Effect of Boron and Heat Treatment on Mechanical Properties of White Cast Iron for Mining Application

 Heat treatment methods were applied to white cast iron for improving the impact and wear resistance. Additionally, chemical composition optimization was made. Furthermore, the effect of boron addition on such applications was investigated. Samples were investigated by using optical and electron microscope methods. Hardness, wear and impact tests were conducted. The results showed that the secondary carbides in the standard alloy were iron-enriched, needle-like carbides M3C when the boron-added alloy contained Fe23(C,B)6 type, globular secondary carbides. It was concluded that heat treatment B provided higher wear and hardness properties, compared to the standard heat treatment. Optimum mechanical properties were obtained by lower destabilisation temperatures and increasing temperature reduced the wear resistance and hardness.     

Synthesis and photopolymerization of novel,highly reactive phosphonated-urea-methacrylates for dental materials

An urea methacrylate (1) and two phosphonated methacrylates (2–3) were synthesized from 2-isocyanatoethyl methacrylate (IEM) and benzyl amine (1), diethyl aminomethylphosphonate (2) and diethyl amino(phenyl)methylphosphonate (3). Their photopolymerization rates are notably higher than commercial monomers, despite the presence of only one double bond. Their polymerization rates follow the order 1 ～ 2 > 3 ～ triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) > 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). A tendency toward high crosslinking density during thermal bulk polymerizations, low oxygen sensitivity and high conversions with benzophenone during photopolymerization indicated the importance of hydrogen abstraction/chain transfer reactions. It was found that the addition of the monomers to HEMA significantly increased its polymerization rate, proving their utility as replacements for TEGDMA as reactive diluents for 2,2-bis[4-(2-hydroxy-3-methacryloyloxy propyloxy) phenyl] propane (Bis-GMA). Copolymer systems containing 2 and 3 showed improved T_g values compared to Bis-GMA/TEGDMA systems.     

The Case of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline System: A Review

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Main Export Oil Pipeline Project (MEP) is one of the very good demonstrations of how governments could come together for the same purpose and could promote the realization of the specific project. The BTC project, being the first leg of the East-West Energy Corridor and once treated as a “dream project” by some group of experts, has now almost turned in to a physical entity. Until now, detailed project studies confirmed the project is well within its previously estimated budget of 1.427 billion USD for the Turkish section of the pipeline. The next phase will be the Land Acquisition and Construction Phase, which will take 32 months onwards. BTC-MEP has a maximum capacity of 50 million tons/year (1 million barrels/year) and a total length of 1,743 km.     

Neuroscience and architecture: What does the brain tell to an emotional experience of architecture via a functional MR study?

Environment psychologically affects individuals. According to the base of cognitive psychology, there is a direct relationship between human behavior, environment, and emotional process. Assuming that pleasantness and unpleasantness are associated with peripheral nervous system activation, the current study aims to explore if the pleasant or unpleasant architectural places can stimulate the brain regions engaged in emotions or not. As the main contribution, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measuring blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) changes to effectively detect the brain's region that mainly responds to the emotional-perceptual processes. Based on the results of examining the emotional assessment model of “Pleasure-Arousal” applied to 140 students, 30 most-rated images representing 15 pleasant and 15 unpleasant places were shown to 32 participants in a 1.5-T MRI scanner. After applying standard preprocessing steps (re-alignment, slice-timing, co-registration, segmentation, normalization, and smoothing) to functional MR images, first-level analysis was applied to each subject. The results were evaluated using statistical corrections at different levels for female and male participants with the second-level analysis. In conclusion, it has been shown that there is a significant linkage between environmental experience and brain activation so that the architectural qualities can change blood flow in specific brain regions.     

Model-based testing for software safety: a systematic mapping study

Testing safety-critical systems is crucial since a failure or malfunction may result in death or serious injuries to people, equipment, or environment. An important challenge in testing is the derivation of test cases that can identify the potential faults. Model-based testing adopts models of a system under test and/or its environment to derive test artifacts. This paper aims to provide a systematic mapping study to identify, analyze, and describe the state-of-the-art advances in model-based testing for software safety. The systematic mapping study is conducted as a multi-phase study selection process using the published literature in major software engineering journals and conference proceedings. We reviewed 751 papers and 36 of them have been selected as primary studies to answer our research questions. Based on the analysis of the data extraction process, we discuss the primary trends and approaches and present the identified obstacles. This study shows that model-based testing can provide important benefits for software safety testing. Several solution directions have been identified, but further research is critical for reliable model-based testing approach for safety.     

Investigation of dual phase transformation of commercial low alloy steels: Effect of holding time at low inter-critical annealing temperatures

Dual phase steels are a class of steels characterized by a microstructure consisting of a soft ferrite matrix with hard martensite islands at the grain boundaries. The temperature in the dual phase (α + γ) region and the holding time are two important parameters in the intercritically annealing process. In this study, different grades of commercial low alloy steels have been heat treated to a constant annealing temperature by changing the holding time. It is observed that the effect of holding time is dependent on the steel composition. In this context, a microstructural examination has been carried out using optical, scanning electron microscope and electron probe micro-analysis and hardness values have been determined.     

Effect of Intercritical Annealing Parameters on Dual Phase Behavior of Commercial Low-Alloyed Steels

 It is known that dual phase (DP) heat treatments and alloying elements have a strong effect on martensitic transformations and mechanical properties. In the present work, the effects of some intercritical annealing parameters (heating rate, soaking temperature, soaking time, and quench media) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of cold rolled DP steel were studied. The microstructure of specimens quenched after each annealing stage, was analyzed using optical microscopy. The tensile properties, determined for specimens submitted to complete annealing cycles, are influenced by the volume fractions of multi phases (originated from martensite, bainite and retained austenite), which depend on annealing processing parameters. The results obtained showed that the yield strength (YS) and the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) increase with the increasing intercritical temperature and cooling rate. This can be explained by higher martensite volume ratio with the increased volume fraction of austenite formed at the higher temperatures and cooling rates. The experimental data also showed that, for the annealing cycles carried out, higher UTS values than ~ 800 MPa could be obtained with the S3 steel grade.