Complex study of protective Cr3C2–NiAl coatings deposited by vacuum electro-spark alloying,pulsed cathodic arc evaporation,magnetron sputtering,and hybrid technology

Coatings were obtained by vacuum electro-spark alloying (VESA), pulsed cathodic arc evaporation (PCAE), magnetron sputtering (MS) techniques and VESA-PCAE-MS hybrid technology using Cr₃C₂–NiAl electrodes. The structure of the coatings was analyzed using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Mechanical properties were determined by nanoindentation, while tribological properties were assessed using pin-on-disk tribometer. Corrosion resistance was estimated by voltammetry in 1 N H₂SO₄ and 3.5%NaCl solutions. Oxidation resistance tests were performed at 800°С in air. The VESA coating had the highest thickness, low friction coefficient and high wear resistance. PCAE coating demonstrated the highest hardness (24 GPa) and elastic recovery (59%), oxidation resistance and superior corrosion resistance both in 1 N H₂SO₄ (i_corr = 70 μА/cm²) and 3.5%NaCl (i_corr = 0.74 μА/cm²) solutions. The MS coating had average mechanical properties and low corrosion current density (71 μА/cm²) in 1 N H₂SO₄. Deposition of coatings using VESA-PCAE-MS hybrid technology led to an increase in corrosion and oxidation resistance at least by 1.5 times in comparison with the VESA coating.     

Emergency egress for the elderly in care home fire situations

Practitioners are continuing to develop egress modelling software for the design of the built environment. These models require data about human behaviour and factors for calibration, validation and verification. This study aims to address the specific data and knowledge gap: emergency egress of the elderly. Such data are difficult to collect given privacy and consent concerns, with strong relationships generally being required between residences and researchers. Through the observation of nine fire drills at six Canadian long-term care (LTC) and retirement homes, specific evacuation actions and behaviour were observed for 37 staff members and information about the evacuation of 56 residents was collected. These drills demonstrated that emergency egress in LTC and retirement homes is highly staff dependent with 72% of residents recorded requiring full assistance at all stages of movement in evacuation, and that the type of announced/unannounced drill and level of resident care will affect the type of data collected. The development of travel speed and pre-movement is discussed subject to limitation with qualitative behavioural insights of residents that were observed. This study provides valuable methodological discussion on how to conduct behavioural studies in similar highly restricted research environments. Specific attention is given to understanding the considerations that must be made when using fire drills as data sources, and the impact that these can have on using such data for modelling. This study may inform the initial setup and programming of evacuation models from an actions and behavioural perspectives of staff members and residents.     

Engineering egress data considering pedestrians with reduced mobility

To quantify the evacuation process, evacuation practitioners use engineering egress data describing the occupant movement characteristics. These data are typically based to young and fit populations. However, the movement abilities of occupants who might be involved in evacuations are becoming more variable—with the building populations of today typically including increasing numbers of individuals: with impairments or who are otherwise elderly or generally less mobile. Thus, there will be an increasing proportion of building occupants with reduced ability to egress. For safe evacuation, there is therefore a need to provide valid engineering egress data considering pedestrians with disabilities. Gwynne and Boyce recently compiled a series of data sets related to the evacuation process to support practitioner activities in the chapter Engineering Data in the SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. This paper supplements these data sets by providing information on and presenting data obtained from additional research related to the premovement and horizontal movement of participants with physical‐, cognitive‐, or age‐related disabilities. The aim is to provide an overview of currently available data sets related to, and key factors affecting the egress performance of, mixed ability populations which could be used to guide fire safety engineering decisions in the context of building design.     

An automated treatment planning strategy for highly noncoplanar radiotherapy arc trajectories

Radiation therapy is a technology-driven cancer treatment modality that has experienced significant advances over the last decades, due to multidisciplinary contributions that include engineering and computing. Recent technological developments allow the use of noncoplanar volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), one of the most recent photon treatment techniques, in clinical practice. In this work, an automated noncoplanar arc trajectory optimization framework designed in two modular phases is presented. First, a noncoplanar beam angle optimization algorithm is used to obtain a set of noncoplanar irradiation directions. Then, anchored in these directions, an optimization strategy is proposed to compute an optimal arc trajectory. The computational experiments considered a pool of twelve difficult head-and-neck tumor cases. It was possible to observe that, for some of these cases, the optimized noncoplanar arc trajectories led to significant treatment planning quality improvements, when compared with coplanar VMAT treatment plans. Although these experiments were done in a research environment treatment planning software (matRad), the conclusions can be of interest for a clinical setting: automated procedures can simplify the current treatment workflow, produce high-quality treatment plans, making better use of human resources and allowing for unbiased comparisons between different treatment techniques.     

Contribution of metal vapor mass at periphery part of pulsed arc to electromagnetic force in weld pool

The arc welding has been used in various welding methods because it is inexpensive and high in strength after welding. However, it is a problem that accidents such as collapse of the bridge occur because of the welding defects. The welding of low cost and high productivity is required without the welding defects. The pulsed TIG welding is inexpensive and capable of high‐quality welding. The electromagnetic force contributing to penetration changes because the transient response of arc temperature and iron vapor generated from anode occurs. However, the analysis of pulsed TIG welding with metal vapor has been elucidated only metal vapor concentration near anode with transient phenomenon and heat flux. Thus, the theoretical elucidation of penetration depth with control factor has not been researched. In this paper, the contribution of metal vapor mass at the periphery part of pulsed arc to the electromagnetic force in the weld pool is elucidated. As a result, the iron vapor mass at periphery part decreased with increasing the frequency. The iron vapor was stagnated at axial center within one cycle. The electromagnetic force to the penetration depth direction in weld pool increased at axial center. Therefore, the metal vapor mass at periphery part plays an important role for the electromagnetic force increment at axial center.     

荔浦市岩质崩塌形成条件及失稳运动特征

通过对荔浦市境内碳酸盐岩区岩质崩塌及该区域地质环境条件的调查,总结了岩质崩塌的规模、发育高度、控制结构面等发育特征,分析了岩质崩塌形成条件,并判断岩质崩塌的失稳运动特征。本文以一处危岩为例,用无人机进行三维扫描并分析其形成原因及预测其失稳运动特征。     

悬浮于润滑油中的颗粒运动分析及其对油膜压力的影响

对含有固体颗粒的局部润滑流域建立格子Boltzmann(LBM)离散模型,分析固体颗粒在润滑油中的动力学特性;考虑颗粒形状的影响,推导计入单个固体颗粒运动的润滑方程,并分析得到油膜压力;将油膜流动特性与颗粒动力学计算相结合,分析不同形状的颗粒运动对于油膜压力的影响。分析发现,当颗粒进入润滑油后,经过很短的瞬时颗粒就会达到一个瞬态稳定的状态,无论颗粒在油膜厚度方向的初始位置位于两壁面之间的中线上侧还是下侧,颗粒都会向中线位置移动;当颗粒速度为0时对于油膜压力的影响较大,随着颗粒速度逐渐增大,颗粒对于油膜压力的影响逐渐减小;当颗粒的宽度在油膜厚度方向相同时,长宽比越大的颗粒对于油膜压力的影响也越大;当颗粒长轴相等时,颗粒在油膜厚度方向的宽度越大,则其对于油膜压力的影响也越大,即颗粒形状对于油膜流动的阻碍能力越强,则其对于油膜压力的影响越大。     

Apparent power-law distributions in animal movements can arise from intraspecific interactions

Lévy flights have gained prominence for analysis of animal movement. In a Lévy flight, step-lengths are drawn from a heavy-tailed distribution such as a power law (PL), and a large number of empirical demonstrations have been published. Others, however, have suggested that animal movement is ill fit by PL distributions or contend a state-switching process better explains apparent Lévy flight movement patterns. We used a mix of direct behavioural observations and GPS tracking to understand step-length patterns in females of two related butterflies. We initially found movement in one species (Euphydryas editha taylori) was best fit by a bounded PL, evidence of a Lévy flight, while the other (Euphydryas phaeton) was best fit by an exponential distribution. Subsequent analyses introduced additional candidate models and used behavioural observations to sort steps based on intraspecific interactions (interactions were rare in E. phaeton but common in E. e. taylori). These analyses showed a mixed-exponential is favoured over the bounded PL for E. e. taylori and that when step-lengths were sorted into states based on the influence of harassing conspecific males, both states were best fit by simple exponential distributions. The direct behavioural observations allowed us to infer the underlying behavioural mechanism is a state-switching process driven by intraspecific interactions rather than a Lévy flight.     

Q690钢焊接接头微观组织对冷裂纹的影响研究

分析了Q690钢手工电弧焊与气体保护焊焊接冷裂纹产生与微观组织的联系。结果表明: 焊接冷裂纹起源于斜Y坡口根部, 沿熔合区、焊缝扩展至焊缝表面;2种工艺焊接的接头组织硬度均较母材高, 而塑性较差。热影响区为马氏体、贝氏体与铁素体混合组织, 焊缝组织由先共析铁素体、侧板条铁素体、贝氏体和针状铁素体等组成, 针状铁素体抗裂纹扩展能力较其他组织强。在2种焊接方法对应断口中观察到了冷裂纹起裂、扩展与断裂区的不同形貌, 起裂与扩展区存在塑性变形, 而断裂区为解理断裂。     

地表移动带范围内建构筑物安全可靠性分析

地表建构筑物位于在生产矿山地表开采移动范围内，如果按照一般圈定地表移动范围原则判断建构筑物的安全可靠性，结果是不安全或者预留保安矿柱可保证安全。为分析地表移动带范围内建构筑物安全可靠性，采用FLAC3D软件建立数值模拟模型，对矿区地表移动进行分析研究，并结合建构筑物的破坏等级评判标准，可以更加合理地判断地表移动范围内建构筑物的安全可靠性，对存在相似条件的矿山具有一定的借鉴意义。