Al–Si cast alloys under isothermal and thermomechanical fatigue conditions

This work presents a survey of the isothermal and anisothermal fatigue behavior of aluminum casting alloys obtained from different processes. Experimental results have shown that porosity, especially large and irregular pores, provides the main factor in decreasing fatigue properties of the tested alloys. In materials with similar porosity levels, other microstructural factors became relevant such as, matrix morphology and the amount of alloying elements. Fractographic analyses showed that fatigue cracks preferentially start to propagate in microcracks or interdendritic shrinkage usually located next to the surface. In most cases, propagation takes place in the eutectic phase, although in the thixoformed material, a transition from transgranular to intergranular mode was observed in the crack propagation mode.     

Phase transition of lithiated-spinel Li2Mn2O4 at high temperature

1 Introduction Lithium manganese oxides are the most attractive cathode materials for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries because of their low-cost and less toxicity when compared with either cobaltates or nickelates[1?3]. Among these oxides, the spinel-fr…     

Synthesis and characterization of LiNi0.95-xCoxAl0.05O2 for lithium-ion batteries

Samples of LiNi0.95-xCoxAl0.05O2 （x = 0.10 and 0.15） and LiNiO2, synthesized by the solid-state reaction at 725℃ for 24 h from LiOH-H2O, Ni2O3, Co2O3, and AI（OH）3 under an oxygen stream, were characterized by TG-DTA, XRD, SEM, and electrochemical tests. Simultaneous doping of cobalt and aluminum at the Ni-site in LiNiO2 was tried to improve the cathode performance for lithium-ion batteries. The results showed that co-doping （especially, 5 at.% A1 and 10 at.% Co） definitely had a large beneficial effect in increasing the capacity （186.2 mA.h/g of the first discharge capacity for LiNio.s.42OoaoAlo.0502） and cycling behavior （180.1 mA-h/g after 10 cycles for LiNio.85CooaoAlo.osO2） compared with 180.7 mA.h/g of the first discharge capacity and 157.7 mA.h/g of the tenth discharge capacity for LiNiO2, respectively. Differen- tial capacity versus voltage curves showed that the co-doped LiNio.95_xCoxmlo.osO2 had less intensity of the phase transitions than the pristine LiNiO2.     

Design and realization of hybrid ACO-based PID and LuGre friction compensation controller for three degree-of-freedom high precision flight simulator

Three degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) high precision flight simulator is a type of key hardware-in-loop equipment in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. The conventional Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) is a widely used industrial controller that uses a combination of proportional, integral and derivative action on the control error to form the output of the controller. It is well known that the undesired phenomena caused by friction can lead to overall flight simulator performance degradation or instability. This paper presents a novel kind of hybrid Ant Colony Optimization (ACO)-based PID and LuGre friction compensation controller for 3-DOF high precision flight simulator. On the basis of introduction of the basic principles of ACO, the controlling scheme design for the 3-DOF high precision flight simulator is presented. Based on the popular LuGre friction model, a novel nonlinear friction compensation controller for 3-DOF high precision flight simulator is also developed. The proposed Lyapunov function proves the robust global convergence of the tracking error. The parameters tuning of PID can be summed up as the typical continual spatial optimization problem, grid-based searching strategy is adopted in the improved ACO algorithm, and self-adaptive control strategy for the pheromone decay parameter is also adopted. Modularization design is adopted in the 3-DOF high precision flight simulator. This software can process the position and status signals, and display them on the friendly interface. Double buffer mechanism is adopted in the communication protocol between lower Industrial Personal Computer (IPC) and upper IPC. The series experimental results have verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed hybrid ACO-based PID and LuGre friction compensation controller.     

Enhancement of mechanical strength of TiO2/high-density polyethylene composites for bone repair with silane-coupling treatment

Mechanical properties of composites made up of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and silanated TiO₂ particles for use as a bone-repairing material were investigated in comparison with those of the composites of HDPE with unsilanized TiO₂ particles. The interfacial morphology and interaction between silanated TiO₂ and HDPE were analyzed by means of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The absorption in spectral bands related to the carboxyl bond in the silane-coupling agent, the vinyl group in the HDPE, and the formation of the ether bond was studied in order to assess the influence of the silane-coupling agent. The SEM micrograph showed that the “bridging effect” between HDPE and TiO₂ was brought about by the silane-coupling agent. The use of the silane-coupling agent and the increase of the hot-pressing pressure for shaping the composites facilitated the penetration of polymer into cavities between individual TiO₂ particles, which increased the density of the composite. Therefore, mechanical properties such as bending yield strength and Young's modulus increased from 49 MPa and 7.5 GPa to 65 MPa and 10 GPa, respectively, after the silane-coupling treatment and increase in the hot-pressing pressure.     

AgTaO3 and AgNbO3 thin films by pulsed laser deposition

Silver tantalate AgTaO₃ (ATO) and silver niobate AgNbO₃ (ANO) films have been grown on to the LaAlO₃ (001) and sapphire Al₂O₃ (0112, r-cut) single crystals by pulsed laser deposition technique from stoichiometric ATO and ANO targets. X-ray diffraction study revealed epitaxial quality of ATO and ANO films on the LaAlO₃ (001) whereas on the sapphire r-cut substrate they are preferential (110) and (001) oriented. To characterize microwave films properties in the range from 1 to 40 GHz, coplanar line interdigital capacitors were fabricated by photolithography and lift-off technique. ANO film capacitors show superior properties: frequency dispersion was as low as 13%, voltage tunability (40 V, 200 kV/cm) was about 4.6% at 20 GHz, loss tangent ∼0.106 at 20 GHz, K-factor = tunability / tanδ from 49% @ 10 GHz to 33% at 40 GHz.     

Influence of Ag on TCR and MR of La0.7(Ca0.27Sr0.03)MnO3:Ag0.2 ceramics subjected to cross magnetic fields

In this account, polycrystalline La_0.7(Ca_0.27Sr_0.03)MnO₃:Ag_0.2 (LCSMO:Ag) ceramics were synthesized by the sol-gel method followed by solid-state doping. The Ag amounts doped into grain boundary and cell lattice could be adjusted by changing the sintering temperature from 1000 °C to 1500 °C. The temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) and magnetoresistance (MR) of the obtained LCSMO:Ag ceramics were tested under cross magnetic field with directions parallel and perpendicular to the flat of bulk. The difference between TCR and MR values reached their maxima at sintering temperature of 1450 °C, meaning that degree of lattice distortion reached maximum value. The combined data from X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that Ag was doped into the grain boundary and lattice cell, and Ag played an important role during the process. The influence of Ag-doping on TCR and MR suggested that degree of lattice distortion can be adjusted by doping, leading to change in isotropic ceramics into anisotropic ceramics without damage. Application of parallel magnetic fields shifted the application temperature to room temperature, and response sensitivity of the ceramics to magnetic field further increased. Overall, these findings look promising for future applications in photoelectric and magnetic devices.     

A novel anions and cations co-doped strategy for developing high-performance cobalt-free cathode for intermediate-temperature proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells

The sluggish activity of cathode at intermediate-temperature limits commercialization of proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (H-SOFCs). In this investigation, a novel cathode of Ba_0.95Ca_0.05Fe_0.85Sn_0.05Y_0.1O_2.9−δF_0.1 was successfully developed by co-doping of anion F and cations Ca, Sn, Y. We studied the effect of F⁻-doping on phase structure, electrical conductivity and electrochemical properties of the cell. Compared with Ba_0.95Ca_0.05Fe_0.85Sn_0.05Y_0.1O_3−δ, F⁻-doped Ba_0.95Ca_0.05Fe_0.85Sn_0.05Y_0.1O_3−δ exhibited higher conductivity. Composite cathode consisting of Ba_0.95Ca_0.05Fe_0.85Sn_0.05Y_0.1O_2.9−δF_0.1 and Sm_0.2Ce_0.8O_2−δ was applied in H-SOFCs with BaZr_0.1Ce_0.7Y_0.2O_3−δ electrolyte which achieves an encouraging performance with the maximum power density of 1050 mW cm⁻² and polarization resistance of 0.04 Ω cm² at 700 °C. The result of First-principles calculations based on spin-polarized Density Functional Theory shows that doping of F⁻ reduces the activation energy required for migration of oxygen ions. These results demonstrate that the anions and cations co-doped strategy can provide a new horizon for the cathode in H-SOFCs.     

In-situ investigation of EMC relaxation behavior using piezoresistive stress sensor

The relaxation behavior of an epoxy molding compound (EMC) subjected to a constant strain can cause new reliability challenges in automotive electronics. This problem will be exacerbated due to the ever-increasing demand in modern electronics systems for miniaturization with more functionality, yet it has not been studied extensively to mitigate its effect on reliability. In this study, a piezoresistive silicon-based stress sensor is used to understand the stress state in an electronic control unit (ECU), more specifically the relaxation behavior of EMC caused by the storage time of an ECU (i.e., duration between production and actual usage). Mechanical stresses are measured by the piezoresistive stress sensor that is encapsulated in a standard microelectronic 3 × 3 mm land grid array (LGA) package. The relaxation behavior is observed at three different temperatures for 1 week: 75 °C, 100 °C and 125 °C. The relaxation behavior is measured continuously for one more week after cooling the package to room temperature (at 25 °C). An additional test is conducted at 85 °C with 85% relative humidity to investigate the effect of moisture diffusion on the package. The experimental results clearly indicate that the proposed approach can be used for better understanding of the evolution of stresses in molded packages during their lifetime, especially during storage, which in turn can lead to more optimal designs in the future.     

Self-repairing radix-2 signed-digit adder with multiple error detection,correction, and fault localization

The advent of advanced microelectronic technologies and scale downing into nanometer dimensions has made current digital systems more susceptible to faults and increases the demand for reliable and high-performance computing. Current solutions have so far used the parity prediction scheme to increase reliability and detect fault in adder modules, but they add perceptible area overhead to the circuit. In this paper, we present two new efficient methods for fault detection and localization, in addition to the full error-correction, targeting stack-at and multi-cycle transient (MCT) faults in radix-2 signed-digit adders through a combination of time and hardware redundancy. In this study, we use the self-checking full adder that can identify a fault based on internal functionality to detect any fault in the adder modules. The detection of a fault is followed by input inversion, recomputation, and appropriate output inversion to correct the error and localize the fault. The error-correction method employs fault masking by utilizing the self-dual concept, which is based on the fact that in the presence of a fault, the designed technique results in a fault-free complement of the expected output when fed by the complement of its input operands. In addition, the existence of any fault in the input lines of the adder modules can be identified by low-cost parity checking error-detection approach, and a faulty module can be localized by comparing the faulty output from the first computation with the fault-free output from the recomputation. Based on the experimental results, the area occupied by our designs is approximately 50% that of the area used by previous designs that employ the parity prediction scheme. In addition to the area reduction, our design approaches result in a higher reliability with less power consumption and low time delay.