S. Sankaran

Bio: S. Sankaran is an academic researcher from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The author has contributed to research in topics: Microalloyed steel & Microstructure. The author has an hindex of 19, co-authored 69 publications receiving 898 citations. Previous affiliations of S. Sankaran include University of Münster & University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Influence of Secondary Cyclic Hardening on the Low Cycle Fatigue Behavior of Nitrogen Alloyed 316LN Stainless Steel

Abstract: In this article, the occurrence of secondary cyclic hardening (SCH) and its effect on high-temperature cyclic deformation and fatigue life of 316LN Stainless steel are presented. SCH is found to result from planar slip mode of deformation and enhance the degree of hardening over and above that resulted from dynamic strain aging. The occurrence of SCH is strongly governed by the applied strain amplitude, test temperature, and the nitrogen content in the 316LN SS. Under certain test conditions, SCH is noticed to decrease the low cycle fatigue life with the increasing nitrogen content.

Static and dynamic fracture toughness of a medium carbon microalloyed steel of three different microstructures

Abstract: A multiphase ferrite-bainite-martensite (F-B-M) microstructure was developed in an automotive grade V-bearing medium carbon microalloyed steel, 38MnSiVS5. It was characterized using optical, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy. The tensile, Charpy impact, and static and dynamic fracture toughness behaviors were evaluated. The results are compared with those of ferrite-pearlite (F-P) and tempered martensite (T-M) microstructures of the same steel. Although the tensile properties of the multiphase microstructures were superior, the Charpy impact and static and dynamic fracture toughness properties were inferior compared with those of the other two microstructures. The F-P condition displayed the highest plane strain fracture toughness value (KIC), while the T-M condition was characterized by the highest dynamic fracture toughness (conditional) value (KIDQ). The Charpy impact energy of the T-M condition was greater than that for the other two conditions. An examination of the surfaces of fractured samples revealed predominant ductile crack growth in the F-P microstructure and a mixed mode (ductile and brittle) crack growth in the T-M and the F-B-M microstructures. Although the Charpy impact energy, plane fracture toughness (KIC), and conditional dynamic fracture toughness (KIDQ) of the multiphase microstructure were inferior to those of the T-M and the F-P microstructures, the toughness properties were comparable to those of medium carbon low alloy steels having bainite-martensite (AISI 4340) or tempered martensite microstructures.

Effect of cutting parameters on cutting force and surface roughness during machining microalloyed steel: Comparison between ferrite–pearlite, tempered martensite and ferrite–bainite–martensite microstructures

Abstract: Three different microstructures, namely ferrite–pearlite, tempered martensite and ferrite–bainite–martensite of 38MnSiVS5 microalloyed steel, were produced using controlled thermomechanical process...

Electric Erosion Induced Microstructure and Mechanical Properties in Spark Plasma Sintered Al-4.5 wt. % Cu Alloy

Abstract: The Al-4.5 wt.% Cu powder was compacted by spark plasma sintering at three compaction pressures namely 30, 40, and 50 MPa maintaining temperature constant at 500°C. Porosity seems to be closed in all the 3 cases. Relative density of S-50 is decreased due to increase in electrical erosion holes. Transmission electron microscopy studies reveal the presence of dislocations in all the compacts and shear bands observed only in the compact sintered at 50 MPa. A power law creep mechanism involving dislocations is found to be observed in all the compacts sintered at all pressures, which is evident from the TEM micrographs as well. The dissolution of Al2Cu precipitates in the aluminum matrix, and the increase in electric erosion holes were noticed with increase in pressure from 30 to 50 MPa. The decrease in the volume fraction of Al2Cu phase and the increase in the formation of electric erosion holes resulted in reduced hardness and compression strengths of the compacts.

Strain controlled fatigue deformation and fracture of nitrogen alloyed 316LN austenitic stainless steel

Abstract: In this paper, Low cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior of 316LN austenitic stainless steel alloyed with 0.078 and 0.22 wt% nitrogen, designated as N078 and N022 steels respectively, is compared in the temperature range 300–873 K by strain controlled fatigue tests at ± 0.6% strain amplitude. Interestingly, N022 steel showed continuous decrease in fatigue life with temperature in contrast to N078 steel which showed maximum in fatigue life at 573 K. Drastic reduction in fatigue life is observed in both the steels in the temperature range 673–873 K and has been attributed to the occurrence of dynamic strain aging. Both steels exhibited manifestations (for ex.: decrease in plastic strain and anomalous stress response with increase in temperature) corresponding to the occurrence of Dynamic Strain Ageing (DSA) in the above temperature range. Under all testing conditions, fracture surfaces revealed transgranular crack initiation and transgranular crack propagation.

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.

An Overview of Dual-Phase Steels: Advances in Microstructure-Oriented Processing and Micromechanically Guided Design

Abstract: Dual-phase (DP) steel is the flagship of advanced high-strength steels, which were the first among various candidate alloy systems to find application in weight-reduced automotive components. On the one hand, this is a metallurgical success story: Lean alloying and simple thermomechanical treatment enable use of less material to accomplish more performance while complying with demanding environmental and economic constraints. On the other hand, the enormous literature on DP steels demonstrates the immense complexity of microstructure physics in multiphase alloys: Roughly 50 years after the first reports on ferrite-martensite steels, there are still various open scientific questions. Fortunately, the last decades witnessed enormous advances in the development of enabling experimental and simulation techniques, significantly improving the understanding of DP steels. This review provides a detailed account of these improvements, focusing specifically on (a) microstructure evolution during processing, (b) exp...