Achieving C/CuO microfiber composites with efficient microwave absorbing performance at low thickness

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - The carbon fibers with low density still face significant microwave absorbing application issues due to their high dielectric constant....     

How to extract traditional cultural design elements from a set of images of cultural relics based on F-AHP and entropy

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The creative cultural product design, relating to both typical regional cultures and traditional cultural elements, is a hot issue in recent years. However,...     

An energy-efficient two-stage hybrid flow shop scheduling problem in a glass production

Energy-efficient scheduling is highly necessary for energy-intensive industries, such as glass, mould or chemical production. Inspired by a real-world glass-ceramics production process, this paper investigates a bi-criteria energy-efficient two-stage hybrid flow shop scheduling problem, in which parallel machines with eligibility are at stage 1 and a batch machine is at stage 2. The performance measures considered are makespan and total energy consumption. Time-of-use (TOU) electricity prices and different states of machines (working, idle and turnoff) are integrated. To tackle this problem, a mixed integer programming (MIP) is formulated, based on which an augmented ε-constraint (AUGMECON) method is adopted to obtain the exact Pareto front. A problem-tailored constructive heuristic method with local search strategy, a bi-objective tabu search algorithm and a bi-objective ant colony optimisation algorithm are developed to deal with medium- and large-scale problems. Extensive computational experiments are conducted, and a real-world case is solved. The results show effectiveness of the proposed methods, in particular the bi-objective tabu search.     

基于Radon-CPF-Fourier变换的机动目标ISAR成像

由于机动目标的逆合成孔径雷达（Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar，ISAR）成像中存在多普勒扩散现象，易导致成像分辨率降低。针对此问题，在多分量三次相位信号（Cubic Phase Signal,CPS）模型基础上，提出一种基于Radon-CPF-Fourier变换（Radon-Cubic Phase Function-Fourier Transform,RCFT）的机动目标ISAR成像方法。RCFT可实现CPF中自项能量的相干积累，减轻多普勒扩散带来的影响。与现有的基于时频分析和参数估计的ISAR成像算法相比，RCFT的主副比性能提升了至少2 dB，在时频分辨率无损失时具备更好的自项能量积累能力，可获得更高质量的成像结果。仿真验证了所提方法的有效性。     

High-Performance Unidirectional Manipulation of Microdroplets by Horizontal Vibration on Femtosecond Laser-Induced Slant Microwall Arrays

The high-performance unidirectional manipulation of microdroplets is crucial for many vital applications including water collection and bioanalysis. Among several actuation methods (e.g., electric, magnetic, light, and thermal actuation), mechanical vibration is pollution-free and biocompatible. However, it suffers from limited droplet movement mode, small volume range (V_Max/V_Min < 3), and low transport velocity (≤11.5 mm s⁻¹) because the droplet motion is a sliding state caused by the vertical vibration on the asymmetric hydrophobic microstructures. Here, an alternative strategy is proposed—horizontal vibration for multimode (rolling, bouncing/reverse bouncing, converging/diffusing, climbing, 90^o turning, and sequential transport), large-volume-range (V_Max/V_Min ≈ 100), and high-speed (≈22.86 mm s⁻¹) unidirectional microdroplet manipulation, which is ascribed to the rolling state on superhydrophobic slant microwall arrays (SMWAs) fabricated by the one-step femtosecond laser oblique ablation. The unidirectional transport mechanism relies on the variance of viscous resistance induced by the difference of contact area between the microdroplet and the slant microwalls. Furthermore, a circular, curved, and “L”-shaped SMWA is designed and fabricated for droplet motion with particular paths. Finally, sequential transport of large-volume-range droplets and chemical mixing microreaction of water-based droplets are demonstrated on the SMWA, which demonstrates the great potential in the field of microdroplet manipulation.     

Y2O3-MgO纳米复相红外透明陶瓷制备及其性能研究

以商用Y2O3、MgO纳米粉体为原料,通过球磨混合方法制备了不同Y2O3/MgO配比的Y2O3-MgO纳米复合粉体,使用X射线衍射、扫描电镜、能量色散谱等表征手段对制备粉体的晶体结构、形貌、成分以及均匀性进行了表征。然后采用热压烧结方法制备Y2O3-MgO复相红外透明陶瓷,使用红外光谱仪、维氏硬度计等测试设备对复相透明陶瓷的光学和力学性能进行了分析。重点研究了粉体配比、热压温度、保温和保压时间等关键制备参数对Y2O3-MgO复相红外透明陶瓷晶粒尺度、致密化程度、光学及力学性能的影响。并通过调控粉体制备工艺和热压烧结工艺,制备出了红外透过率达到~80%的Y2O3-MgO复相红外透明陶瓷。同时在Y2O3:Mg0=1:1时,该复相陶瓷的硬度达到了12.3 GPa。     

Thermophysical and mechanical properties of novel high-entropy metal nitride-carbides

In this work, a novel (Hf_0.2Zr_0.2Ta_0.2Nb_0.2Ti_0.2)(N_0.5C_0.5) high-entropy nitride-carbide (HENC-1) with multi-cationic and -anionic sublattice structure was reported and their thermophysical and mechanical properties were studied for the first time. The results of the first-principles calculations showed that HENC-1 had the highest mixing entropy of 1.151R, which resulted in the lowest Gibbs free energy above 600 K among HENC-1, (Hf_0.2Zr_0.2Ta_0.2Nb_0.2Ti_0.2)N high-entropy nitrides (HEN-1), and (Hf_0.2Zr_0.2Ta_0.2Nb_0.2Ti_0.2)C high-entropy carbides (HEC-1). In this case, HENC-1 samples were successfully fabricated by hot-pressing sintering technique at the lowest temperature (1773 K) among HENC-1, HEN-1 and HEC-1 samples. The as-fabricated HENC-1 samples showed a single rock-salt structure of metal nitride-carbides and high compositional uniformity. Meanwhile, they exhibited high microhardness of 19.5 ± 0.3 GPa at an applied load of 9.8 N and nanohardness of 33.4 ± 0.5 GPa and simultaneously possessed a high bulk modulus of 258 GPa, Young's modulus of 429 GPa, shear modulus of 176 GPa, and elastic modulus of 572 ± 7 GPa. Their hardness and modulus are the highest among HENC-1, HEN-1 and HEC-1 samples, which could be attributed to the presence of mass disorder and lattice distortion from the multi-anionic sublattice structure and small grain in HENC-1 samples. In addition, the thermal conductivity of HENC-1 samples was significantly lower than the average value from the “rule of mixture” between HEC-1 and HEN-1 samples in the range of 300-800 K, which was due to the presence of lattice distortion from the multi-anionic sublattice structure in HENC-1 samples.     

An Efficient Approach for Nodal Water Demand Estimation in Large-scale Water Distribution Systems

Water Resources Management - Real-time modeling of a water distribution system (WDS) is a critical step for the control and operation of such systems. The nodal water demand, as the most important...     

Exploring the Formation Mechanism of Deformation Twins in CrMnFeCoNi High Entropy Alloy

The deformation twins initiated in CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy at cryogenic temperature are experimentally studied. Under the external loading, a three-dimensional shear stress concentration originating from dislocation tangling at both the grain boundaries and twin boundaries could be formed, which promotes emission of partial dislocations from the planar defects and is thus considered to be the key factor for twin formation. A sympathetic nucleation mechanism is proposed to describe the nucleation behaviors of twins.     

Determination of chlorine ions in raw milk by pulsed amperometric detection in a flow injection system

Chloride ion concentration in milk was determined by pulsed amperometric detection in a flow injection system. Results showed that the Au electrode lost 3 electrons at 1.10 V and formed chloroaurate ions (AuCl₄^?) by combining with chloride ions, after which AuCl₄^? was partly reduced to Au at 0.6 V. Based on the electrochemical process, a triple waveform with detection potential of 1.15 V, detection time of 150 ms, oxidation potential of 1.4 V, oxidation time of 550 ms, reduction potential of 0 V, and reduction time of 400 ms was applied to the Au electrode for detecting chloride ion concentration in milk. The approach is rapid and automatic and features a detection limit of 0.005 g/L. The relative standard deviation obtained by 60 repetitive injections reached 1.48% at 2 g/L of NaCl. The method developed using the Au electrode without modification was used to analyze the chloride ion concentration in raw milk without preprocessing. The method showed good agreement with potentiometric titration.