Thermal stability and high-temperature wear of Ti–TiN and TiN–CrN nanomultilayer coatings under self-mated conditions

Ti–TiN and TiN–CrN nanomultilayers were thermally stable retaining uniform and sharp layer interfaces up to 24 h at 773 K, without any oxidation or phase transformation accompanying each individual layer. Decreasing the multilayer spacing resulted in an increase in the hardness in both cases. The coating hardness was found to be independent of the substrate type, when applied on HS718, Ti64 and HCHCr substrates. In scratch testing, the multilayers displayed a better resistance to the onset of failure, as compared to the monolayer TiN. The substrate plasticity played an important role in determining the coating failure mode. Self-mated wear tests revealed the CrN–TiN system to exhibit the best wear behaviour, both at room temperature and at 773 K. The Ti–TiN coatings are more accommodative with all three substrates, as compared to TiN–CrN and TiN.     

A packet delay analysis for cellular digital packet data

We formulate and analyze a model of voice and data burst traffic for cellular digital packet data (CDPD). To develop a tractible model, we make some reasonable simplifying assumptions to model the voice traffic and one of the logical CDPD channels as an M/M/1 queue in a random environment. Rather than explicitly solve the resulting matrix quadratic equation, we develop an asymptotic analysis that gives us simple approximate formulas (with error bounds) for many performance measures of interest. In particular, one metric that we highlight comes from using our approximate mean data burst delay formula to characterize the performance of a set of interacting logical CDPD channels. We do so by describing it in terms of an equivalent number of independent, dedicated CDPD channels, We can use this metric to suggest what the optimal number of logical CDPD channels for a given system should be     

An evaluation of the performance of an automated procedure for comparative modelling of protein tertiary structure

A 3-D model of a protein can be constructed from its amino acidsequence and the 3-D structures of one or more homologues byannealing three sets of fragments: the structurally conservedregions, structurally variable regions and the side chains.The method encoded in the computer program COMPOSER was assessedby generating 3-D models of eight proteins whose crystal structuresare already known and for which 3-D structures of homologuesare available. In the structurally conserved regions, differencesbetween modelled and X-ray structures are smaller than the differencesbetween the X-ray structures of the modelled protein and thehomologues used to build the model. When several homologuesare used, the contributions of the known structures are weighted,preferably by the square of sequence similarity; this is especiallyimportant when the similarities of the homologues to the modelledstructure differ greatly. The ‘collar’ extensionapproach, in which a similar region of different length in ahomologue is used to extend the framework, can result in a moreaccurate model. If known homologues comprise more than one relatedgroup of proteins and they are both distantly related to theunknown, then alignment of the sequence to be modelled witheach group of homologues facilitates identification of structurallyconserved regions of the unknown and leads to an improved model.Models have root mean square differences (r.m.s.d.s) with thestructures defined by X-ray analysis of between 0.73 and 1.56Å for all C atoms, for seven of the eight models. Forthe model of mucor pepsin, where the closest homologue has 33%sequence identity and 20% of the residues are in structurallyvariable regions, the r.m.s.d. for the framework region is 1.71Å and the r.m.s.d. for all C atoms is 3.47 Â.     

Melt rheology and morphology of PP/SEBS/PC ternary blend

Melt rheological properties of the ternary blend of isotactic polypropylene (PP), styreneethylene–butylene–styrene terpolymer (SEBS), and polycarbonate (PC), PP/SEBS/PC, are studied in a wide range of composition, such that PP is the matrix and SEBS and PC are the minor components, with the proportion of one varying from 0 to 30% at various fixed compositions of the other. The respective binary blends, PP/SEBS and PP/PC, studied as the reference systems for interpretation of results on the ternary blends yielded interesting new information about the morphology development and its correlation with melt rheological properties of these binary blends. The studies include the measurement of melt rheological properties on a capillary rheometer in the shear rate range 10¹–10⁴ s^?1 at a fixed temperature of 240°C. The data presented as conventional flow curves are analyzed for the effect of blend composition and shear rate on pseudoplasticity, melt viscosity, and melt elasticity, and role of each individual component is identified. Morphology of dispersed phases of these blends is studied through scanning electron microscopy of the cryogenically fractured and suitably etched surfaces. Variations of morphology with blend composition and shear rate showed interesting correlation with melt rheological properties, which are discussed in detail. An important finding of the morphological studies is that in the PP/SEBS/PC ternary blend the SEBS phase forms two types of morphologies depending on the blend composition and shear rate: (i) simple droplets and (ii) boundary layer at the surface of the PC droplets. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Explicit finite difference scheme for nonlinear convective problems

An explicit finite difference scheme is proposed for nonlinear convective problems. The procedure is applied to a nonlinear convective diffusion problem with a nonlinear boundary condition. It is shown that the nonlinear boundary condition may be treated directly without linearization which has to be carried out in the implicit method to avoid a nonlinear system of algebraic equations. The explicit procedure is more direct and less cumbersome than the implicit procedure and the answers are in excellent agreement with those of the implicit method.     

An electrochemically regenerative hydrogen-chlorine energy storage system: electrode kinetics and cell performance

The electrochemical oxidation and reduction of hydrogen and chlorine in hydrochloric acid has been investigated on graphite, ruthenized titanium and platinum electrodes. Both steady state and potentiostatic pulse methods were used. Cell studies were also carried out in cells with flow-by and flow-through chlorine electrodes. Results indicate that the electrode kinetics are fast and the electrolysis and fuel cell reactions can be carried out in the same cell with electric-to-electric efficiencies in excess of 75% at current densities of 300 mA cm^–2. Mass transfer limitations at the chlorine electrode during discharge can be eliminated by cell pressurization and the use of flow-through electrodes.This study was carried out under the auspices of the US Department of Energy.in the summers of 1976 and 1977     

Poly(ethyl acrylate) in dilute solution

Poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA), solution polymerized in methyl ethyl ketone by free radical initiation, was fractionated and the fractions were characterized by light scattering, viscometry and osmometry. Fractions obtained were in the molecular weight range of 0·3 × 10⁶ to 1·6 × 10⁶ with a polydispersity of 1.40. The following Mark-Houwink relations were established:

$\text{[η]}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>35°</mtext><mtext>C</mtext>}}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>acetone</mtext>}}\text{=4·15×10}{}^{\mathrm{?2}}\text{M}{}^{\mathrm{0?61}}{}_{\mathrm{W}}$

$\text{[η]}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>35°</mtext><mtext>C</mtext>}}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>MEK</mtext>}}\text{=2·03×10}{}^{\mathrm{?2}}\text{M}{}^{\mathrm{0?66}}{}_{\mathrm{W}}$

$\text{[η]}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>39.5°</mtext><mtext>C</mtext>}}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>n-propanal</mtext>}}\text{=7·89×10}{}^{\mathrm{?2}}\text{M}{}^{\mathrm{0?50}}{}_{\mathrm{W}}$

It was found that n-propanol at 39.5°C was a theta solvent for poly(ethyl acrylate) and that acetone was a poor solvent compared to methyl ethyl ketone. A relation between the molecular dimension and the molecular weight was established. It was observed that the chain dimensions of poly(ethyl acrylate) and poly(butyl acrylate) were considerably larger than poly(ethyl methacrylate) and poly(butyl methacrylate) respectively. The validity of various extrapolation procedures that have been proposed for calculating the unperturbed dimensions have been examined. The steric factor for PEA was 2·16 compared to 2·10 for poly(ethyl methacrylate). Root mean square end-to-end distances were calculated from the Debye-Bueche and Kirkwood-Riseman methods and compared with the experimental values.     

Factors determining informal tanker water markets in Chennai,India

Many developing world cities have seen the emergence of informal markets where private tanker truck operators transport water extracted from peri-urban wells to urban consumers. This study adopted a systems-modelling approach to analyzing the informal tanker market in India. The results indicate that the demand for tanker supply was caused by lack of groundwater availability in private wells as well as unreliable piped supply. The study shows that two groundwater factors are relevant: depth to water and aquifer productivity. Together, these could explain the difference in spatial, temporal and consumer-specific variations in tanker dependence.     

Sensitivity analysis of nonlinear fractional order control systems with state delay

In this paper, we consider a class of nonlinear fractional order control system with delay in state variable. Existence and uniqueness of solution are shown by using method of steps. The sensitivity of the state and control with respect to the parameters of the system is shown. Finally, analytical results are substantiated by numerical examples.