The fractal dimension（FD） of surfaces has been widely used to characterize the properties of materials.However,most of the previous researches were concentrated on the correlation between the FD of surfaces and mechanical properties of materials,such as impact energy and fracture toughness,etc.The aim of this paper is to characterize the spheroidization grade and strength of 15CrMo steel through determination of FD of cementite phase on the basis of two-dimension microstructural image.Two methods,namely slit-island method（SIM） and box-counting method（BCM）,are used to determine the value of FD.It is found that the FD value evaluated by using BCM is generally higher than that evaluated by SIM.This phenomenon may be due to the difference in the principles used in different methods.Whether SIM or BCM is used,the spheroidization grade in 15CrMo steel linearly increases with decreasing the value of FD.The relationship between the FD value,D,and spheroidization grade,Sg,can be approximately expressed as D≌-0.11Sg＋A,where A is a constant value which is depended on the evaluation method.Both the ultimate strength and the yielding strength of 15CrMo steel increase with increasing FD of cementite phase.There may be a common relationship between the FD of cementite phase and strength of 15CrMo steel.When the FD of cementite phase in 15CrMo steel is determined,the strength of this steel can be evaluated.The present paper can provide a novel method to evaluate the strength and spheroidization grade of carbon steel through determination of fractal dimension（FD） of cementite phase.
The creep behavior of the plasma sprayed NiCr and NiCrA1 coating/Nickel alloy 690 substrate systems at 1033 K was investigated. Results showed that there was almost no difference in the creep lives between the NiCr and NiCrA1 coated specimens at a given stress level, since the contents of Cr used in the NiCr and NiCrA1 powders are almost same. The relationship between the minimum creep rate and the applied stress followed the well-known Norton＇s power law, εmin=Aσ^n, with the values of A=2.66×10^-16 MPa^-n·h^-1 and n=6.48. The relation between the applied stress and time to rupture of the coated specimens can be estimated by using Larson-Miller equation. The θ projection method can be used to accurately characterize the creep behavior of the coated specimens.
