Friction stir welding is a recently developed technique for joining low-melting metals and polymers. In the present work, friction stir welded joints of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) sheets were produced using a newly designed tool with a concave shoulder and a grooved conical pin. The joints were produced with and without the additions of ceramic particulates including silicon carbide (SiC), alumina, graphite, and silica. The effect of strain rate on the tensile properties of base material and plain welded joints was examined. In addition to tensile properties of composite joints, hardness profiles across the weld nugget were analyzed. It was observed that the increasing strain rate improved both the tensile strength and the ductility of the plain welded joints. The tool was able to yield a joint efficiency of around 84% in the plain welded samples. Although, in terms of joint efficiency, the composite joints were less efficient than the plain welded HDPE, SiC additions were found to yield better material properties relative to other reinforcements. Finally, it was concluded that an SiC–HDPE composite joint can be of practical importance in high strain rate applications, provided the optimum tool design and stir welding parameters are available.

In dry turning operation, various parameters influence the cutting force and contribute in machining precision. Generally, the numerical cutting models are adopted to establish the optimum cutting parameters and results are substantiated with the experimental findings. In this paper, the optimal turning parameters of AA2024-T351 alloy are determined through Abaqus/Explicit numerical cutting simulations by employing the Johnson-Cook thermo-viscoplastic-damage material model. Turning simulations were verified with published experimental data. Considering the constrained and nonlinear optimization problem, the artificial neural networks (ANN) were executed for training, testing, and performance evaluation of the numerical simulations data. Two feedforward backpropagation neural networks were developed with ten hidden neutrons in each hidden layer. The Log-Sigmoid transfer function and the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm were applied in the model. The ANN models were studied with four input parameters: the cutting speed (200, 400, and 800 m/min), tool rake angle (5°, 10°, 14.8°, and 17.5°), cutting feed (0.3 and 0.4 mm), and the contact friction coefficients (0.1 and 0.15).The two target parameters include the tool-chip interface temperature and the cutting reaction force. The performance of the trained data was evaluated using root-mean-square error and correlation coefficients. The ANN predicted values were compared both with the Abaqus simulations and the published experimental findings. All of the results are found in good approximation to each other. The performance of the ANN models demonstrated the fidelity of solving and predicting the optimum process parameters.

This investigation aims at synthesizing and characterizing a biocomposite of hydroxyapatite (HA) and titanium (Ti) as a functionally graded material (FGM) via an economical powder metallurgy route. Ti particles were produced through drilling and chipping, followed by compaction and sintering. Ti foams, so obtained, were then infused with varying volume fractions of HA. The pure Ti foam control sample and the FGM composite samples were then subjected to various characterizations to validate their biocompatibility, structural strength, and integrity. The interface development between the load-bearing Ti implant and living tissue was resolved through an FGM structure, where the base of the implant consisted of load-bearing Ti and the outer periphery changed to HA gradually. HA/Ti specimens of different volume fractions were tested for density measurements, microstructure, hardness, and bioactivity. The bioactive behavior was investigated using the potentiodynamic polarization technique to measure the corrosion rate of the pure Ti foam (0/100 HA/Ti) and the FGM composite (10/90 HA/Ti) samples in a simulated body fluid (SBF). The results showed that the hardness of FGM composites, despite being less than that of 0/100 HA/Ti, was still within safe limits. The corrosion rate, however, was found to be decreased by a significant value of almost 40% for the 10/90 HA/Ti FGM composite sample compared to the pure Ti foam control sample. It was concluded that the optimum composition 10/90 HA/Ti sample offers improved corrosion resistance while maintaining a sufficient allowable hardness level.