Russian and Saudi Arabian Researchers Studying the Quality of New Materials
Studying Materials of the Future
Moving towards Industry 4.0 will help improve the efficiency of manufacturing thanks to the implementation of "smart" equipment. In moving to smart industry, new, modern materials will play an important role. Their characteristics have not yet been studied fully, although significant progress has been achieved in this field. As an example we may mention the joint project on the study of super-strong and super-light materials by SUSU and King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.
"In March 2019, our research group published an article in the journal Materials Science and Engineering: A, which is in the Scopus scientometric database (Q1). The article was dedicated to the study of the speed of tensile strain on high-temperature deformation and the destruction of rolled composite Al-15 vol% B4C, obtained through injection moulding. We have calculated the dependence of stress on the strain rate and the activation energy, and our assumption is that the deformation is conditioned by the efficient stress."
This aluminium-based material is very promising for the aviation industry, since it is light and super strong. But for real use in industry, we must know all of its physicomechanical characteristics. The article by SUSU researchers and their colleagues from Saudi Arabia presents their studies on the strength characteristics of this composite material in high temperatures. The obtained results have been published as reference materials and will allow industrial and aviation designers to use this material in the future.
Artificial Intelligence for Metal Processing
The partnership between SUSU and the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia began in 2016.
"Professor Adel Taha Abbas from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia is studying new, promising materials. In his laboratory, he was able to complete experiments for lathing and milling. However, he had the task of processing the obtained experimental data with modern methods, using the technologies of artificial intelligence, data mining, and machine learning. So, he got in touch with us in 2016," explains the project head, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Automated Manufacturing Engineering of the SUSU Institute of Engineering and Technology Danil Pimenov.
The researcher needed to combine engineering knowledge with the technology of data mining. It was important to integrate these methods for certain tasks on experimental data processing. In addition, he needed to master the methods of optimization by taking a full range of parameters into account (multi-parameter optimization):
"It is important for industrial engineers who work on CNC machines to obtain specific regimes for processing metals: feed and cutting speed, depth, etc. The goal of optimization is to take a range of values and provide the most optimal of values in one criterion or another. We were able to integrate artificial intelligence (with the help of neural networks) with multi-parameter optimization, i.e. we selected the optimal modes to reduce the working time for lathing of high-strength steel."
The success of the completed research made it possible to continue this partnership on a new level. In 2018, Doctor Mahmoud Sayed Soliman and Doctor Magdy Mostafa El Rayes from King Saud University joined the research project, while Senior Lecturer Danil Pimenov and Associate Professor of the Department of Casthouse Production Ivan Erdakov continued work on joint development. SUSU researchers used the integration of artificial intelligence and multi-parameter optimization of lathe processes. Their partnership resulted in publication of two articles in the highly-rated journals Materials (Q1) and Metals (Q1) in 2018.
"In the first article, we thoroughly described the technologies of processing the magnetic aluminium alloy AZ61, which has high parameters of strength, plasticity, and corrosion resistance, and is often used in the aviation and automobile industries. In the second case, we researched the processing of solid-state workpieces obtained from recycled shavings of the aluminium alloy 6061, which is also often used in aviation and shipbuilding, in optical equipment, and in medical implants."
The researchers from South Ural State University visited the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, located in the city of Riyadh, where they had the opportunity to attend laboratory tests being performed by their Arabian colleagues.
In the future, this cooperation will continue. It has already been planned to complete a promising research on the modern titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V, which is widely used in aviation, automobile manufacturing, in the gas and oil industry and in medical implants.
Provided by South Ural State University