The fiber-matrix interface in Ioncell cellulose fiber composites and its implications for the mechanical performance

Fiber-reinforced composites based on natural fibers are promising alternatives for materials made of metal or synthetic polymers. However, the inherent inhomogeneity of natural fibers limits the quality of the respective composites. Man-made cellulose fibers (MMCFs) prepared from cellulose solutions via wet or dry-jet wet spinning processes can overcome these limitations. Herein, MMCFs are used to prepare single fiber epoxy composites and UD composites with 20, 30, 40, and 60 wt% fiber loads. The mechanical properties increase gradually with fiber loading. Young's modulus is improved three times while tensile strength doubles at a loading of 60 wt%. Raman spectroscopy is employed to follow conformational changes of the cellulose chains within the fibers upon mechanical deformation of the composites. The shift of the characteristic Raman band under strain indicates the deformation mechanisms in the fiber. Provided stress transfer occurs through the interface, it is a direct measure of the fiber-matrix interaction, which is investigated herein. The shift rate of the 1095 cm⁻¹ band decreases in single fiber composites compared to the neat fibers and continues to decrease as the fiber loading increased.     

Activity of ruthenium hydrogenation catalysts in copper(II) formate decomposition

Charcoal-, silica-, alumina- and titanium(IV) oxide-supported ruthenium catalysts, prepared by conventional impregnation and incipient wetness methods from a ruthenium(III) oxide precursor were tested in copper(II) formate decomposition in aqueous solution. Such a reaction was found to be an efficient and simple activity test of charcoal-supported catalysts. The application of this reaction for a bimetallic ruthenium–copper catalyst preparation was also suggested. Experimental results were compared with those obtained using commercial catalysts and ruthenium black.     

Hierarchical model reduction for incompressible fluids in pipes

Hierarchical model reduction is intended to solve efficiently partial differential equations in domains with a geometrically dominant direction. In many engineering applications, these problems are often reduced to 1‐dimensional differential systems. This guarantees computational efficiency yet dumps local accuracy as nonaxial dynamics are dropped. Hierarchical model reduction recovers the secondary components of the dynamics of interest with a combination of different discretization techniques, following up a natural separation of variables. The dominant direction is generally solved by the finite element method or isogeometric analysis to guarantee flexibility, while the transverse components are solved by spectral methods, to guarantee a small number of degrees of freedom. By judiciously selecting the number of transverse modes, the method has been proven to improve significantly the accuracy of purely 1‐dimensional solvers, with great computational efficiency. A Cartesian framework has been used so far both in slab domains and cylindrical pipes (including arteries) mapped to Cartesian reference domains. In this paper, we investigate the alternative use of a polar coordinates system for the transverse dynamics in circular or elliptical pipes. This seems a natural choice for applications like computational hemodynamics. In spite of this, the selection of a basis function set for the transverse dynamics is troublesome. As pointed out in the literature—even for simple elliptical problems—there is no “best” basis available. In this paper, we perform an extensive investigation of hierarchical model reduction in polar coordinates to discuss different possible choices for the transverse basis, pointing out pros and cons of the polar coordinate system.     

Social Media Technologies’ Use for the Competitive Information and Knowledge Sharing,and Its Effects on Industrial SMEs’ Innovation

ABSTRACT

The effective use of technologies supporting decision making is essential to companies’ survival. Recent studies analyzed social media technologies (SMT) in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), contributing to the discussion on SMT benefits from the marketing perspective. This article focuses on the effects of SMT use on innovation. Our findings provide empirical evidence on the positive effects of SMT use for acquiring external information and for sharing knowledge and innovation performance.     

Dynamic Virtual Resource Allocation in Virtualized multi-RAT Cellular Networks

The legacy wireless systems are designed to exploit static configuration and deployment, and cannot handle the discrepancies of the spatio-temporal traffic demand. Cloud RAN (C-RAN) is a novel flexible radio technology that utilizes the virtualization concepts and can efficiently address the static deployment of conventional wireless systems. The C-RAN also leverages high radio network flexibility by introducing the network function virtualization approach to wireless networks. This paper presents a novel C-RAN platform that virtualizes and operates with full GSM and LTE systems. The presented platform is solely based on open-source and off the shelf solutions, providing easy implementation, low cost and high scalability. The paper also introduces a novel dynamic resource allocation algorithm that facilitates the C-RAN’s optimal performance in dynamic scenarios. The proposed algorithm is analyzed and validated on the presented C-RAN platform. The results of the performance analysis clearly show the advantages of the proposed dynamic resource allocation algorithm. Moreover, they prove the applicability of the C-RAN platform for variety of different scenarios.     

The Role of the Support in the Oxidative Destruction of Chlorobenzene on Pt/Zeolite Catalysts: An FT-IR Investigation

The vapor-phase cyclohexane oxidative dehydrogenation has been investigated over several catalysts. A typical catalyst for total oxidation, as Mn₂O₃, materials applied in the field of oxide hydrogenation reactions, as silica-supported vanadia- and niobia-based catalysts, V-, Fe-, and Ce-phosphates used for partial oxidation reactions and ZSM5 zeolite, protonic and Co exchanged, have been tested. Over almost all the catalysts, benzene is the main product obtained, although cyclohexene is obtained with high selectivity at low conversion on phosphate catalysts.