Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Horstemeyer, Mark

Committee Member

German, Randall

Committee Member

Hammi, Youssef

Date of Degree

12-15-2007

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Mechanical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

To produce crack free powder compacts with desirable mechanical properties and uniform densities, a predictive finite element simulation of the powder metallurgy process is necessary (compaction and sintering). The finite element method, through the use of appropriate constitutive material models captures the microstructure-property history after compaction and sintering. A FC-0205 cylinder and FC-0208 automotive main bearing cap were compacted to investigate the microstructure changes at different locations within the parts. Measurements of the pore volume fraction, pore size, pore nearest neighbor, pore aspect ratio, and grain size were performed after compaction for the cylinder after compaction and after compaction and sintering for the MBC. An image analysis methodology was created to measure density in the main bearing cap, and to validate future model results. A comparison between the image analysis and the Archimedes immersion methods demonstrated the reliability of the methods.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17228

Comments

powder metallurgy||microstructure characterization||density measurements||low alloy steel

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