myopathy, hepatic toxicity, or biliary complications during the first year of follow-up. Compared with placebo, allocation to ezetimibe 10 mg plus simvastatin 20 mg daily yielded average LDL cholesterol differences of 43 mg/dL (1.10 mmol/L) at 1 year and 33 mg/dL (0.85 mmol/L) at 2.5 years. Follow-up is scheduled to continue until August 2010, when all patients will have been followed for at least 4 years.CONCLUSIONS: SHARP should provide evidence about the efficacy and safety of lowering LDL cholesterol with the combination of ezetimibe and simvastatin among a wide range of patients with CKD.</p
“Mg” Bone: Ink extrusion-based additive manufacturing of Mg implants
The treatment of largy bone defect remains challenging in clinics. All the clinically available bone grafts have their own limitations and are not ideal for the treatment. Therefore, developing a new generation of suitable bone substitutes is urgently needed. In the recent years, porous magnesium (Mg) has been extensively studied for orthopedic applications owing to its biodegradability, favorable mechanical properties, and osteopromotive ability. The recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) provide unprecedented opportunities to design and fabricate porous Mg scaffolds with interconnected porous structures that are favorable for the adhesion and proliferation of bone cells. However, powder bed fusion AM, which is the most commonly used AM technique for fabricating metal structures, has encountered many difficulties in manufacturing Mg due to safety concerns, excessive oxidation, and undesirable compositional variation due to the low boiling temperature of Mg. To alleviate these difficulties, alternative AM techniques that can create highly porous structures at room temperature are highly sought after. The aim of this research was to develop a room-temperature AM technique for manufacturing porous Mg and to characterize the fabricated Mg-based scaffolds in different aspects relevant to their potential applications as bone implants.In this thesis work, we, for the first time, successfully employed extrusion-based 3D printing techniques to fabricate biodegradable porous Mg and Mg-based scaffolds for application in orthopedics. We started with the optimization of the formulated binder system, the printing process, and the subsequent liquid-phase sintering process for the AM of Mg and Mg-based scaffolds. On this basis, a series of Mg and Mg-based porous scaffolds, including Mg alloy and Mg matrix composite scaffolds were successfully fabricated. Then, we conducted comprehensive studies on the microstructure, geometrical characteristics, in vitro biodegradation behavior, mechanical properties, and the in vitro biodegradation and the responses of preosteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells to the fabricated scaffolds to evaluate the ability of the fabricated scaffolds to satisfy the requirements of ideal bone-substituting biomaterials. By modifying the alloy composition and adding bioceramic components, the properties of the Mg scaffolds required were significantly improved as compared to those of the pure Mg specimens. The fabricated Mg-matrix composite scaffolds were shown to be the most promising materials to be further developed for bone substitution. Surface modification could also contribute to bringing the fabricated Mg scaffolds closer to meeting the requirements. Therefore, with proper material design and surface modification, the Mg-based scaffolds fabricated using extrusion-based 3D printing technique constitute a new category of porous Mg-based biomaterials that hold great promise for application as bone substitutes
Extrusion-based additive manufacturing of Mg-Zn alloy scaffolds
Porous biodegradable Mg and its alloys are considered to have a great potential to serve as ideal bone substitutes. The recent progress in additive manufacturing (AM) has prompted its application to fabricate Mg scaffolds with geometrically ordered porous structures. Extrusion-based AM, followed by debinding and sintering, has been recently demonstrated as a powerful approach to fabricating such Mg scaffolds, which can avoid some crucial problems encountered when applying powder bed fusion AM techniques. However, such pure Mg scaffolds exhibit a too high rate of in vitro biodegradation. In the present research, alloying through a pre-alloyed Mg-Zn powder was ultilized to enhance the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of AM geometrically ordered Mg-Zn scaffolds simultaneously. The in vitro biodegradation behavior, mechanical properties, and electrochemical response of the fabricated Mg-Zn scaffolds were evaluated. Moreover, the response of preosteoblasts to these scaffolds was systematically evaluated and compared with their response to pure Mg scaffolds. The Mg-Zn scaffolds with a porosity of 50.3% and strut density of 93.1% were composed of the Mg matrix and MgZn2 second phase particles. The in vitro biodegradation rate of the Mg-Zn scaffolds decreased by 81% at day 1, as compared to pure Mg scaffolds. Over 28 days of static immersion in modified simulated body fluid, the corrosion rate of the Mg-Zn scaffolds decreased from 2.3 ± 0.9 mm/y to 0.7 ± 0.1 mm/y. The yield strength and Young's modulus of the Mg-Zn scaffolds were about 3 times as high as those of pure Mg scaffolds and remained within the range of those of trabecular bone throughout the biodegradation tests. Indirect culture of MC3T3-E1 preosteoblasts in Mg-Zn extracts indicated favorable cytocompatibility. In direct cell culture, some cells could spread and form filopodia on the surface of the Mg-Zn scaffolds. Overall, this study demonstrates the great potential of the extrusion-based AM Mg-Zn scaffolds to be further developed as biodegradable bone-substituting biomaterials.Biomaterials & Tissue BiomechanicsTeam Peyman TaheriTeam Arjan Mo
Ca-modified Al–Mg–Sc alloy with high strength at elevated temperatures due to a hierarchical microstructure
Al-Mg alloys are normally prone to lose part of their yield and tensile strength at high temperatures due to insufficient thermal stability of the microstructure. Here, we present a Ca-modified Al–Mg–Sc alloy demonstrating high strength at elevated temperatures. The microstructure contains Al4Ca phases distributed as a network along the grain boundary and Al3(Sc,Zr) nano-particles dispersed within the grains. The microstructure evolution and age-hardening analysis indicate that the combination of an Al4Ca network and Sc-rich nano-particles leads to excellent thermal stability even upon aging at 300 °C. The tensile strength of the alloy for temperatures up to 250 °C is significantly improved by an aging treatment and is comparable with the commercial heat-resistant aluminum alloys, i.e., A356 and A319. At a high temperature of 300 °C, the tensile strength is superior to the above-mentioned commercial alloys, even more so when expressed as the specific strength due to the low density of Ca-modified Al–Mg–Sc alloy. The excellent high-temperature strength results from a synergistic effect of solid solution strengthening, grain boundary strengthening and nanoparticle order strengthening.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Novel Aerospace Material
Influence of surface pretreatment on phosphate conversion coating on AZ91 Mg alloy
Surface pretreatment is generally applied before application of protective coatings on Mg alloys, which influences surface microstructure and electrochemical activity of the substrate and has an effect on the coating properties. The effect of various pretreatment processes (sand-blasting, grinding and polishing) on the microstructure and corrosion protection performance of phosphate conversion coating (PCC) on AZ91D Mg alloy was investigated in the present study. Sand-blasting cleaning significantly increases the surface roughness and electrochemical activity of the substrate, leading to formation of a porous PCC with inferior corrosion protection performance. In the case of ground/polished Mg alloy, the uniformity and corrosion resistance of the resultant conversion coating are mainly related to the surface roughness. Relatively low surface roughness of the substrate facilitates formation of a corrosion protective PCC.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.(OLD) MSE-
A comparative study on the machinability of Mg-based composites: Cemented carbide and cubic boron nitride tools performance
Machining of metal matrix composites (MMC) is a challenging process as they are difficult to cut and cutting tools get worn out in a short time. In this paper, the performance of two industrial carbide grades and a cubic boron nitride (CBN) tool are assessed when machining of AZ91/SiC composites. Mg-based composites with different volume fractions and particle sizes are machined at various cutting conditions to evaluate the tools wear resistance and finished surface. The surface of the worn-out tools and machined samples are analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and roughness tester. Results revealed that the tool wear increased for composites reinforced by smaller particles regardless of the tool type. Additionally, tool grade TH1000 resulted in longer tool life when machining of Mg-based composites compared to the CP500 grade so that at a cutting speed of 70 m/min and feed rate of 0.1 mm/rev, tool life improved nearly 250%. CBN tools showed the best performance when machining of Mg-based composites as tools became worn out after 255 s which is considerable compared to carbide tools. Also, the finished surface caused by cemented carbide CP500 indicated the worst quality.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Ship and Offshore Structure
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