Effect of Bimodal Grain Size Distribution on the Strain Hardening Behavior of a Medium-Entropy Alloy

The evolution of strain hardening behavior of the Fe_(50)(CoCrMnNi)_(50) medium-entropy alloy as a function of the fraction of recrystallized microstructure and the grain size was studied using the Hollomon and Ludwigson equations.The specimens under study were partially recrystallized,fully recrystallized with ultrafine-grained microstructure,and fully recrystallized with coarse grains.The yield strength decreases steadily as the fraction of recry stallized micro structure and grain size increases due to the recovery process and the Hall-Petch effect.Interestingly,the bimodal grain distribution was found to have a significant impact on strain hardening during plastic deformation.For instance,the highest ultimate tensile strength was exhibited by a 0.97 μm specimen,which was observed to contain a bimodal grain distribution.Furthermore,using the Ludwigson equation,the effect of the bimodal grain distribution was established from the behavior of K_2 and n1 curves.These curves tend to show very high values in the specimens with a bimodal grain distribution compared to those that show a homogenous grain distribution.Additionally,the bimodal grain distribution contributes to the extensive L(u|")ders strain observed in the 0.97 μm specimen,which induces a significant deviation of the Hollomon equation at lower strains.     

The P-graph approach for systematic synthesis of wastewater treatment networks

Wastewater treatment consists of three or four sequential stages: preliminary, primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each stage can comprise multiple alternative technologies that can perform the same tasks with different efficiencies, operating times, and costs. Thus, we propose a systematic approach for designing wastewater treatment networks by utilizing principles of mathematical modeling and generating an exhaustive enumeration of all the possible technologies and their connections during the early stages of designing a treatment facility. Some of these structures are nonintuitive and include recycling, reprocessing, bypasses, and multiple technologies in parallel or series to remove the same contaminant. The nonintuitive structures with multiple technologies may provide a measure of resilience compared to typical heuristic designs. Thus, the combination of P-graph methodology and the sequence of treatment technologies predicted via the optimization algorithm from the maximal structure is based on holistic considerations and does not lead to suboptimal solutions.     

Single chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells selective electrodes: A real chance with brownmillerite-based nanocomposites

In this contribution brownmillerite-based nanocomposite cathode for Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells is developed. These cells can be very attractive especially for small and cheap devices because of the absence of seals. The efficiency of SC-SOFCs is strictly connected to the selectivity of anode and cathode, the bottleneck for this technology. The development of a cathode inert in fuel oxidation is particularly challenging. Our strategy is to start from a catalytically un-active support (CFA = Ca₂FeAl_0.95Mg_0.05O₅) and induce the formation of iron oxide based nanoparticles, expected to activate oxygen. Symmetric (CFA + FeO_x/CGO/CFA + FeO_x) and complete cells (CFA + FeO_x/CGO/Ni-CGO) are studied in air and methane/oxygen 2:1 mixture. The Area Specific Resistance of CFA + FeO_x is less than 1/3 that of CFA. The high selectivity allows to reach an efficiency of 25%; power still needs to be increased but we demonstrated the possibility to develop selective low cost electrodes. The effect of air, methane/oxygen exposure and the heat treatments were carefully investigated.     

Optical properties of gadolinia-doped cubic yttria stabilized zirconia single crystals

Cubic zirconia single crystals stabilized with yttria and doped with Gd₂O₃ (0.10–5.00 mol%) were prepared by the optical floating zone method, and characterized by a combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis), photoluminescence excitation (PLE) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopic techniques. XRD and Raman spectroscopy showed that the crystal samples were all in the cubic phase, whereas the ceramic sample consisted of a mixture of monoclinic and cubic phases. The absorption spectrum showed four peaks at 245, 273, 308, and 314 nm in the ultraviolet region, and the optical band gap differed between samples with ≤3.00 mol% and those with >3.00 mol% Gd₂O₃. The emission spectrum showed a weak peak at 308 nm and a strong peak at 314 nm, which are attributed to the ⁶P_5/2 → ⁸S_7/2 and ⁶P_7/2 → ⁸S_7/2 transitions of Gd³⁺, respectively. The intensities of the peaks in the excitation and emission spectra increased with Gd³⁺ concentration, reached a maximum at 2.00 mol%, then decreased with higher concentrations. This quenching is considered to be the result of the electric dipole-dipole interactions, and this interpretation is supported by the Gd³⁺ EPR spectra, which showed progressive broadening with increasing Gd³⁺ concentration throughout the concentration range investigated.     

Influence of Organic Carbon Sources on Metal Removal from Mine Impacted Water Using Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria Bioreactors in Cold Climates

Mine Water and the Environment - Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a major environmental challenge for the mining industry in northern climates. Laboratory-scale experiments were conducted to test...     

Efficient half-precision floating point multiplier targeting color space conversion

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Color Space Conversion (CSC) in image processing applications, demands computationally simple floating point multipliers consuming less area and power. This...     

Hydrolytic degradation of poly(l‐lactic acid)/poly(methyl methacrylate) blends

The hydrolytic degradation of poly(l ‐lactic acid)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PLLA/PMMA) blends was carried out by the immersion of thin films in buffer solutions (pH = 7.24) in a shaking water bath at 60 °C for 38 days. The PLA/PMMA blends (0/100; 30/70; 50/50; 70/30; 100/0) were obtained by melt blending using a Brabender internal mixer and shaped into thin films of about 150 µm in thickness. Considering that PMMA does not undergo hydrolytic degradation, that of PLLA was followed via evolution of PLA molecular weight (recorded by size exclusion chromatography), thermal parameters (differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)) and morphology of the films (scanning transmission electron microscopy). The results reveal a completely different degradation pathway of the blends depending on the polymethacrylate/polyester weight ratio. DSC data suggest that, during hydrolysis at higher PMMA content, the polyester amorphous chains, more sensitive to water, are degraded before being able to crystallize, while at higher PLLA content, the crystallization is favoured leading to a sample more resistant to hydrolysis. In other words, and quite unexpectedly, increasing the content of water‐sensitive PLLA in the PLLA/PMMA blends does not mean de facto faster hydrolytic degradation of the resulting materials. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry