Micromechanics of solvent crazes in polystyrene

Double exposure holographic interferometry (DEHI) is used to determine the strain energy release rate, craze opening displacement profile, and craze stress profile ofn-heptane and methanol crazes growing from cracks in polystyrene.n-heptane crazes have strain energy release rates (SERRs) close to those of cracks and their stress profile is almost crack-like in that the tensile stress across the craze falls almost to zero. On the other hand, the SERRs of methanol crazes are only 30 to 55% the SERR of a crack depending on stress intensity factorK _I of the precrack from which they are grown. The stress profile of the methanol craze shows it to be strongly load-bearing away from the craze tip, apparently as a result of the strain hardening of the craze fibrils. The stress concentration in front of the methanol craze tip is only 40% of that in front of then-heptane craze tip. The opening displacements of the methanol craze are almost as large as those of a crack very near its tip but are much less than those of a crack at large distances behind the tip. The Dugdale model of a strip yielding zone provides a poor representation of the craze opening displacements of the growing methanol craze. Dry (static) methanol crazes have larger opening displacements in response to an incremental tensile strain at moderate prestrains than at either low or high prestrains, suggesting that the craze fibrils undergo a yielding/strain-hardening process as the strain is increased similar to that observed in polycarbonate crazes by Kopp and Kambour. Dryn-heptane crazes do not show this response but rather open linearly with increasing prestrain. The opening displacement for long (dry)n-heptane crazes is almost crack-like whereas the largest opening of a dry methanol craze is only 20% of that of a crack. Dry methanol crazes break at aK _IC that is 40% of theK _IC of precracked but uncrazed specimens. The strongest (shortest) dryn-heptane crazes fail at only 7% ofK _IC of uncrazed specimens and theK _IC of the dryn-heptane crazes decreases markedly with increasing craze length.     

Animal experimental studies on the thrombolytic effect of streptokinase

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the feasibility of enhancing the electrochemical stability of dental amalgam restorations by a process of "selective interfacial amalgamation." If dental amalgam restorations can be selectively alloyed at the tooth-amalgam interface, to a minor thickness as compared with the dimensions of the bulk amalgam, so as to present a more electrochemically stable phase than psi2 to the oral environment, corrosion will be reduced and desirable qualities of existing amalgams can be utilized. It was found that selective interfacial amalgamation was indeed possible and that it could be readily accomplished using a silver suspension as a cavity liner. By then placing a conventional silver-tin amalgam according to ordinary dental techniques, mercury expressed during hand condensing reacted with the silver in the liner resulting in the formation of an integral amalgam restoration with the more noble psi1 phase adjacent to tooth structure. In vitro corrosion tests of samples so prepared exhibited corrosion resistance far superior to unlined control samples.     

Network Discovery and Verification

Due to its fast, dynamic, and distributed growth process, it is hard to obtain an accurate map of the Internet. In many cases, such a map-representing the structure of the Internet as a graph with nodes and links-is a prerequisite when investigating properties of the Internet. A common way to obtain such maps is to make certain local measurements at a small subset of the nodes, and then to combine these in order to "discover" (an approximation of) the actual graph. Each of these measurements is potentially quite costly. It is thus a natural objective to minimize the number of measurements which still discover the whole graph. We formalize this problem as a combinatorial optimization problem and consider it for two different models characterized by different types of measurements. We give several upper and lower bounds on the competitive ratio (for the online network discovery problem) and the approximation ratio (for the offline network verification problem) in both models. Furthermore, for one of the two models, we compare four simple greedy strategies in an experimental analysis     

Rotary Blanking ‐ a New Manufacturing Process

Rotary blanking is a method of blanking and punching with rotating tools whereby the cutting tools are fixed to a pair of rollers performing a continuous blanking operation on a strip of sheet metal. The purpose of this paper is to outline the determining conditions under which the rotary blanking process takes place and to discuss advantages, restrictions, applications and optimization of this technology.     

A Study on the Buckling Behaviour of Strips and Plates with Residual Stresses

During and after rolling or flattening of metal strips and plates the permissible deviations from flatness are described by the permissible absolute wave height and the flatness index. Both values can be determined on a measuring table while the material is not subjected to global tension. Because this procedure is expensive, time‐consuming and allows measurement only at discrete positions along the strip length, on‐line flatness measuring systems are used which can detect the distribution of longitudinal tensile stresses distributed across the strip width allowing for the calculation of the flatness index. This value does not always agree with the value obtained directly by measuring on the table even when the measurement of the longitudinal tensile stress distribution operates perfectly. It can be shown that the measurement of the tensile stress distribution does not give a direct indication on the wave height in the tension‐free state determined on the measuring table. To explain the relationship between tensile stress distribution in the strip and the flatness measurement on the measuring table, the buckling behavior is analysed both with and without dead load for simple symmetrical residual stress distributions resulting, e.g., from the rolling process. Based on the knowledge of the distribution of the longitudinal residual stresses across the strip width, the flatness index and the wave height can be determined by using a specialized finite element model. If the direct measurement is performed under action of dead load, large differences between the directly and indirectly obtained flatness index are observed. Below a certain limit of the intensity of the residual stress distribution the strips and plates lie flat on the measuring table. Above this limit the strip lying on the table exhibits post‐bucking deformations. In the latter case, the wave height increases with strip thickness and intensity of residual stresses.     

Simulation of thermally induced package effects with regard to piezoresistive pressure sensors

Microsystems are on their way out of laboratories into production. One of these microsystems, a piezoresistive pressure sensor developed by Robert Bosch GmbH, is examined within this paper. Obviously, one can detect undesirable temperature effects resulting from the sensor package, which influence the electrical characteristics of the sensor. By means of finite-element modelling (FEM), a simulation of the temperature effects can be managed. It is also possible to search for alternative designs of the sensor package.     

Adaptive polygonization of geometrically constrained surfaces

n -dimensional space, where n>3. This definition can be used for given surfaces that are implicit or parametric. This paper presents a robust, adaptive polygonization algorithm for evaluating and visualizing geometrically constrained surfaces. Let be the constrained surface, a 2-surface in n-space, and let π() be its projection into the subspace spanned by the first three coordinates. Our polygonization algorithm computes π(). The method works directly with the n-space representation, but performs all major computations in 3-space. Techniques for triangulation, polygon decimation, and local refinement are also presented.     

A Probabilistic Approach to Concurrent Mapping and Localization for Mobile Robots

This paper addresses the problem of building large-scale geometric maps of indoor environments with mobile robots. It poses the map building problem as a constrained, probabilistic maximum-likelihood estimation problem. It then devises a practical algorithm for generating the most likely map from data, along with the most likely path taken by the robot. Experimental results in cyclic environments of size up to 80 by 25 meter illustrate the appropriateness of the approach.