Sintering of Ceramic Particulate Composites: Effect of Matrix Density

Composites consisting of a fine-grained, polycrystalline zinc oxide matrix and <10 vol% coarse, rigid silicon carbide inclusions were prepared by the same mixing procedure and then compacted to produce samples with matrix densities of 0.45 and 0.68 of the theoretical. The samples were sintered under identical temperature profiles in separate experiments that employed either a constant rate of heating of 4°C/min or near isothermal heating at 735°C. The ratio of the densification rate of the composite matrix to the densification rate of the unreinforced zinc oxide was found to be independent of the initial matrix density. This ratio increased significantly with temperature in the constant-heating-rate experiments but was relatively constant in the isothermal experiments. The results indicate that microstructural coarsening may be an important mechanism for explaining the reduced sinterability of polycrystalline matrix composites.     

Numerical and experimental investigation of three-dimensional flow in extrusion dies

The univariant element, Q₁ P₀, and the multivariant elements, QP₀ and R P₀, are compared for the numerical simulation of the flow in extrusion dies. The pressure distribution obtained by using the Q₁ P₀ element was found to be afflicted with the checkerboard pressure mode. On the other hand, the multivariant elements, Q P₀ and R P₀, gave accurate and physically reasonable velocity and pressure distributions. The computed values of the pressure drop across extrusion dies matched well with the pressure drop determined experimentally.     

Effect of drop coalescence on mass transfer rate

Disperse-phase-controlled mass transfer rates from individual liquid drops suspended in a second liquid phase are measured optically immediately after the drop has been formed by coalescence of two smaller droplets. The net effect on mass transfer of the act of coalescence is determined by comparison to similar measurements made on the initial droplets in the absence of coalescence. The transfer rates immediately after coalescence are high rapidly fall to zero, rebound to an intermediate value and finally decay to the level expected for an undisturbed drop. The net effect on total mass transferred is detrimental in a clean system subject to interfacial instability but appears to be beneficial for contaminated systems or where no surface movements are spontaneously generated.     

Amplitudes distribution over two copies of small quantum subsystems

We propose a new formulation of quantum algorithm which allows to distribute amplitudes over two copies of small quantum subsystems. The new method gives a fixed number of copies and applied to the control of multi-qubit system. The analysis for the amount of error due to the distribution process has been presented for a system of 10 qubits with a small quantum subsystems to be copied. The present scheme provides a new way to distribute amplitudes over small quantum subsystems.     

Absolute Stability of Nonlinear Systems with Two Additive Time-varying Delay Components

In this paper, we present a new sufficient condition for absolute stability of Lure system with two additive time-varying delay components. This criterion is expressed as a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which can be readily tested by using standard numerical software. We use this new criterion to stabilize a class of nonlinear time-delay systems. Some numerical examples are given to illustrate the applicability of the results using standard numerical software.     

Integrating customer's preferences in the QFD planning process using a combined benchmarking and imprecise goal programming model

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a customer-oriented design tool for developing new or improved products to achieve higher customer satisfaction by integrating various functions of an organization. The engineering characteristics (ECs) affecting the product performances are designed to match the customer attributes (CAs). However, from the viewpoint of the QFD team, product design processes are performed in imprecise environments, and more than one factor must be taken into account in determining the target levels of ECs, especially the limited resources and increased market competition. This paper presents an imprecise goal programming (GP) approach to determine the optimum target levels of ECs in QFD for maximizing customer satisfaction under resource limitation and considerations of market competition. Based on benchmarking data of CAs, the concept of satisfaction functions is utilized to formulate explicitly the customer's preferences and to integrate the competitive analysis of target market into the modelling and solution process. In addition, the relationships linking CAs and ECs and the ECs to each other are integrated by functional relationships. The proposed approach will be illustrated through a car door design example.