Zhongde Shan

Frozen sand molds are the key material in digital frozen sand mold green casting technology, and their mechanical properties directly affect casting quality. Currently, these molds are primarily prepared by mechanical stirring, mixing, and compaction, which tend to cause imbalanced moisture adsorption and localized wet–dry differences, ultimately impairing the performance and quality of the castings. In this study, an ultrasonic vibration-assisted platform was established to prepare chromite sand frozen sand molds. By introducing ultrasonic vibration into the preparation process, a superior “sand grain–ice crystal” microstructure was constructed, leading to significantly enhanced mechanical properties. The tensile and compressive strengths were increased by approximately 10%, and the optimal process window for achieving the best mechanical performance of chromite sand was obtained.

Sand mold milling plays a critical role in digital mold-free casting, but it is prone to damage such as corner collapse, collapse, and cracks during the machining process. To address this issue, ultrasonic vibration was used for sand mold milling in this study. By incorporating the solid–liquid transition model for sand mold cutting and considering the deformation characteristics of the shear zone, a prediction model for ultrasonic milling forces in sand mold was developed and experimentally validated. The results demonstrate that increasing the spindle speed and decreasing the feed rate lead to a decrease in cutting force. At high speeds, there is a 15% error between the dynamic milling force model and experimental values. Compared with conventional processing methods, ultrasonic processing reduces cutting force by 19.5% at a frequency of 25.8 kHz and amplitude of 2.97 μm, minimizes defects like sand particle detachment pits on the surface of sand mold, significantly improves surface quality, and enables precise, stable, high-precision, and efficient sand mold processing.

As a candidate material for turbine blades in aerospace engines, Nb-Si-based alloys have attracted significant research attention due to their high melting point and low density. However, their poor high-temperature oxidation resistance limits practical applications. Different alloying elements, including Ti, Mo, and Hf, were added to Nb-Si-based alloys to study the microstructural evolution of alloys. Additionally, the oxidation behavior and the oxidation kinetics of different alloys, as well as the morphology and microstructure of oxide scale and interior alloys at 1523 K from 1 h to 20 h were analyzed systematically. The current findings indicated that the Mo element is more conducive to promoting the formation of high-temperature precipitates of β-Nb₅Si₃ than the Ti and Hf elements. Inversely, the Ti element tends to cause the transition from high-temperature-phase β-Nb₅Si₃ to low-temperature-phase α-Nb₅Si₃, while the Hf element improves the appearance of the γ-Nb₅Si₃ phase but inhibits the other phases and refines the primary Nbss effectively. Noteworthily, compared with the oxidation weight gain of different alloys, Nb-16Si-20Ti-5Mo-3Hf-2Al-2Cr alloy has excellent high-temperature oxidation resistance, in which the oxidation products are TiNb₂O₇, Nb₂O₅, SiO₂, TiO₂, and HfO₂. It can be determined that in the oxidation process, the Ti element will preferentially form an oxide film of TiO₂, thereby wrapping around the matrix phases, protecting the matrix, and improving the antioxidant capacity, while the Hf element can form an infinite solid solution with the matrix and consume the small number of oxygen atoms entering the matrix, so as to achieve the effect of improving the oxidation resistance.

Thermal conductivity (TC) is one of the important thermal property evaluation parameters for high‐temperature‐resistant fiber‐reinforced composites. Herein, based on the flexible‐oriented three‐dimensional (3D) woven technology, fiber hybrid ceramic matrix composites (FH‐CMCs) with different hybrid modes are designed and fabricated by using carbon fiber and silicon carbide fiber. The representative volume element (RVE) models of fiber bundle and matrix with mesoscopic characteristics and the macroscopic RVE models with hybrid structure characteristics are established. The heat flux distribution and effective TCs of FH‐CMCs in the thickness and in‐plane directions at different temperatures are obtained by finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental tests. The results show that the FEA and experimental results of the TCs of different FH‐CMCs are in good agreement. In the range of 25–1000 °C, the effective TCs of FH‐CMC gradually decrease with the increase in temperature. The TCs in the thickness direction of different FH‐CMCs are directly proportional to the hybrid ratio, and the TCs in the in‐plane direction are inversely proportional to the hybrid ratio. The heat flux and temperature field distributions of the FH‐CMCs are mainly affected by the TCs of the components, fiber hybrid ratio, and orientation, and the distribution along different directions are obviously different. The research results are helpful to provide theoretical and experimental reference for the structural design and performance improvement of hybrid composites.

Fiber hybrid composites can give full play to the performance advantages of different component fibers, and hybrid weaving is one of the effective methods to improve the properties of composite materials. Herein, based on the flexible‐oriented 3D woven technology, fiber hybrid ceramic matrix composites (FHCMCs) with different hybrid ratios and fiber dispersions are designed and fabricated, and their quasistatic compression properties, failure modes, and hybrid effects are studied. The results show that the reasonable hybrid of carbon (C) fiber and silicon carbide (SiC) fiber can make up for the shortcoming of single‐fiber composites and improve the compression properties of FH‐CMCs. The compressive failure modes of the FH‐CMCs are mainly the crushing failure in the C fiber layers and shear failure of the specimen. For the compressive failure deformation, the positive hybrid effect gradually becomes obvious with the increase of fiber dispersion, but the compressive strength shows a negative hybrid effect as a whole. The improved rule of mixture by introducing different parameters has a better prediction effect for the compressive strength of the FH‐CMCs. The research results provide experimental and theoretical reference for the high‐performance manufacturing of hybrid composites in the future.

A metal-melting direct writing process, using semi-solid isothermal heat treatment to form high-quality semi-solid components, realized the integrated innovation of semi-solid formation and additive manufacturing. An experimental study was carried out on semi-solid isothermal heat treatment for metal-melting direct-writing technology, using 2A12 aluminum alloy as raw material. The semi-solid isothermal heat treatment was carried out over different temperature ranges, and four-stages evolution mechanism of the semi-solid microstructure in the semi-solid melting direct writing process was investigated. The effects of holding temperature and time on the microstructure of the semi-solid isothermal heat treatment of the alloy were put forward. According to the analysis of the results of the semi-solid-melting direct-writing test, the corresponding relationship between semi-solid microstructure and extrusion formability was found. The results show that when the holding temperature is 640–650 °C and the holding time is 20–25 min, the liquid phase rate can reach about 40%, and the direct-writing forming technology can be carried out stably.