Nanoindentation and scratch behaviour of Ni–P electroless coatings

ABSTRACT

In the present paper, the mechanical properties and the scratch failure mechanisms of Ni–P electroless coatings are described. The material microstructure was studied in as-deposited and annealed conditions through SEM and EDS analyses. Nanoindentation measurements on the coatings showed a remarkable hardening due to the crystallization and precipitation behaviour produced by annealing. The scratch tests, conducted by increasing the load during scratch, revealed the coating failure mechanisms in a broad range of applied stresses up to delamination.     

Synergistic fire-retardancy properties of melamine coated ammonium poly(phosphate) in combination with rod-like mineral filler attapulgite for polymer-modified bitumen roofing membranes

A novel intumescent (carbonization, acid donor and foaming) fire retardant that mimics carbon nanotubes was introduced into bitumen roofing and characterized using cone calorimetry as the main analytical tool. The experimental results indicate that 18% (by mass) attapulgite mineral (ATTP) mixed with base bitumen decreased the peak heat release rate per unit area (pHRRPUA) by 10%. Further, incorporation of melamine coated ammonium polyphosphate (MAPP) decreased the pHRRPUA by 52% and a mixture of these (3:1, ATTP:MAPP) decreased the pHRRPUA by 25% as compared to adding CaCO₃ as a filler. The residual mass loss after the cone test was also improved with up to 3%. The indication of a positive synergistic flame retardant effect of the ATTP-MAPP mixture is supported by thermogravimetric analysis. The addition of this rod-like mineral improved the general fire retardant properties of the base bitumen and increased the viscosity. Therefore, the polymer-modified bitumen with both fire retardant and rheological properties (providing mechanical strength) is a promising novel approach in the design of bitumen roofing membranes.     

Seeing is believing? When scanning electron microscopy (SEM) meets clinical dentistry: The replica technique.

In restorative dentistry, the in situ replication of intra‐oral situations, is based on a non‐invasive and non‐destructive scanning electron microscopy (SEM) evaluation method. The technique is suitable for investigation restorative materials and dental hard‐ and soft‐tissues, and its interfaces. Surface characteristics, integrity of interfaces (margins), or fracture analysis (chipping, cracks, etc.) with reliable resolution and under high magnification (from ×50 to ×5,000). Overall the current study aims to share detailed and reproducible information about the replica technique. Specific goals are: (a) to describe detailed each step involved in producing a replica of an intra‐oral situation, (b) to validate an integrated workflow based on a rational sequence from visual examination, to macrophotography and SEM analysis using the replica technique; (c) to present three clinical cases documented using the technique. A compilation of three clinical situations/cases were analyzed here by means the replica technique showing a wide range of possibilities that can be reached and explored with the described technique. This guidance document will contribute to a more accurate use of the replica technique and help researchers and clinicians to understand and identify issues related to restorative procedures under high magnification.     

罗河铁矿采空区三维激光扫描及应用分析研究

针对传统采空区探测依靠全站仪测量存在劳动强度大、测量结果不准确等问题,采用BLSS-PE矿用三维激光扫描系统对罗河铁矿45-3^#和47-3^#采空区进行了现场扫描,构建了采空区三维实体模型,并在此基础上计算了采空区体积,说明了传统统计方式存在的不足;计算了矿房的超欠挖体积,为准确量化矿房损失率和贫化率提供了基础数据;基于采空区边界进行了二步骤回采设计,说明了采空区边界对于降低矿房损失贫化的重要意义。     

Effect of differential diffusion on turbulent lean premixed hydrogen enriched flames through structure analysis

This study presents the flame structure influenced by the differential diffusion effects and evaluates the structural modifications induced by the turbulence, thus to understand the coupling effects of the diffusively unstable flame fronts and the turbulence distortion. Lean premixed CH₄/H₂/air flames were conducted using a piloted Bunsen burner. Three hydrogen fractions of 0, 30% and 60% were adopted and the laminar flame speed was kept constant. The turbulence was generated with a single-layer perforated plate, which was combined with different bulk velocities to obtain varied turbulence intensities. Quasi-laminar flames without the plate were also performed. Explicit flame morphology was obtained using the OH-PLIF. The curvature, flame surface density and turbulent burning velocity were measured. Results show that the preferential transport of hydrogen produces negatively curved cusps flanked with positively curved bulges, which are featured by skewed curvature pdfs and consistent with the typical structure caused by the Darrieus-Landau instability. Prevalent bulge-cusp like wrinkles remain with relatively weak turbulence. However, stronger turbulence can break the bulges to be finer, and induce random positively curved cusps, therefore to destroy the bulge-cusp structures. Evident positive curvatures are generated in this process modifying the skewed curvature pdfs to be more symmetric, while the negative curvatures are not affected seriously. From low to high turbulence intensities, the hydrogen addition always strengthens the flame wrinkling. The augmentation of flame surface density and turbulent burning velocity with hydrogen is even more obvious at higher turbulence intensity. It is suggested that the differential diffusion can persist and even be strengthened with strong turbulence.     

Balancing exploration and exploitation in differential evolution via variable scaling factors: An application to practical problems

Some optimization problems in the field of nuclear engineering, as for example the incore nuclear fuel management and a nuclear reactor core design, are highly multimodal, requiring techniques that overcome local optima, exploring the search space and promoting the exploitation of its most promising areas. The differential evolution algorithm (DE) relies mainly on the mechanism of mutation, where an individual is perturbed using the weighted difference (with the so-called “scaling factor” F) between two randomly chosen individuals. DE's canonical version employs a constant value of F. However, this parameter should be variable in order to balance the exploration and exploitation of the search space. In this work, we test some variable scaling factors from the literature and present the novel exponential scaling factor. These methods are applied to two problems: the aforementioned core design and the turbine balancing problem, which is an NP-hard (i.e. intrinsically harder than those that can be solved in nondeterministic polynomial time) combinatorial optimization problem that can be used to assess the potential of an algorithm to be applied to fuel management optimization. DE with variable scaling factors perform well in both problems, showing potential to be used in other nuclear science and engineering optimization problems.     

Environmental economic dispatch in multi-area power system employing improved differential evolution with fuzzy selection

In a deregulated multi-area electrical power system the objective is to determine the most economical generation dispatch strategy that could satisfy the area load demands, the tie-line limits and other operating constraints. Usually, economic dispatch (ED) deals only with the cost minimization, but minimization of emission content has also become an equally important concern due to the mandatory requirement of pollution reduction for environmental protection. Environmental economic dispatch (EED) is a complex multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem with conflicting goals. Normally a fuzzy ranking is employed to rank the large number of Pareto solutions obtained after solving a MOO problem. But in this paper the preference of the decision maker (DM) is used to guide the search and to select the population for the next generation. An improved differential evolution (DE) method is proposed where the selection operation is modified to reduce the complexity of multi-attribute decision making with the help of a fuzzy framework. Solutions are assigned a fuzzy rank on the basis of their level of satisfaction for different objectives before the population selection and then the fuzzy rank is used to select and pass on better solutions to the next generation. A well distributed Pareto-front is obtained which presents a large number of alternate trade-off solutions for the power system operator. A momentum operation is also included to prevent stagnation and to create Pareto diversity. Studies are carried out on three test cases and results obtained are found to be better than some previous literature.     

Synthesis and characterization of poly (linoleic acid)-g-poly(methyl methacrylate) graft copolymer with applying in Au/PLiMMA/n-Si diode

Poly (linoleic acid)-g-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PLiMMA) graft copolymer was synthesized and characterized. PLiMMA graft copolymer was synthesized from polymeric linoleic acid peroxide (PLina) possessing peroxide groups in the main chain by free radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate. Later, PLiMMA was characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. Furthermore, Au/PLiMMA/n-Si diode was fabricated for the purpose of investigating PLiMMA׳s conformity in diodes. The main electrical characteristics of this diode were investigated using experimental current–voltage (I–V) measurements in dark and at room temperature. Obtained results, such as sufficiently high rectifying ratio of 4.5×10⁴, indicate that PLiMMA is a promising organic material for electronic device applications.