Dielectric breakdown behavior of ferroelectric ceramics: The role of pores

Dielectric breakdown is a fundamental issue for ferroelectric ceramics. In this work, a phase-field method is introduced to study the breakdown behavior of ferroelectric ceramics with pores randomly distributed. Effects of the position and the size of pores on the breakdown behavior are analyzed. Results indicate that the position of pores, for example in grains or at grain boundaries, has a significant influence on the breakdown strength of ferroelectric ceramics. The nominal breakdown strength of ferroelectric ceramics with 2 % pores at grain boundaries is almost 50 % higher than 2 % pores in grains. Further, for ferroelectric ceramics with a certain porosity, the smaller the pore size, the higher the breakdown strength. As the nominal pore size decreases from 2.5 to 1, the nominal breakdown strength is enhanced from 0.73 to 1.16. Such results agree well with the widely accepted Gerson-Marshall model and previously published experimental observations.     

Characterization of Bi2O3 thin films for doping photoluminescent Er3+ ions

Undoped and Er³⁺-doped Bi₂O₃ thin films were sputter-deposited on Si(100) substrates. Sufficiently oxidized Bi₂O₃ films with refractive indices between 2.17?2.23 were obtained at a wavelength of 633 nm; these values are comparable to those of bulk Bi₂O₃ crystals. While the film composition was stable for deposition temperatures between room temperature (RT) and 450 °C, the refractive index steeply decreased above 450 °C and reached 1.4 at 600 °C. The lowering of the optical transmittance spectra indicated aggregation of metallic Bi and darkening of the film. All films exhibited X-ray diffraction patterns of α-Bi₂O₃. The direct and indirect bandgap energies derived from the Tauc plots were 3.4–3.7 eV and 1.9–2.5 eV, respectively, depending on the O₂ flow rate and deposition temperature. Upon excitation of Er³⁺-doped Bi₂O₃ films at 532 nm, Er³⁺ emissions peaking at 1537 and 1541 nm appeared, and the photoluminescence spectra included fine structures reflecting crystal-field splitting. Resonant excitation of Er³⁺ 4f levels and indirect excitation via the defect levels of Bi₂O₃ followed by energy transfer to Er³⁺ contributed to the emission. The films deposited at RT with Er concentrations of 2 at.% had the emission intensity of Er³⁺, but concentration quenching strongly suppressed the Er³⁺ emission because the doped Er³⁺ ions stayed inside the Bi₂O₃ crystals. At deposition temperatures above 400 °C, the concentration quenching was mitigated possibly because out-diffusion of Er³⁺ ions reduced the effective number of Er³⁺ ions in the Bi₂O₃ crystalline domains.     

The spheroidization process of micron-scaled α-Al2O3 powder in hydrothermal method

Understanding the spheroidization process of micron-scaled α-Al₂O₃ powder in hydrothermal method is of great importance but still not completely revealed. The results demonstrated that SO₄^2? played a significant role in the formation of spherical powder, while the bubble generated from the reaction of urea didn't work in the spheroidization process. The spheroidization process was summed up as two steps. The first was that SO₄^2? limited the hydrolysis of Al³⁺ and reacted with Al³⁺ and OH^- to form Al₄(OH)₁₀SO₄, which nucleated and agglomerated into granular precipitates. The second was Ostwald ripening, which gave the spherical precursors a double-layered structure. When the spherical precursors obtained 120 °C were sintered at 1200 °C, α-Al₂O₃ were got and the spherical morphology still maintained with a large number of nano-sized pores. We anticipate the spherical α-Al₂O₃ with nano-sized pores can be applied in adsorption and filtration industries.     

Warpage control method during surface forming process of plastic film-reinforced flexible decorative veneer

The plastic film of the new plastic film reinforced pliable decorative veneer (PRPDSV) is used as a flexible reinforcement material and an adhesive material. It has good water resistance, impermeability, simple preparation and finishing processes, and no formaldehyde release. However, warpage phenomenon during hot pressing has been a bottleneck problem restricting its industrial development. In order to solve this problem solve, the study proposed a concave, and convex molds method, established an elastic–plastic FEA model of hot pressing processes of the PRPDSV using concave and convex molds with static/general static solution module in the nonlinear ABAQUS, and researched the effect on the performances of the PRPDSV from the parameters of temperature, pressure, and mold curvature radius theoretically and verified experimentally. Analysis results showed that the surface forming temperature had a great effect on warpage control for PRPDSV. The higher the temperature is, the smaller the curvature radius of the corresponding mold will be and the better the warpage will be. The curvature radius of the molds had a significant effect on the warpage control. Under the conditions with the same hot pressing parameters, the smaller the curvature radius is, and the better control on the warpage for the PRPDSV will be.     

Numerical Investigation of the Capture of Polydisperse Particles by Charged Droplets

The capture of particles by charged droplets was simulated by considering the electrostatic interactions of droplet-droplet and droplet-particle. The results indicate that the electrostatic repulsion between droplets leads to a dynamic accumulation mode of particles. However, the droplet spacing has an insignificant effect on the capture efficiency when the electrostatic deposition predominates. The increase of droplet charge remarkably improves the capture efficiency, in which the capture of fine particles accounts for the largest proportion. Compared to the droplet charge, the droplet size shows a limited improvement in the capture efficiency. Reducing the droplet velocity prolongs the capture time instead of enhancing the capture capacity per unit time, thereby improving capture efficiency.     

基于VERICUT的偏心放置分段式齿圈铣齿方法研究

为解决大直径且齿宽较宽的分段式齿圈的铣齿问题,提出采用偏心放置的主程序调用子程序循环加工的铣齿方法。根据主程序数学模型和子程序数学模型构建偏心放置铣齿方法的数学模型,基于VERICUT的仿真模型和仿真主、子程序,实现齿槽的开粗和精铣仿真加工;通过VERICUT对比分析功能模块,以齿面残留模型为依据,验证了偏心放置铣齿方法的可行性。     

Influence of Sm and Cd co-substitutions on physical,magnetic, Mössbauer,electric, and dielectric properties of Co2X hexagonal ferrites in presence of a hematite phase

X-type samarium-cadmium co-substituted hexaferrite with compositions Ba_2-xSm_xCo₂Cd_yFe_28-yO₄₆ (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.08, and 0 ≤ y ≤ 0.4) were prepared at 1340 °C using a simple heat treatment technique. All heated samples were characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM, VSM, M?ssbauer, and low-frequency dielectric measurements. XRD analysis of prepared samples shows the formation of X as a major phase along with hematite. The M_S value varied from 67.01 Am²/kg to 50.43 Am²/kg; whereas the H_c value changed from 2.95 kA/m to 6.17 kA/m, A high value of M_S (67.01 Am²/kg) is observed in the pure sample, and a very low value of H_c (2.95 kA/m) is observed for x = 0.06, y = 0.3 compositions, but Mr/Ms < 0.5 confirm the multi-domain nature of prepared hexaferrites. Hysteresis loops of all samples are narrow, and confirmed that formed samples belong to magnetically soft. Mössbauer spectra of the three samples (S1, S3, and S5) show the existence of doublets. Significantly low values of coercivity, retentivity, and loss tangent in Sm–Cd substituted samples signified those prepared materials can be used to design electromagnets, transformer cores, electric motors, and maybe a potential candidate for lossless low-frequency applications.     

A globally convergent BFGS method for pseudo-monotone variational inequality problems

In this paper, we propose a globally convergent BFGS method to solve Variational Inequality Problems (VIPs). In fact, a globalization technique on the basis of the hyperplane projection method is applied to the BFGS method. The technique, which is independent of any merit function, is applicable for pseudo-monotone problems. The proposed method applies the BFGS direction and tries to reduce the distance of iterates to the solution set. This property, called Fejer monotonicity of iterates with respect to the solution set, is the basis of the convergence analysis. The method applied to pseudo-monotone VIP is globally convergent in the sense that subproblems always have unique solutions, and the sequence of iterates converges to a solution to the problem without any regularity assumption. Finally, some numerical simulations are included to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.     

A design method of data analytics process for condition based maintenance

Many condition monitoring systems use data analytics processes such as anomaly detection to understand machine conditions. Such data analytics processes have been designed by data scientists. However, domain knowledge is indispensable for designing the process, and data scientists have difficulty in acquiring such knowledge from domain engineers. This paper proposes a design method of data analytics processes and an engineering tool. In this method, data scientists propose hypotheses about each step of the process to domain engineers. Then, data scientists update the process on the basis of feedback from domain engineers. The engineering tool helps data scientists to interact with domain engineers.