No abstract

The experimental and numerical techniques for evaluation of mechanical properties of highly inhomogeneous materials are discussed. The techniques are applied to coal as an example of such a material. Characterization of coals is a very difficult task because they are composed of a number of distinct organic entities called macerals and some amount of inorganic substances along with internal pores and cracks. It is argued that to avoid the influence of the pores and cracks, the samples of the materials have to be prepared as very thin and very smooth sections, and the depth-sensing nanoindentation (DSNI) techniques has to be employed rather than the conventional microindentation. It is shown that the use of the modern nanoindentation techniques integrated with transmitted light microscopy is very effective for evaluation of elastic modulus and hardness of coal macerals. However, because the thin sections are glued to the substrate and the glue thickness is approximately equal to the thickness of the section, the conventional DSNI techniques show the effective properties of the section/substrate system rather than the properties of the material. As the first approximation, it is proposed to describe the sample/substrate system using the classic exponential weight function for the dependence of the equivalent elastic contact modulus on the depth of indentation. This simple approach allows us to extract the contact modulus of the material constitutes from the data measured on a region occupied by a specific component of the material. The proposed approach is demonstrated on application to the experimental data obtained by Berkovich nanoindentation with varying maximum depth of indentation.

Cyclic freezing-thawing can lead to fracture development in coal, affecting its mechanical and consumer properties. To study crack formations in coal, an ultrasonic sounding method using shear polarized waves was proposed. Samples of three coal types (anthracite, lignite and hard coal) were tested. The research results show that, in contrast to the shear wave velocity, the shear wave amplitude is extremely sensitive to the formation of new cracks at the early stages of cyclic freezing-thawing. Tests also show an inverse correlation between coal compressive strength and its tendency to form cracks under temperature impacts; shear wave attenuation increases more sharply in high-rank coals after the first freezing cycle. Spectral analysis of the received signals also confirmed significant crack formation in anthracite after the first freeze-thaw cycle. The initial anisotropy was determined, and its decrease with an increase in the number of freezethaw cycles was shown. The data obtained forms an experimental basis for the development of new approaches to preserve coal consumer properties during storage and transportation under severe natural and climatic conditions.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence Newcastle University ePrints -eprint.ncl.ac.uk Kossovich EL, Borodich FM, Bull SJ, Epshtein SA. Substrate effects and evaluation of elastic moduli of components of inhomogeneous films by nanoindentation.