Synthesis and characterization of novel diimide–dinaphthols and resulting poly(urethane–imide)s

Novel diols containing imide groups were prepared via condensation of aromatic dianhydrides with 5‐amino‐1‐naphthol. The diimide–dinaphthols prepared were characterized by conventional methods and used to synthesize new poly(urethane–imide)s (PUIs). All the polymers were characterized and their physical properties, such as solubility, solution viscosity, thermal stability, and thermal behaviour were studied. The polymers obtained showed more thermal stability than typical polyurethanes because of the presence of the imide groups. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

An architecture framework for an adaptive extensible processor

To improve the performance of embedded processors, an effective technique is collapsing critical computation subgraphs as application-specific instruction set extensions and executing them on custom functional units. The problem with this approach is the immense cost and the long times required to design a new processor for each application. As a solution to this issue, we propose an adaptive extensible processor in which custom instructions (CIs) are generated and added after chip-fabrication. To support this feature, custom functional units are replaced by a reconfigurable matrix of functional units (FUs). A systematic quantitative approach is used for determining the appropriate structure of the reconfigurable functional unit (RFU). We also introduce an integrated framework for generating mappable CIs on the RFU. Using this architecture, performance is improved by up to 1.33, with an average improvement of 1.16, compared to a 4-issue in-order RISC processor. By partitioning the configuration memory, detecting similar/subset CIs and merging small CIs, the size of the configuration memory is reduced by 40%.     

Electrochemical study of effect of the concentration of azole derivatives on corrosion behavior of stainless steel in H2SO4

In order to improve corrosion resistance of the stainless steel structures exposed to acidic media, a variety of corrosion inhibitors particularly organic ones have been examined. In this work, the corrosion inhibition performance of two azole derivatives namely benzotriazole and benzothiazole on stainless steel in 1 M sulfuric acid was studied through taking advantage of electrochemical techniques as well as SEM surface analysis. Revealing effectiveness of the two inhibitors, the AC impedance spectra indicated no change in corrosion mechanism. The noise resistance and average current density as parameters extracted from electrochemical noise measurements revealed the direct proportion of inhibition function to the inhibitor concentration. In accordance with the polarization curves, benzotriazole and benzothiazole appeared to act as mixed type inhibitors. The adsorption of the two corrosion inhibitors was shown to obey Langmuir isotherm. Moreover, it was deduced from the isotherm that the type of adsorption can be physical and chemical in nature. The corrosion damage mitigation was also confirmed through SEM in the presence of benzothiazole.     

Investigations of the Failure in Boilers Economizer Tubes Used in Power Plants

In this study, failure of a high pressure economizer tube of a boiler used in gas-Mazut combined cycle power plants was studied. Failure analysis of the tube was accomplished by taking into account visual inspection, thickness measurement, and hardness testing as well as microstructural observations using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Optical microscopy images indicate that there is no phase transformation during service, and ferrite-pearlite remained. The results of XRD also revealed Iron sulfate (FeSO₄) and Iron hydroxide sulfate (FeOH(SO₄)) phases formed on the steel surface. A considerable amount of Sulfur was also detected on the outer surface of the tube by EDS analysis. Dew-point corrosion was found to be the principal reason for the failure of the examined tube while it has been left out-of-service.     

Novel thermally stable poly(ether imide ester)s from 2,6‐bis (4‐aminophenoxy) pyridine

2,6‐Bis (4‐aminophenoxy) pyridine was prepared via reaction of 4‐aminophenol with 2,6‐dichloropyridine in the presence of potassium carbonate in N‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidone (NMP). This pyridine‐based ether diamine was reacted with two moles of trimellitic anhydride to synthesize related diimide‐diacid (DIDA). A high temperature solution polycondensation reaction of DIDA with different diols in the presence of triethylamine hydrochloride in dichlorobenzene resulted in different poly(ether imide ester)s. The monomer and polymers were fully characterized, and the physical and thermal properties of the polymers were studied. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 570–576, 2005     

Investigation of Crosstalk and Coupling Effects of Incident Plane Waves in Orthogonal Microstrips in High-Speed Integrated Circuits Using Full-Wave and Quasi-Static Methods

The crosstalk and coupling of the external fields on orthogonal microstrip transmission lines in different layers have significant effects on signal quality in MMIC and PCBs. In this paper the crosstalk is analyzed in detail using both full-wave and quasi-static methods. The used full wave method is mixed potential integral equation method of moment (MPIEMoM). Because of the weak coupling between lines, the effect of the incident plane-wave is studied by applying transmission line theory in a scattered voltage formulation uses quasi-TEM propagation model for each interconnection and the exact distribution of the incident electric field within the layers. Afterward, by using the predetermined lumped circuit model of the cross-region, the effect of coupling between two lines is calculated and then applied to terminal voltages in 1–20 GHz frequency range which results in the final terminal voltages.     

Anticorrosion properties of an epoxy zinc-rich composite coating reinforced with zinc,aluminum, and iron oxide pigments

The effects of lamellar aluminum (Al) and micaceous iron oxide (MIO) pigments on the anticorrosion properties of an epoxy zinc-rich coating were studied. To this end, the epoxy zinc-rich coatings containing 70% w/w spherical Zn particles, 60% w/w Zn + 10% w/w MIO, and 60% w/w Zn + 10% w/w Al were prepared. The electrochemical noise (ECN), potentiostatic polarization technique, and salt spray test were employed in order to investigate the anticorrosion performances of the zinc-rich coatings. The zinc-rich coatings morphologies were studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM) before and after the salt spray test. The open-circuit potential values were also measured at different immersion times. Results showed that MIO particles could enhance the cathodic protection duration of the zinc-rich coating by enhancing its barrier properties and reducing the zinc particles oxidation rate. It was also shown that Al particles reduced zinc-rich coating sacrificial behavior at short immersion times and increased it at long immersion times. Unlike MIO particles, Al particles behaved both as barrier and sacrificial pigment.     

Identifying Periodical Activities Independent of Video Content

In this research, a completely new and accurate method has been presented for detecting periodic activities with the help of machine vision. The proposed method is independent of motion tracking complex algorithms unlike the previous strategies and it is fully independent of contents and types of activities by performing low level calculation. Not using of heavy computations while improving the ability of periodicity detection is regarded as the unique feature of this method. The use of general and flexible framework in this method causes to facilitate the machine vision periodic activities identification process.