Any material inherently comes with its physical and chemical properties. The material scientists and allied engineers work on these properties in order to unearth newer findings. The change in the properties of a material through various process directly affects its characteristics and behaviour. Significant research on material science and metallurgical engineering have been done based on physical properties of the substance. Out of many physical characteristics of materials, this paper focuses on optical properties based on human visual perception. The particular research aims at an interdisciplinary approach to investigate how visual perception plays an important role in design and analysis of materials. Two particular cases have been analysed for this purpose, one in the domain of micro structure analysis and the other relating to the external physical visual characteristics of a material. Through this analysis a generic process framework is evolved which could be applied in material research as a theoretical discourse. Additionally an expert opinion survey reinforces the establishment of the evolved process framework. It would help scientists and engineers adapt and relate to a process so far as designing of new materials or comparative assessment of materials are concerned based on human visual perception.

Nihonium, Nh, is one of the newly synthesized elements. It has a high atomic number of 113, putting it in the same group as thallium, Tl. The properties of this element are largely unknown, and it is of interest to assess its (hypothetical) properties in the solid state. Elements in the same group of the periodic table as Nh are known to form binary and even tertiary compounds that have important semiconductor properties. This also makes studies on Nh attractive. We performed an ab initio computational study of its electronic structure adopting the local density and generalized gradient approximations for the exchange-correlation potential. The energy band diagrams, the total energies per volume of unit cells and density of states of Nh were compared to the known experimental and theoretical properties of elemental Tl , which lies in the same column above Nh in the periodic table. Within the limits of density-functional theory, it was found that solid Nh is expected to be a metal that is most stable in a hexagonal close packing structure.

Iron aluminide intermetallic alloys are of great importance in many industries due to their excellent oxidation resistance, low cost, low density, resistance to corrosion and good ductility at room temperature. However, these alloys suffer limited room temperature ductility above 873 K. In this paper, a molecular dynamics-based LAMMPS-EAM was used to model Fe50-XMXAl doped systems with either Ag, Pt or Pd. The lattice side preferences of the dopant were deduced from their energy landscape, and Fe sub-lattices showed promising properties. It was found that the addition of Ag, Pt and Pd enhances the stability of Fe50-XMXAl composition. More importantly, Ag and Pd doped systems gave comparable transition temperatures to experimental findings of 1273 K and 1073 K, respectively. Their thermodynamic and the mechanical stability trends showed promising properties for industrial applications, displaying stability at a high temperature below 1300 K.

Mild steel offers a variety of properties for various applications at lower costs giving the alloy a large application base in industry. However, the increasing complexity and severity of service environments has shifted the focus of many industries to structure modification techniques, like heat treatment, to improve material properties and performance. The focus of this paper was to therefore investigate the effect of heat treatment induced hardness on the sliding wear behaviour of mild steel. The results showed that resistance to dry sliding wear increased with increasing hardness of the mild steel samples. Both abrasive and adhesive wear mechanisms were observed to occur on the samples, however abrasive wear was predominant.

A hollow γ-TNB turbine blade was 3D printed in this studying using the –R Optomec LENS machine from the elemental powders of aluminium, niobium and titanium making use of the laser “in situ” alloying approaching. The printed blade was characterised of a nearly lamellar β microstructure in the As-built state. The microstructure of the blade post heat treated was characterised of grain growth and coarsening and the formation of the γ phase which was of the result of the transformation of β. This transformation was also observed in the As-built state and is reported here for the first time. A massive crack that was observed half-way through in the built was attributed to the thermal shocks that are experienced by the almost immediately after manufacturing. The EDS and Map taken on the As-built and heat treated samples conclude that there was no segregation in the alloying element during manufacturing and that the blade was of the dual phase. Hardness results indicated the heat treated sample was 91 HV0.5 lower in hardness when compared to the As-built component. The successful print of this hollow blade indicate that γ-TNB and other Ti-Al alloys can be printed with the LENS but if a crack free sample was to be achieved the set-up had to be manipulated or addition resources must be added to adapt the set-up. Meanwhile the successes of this study show that LENS is going to be considered as a cost-effective manufacturing tool in the future for 3D printing Ti-Al and other metallic structure that would have improved properties when compared to traditional manufacturing technique such as casting and the powder bed systems.

Control and manipulation of residual stresses in thin films is a key for attaining coatings with high mechanical and tribological performance. It is therefore imperative to have reliable residual stress measurements methods to further understand the dynamics involved. The sin2ψ method of X-ray diffraction was used to investigate the residual stresses on the tungsten carbide cobalt thin films deposited on a mild steel surface to understand the how the deposition parameters influence the generation of residual stresses within the substrate surface. X-ray spectra of the surface revealed an amorphous phase of the thin film therefore the stress measured was of the substrate surface and the effects of sputtering parameters on residual stress were analysed. Compressive stresses were identified within all samples studied. The results reveal that as the sputtering parameters are varied, the residual stresses also change. Optimum deposition parameters in terms of residual stresses were suggested.

The effect of the combined chemical treatment of sisal fibres through the subsequent processes of mercerisation (alkali-treatment), then silane treatment and eventually acid hydrolysis, on sisal fibre were investigated. The effect of the treated fibres on the tensile strength and stiffness, flexural strength and stiffness, compression strength and shear strength of their composites with epoxy resin were also studied. Scanning electron microscopy studies of the surfaces of the treated and untreated fibres showed that the chemical treatment processes enhanced the removal of surface extractives and therefore increased the roughness of the surfaces of the fibres in the range of 20 % - 70 %. This avails an increased reinforcement surface area for interlocking with matrix and is, therefore, expected to enhance adhesion of the two. The treated fibre reinforced composites were observed to have higher values of tensile strength and stiffness, flexural strength and stiffness, compression strength and shear strength than the un-treated fibre reinforced composites. These higher values were attributed to better interfacial bonding due to better mechanical interlocking between the treated fibres and epoxy resin arising from the increased roughness of the treated fibres.

Laser surface treatment is widely used as an engineering technique due to its special characteristics and several advantages over other surface modification techniques. In the present study, elemental mechanically pre-alloyed powder consisting of Niobium, Titanium and Nickel was deposited onto a grade 5 Titanium alloy substrates to form a high wear resistance coating. This was such that the surface mechanical properties of the base metal can be improved. The fabricated samples were characterised using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), micro hardness tester and wear machine. The deposited coatings were well bonded and consisted of various phases. Hardness was seen decrease with increase in Nb content while wear resistance increasing with increase in niobium content.

The direct laser-deposited Inconel 718 (IN718) specimens were produced using 1073 nm, high power continuous wave (CW), IPG Ytterbium fibre laser and in-situ heat treatment. The laser power and in-situ heat treatment temperature were fixed while varying the laser scanning speed from 0.83 to 2.50 cm/s. The microstructure and micro-hardness of the IN718 specimens were characterized using an optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS or EDX) and Vickers system. The microstructure of the specimens consists of γ-matrix as the primary phase, Nb-rich particles, constitutional liquation cave, liquation cracking and ductility-dip cracks. It was found that the micro-hardness profile of the IN718 specimens was gradually increased with the increase of the distance from the surface.