This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Materials processing research is key to enable advancing and new technologies required to support the nation's needs for infrastructure and energy development. In response to these needs, the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) has assembled research teams that are well qualified to pursue the necessary materials processing research in diverse areas including ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, materials for new energy developments including advanced fossil-fuel and nuclear power generation systems, development of advanced biological materials, development of fuel cell materials, and development of advanced recycling technologies which will be required for all future materials applications. Common to all of these research areas is the need for experimental capabilities which simulate, on small-scale laboratory samples, new materials processing technologies, provide fundamental property information on new materials, and provide critical data necessary to validate predictions based on computational simulations. To enable this diverse group of research areas, this project will acquire a Gleeble 3500 thermomechanical processing simulator, a fully integrated digital, closed loop control, thermal and mechanical testing system that can be programmed to simultaneously control the time dependence of temperature and a selected mechanical parameter such as load, displacement, strain, or stress. To provide the necessary flexibility, the system employs a direct resistance heating system to heat specimens at rates up to 10,000 °C/s, and a cooling system that can achieve controlled cooling rates in excess of 10,000 °C/s. The system will also be equipped with a hot torsion system for simulation of high strain hot deformation operations (e.g. rolling and forging) and a special fixture for solidification studies. The presence of the unit in Golden, Colorado which is centrally located in a growing technology community along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, will provide a resource to local industries, national laboratories, and universities and provide significant opportunities, through organized programs at the University, to enhance outreach opportunities for high school students, including those from underrepresented minority groups.
Layman Summary: This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Materials processing research is key to enable advancing and new technologies required to support the nation's needs for infrastructure and energy development, both of which are required for the development of new manufacturing industries and an economy based on energy independence. In response to these needs, the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) has assembled diverse research teams that are well qualified to pursue the necessary research. Materials processing research at CSM includes development of new steels for light weight, fuel efficient automobiles, new materials for advanced fossil-fuel and nuclear power generation systems, advanced biological materials for enhanced implants, fuel cell materials for clean energy systems, and advanced recycling technologies required for all future materials applications. Common to all of these research areas is the need for experimental capabilities which simulate, on small-scale laboratory samples, new materials processing technologies, provide fundamental property information on new materials, provide critical data necessary to validate predictions based on computational simulations, and provide guidelines to economically scale laboratory developments to full scale commercial production. To enable this diverse group of research areas, this project will acquire a Gleeble 3500 thermomechanical processing simulator, a unique research instrument equipped to control processing temperature over a wide range of heating and cooling rates and with attachments to enable tension, compression, and torsional loading of samples and to simulate casting and solidification operations. The presence of the unit in Golden, Colorado which is centrally located in a growing technology community along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, will provide a resource to local industries, national laboratories, and universities and provide significant opportunities, through organized programs at the University, to enhance outreach opportunities for high school students, including those from underrepresented minority groups.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE A Gleeble 3500 specialized thermal and mechanical testing system was installed in the George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). The testing system was built in the USA and is uniquely configured to provide the ability to utilize small samples to simulate complex thermal and mechanical histories experienced in commercial production operations including rolling, forging, and continuous casting. The servo-hydraulic test system is a fully integrated digital closed loop control thermal and mechanical testing system with easy-to-use Windows based computer software. Sample heating is achieved by passing a controlled current through the sample and heating rates in excess of 1000 C/s can easily be achieved. Rapid cooling is achieved by either gas jet or water cooling. One unique capability of the specific system at CSM is to be able to utilize torsion testing on samples with a diameter of 5 to 10 mm to simulate multiple reductions in a conventional hot rolling mill where sample dimensions are orders of magnitude greater than the small laboratory samples. As one example, a summer NSF REU student is shown preparing to insert a sample in the Gleeble 3500 (Fig. 1). Figure 2 illustrates a torsion sample in the test chamber with the special cooling system designed at CSM to enhance sample cooling with helium gas. Figure 3 shows a torsion sample in the process of being tested where the heated section and twisted region are evident. Measurements of torque versus angle of twist are analyzed to predict actual conditions anticipated in a production mill. Thus, with the system, new alloys and process histories can be economically and fundamentally studied without the need to utilize expensive full-scale production equipment. As a second example continuous casting operations are also simulated with cylindrical samples constrained in a quartz tube and Fig. 4 shows one example of a solidified zone. In this study the effects of systematic alloy variations on subsequent ability to cast and process new alloys are evaluated on laboratory samples. As an example of the application of the Gleeble-based research, results on new sheet steel processing histories, evaluated and optimized through simulation experiments on the Gleeble 3500, are now being incorporated into upgraded and new production lines capable of producing new advanced high steels critical for the production of affordable light-weight and fuel-efficient automobiles.
