Many new materials and components can be time consuming and expensive to manufacture with costs escalating if samples or trials prove unsuitable. Computer modelling goes some way to minimizing the developments costs and fast tracking development.
Some of the more sophisticated computer modelling programs are able to model the material and its structure before test samples even are produced. This includes the location of flaws and prediction of lifetime and failure.
In the case of amorphous materials, pores and clusters of pores can radically change the properties of the material when compared to a solid crystal. In this paper by Pham Khac Hung, Do Minh Nghiep, Hoang Van Hue and Nguyen Van Hong from Hanoi University of Technology, they were able to simulate the microstructure in the amorphous system CoxB1-x to provide information on pore clusters, localized structural characteristics and pore concentration.
Their calculated results corresponded with experimental results and found the number of pores was largely influenced by changes in boron concentration. The calculation of angle, pore number, atom number and free volume distributions reveals that increasing the boron concentration in the system disorders the structure of amorphous alloys. It also showed that there were more pores found around cobalt atoms than around boron atoms.
The article is available to view at http://www.azom.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=3306
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