Matthias Militzer

Bio: Matthias Militzer is an academic researcher from University of British Columbia. The author has contributed to research in topics: Austenite & Recrystallization (metallurgy). The author has an hindex of 32, co-authored 129 publications receiving 3566 citations.

Precipitation behavior and its effect on strengthening of an HSLA-Nb/ti steel

Abstract: The precipitation behavior of a commercial high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel microalloyed with 0.086 wt pct Nb and 0.047 wt pct Ti has been investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and mechanical testing. The emphasis of this study is to compare an industrially hot-rolled steel and samples from a laboratory hot torsion machine simulation. From TEM observations, the Ti and Nb containing precipitates could be grouped according to their size and shape. The precipitates in order of size were found to be cubic TiN particles with sizes in the range of 1 µm, grain boundary precipitates with diameters of approximately 10 nm, and very fine spherical or needle-shaped precipitates with sizes on the order of 1 nm. The needlelike precipitates were found on dislocations in ferrite and constituted the dominant population in terms of density. Thus, they appear to be responsible for the precipitation strengthening observed in this steel. Aging tests were carried out at 650°C to evaluate the precipitate strengthening kinetics in detail. The strengthening mechanisms can be described with a nonlinear superposition of dislocation and precipitation hardening. The mechanical properties of torsion-simulated material and as-coiled industrial material are similar; however, there are some microstructural differences that can be attributed to the somewhat different processing routes in the laboratory as compared to hot strip rolling.

Austenite formation during intercritical annealing

Abstract: A systematic experimental study has been conducted on ferrite recrystallization and intercritical austenite formation for two low-carbon steels with chemical compositions typically used for dual-phase and transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steels. Different initial heating rates, holding temperatures, and times were applied to the materials to examine the ferrite recrystallization and austenite formation kinetics. An Avrami model was developed to describe the isothermal ferrite recrystallization behavior and was applied successfully to the nonisothermal conditions. It was found that the initial heating rate affects the isothermal austenite formation kinetics for both the hot-rolled and cold-rolled materials albeit the effect is more pronounced for the cold-rolled material. This can be attributed to the interaction between the ferrite recrystallization and austenite formation processes. Furthermore, it was found that the distribution of austenite phase is also affected by the ferrite recrystallization process. When ferrite recrystallization is completed before the austenite formation (i.e., under sufficiently slow heating rate conditions), austenite is to a large extent randomly distributed in the ferrite matrix. On the other hand, incomplete recrystallization of ferrite due to higher heating rates leads to the formation of banded austenite grains. It is proposed that this observation is characteristic of simultaneous recrystallization and austenite formation where moving ferrite grain boundaries do not provide suitable sites for austenite nucleation.

Precipitation Kinetics and Strengthening of a Fe-0.8wt%Cu Alloy

Abstract: Precipitation kinetics and strengthening have been investigated for a Fe-0.8wt%Cu alloy. Microstructure evolution during aging at 500°C has been studied by a combination of Transmission Electron Microscopy and Small-Angle X-ray Scattering to provide information on the nature and location of the precipitates as well as a quantitative estimate of their size and volume fraction. The associated mechanical properties have been studied by hardness and tensile tests. The precipitation kinetics measured in this study are fully compatible with results reported for alloys with higher Cu levels. Nucleation of Cu precipitates is promoted by the presence of dislocations whereas coarsening rates in the later stages of aging appear to be not affected by fast diffusion paths along dislocations The strength of individual precipitates increases with precipitate size based on the analysis of the mechanical test results. However, the strength of the largest precipitates observed remains approximately half of the strength required for the Orowan by-passing mechanism. The Russell-Brown model for modulus strengthening has successfully been applied to the current data. Study of the plastic behavior shows that the maximum initial hardening rate is related to the highest strength of the material. This unusual result may be explained by a dynamic strained-induced phase transformation of the precipitates from the bcc to the 9R structure. Consequently, the hardening potential of Fe-Cu alloys is associated with good plastic properties close to peak strength thereby indicating the excellent potential of copper as hardening element for the development of novel high strength interstitial free IF steels.

Microstructural model for hot strip rolling of high-strength low-alloy steels

Abstract: The microstructural evolution during hot-strip rolling has been investigated in four commercial high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels and compared to that of a plain, low-carbon steel. The recrystallization rates decrease as the Nb microalloying content increases, leading to an increased potential to accumulate retained strain during the final rolling passes. The final microstructure and properties of the hot band primarily depend on the austenite decomposition and precipitation during run-out table cooling and coiling. A combined transformation-ferrite-grain-size model, which was developed for plain, low-carbon steels, can be applied to HSLA steels with some minor modifications. The effect of rolling under no-recrystallization conditions (controlled rolling) on the transformation kinetics and ferrite grain refinement has been evaluated for the Nb-containing steels. Precipitation of carbides, nitrides, and/or carbonitrides takes place primarily during coiling, and particle coarsening controls the associated strengthening effect. The microstructural model has been verified by comparison to structures produced in industrial coil samples.

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

Fast parallel algorithms for short-range molecular dynamics

Abstract: Three parallel algorithms for classical molecular dynamics are presented. The first assigns each processor a fixed subset of atoms; the second assigns each a fixed subset of inter-atomic forces to compute; the third assigns each a fixed spatial region. The algorithms are suitable for molecular dynamics models which can be difficult to parallelize efficiently—those with short-range forces where the neighbors of each atom change rapidly. They can be implemented on any distributed-memory parallel machine which allows for message-passing of data between independently executing processors. The algorithms are tested on a standard Lennard-Jones benchmark problem for system sizes ranging from 500 to 100,000,000 atoms on several parallel supercomputers--the nCUBE 2, Intel iPSC/860 and Paragon, and Cray T3D. Comparing the results to the fastest reported vectorized Cray Y-MP and C90 algorithm shows that the current generation of parallel machines is competitive with conventional vector supercomputers even for small problems. For large problems, the spatial algorithm achieves parallel efficiencies of 90% and a 1840-node Intel Paragon performs up to 165 faster than a single Cray C9O processor. Trade-offs between the three algorithms and guidelines for adapting them to more complex molecular dynamics simulations are also discussed.

Damascene copper electroplating for chip interconnections

Abstract: Damascene copper electroplating for on-chip interconnections, a process that we conceived and developed in the early 1990s, makes it possible to fill submicron trenches and vias with copper without creating a void or a seam and has thus proven superior to other technologies of copper deposition. We discuss here the relationship of additives in the plating bath to superfilling, the phenomenon that results in superconformal coverage, and we present a numerical model which accounts for the experimentally observed profile evolution of the plated metal.

Processing bulk natural wood into a high-performance structural material

Abstract: Synthetic structural materials with exceptional mechanical performance suffer from either large weight and adverse environmental impact (for example, steels and alloys) or complex manufacturing processes and thus high cost (for example, polymer-based and biomimetic composites) Natural wood is a low-cost and abundant material and has been used for millennia as a structural material for building and furniture construction However, the mechanical performance of natural wood (its strength and toughness) is unsatisfactory for many advanced engineering structures and applications Pre-treatment with steam, heat, ammonia or cold rolling followed by densification has led to the enhanced mechanical performance of natural wood However, the existing methods result in incomplete densification and lack dimensional stability, particularly in response to humid environments, and wood treated in these ways can expand and weaken Here we report a simple and effective strategy to transform bulk natural wood directly into a high-performance structural material with a more than tenfold increase in strength, toughness and ballistic resistance and with greater dimensional stability Our two-step process involves the partial removal of lignin and hemicellulose from the natural wood via a boiling process in an aqueous mixture of NaOH and Na2SO3 followed by hot-pressing, leading to the total collapse of cell walls and the complete densification of the natural wood with highly aligned cellulose nanofibres This strategy is shown to be universally effective for various species of wood Our processed wood has a specific strength higher than that of most structural metals and alloys, making it a low-cost, high-performance, lightweight alternative