Characterising the Strain and Temperature Fields in a Surrogate Bone Material Subject to Power Ultrasonic Excitation

The behaviour of the cancellous bone surrogate material, rigid polyurethane foam (PUF), subject to power ultrasonic vibration excitation has been studied, with the purpose of identifying a methodology to investigate the effects that ultrasonic surgical devices have on biological tissue materials. To characterise the vibrational response to ultrasonic excitation, non‐contact measurement of the full in‐plane displacement field of PUF plate specimens was performed by combining the use of an ultra‐high speed camera and 2D digital image correlation. To investigate the thermal response, an infrared camera was used in real time to detect the temperature field. The measured surface displacement and strain fields of the PUF specimens and the thermal response are compared with data from an analytical model, and two different finite element models using Abaqus and PZFlex . The close agreement between calculated and measured data provides initial confidence in the use of the models for predicting the effects of ultrasonic excitation on tissue materials. The measurement data demonstrate the success of the experimental method for measuring vibrational responses in a hard tissue surrogate material at the ultrasonic frequencies associated with power ultrasonic surgical devices.     

Subsampling a Mixture of Sampled Material

We consider the problem of estimating the mean of some characteristic from composited samples. Such techniques are appropriate when the measurement of the required characteristic is costly or tedious as, for example, the determination of yield or diameter from baled wool. The formulation is in terms of variance components and, as such, may be used in conjunction with some of the techniques given by Cameron (1951). In particular, results are obtained for the case when the composited material is not exhaustively subsampled.     

Effect of defects on electrical properties of 4H-SiC Schottky diodes

Most of power electronic circuits use power semiconductor switching devices which ideally present infinite resistance when off, zero resistance when on, and switch instantaneously between those two states. Switches and rectifiers are key components in power electronic systems, which cover a wide range of applications, from power transmission to control electronics and power supplies.

Typical power switching devices such as diodes, thyristors, and transistors are based on a monocrystalline silicon semiconductor or silicon carbide. Silicon is less expensive, more widely used, and a more versatile processing material than silicon carbide. The silicon carbide (SiC) has properties that allow devices with high power voltage rating and high operating temperatures. The technology overcomes some crystal growth obstacles, by using the hydrogen in the fabrication of 4H-SiC wafers.

The presence of structural defects on 4H-SiC wafers was shown by different techniques such as optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The presence of different SiC polytypes inclusions was found by Raman spectroscopy. Schottky diodes were realized on investigated wafers in order to obtain information about the correlation between those defects and electrical properties of the devices. The diodes with voltage breakdown as 600 V and ideality factor as 1.05 were obtained and characterized after packaging.     

Measurement Techniques of Torsional Vibration in Rotating Shafts

The measurement of torsional vibration is a common practice in certain fields, such as the automotive industry, power generation, or large alternative engines. Similarly, functional analysis and diagnostic of other equipment, which are not traditionally measured, can benefit greatly from this type of measurement. This review discusses some techniques used in industry to measure torsional vibration, briefly describing the types of sensors used and the transduction procedures. Choosing the most appropriate technique in each case not only responds to economic reasons, but also to other conditions of the given equipment, such as its design, coupled machines or devices, functional status and operating environment, and the possibilities to install the instrumentation.     

Effects of various loading stress paths on the stress-strain properties and on crushability of an industrial soft granular material

Mechanical characteristics (i.e., stiffness, internal friction angle, peak strength) and crushability of a soft granular material were evaluated by performing a comprehensive series of laboratory tests using the following devices: standard and non-standard triaxial apparatus, direct and annular shear box, oedometer and hydrostatic devices. The initial tested specimens differ by initial void ratio, grading characteristics and particle hardness. The air-dried specimen of soft particles were then subjected to monotonic loadings for various stress paths (direct and annular shear stress paths, oedometer stress paths until different upper normal pressures, triaxial stress paths including different confining pressures). After each homogeneous test, sieving has been performed in order to characterize the evolution of grading characteristics of the granular packing. Experimental results on mechanical properties show that maximum internal friction angle is rather independent of the particle stiffness even though small differences may exist before peak stress-state. As highlighted by recent studies (Arslan in Granul Matter 11(2): 87–97, 2009), the volumetric response of the specimen indicates that classical critical state is no more a relevant framework when particle crushability is too high compared with the applied stress-state. Crushability related to loading paths has been evaluated through the relative breakage ratio (B_r). The first results pointed out the effects of initial geometrical configuration (i.e., void ratio, grading) and particle stiffness. Analysis of the stress paths effects on the amount of breakage revealed that stress-state is not sufficient to describe properly breakage undergone by the material which is confirmed by an obvious link between volumetric strain and total breakage. Finally, the present study showed that the percentage of fine particles content during breakage may be seen as a function of the “level” of deviatoric loading paths.     

Behavior of Sandstones Under Heat Treatment

Knowledge of materials behavior under heat treatment is of high importance in construction and safety engineering; tunnels represent a special field because of their specific safety issues. In the case of fire, tunnel structure and surrounding rock are subjected to extreme temperatures which induces irreversible changes in the material’s microstructure and consequently its mechanical properties. Significant portion of the Earth’s crust is formed by sandstones; this group of sedimentary rocks is highly variable in structure, composition and engineering properties. Quartz grains (alternatively together with other minerals) form the clastic part of sandstones; the space between clasts is filled by variable amount of cement and matrix which can contain particularly clay minerals, quartz and calcite. The porosity of sandstones is again highly variable from a nearly compact material to a highly porous one. The paper aims to find out and explain differences in response of various kinds of sandstones to heat treatment. The behavior of a representative set of sandstones under heat treatment was studied by TG/DSC, thermodilatometry and residual strength measurement. These experiments were accompanied by SEM and porosimetry measurement. The effect of increased temperature on the compressive strength was found to be crucially dependent on the nature of the cement and matrix present in the individual rock. The rocks with calcite cement which had high initial strength and low porosity were damaged by calcite decomposition. The siliceous sandstones were damaged by cracking due to thermally induced volume changes. In contrary, the strength of the clayey sandstones was even improved after the heat treatment. It can be concluded that behavior of sandstone under heat treatment is controlled by its composition and diagenesis.     

A thermally robust Ni-FUSI process using in 65 nm CMOS technology

The interest in the low resistivity fully silicided (FUSI) gate increased significantly because of promising in use as contact to the source, drain, and gate for sub−65 nm/45 nm CMOS devices. NiSi is potentially an attractive material due to its capability to maintain low resistivity even for channel length down to 100 nm. The Formation of thermally stable silicide gates is important for improving the devices fabrication processes. In order to obtain a thermally stable Ni-FUSI gate electrode, we introduced a two-step annealing process associated with properly tuned thickness of the initial Ni film and additional of implantation of BF₂ during the poly-gate formation to push the transformation of NiSi₂ to higher temperatures at about 900°C and retard agglomeration. A mixed-phase of nickel silicide layer was commonly observed during phase transformation. For the first time, we established an effective way to identify the phase transformations by some nondestructive techniques such as X-ray diffraction, sheet resistance measurement and AFM analysis. The correlations between its electrical and morphological changes during Ni–Si phase transformation were presented. Furthermore, the effect with addition amount of BF₂ impurities into NiSi was investigated. F-incorporation demonstrated some improvements in both morphology and phase stability of the NiSi films at high processing temperatures.     

Large deformation mechanical testing of biological membranes using speckle interferometry in transmission. II: Finite element modeling

In holography and speckle interferometry the measurement range is generally limited by the greatest number of fringes that can be resolved in a single image. As a result these techniques have been generally confined to small displacement measurement applications. In the case of out-of-plane measurements one can overcome this limitation by simply adding incremental measurements at individual detector pixels. In the case of in-plane measurements, however, summing incremental measurements is not a straightforward procedure since the interference pattern moves laterally across the detector as the material deforms. We describe a modeling technique based on finite elements which solves this problem. In combination with a full field method such as holography or speckle interferometry, it provides a very sensitive measurement technique with dense spatial sampling and large dynamic range. Experimental results of speckle interferometry operating in transmission to measure in-plane displacements of biological membranes are presented, where total material displacements are of the order of millimeters. The results also demonstrate how the finite strain tensor is calculated analytically from the data at any point on the material.     

增材制造压电陶瓷研究进展

压电陶瓷是一种可以实现机械信号和电信号相互转换的功能陶瓷。由压电陶瓷与有机相构成的复合材料具有不同的宏观连接方式, 这不仅决定了压电器件广泛的应用场合, 而且推动了压电陶瓷材料和器件多样化的成型技术发展。与传统成型技术相比, 增材制造技术的最大优势在于无需模具即可实现外形复杂的小批量样品快速成型, 这与多样化的压电陶瓷及其器件研发需求十分契合, 同时因其样品后续加工量少、原材料利用率高、无需切削液的特点, 得到了学术界和工业界的广泛关注。在陶瓷材料增材制造领域, 功能陶瓷和器件的研究仍在增长期。本文从不同增材制造技术角度, 探讨和对比现阶段无铅和含铅压电陶瓷增材制造的发展历史、原料制备、外形设计、功能特性检测及试样的应用, 并根据现阶段各增材制造技术的优、劣势对其未来进行了展望。     

热渐进成形中加热方式及其测温方法的研究进展

渐进成形是一种先进的制造技术,可满足小批量产品高精高效的生产需求。在航天航空、电子及精密仪器领域中的部件通常具有轻质高强的特点,但在室温下整体延展性较差的材料(钛合金、镁合金、铝合金)很难通过传统的渐进成形方法来成形,使用热辅助方法就显得尤为重要。简要介绍了渐进成形技术的发展及成形原理,并综述了国内外研究学者在热渐进成形技术中使用的加热方法,将其分为两种类型:整体加热和局部加热,进一步对比分析了两种加热方式的优缺点,其中,电加热方式适用范围较广且加热温度较高,加之其设备结构简单,具有较大的应用前景。在此基础上,针对不同加热方式,综述了相应的成形装置及温度测控方式,测温方式分为接触式测温和非接触式测温。对比两种测量方法,接触式测温精度高且测温范围较大,但难以测量运动中物体的温度;非接触式测温通常用于测量运动中的物体和小范围内的温度,并且不会对被测物体的温度场造成影响,但其制造成本较高且测量精度相对较低。分析了各种成形装置及温度测控系统的适应工况,将温度控制在材料成形的最佳温度附近可以提高材料的成形性和成形精度。     

Crystallographic Texture in Ceramics and Metals

Preferred crystallographic orientation, or texture, occurs almost universally, both in natural and man-made systems. Many components and devices in electronic and magnetic systems are fabricated from materials that have crystallographic texture. With the rapidly increasing use of thin film technology, where sharp axisymmetric crystallographic texture normal to the film plane is frequently observed, the occurrence and impact of texture are rising. Thin film applications in which the texture of the material plays a key role in determining properties and performance are broad: complex oxides in random access memory devices, ZnO thin film resonators for cell phone applications, metallic alloys in magnetic recording media, and Al and Cu interconnects in integrated circuits are but a few examples. Texture is established during the synthesis or post-synthesis heat treatment of a material and thus has a strong dependence upon processing history. Accurate measurement of texture is not simple and a variety of tools and approaches are being actively employed in texture studies. X-ray, neutron and electron diffraction based techniques are practiced around the world at varying levels of complexity with regard to equipment and analysis methods. Despite the well-documented existence of these varied approaches, many reported texture measurements on electronic materials are based solely on the relative intensities of conventional θ-2θ x-ray diffraction peaks, which typically yield inaccurate results. NIST has developed quantitative texture measurement techniques that employ equipment commonly available in most industrial and academic settings. A number of examples of texture measurement in ceramic and metal systems will be presented, taken from the historical development and application of these techniques at NIST over the past 7 years.     

Measuring in-band distortions of mixers

This paper proposes a method to measure the in-band deterministic and stochastic contributions of nonlinear distortions in mixers. The model of the mixer as a two- or three-port device is developed. Based on this model, the measurement technique-which is a generalization of the methods developed for amplifiers-is developed. While designing the measurement method, the difficulties that arise out of the fundamental differences between mixers (three-port devices) and amplifiers (two-port devices) are taken into account. Two techniques are presented, depending on the fact that the phase of the local oscillator is known or unknown.     

Angle-resolved Raman imaging of interlayer rotations and interactions in twisted bilayer graphene

Few-layer graphene is a prototypical layered material, whose properties are determined by the relative orientations and interactions between layers. Exciting electrical and optical phenomena have been observed for the special case of Bernal-stacked few-layer graphene, but structure-property correlations in graphene which deviates from this structure are not well understood. Here, we combine two direct imaging techniques, dark-field transmission electron microscopy (DF-TEM) and widefield Raman imaging, to establish a robust, one-to-one correlation between twist angle and Raman intensity in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG). The Raman G band intensity is strongly enhanced due to a previously unreported singularity in the joint density of states of tBLG, whose energy is exclusively a function of twist angle and whose optical transition strength is governed by interlayer interactions, enabling direct optical imaging of these parameters. Furthermore, our findings suggest future potential for novel optical and optoelectronic tBLG devices with angle-dependent, tunable characteristics.     

Probing molecules in integrated silicon-molecule-metal junctions by inelastic tunneling spectroscopy

Molecular electronics has drawn significant attention for nanoelectronic and sensing applications. A hybrid technology where molecular devices are integrated with traditional semiconductor microelectronics is a particularly promising approach for these applications. Key challenges in this area include developing devices in which the molecular integrity is preserved, developing in situ characterization techniques to probe the molecules within the completed devices, and determining the physical processes that influence carrier transport. In this study, we present the first experimental report of inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy of integrated metal-molecule-silicon devices with molecules assembled directly to silicon contacts. The results provide direct experimental confirmation that the chemical integrity of the monolayer is preserved and that the molecules play a direct role in electronic conduction through the devices. Spectra obtained under varying measurement conditions show differences related to the silicon electrode, which can provide valuable information about the physics influencing carrier transport in these molecule/Si hybrid devices.     

Influence of the notch shape of pre-notched small punch specimens on the creep failure time

Nowadays, there are standards for determining the creep-fracture properties of a material. However, a sufficient amount of material to be tested is usually required, something that is not always possible or convenient. In certain cases where not enough material is available for carrying out conventional tests to determine these properties of the material to be analysed, there are now several non-standard tests that can achieve this purpose. One of them, the Small Punch Creep Test (SPCT), basically consists of punching, under a constant load, a miniature specimen in which the sides of the specimen are clamped between two dies. One of the greatest challenges at present is to obtain the creep-fracture properties of a material from this type of test using pre-notched specimens. To achieve this initial notch in the SPCT specimen prior to creep-fracture testing, there are several techniques which are being used at present. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the differences between these techniques, taking into account the shape of the pre-notch obtained and the stress distribution at the pre-notch tip during the test. In this way, it is possible to determine which of them is the most appropriate for estimating the creep-fracture properties of the material used.     

Shrinkage cracking of unsaturated fine soils: New experimental device and measurement techniques

Clay fine soils are characterised by an ability to change volume when subjected to suction. Soil cracking due to desiccation is a phenomenon of great importance in the environmental geotechnical engineering domain. Aiming to understand shrinkage mechanism, and conditions that lead to appearance of drying cracks, a new experimental testing coupled device digital image correlation- clay ring test (DIC-CRT) was developed to investigate fine soils shrinkage and cracking. The new feature of this paper is to link both measurement techniques, based on 2D/3D-DIC and an innovative CRT, in order to assess stress and strain in soils during desiccation. Tests were carried out on a kaolinite having a liquid limit of w_L = 40%, and prepared as a slurry with w = 1.5 w_L of water content. The results highlight the relevance in combining these two techniques, particularly to assess internal stresses developed in the material using CRT and link them to strains leading to cracking measured by DIC method.     

Analysis of different techniques for obtaining pre-cracked/notched small punch test specimens

Nowadays, there are standards for determining the mechanical and fracture properties of a material. However, these standards require a sufficient amount of material to be tested, something that is not always possible or convenient. In those cases where there is not enough material for conducting conventional tests to determine these properties of the material analyzed, there are now several non-standard tests that will achieve this purpose. One of them is the small punch test (SPT), which basically consists of deforming a miniature specimen using a high-strength punch, while the sides of the specimen are clamped between two dies. One of the greatest challenges at present is to obtain the fracture properties of a material from this type of test using pre-cracked specimens. To achieve this initial crack in the SPT specimen prior to fracture testing, there are two techniques which are mainly being used at present. The first one uses high-precision micromachining (HPM), while the second relies on laser-induced micromachining (LIM). The main objective of this paper is to analyze the differences between these two techniques, taking into account the shape of the pre-crack obtained and the stress distribution at the pre-crack tip during the test. In this way, it is possible to determine which of them is the most appropriate for estimating the fracture properties of the material used.     

Highly efficient luminescence from hybrid structures of ZnO/multi-walled carbon nanotubes for high performance display applications

We report an interesting observation on strong enhancement in green luminescence from hybrid ZnO/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The hybrid structures were synthesized via a high temperature sintering method. The strong green emission at 510 nm has been attributed to surface defects of ZnO, originating from interactions between ZnO and the MWCNT surface, which has been confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Furthermore, the two-dimensional (2D) layer of this hybrid material shows a high degree of homogeneity and 82% transparency. Time resolved emission spectroscopy measurement shows a photoluminescence decay time in microseconds, which is suitable for making optoelectronic devices.     

Application of schlieren interferometry to temperature measurements during laser welding of high-density polyethylene films

Schlieren interferometry is found to be an alternative tool for temperature measurement during thermoplastic laser welding with regard to methods based on thermocouples or optical pyrometers. In fact, these techniques are not easily applied when materials to be processed have reduced thickness, negligible heat conduction, and low emissivity, as is the case of welding high-density polyethylene films with 10.6-microm CO2 laser radiation, even if the method reaches its applicability limit after approximately 1 s of the interaction process. The schlieren method provides the means and the results to probe the thermal variations of the laser-thermoplastic interaction on both the surface and the interface between the sample material and the air.     

The development of fatigue damage around fastener holes in thick graphite/epoxy composite laminates

This paper discusses the mechanisms by which damage develops and grows around countersunk fastener holes in composite laminates under fatigue loading conditions. Experiments have shown that the erosion of material between ply layers nucleates delaminations which then grow through the laminate under the action of the fatigue loads. The damage at the hole bore surface produces sites for the nucleation of delaminations. The morphology of the delaminations and ply cracking was mapped extensively and from these maps it was found that the volume of material around the fastener hole, damaged by the fatigue loading, adopted a characteristic shape; the volume of damaged laminate increased towards the faying surface of the laminate and (metal) fixture. This characteristic damage volume was generated by the fastener rocking under the fatigue loads. Growth of the delaminations has been shown to be preceded by intraply cracking and, as fatigue loading proceeded, more delaminations were generated at the hole bore surface. The interfacial region between the composite laminate and the fixture also provided the nucleation site for fatigue cracks in the fasteners. The effects of initial fastener-hole clearances on damage nucleation and growth did not appear to follow any clear pattern. However, coupons with excessive initial hole clearances did appear to exhibit greater than expected damage growth after only one sequence block.Several techniques for the measurement of damage growth (development) were investigated. Stiffness measurements of the test system were found to show only small changes with hole wear and fastener rocking (using shadow moire techniques) also showed only small changes with hole wear. Ultrasonic C-scanning methods were used to map the extent of damage around the fastener holes with fatigue loading.The experimental work has shown that damage development around fastener holes is a complex process, usually producing several delaminations in the region of the fastener hole which grow and may ultimately lead to the failure of the coupon.