Friction and wear characteristics of powder metallurgy copper-graphite brushes at high sliding speeds

Friction experiments using several commercial powder metallurgy copper-graphite brushes against an AISI 4340 steel rotor were conducted at sliding velocities ranging from 20 to 235 m s^?1. The measured wear rates ranged from a minimum of 4.3 × 10^?5 cm km^?1 at a sliding velocity of 100 m s^?1 for a brush with high graphite content to a maximum of 8.4 × 10^?3 cm km^?1 at a sliding velocity of 230 m s^?1 for a brush with high metal content. The coefficients of friction ranged from a minimum of about 0.08 to a maximum of about 0.47 and were greatly affected by the presence of oxide layers at the sliding interface. Almost all the brushes exhibited some degree of edge breaking. The velocity at which edge breaking occurred was dependent on the powder grain size. Brushes with a large grain size seem to exhibit edge breaking at a lower speed than brushes with a fine grain size. High interface temperatures which occur at high sliding speeds result in melting of the lead-tin binders used in most powder copper-graphite brushes.     

Study of thin surfactant films under shear using the tribological surface force apparatus

Static and dynamic behaviour of thin surfactant films in aqueous solution of hexadecyltrimethylammonium salicylate (C16TASal) were investigated using the tribological surface force apparatus. Normal force measurements show that 0.15 mM C16TASal builds up an innermost film of approximately 8–11 Å thickness at each mica surface, indicating that the surfactant adsorbs in a flat conformation. Furthermore, the height of the force barrier at approximately 60Å is low (ca 2 mN/m) indicating that the second adsorbed layer is easily pushed out. Addition of salicylate salt to 0.15 mM C16TASal give rise to a more close packed structure, with a total thickness of 62–65 Å, indicative of a micellar or bilayer arrangement at the surfaces. Furthermore, the frequency dependence of the shear modulus was investigated both at close separation at the innermost force barrier and at larger separations (up to 300–400 Å). The visco-elastic measurements show that the elasticity modulus, G′, dominates over the loss modulus, G″, for all studied cases, indicative of a more solid-like than liquid-like film. Finally, it is shown that shear at high contact pressures induces new aggregate structures at the surface.     

Elevated temperature erosion-corrosion of 9Cr-1Mo steel

The combined erosion-corrosion behavior of 9Cr-1Mo steel (where the composition is in approximate weight per cent) was determined at 850°C using a stream of air and Al₂O₃ particles, 130 μm in diameter, from a nozzle at velocities from 10 to 70 m s⁻¹ at two impact angles, α = 30° and α = 90°. The mechanism of surface degradation and the rates of sound metal loss were determined. Corrosion was the dominant mechanism at all the velocities tested. It was determined that at α = 90° there was a change in the scale loss mechanism at about 30 m s⁻¹ from cracking and chipping to periodic spalling. The spalling increased the sound metal loss rates at the higher velocities. At an impact angle α = 30° the erosion mechanism and rates and the resulting scale morphologies were considerably different from those which occurred at α = 90°.     

Friction of molybdenum disulfide–titanium films under cryogenic vacuum conditions

The tribological behavior of steel and sapphire sliding on a sputtered MoS₂+Ti coating was studied in ultra-high vacuum as a function of temperature over the range of 4–300 K. The coefficient of kinetic friction for the steel/moly interface was determined to be approximately 0.05 from room temperature to 240 K, and increased monotonically to 0.125 at 4 K. The sapphire/moly friction coefficient was measured to be 0.15±0.05 at room temperature and increased monotonically to 0.25 at 4 K. We also analyze in detail the flash temperature due to frictional heating at the sliding contacts. Flash heating is a particularly strong effect at cryogenic temperatures.     

Fretting at high temperatures

The fretting damage to an austenitic stainless steel, type 321, in CO₂ is much reduced at temperatures above 400°C by the formation of a glaze type oxide. Increasing the normal pressure from 2 to 6.9 MN m⁻² at 650°C greatly increased the extent and quality of the glaze. The nickel-based alloy, Inconel 718, developed glaze oxide when fretted at 540°C in air, as indicated by a low coefficient of friction and wear rate. At 280°C, the glaze was only found at greater amplitudes of slip. Although the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V in air at 200 to 400°C developed a surface oxide which had some of the superficial features of a glaze, it nevertheless did not reduce the coefficient of friction to values characteristic of glaze. The common feature of high-temperature alloys which develop protective glaze oxides is that they are capable under conditions of sliding and fretting of forming a spinel type oxide which, however, must be adequately supported by a creep-resistant substrate at the operating temperature     

Installation for air cleaning from organic impurities by plasma formed by barrier discharge of nanosecond duration

A prototype installation for air cleaning by plasma, which consists of a barrier-type discharge reactor and a high-voltage nanosecond-pulse supply generator, which is based on drift step recovery diodes, is considered. A stable corona-type barrier discharge was obtained at a 3-kHz supply-pulse repetition frequency. The discharge remained nonlocalized even at a small gas-discharge gap (∼6 mm) due to a short (∼25 ns) pulse duration, which allows a quite uniform effect on the air flow. The high rise rate (∼6 kV/ns) of the applied supply voltage pulses determines the high voltage amplitude (∼25 kV) at the reactor at the breakdown moment and allows maintenance of high electric-field intensity and a high intensity of plasma chemical processes. Thus, an electrical power lower than 8 W is required at the reactor input to produce 1 g of ozone per hour. The concentration of methylmercaptan in air during waste-water smell deodorizing at State Unitary Enterprise “Vodokanal of St. Petersburg” was reduced down to an allowable level of 0.5 mg/m³ at the electrical power consumption no higher than 0.25 W per cubic meter of air.     

A nanosecond optical parametric oscillator in the mid-IR region with double-pass pump

An optical parametric oscillator (OPO) with double-pass pump based on MgO:PPLN and PPLN periodic structures is described. A compact nanosecond Nd:YLF laser has been used as a pump source at 1.053 μm (the pumping pulse duration is 5–7 ns at a maximum pulse energy of 300 μJ at frequencies of 1–7 kHz). The oscillation threshold of the OPO based on MgO:PPLN was varied in a range of 11–28 μJ at wavelength of 2.1–4.3 μm. The conversion efficiency from the pump wave to an idler wave decreased from 8.6 to 2.5% in the range of 2.0–4.3 μm. For PPLN-OPO the measured threshold was 36 μJ at 4.2 μm and 49 μJ at 4.7 μm. The conversion efficiency of the pump energy into the energy of an idler wave was 3.3μ-0.4% at wavelengths of 4.2–4.7 μm.     

An enhanced real-time dynamic imbalance correction for precision rotors

Even a moderate mass imbalance of a high-precision rotor produces a significant level of vibration when it spins at high revolutionary speed such as 10,000 rpm or faster. As a result, many attempts have been made for the development of dynamic rotor balancing methods mostly by the precision mechanical system industry; however, intensive studies about the fundamental principles from a theoretical point of view should be carried out further. In the present paper, a new dual axes dynamic imbalance correction method is introduced and tested through simulations. The proposed method is more efficient and effective than its predecessors. This paper was presented at the 4th Asian Conference on Multibody Dynamics(ACMD2008), Jeju, Korea, August 20–23, 2008. Jung Kwan Lee is currently a masteral student in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University Korea. He received his B.S. degree from Sungkyunkwan University. His primary research interests are rotor design, analysis, and rotor dynamics. Hyungpil Moon received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 2005. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. He joined the faculty of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University in 2008. Dongho Oh received his Ph.D. degree from KAIST in 1996. He worked as a Principal En-gineer of Samsung Electronics and SAIT. Dr. Oh is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Chungnam National University. Ja Choon Koo is an associate professor of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University Korea. He was an engineer at IBM Corporation, San Jose, California. He received his Ph.D from the University of Texas at Austin. His primary research interests are analysis, and control of dynamic systems, mechatronics, sensors, and actuators.     

Laminar flow past a sphere rotating in the transverse direction

Laminar flow past a sphere rotating in the transverse direction is numerically investigated in order to understand the effect of the rotation on the characteristics of flow over the sphere. Numerical simulations are performed at Re = 100, 250 and 300, where the Reynolds number is based on the free-stream velocity and the sphere diameter. The rotational speeds considered are in the range of 0 ≤ ω* ≤ 1.2, where ω* is the maximum velocity on the sphere surface normalized by the free-stream velocity. Without rotation, the flow past a sphere experiences steady axisymmetry, steady planar-symmetry, and unsteady planar-symmetry, respectively, at Re = 100, 250 and 300. With rotation, however, the flow becomes planar-symmetric for all the cases investigated, and the symmetry plane of flow is orthogonal to the rotational direction. Also, the rotation affects the flow unsteadiness, and its effect depends on the rotational speed and the Reynolds number. The flow is steady irrespective of the rotational speed at Re = 100, whereas at Re = 250 and 300 it undergoes a sequence of transitions between steady and unsteady flows with increasing ω*. As a result, the characteristics of vortex shedding and vortical structures in the wake are significantly modified by the rotation at Re = 250 and 300. For example, at Re = 300, vortex shedding occurs at low values of ω*, but it is completely suppressed at ω* = 0.04 and 0.6. Interestingly, at ω* = 1 and 1.2, unsteady vortices are newly generated in the wake due to the shear layer instability. The critical rotational speed, at which the shear layer instability begins to occur, is shown to be higher at Re = 250 than at Re = 300. This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Dongshin Shin Dongjoo Kim is an associate professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Kumoh National Institute of Technology. His research interests include computational fluid dynamics, bluff-body wakes, and control of turbulent flows. He has a PhD in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University. He is a member of the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.     

A pixel 21-channel drift chamber

The design of the pixel chamber is described, and the results of investigation of its characteristics are presented. The spatial resolution averaged over a cell of the pixel chamber is 0.9 mm at a beam intensity of up to 10⁶ s^?1 and becomes equal to 1.1 mm at an intensity of 5 × 10⁶ s^?1. The chamber efficiency is ～90% at a beam intensity of 10^?1 and decreases to 75% at 5 × 10⁶ s^?1.     

Friction of molybdenum disulfide-titanium films under cryogenic vacuum conditions

The tribological behavior of steel and sapphire sliding on a sputtered MoS₂+Ti coating was studied in ultra-high vacuum as a function of temperature over the range of 4-300 K. The coefficient of kinetic friction for the steel/moly interface was determined to be approximately 0.05 from room temperature to 240 K, and increased monotonically to 0.125 at 4 K. The sapphire/moly friction coefficient was measured to be 0.15±0.05 at room temperature and increased monotonically to 0.25 at 4 K. We also analyze in detail the flash temperature due to frictional heating at the sliding contacts. Flash heating is a particularly strong effect at cryogenic temperatures.     

Fretting corrosion of lubricated tin plated copper alloy contacts: Effect of temperature

The fretting corrosion behaviour of lubricated tin plated copper alloy contacts at ambient and elevated temperatures is addressed in this paper. At 27 °C, lubrication is very effective and the contact resistance remains stable for several thousand fretting cycles whereas at elevated temperatures (155 °C) the performance of lubricated contact is not appreciable. Surface profile and surface roughness confirm that the lubricated contacts have a smoother profile and experience a lesser damage at the contact zone at ambient as well as at elevated temperatures. The mechanism of fretting corrosion of tin plated contacts appears to be similar with and without lubrication at all the temperatures studied. The difference in performance of the lubricated contacts at ambient and elevated temperatures is due to the faster wear rate of tin coating at elevated temperatures. Oxidation of the contact zone of the lubricated contacts is prevented at all temperatures studied. The study concludes that lubrication is effective in improving the life of the tin plated copper alloy contacts under fretting conditions at ambient temperatures whereas at elevated temperatures lubrication provides only a marginal improvement in performance. The decrease in performance of lubricated tin plated contacts at elevated temperatures is due to the higher wear rate of tin coating and not due to evaporation of the lubricant.     

Hamon 10 × 100 MΩ resistor based traceable source for calibration of picoammeters in the range 100 pA–100 nA

This paper describes a measurement method developed at National Institute of metrological Research (INRIM) to calibrate picoammeters in dc current from 100 pA to 100 nA. The current source is based on a traceable to the dc resistance national standard 10 × 100 MΩ Hamon resistor developed at INRIM and on a traceable to the dc voltage national standard high precision dc voltage calibrator. The expanded uncertainties of the method for the calibration of picoammeters span from 9.4 × 10⁻⁴ for the gain of a picoammeter at 100 pA to 4.0 × 10⁻⁴ for the gain at 100 nA. A detailed uncertainties budget at 10 nA level and the results of a comparison with a different technique are also reported.     

Experimental investigation on ejector cooling system performance at low generator temperatures and a preliminary study on solar energy

In this paper, the performance of an ejector cooling system with constant-area mixing chamber was investigated at low generator temperatures. The cooling system was tested by using hot water as driving fluid and R123 as working fluid. The effects of operating temperatures on the cooling capacity and on the coefficient of performance (COP) of the system were experimentally investigated at an ejector area ratio of 7.17, which is suitable for solar cooling. As a result, COP of 0.42 was obtained at a vapor generator temperature of 74°C, evaporator temperature of 10°C, and at a critical condenser temperature of 29°C. A solar application of the system with single-glazed selective-type collectors in a horizontal position was conducted as a preliminary study. In the solar application, a cooling capacity of 1080 W for a 9.2 m² collection area at an evaporator temperature of 10°C was obtained.     

Effect of γ irradiation on the scintillation and optical properties of lead tungstate crystals

The radiation hardness of a test batch of lead tungstate crystals grown by a new technology at the Bogoroditsk Technochemical Plant for the PANDA experiment has been measured. The optical properties of the crystals have been investigated at temperatures ranging from +20 to ?20°C under irradiation with a ¹³⁷Cs radionuclide source. The light yield in the crystal is seen to considerably increase with a decrease in its temperature. In addition, the loss of the crystal transparency under irradiation at low temperatures is higher than under irradiation at room temperature. As a result, at a fixed dose rate, the signal from the crystal at a negative temperature may be considerably greater than the signal at room temperature even if the accumulated dose is high.     

Springback evaluation in hot v-bending of Ti-6Al-4V alloy sheets

In this paper, v-bending of Ti-6Al-4V alloy sheet was conducted from room temperature to 850 °C at a fixed velocity of 0.1 mm/s. Punches with punch radii of 1, 2, 4, and 6 mm, as well as several holding times were used. V-bending and springback behaviors were numerically analyzed with an isotropic hardening model that considered rate-dependent effects. Using a punch radius of 1 mm always leads to negative springback in the temperature range of 550–750 °C. This behavior occurs because an arc formed in the transition side near the end of bending and flattened at the end of bending, leading to an internal bending moment which causes specimen to bow inward after unloading. At a punch radius of 2 mm, positive springback occurs at 300–650 °C, while negative springback occurs at 700–750 °C. At punch radii of 4 and 6 mm, positive springback occurs at 600–750 °C, and the angle decreases as temperature increases. At 850 °C, negative springback occurs at a punch radius of 4 mm due to the decrease in yield strength. At a punch radius of 1 mm, cracking occurs at room temperature and 500 °C, while at 2 mm, it occurs only at room temperature. This discrepancy is ascribed to the greater plastic deformation caused by the smaller punch. As holding time increases, the shape of the deformed specimen more closely matches the desired shape.     

A numerical study on mixed convection in a lid-driven cavity with a circular cylinder

A two-dimensional numerical simulation is carried out in this study to investigate mixed convection in a lid-driven cavity with an isothermal circular cylinder. The simulation is conducted at three Reynolds numbers of Re = 100, 500, and 1000 under a fixed Grashof number of Gr = 10⁵. The top wall of the cavity moves to the right at a constant velocity and is kept at a low temperature of T _c , whereas the stationary bottom wall is kept at a constant high temperature of T _h . The immersed-boundary method, which is based on the finite volume method, is adopted for the boundary of the circular cylinder that is present in the square cavity. The present study aims to investigate the effects of circular cylinder on fluid flow and heat transfer in a cavity at different locations. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in the cavity strongly depend on the position of the circular cylinder as well as on the relative magnitude of the forced convection and the natural convection caused by the movement in the top wall of the cavity and the heating at the hot bottom wall, respectively.     

An air scintillator

A method for bremsstrahlung dosimetry by air luminescence at high-power pulsed electron accelerators is considered. Light emitted in an air scintillator is focused by the lens at the tip of a quartz optical fiber and transmitted to the photocathode of a photomultiplier tube. The sensitivity of the measuring channel is determined using a standard ribbon lamp. Bremsstrahlung pulses producing an exposure of 0.18 C/kg at the bremsstrahlung beam axis in a ∼20-ns time interval are detected at the ЛИУ-30 electron accelerator with a high accuracy. This exposure corresponds to an absorbed dose rate, integrated over the beam diameter, of 7.5 × 10⁷ Gy m/s.     

Yield loci of anisotropic aluminium sheets

AA8014 aluminium sheets were tested in uniaxial, equibiaxial (bulge test) and plane-strain tension at an almost constant strain rate of 2 × 10⁻³s⁻¹. The results were compared with predictions at different levels of strain, based on macroscopic and crystallographic theories of yielding. While most of the previous investigations compare the results at a strain level of 0.10, the present comparison was made in early stages of the deformation, which might be considered as the real yielding strain of the material. It was concluded that, at the high strain levels Hosford's method, which is a modification of Hill's “old” criterion, gives a proper fit to the experimental data. However, at the lower strain levels the experimental results were very close to the crystallographic loci.     

Effect of process parameters in nanosecond pulsed laser micromachining of PMMA-based microchannels at near-infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths

This paper presents investigations on the effects of nanosecond laser processing parameters on depth and width of microchannels fabricated from polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) polymer. A neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet pulsed laser with a fundamental wavelength of 1,064 nm and a third harmonic wavelength of 355 nm with pulse duration of 5 ns is utilized. Hence, experiments are conducted at near-infrared (NIR) and ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. The laser processing parameters of pulse energy (402–415 mJ at NIR and 35–73 mJ at UV wavelengths), pulse frequency (8–11 Hz), focal spot size (140–190 μm at NIR and 75 μm at UV wavelengths) and scanning rate (400–800 pulse/mm at NIR and 101–263 pulse/mm at UV wavelengths) are varied to obtain a wide range of fluence and processing rate. Microchannel width and depth profile are measured, and main effects plots are obtained to identify the effects of process parameters on channel geometry (width and depth) and material removal rate. The relationship between process variables (width and depth of laser-ablated microchannels) and process parameters is investigated. It is observed that channel width (140–430 μm at NIR and 100–150 μm at UV wavelengths) and depth (30–120 μm at NIR and 35–75 μm at UV wavelengths) decreased linearly with increasing fluence and increased non-linearly with increasing scanning rate. It is also observed that laser processing at UV wavelength provided more consistent channel profiles at lower fluences due to higher laser absorption of PMMA at this wavelength. Mathematical modeling for predicting microchannel profile was developed and validated with experimental results obtained with pulsed laser micromachining at NIR and UV wavelengths.