Mechanics of Materials Commons^™

Microstructure And Mechanical Properties Of Nanofiller Reinforced Tantalum-Niobium Carbide Formed By Spark Plasma Sintering, Christopher Charles Rudolf

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ultra high temperature ceramics (UHTC) are candidate materials for high temperature applications such as leading edges for hypersonic flight vehicles, thermal protection systems for spacecraft, and rocket nozzle throat inserts due to their extremely high melting points. Tantalum and Niobium Carbide (TaC and NbC), with melting points of 3950°C and 3600°C, respectively, have high resistivity to chemical attack, making them ideal candidates for the harsh environments UHTCs are to be used in. The major setbacks to the implementation of UHTC materials for these applications are the difficulty in consolidating to full density as well as their low fracture toughness. In …

Finite Element Analysis Of The Contact Deformation Of Piezoelectric Materials, Ming Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Piezoelectric materials in the forms of both bulk and thin-film have been widely used as actuators and sensors due to their electromechanical coupling. The characterization of piezoelectric materials plays an important role in determining device performance and reliability. Instrumented indentation is a promising method for probing mechanical as well as electrical properties of piezoelectric materials.

The use of instrumented indentation to characterize the properties of piezoelectric materials requires analytical relations. Finite element methods are used to analyze the indentation of piezoelectric materials under different mechanical and electrical boundary conditions.

For indentation of a piezoelectric half space, a three-dimensional finite element …