Modeling cyclic ratcheting based fatigue life of HSLA steels using crystal plasticity FEM simulations and experiments

This paper develops a plastic ratcheting based fatigue failure model for HSLA steels from a combination of results from experiments and finite element simulations using crystal plasticity constitutive relations. It predicts the nucleation of major cracks in the microstructure in ratcheting. Subsequently, the total life is limited by the growth of ductile fracture in the microstructure, which is factored in by comparing the simulated results with experiments. A crystal plasticity based FEM (CPFEM) model is used in this paper to predict the local plastic strain in the microstructure which plays a role in the ratcheting life. Orientation imaging based microstructural information (orientation and misorientation distributions) is incorporated in CPFEM. The model proposed has the ability to represent a range of behavior from low and high cycle behavior in the life models. The predictions from it are found to be in excellent agreement with experimental data.     

Modification of jute fibre through vinyl grafting aimed at improved rot resistance and dyeability

Raw, dewaxed and oxidized jute fibres and those chemically modified with phenol and formaldehyde (treatment done for 3 h at 95° C and pH 8) before or subsequent to oxidation, were subjected to graft copolymerization with methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence or absence of some other monomers such as maleic anhydride (MA) or methacrylic acid (MAA) in limited aqueous system using K₂S₂O₈ as the initiator under photoconditions with the objective of inducing improved rot resistance and dyeability without loss in tensile strength of the fibre. For preparing oxy-jute, dewaxed and preswollen (dewaxed jute fibre swollen with 10% aqueous urea at 90° C for 2h) jute fibre were separately subjected to mild oxidation or bleaching using aqueous H₂O₂ and NalO₄ and non-aqueous chlorine (Cl₂ in CCl₄) under specified conditions. Optimum conditions for graft copolymerization have been established by examination of the effect of such variables as monomer concentration, time of polymerization and nature of chemical modification of jute fibre prior to vinyl grafting. Percentage grafting, tenacity (g denier^–1), dye fixation (%) and rot resistance (expressed as percentage retention of tensile strength of the fibre after a standard soil burial test) were evaluated and analysed. High rot resistance (80–90% retention of tensile strength after soil burial test) and dye fixation (%) of as high as 86% were readily obtained for grafted jute fibres. Washing fastness and light fastness properties of the dyed fibres (grafted and ungrafted) were also examined and compared.     

Concurrent processing of linearly ordered data structures onhypercube multicomputers

The paper presents a simple and effective method for the concurrent manipulation of linearly ordered data structures on hypercube systems. The method Is based on the existence of an augmented binomial search tree, called the pruned binomial tree, rooted at any arbitrary processor node of the hypercube such that; every edge of the tree corresponds to a direct link between a pair of hypercube nodes; and the tree spans any arbitrary sequence of n consecutive nodes containing the root, using a fanout of at most [log₂ n] and a depth of at most [log₂ n]+1. Search trees spanning nonoverlapping processor lists are formed using only local information, and can be used concurrently without contention problems. Thus, they can be used for performing operations such as broadcast and merge simultaneously on sets with nonuniform sizes. Extensions of the tree to k-ary n-cubes and faulty hypercubes are presented. Applications of this concurrent data structure to low- and intermediate-level image processing algorithms, and for dictionary operations involving multiple keys, are also outlined     

Thermodynamic modeling of the Pd-X (X=Ag, Co, Fe, Ni) systems

A set of self-consistent thermodynamic model parameters is presented to describe the phase equilibria of the Ag-Pd, Co-Pd, Fe-Pd, and Ni-Pd systems. In most cases, the calculated values using the optimized model parameters agree very well with the experimental data. The FePd and FePd₃ phases with large homogeneity ranges are described by the compound energy formalism. At present, insufficient thermodynamic data are available for these two phases. Therefore, experimental data on the heat of formation and/or the first-principle calculation of cohesive energies will be very useful for further refinement of thermodynamic parameters of FePd and FePd₃ phases.     

Influence of cocatalyst on the stereoselectivity and productivity of styrene polymerization reactions

Influence of different cocatalysts on the polymerization reaction of styrene using heterogeneous nanoparticle NA-MgO and NA-TiO2 (anatase) supported bis (cyclopentadienyl) zirconium dichloride catalysts is studied. Methyaluminoxane, trityl tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate(1), dimethylanilinium tetrakis (pentafluoro-phenyl)borate (2) and tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (3) are used as cocatalysts for this study. The productivity and stereoselectivity of the catalysts systems are found to be highest with MAO and lowest with the borane 3 (MAO > 1> 2 > 3). Catalysts derived from the borane 3 yield amorphous atactic polystyrenes but those from cocatalysts MAO, 1, or 2 yield crystalline, syndiotactic polystyrenes under the same reaction conditions. Effects of addition of various scavengers and solvents with different polarities on styrene polymerizations are also reported here. Characterization of the obtained polymers is done by Gel Permeation Chromatography, ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy and Differential Scanning Calorimetry.     

A dynamic debugger for asynchronous distributed algorithms

LPdbx is a distributed runtime debugger for loosely coupled parallel processors with an iconic interface. When a program suspends, users can insert additional breakpoints and examine global variables, structures, and pointer references. It has been used to debug banking and transportation applications and is available for distribution     

Seismic response analysis of RCC structure with yielding dampers using linearization techniques

Passive energy dissipating devices like elasto-plastic dampers (EPDs) can be used for retrofitting of structures subjected to seismic loads. A model of reinforced concrete structure is tested on shake table with and without EPDs attached in its frames. Using a finite element model of the structure, linear and nonlinear time history analysis is carried out using Newmark's time integration technique. However, the most viable approach used by designers is response spectrum approach. Hence equivalent linearization techniques are used to address the nonlinearity of dampers and iterative response spectrum method is used for evaluating the response of the structure using equivalent damping and stiffness. The analytical maximum storey response of the structure is compared with experimental values and time history analysis values. It has been concluded that, iterative response spectrum technique using equivalent linearization techniques is simple and results in reasonably acceptable response of the structures retrofitted with energy dissipaters.     

Repeated computation of global functions in a distributedenvironment

In a distributed system, many algorithms need repeated computation of a global function. These algorithms generally use a static hierarchy for gathering the necessary data from all processes. As a result, they are unfair to processes at higher levels of the hierarchy, which have to perform more work than processes at lower levels do. In this paper, we present a new revolving hierarchical scheme in which the position of a process in the hierarchy changes with time. This reorganization of the hierarchy is achieved concurrently with its use. It results in algorithms that are not only fair to all processes but also less expensive in terms of messages. The reduction in the number of messages is achieved by reusing messages for more than one computation of the global function. The technique is illustrated for a distributed branch-and-bound problem and for asynchronous computation of fixed points