Mike Mulholland

Research:	Nanoscale Precipitation-Strengthened Steels
Education:	I-L-L...I-N-I
Publications:	Publications by Mulholland in our database
Contact
Mike Mulholland Materials Science and Engineering 2220 North Campus Drive Evanston, IL 60208 Phone: 847.491.5883 Email: m-mulholland at northwestern dot edu Fax: 847.467.2269

My research focuses on the precipitation of various kinds of precipitates in a complex blast-resistant steel. Copper and carbide precipiates strengthen the material. The carbides also add to or detract from the toughness of the steel depending on their form. The desired form of the carbide precipitates is M2C, where M is a combination of Cr, V, Mo, and Ti. However, M2C is neither the equilibrium carbide nor the first carbide to precipitate, so the evolution of the carbide structure from the initial cementite to M2C and beyond is of interest. Retained austenite is also precipitated during aging, and these precipitates are important to the toughness of the steel. I study this precipitation with a variety of techniques, the main one being LEAP tomography. Electron microscopy will also be employed to study the microstructure on various scales and complement the LEAP, and mechanical testing is of course used to correlate microstructure with macroscopic response.