Prediction of Aging Characteristics in Natural Rubber Bearings Used in Bridges

Rubber bearings used in bridges are exposed to the air and easily attacked by oxygen, even at room temperature, and heat, light, dynamic strain, and liquids. It is usually known that the degradation of polymers often occurs as a nonuniform or heterogeneous process because aged rubber will prevent deterioration from progressing into the inner rubber bearing. Thermal oxidation tests were carried out on natural rubber (NR) blocks at different elevated temperatures using the modulus profiling method. The development of the heterogeneous property profiles in aged rubber bearings is revealed. The NR blocks display the features of a diffusion-limited oxidation and the properties change most significantly at the surface. However, in the interior region beyond the critical depth, NR does not change. The property variations at the block surface and the interior are quantitatively examined, based on which, the relations are clarified among property variation, temperature, aging time, and relative position inside a rubber bearing. An appropriate aging model is established, which is able to predict the aging characteristics in NR bearing.     

A PAM control method for a matrix converter based on a virtual AC/DC/AC conversion method

In this paper, a novel control method for a matrix converter is proposed. The proposed method is a PAM (Pulse Amplitude Modulation) control method based on a virtual AC/DC/AC conversion method. Output voltage amplitude is controlled by controlling a virtual DC link voltage with a virtual rectifier. Output frequency is controlled by a virtual inverter. First, the proposed method is explained. Next, the validity of the proposed method is confirmed through simulation and experiment using a 750‐W prototype matrix converter. Moreover, various characteristics of the proposed method and conventional virtual AC/DC/AC method are compared through experiment. As a result of the experiment, it has been understood that total harmonic distortion of output current and common‐mode voltage can be reduced compared with the case of using a conventional virtual AC/DC/AC conversion method. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 166(4): 88–96, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience. wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20601     

Effects of additives on prebreakdown phenomena in n-hexane

Prebreakdown phenomena in n-hexane are observed in detail for positive and negative polarities by using simultaneously a high speed schlieren technique and an LED current measuring system, when an impulse voltage (1.1/225 μs) is applied to a point-to-plane electrode gap. Furthermore, the effects of several additives on the streamer propagation are investigated. Especially the effects of electron-trapping additives on negative streamer propagation and of low ionization potential additives on the positive streamer propagation, are examined, as is a correlation between the shape and the propagation velocity of the streamers     

Ce3+-activated fluoride crystals as prospective activemedia for widely tunable ultraviolet ultrafast lasers with direct 10-nspumping

New possibilities have been investigated for recently developed solid-state tunable ultraviolet (UV) laser materials such as Ce³⁺ ion-activated LuLiF₄ (LLF) and LiCaAlF₆ (LiCAF). With their broad-gain width, demonstrated reliability, and high efficiency, they are attractive for ultrashort pulse generation and amplification. To prove that, we have demonstrated UV picosecond-pulse amplification using Ce:LLF. For such new laser materials, we proposed a passive self-injection seeding scheme for the direct generation of short-pulse trains, which does not require CW operation capability or an external short-pulse seeding laser, Using this simple scheme, a UV sub-nanosecond pulse train is directly and passively generated from Ce:LLF pumped by a standard 10-ns KrF excimer laser, and Ce:LiCAF pumped by the fourth harmonic of a conventional 10-ns Q-switched Nd:YAG laser     

Integrated-optic encoder/decoder for time-spreading/wavelength-hopping optical CDMA

We demonstrate an integrated-optic encoder/decoder for time-spreading/wavelength-hopping optical code division multiple access. It is composed of a wavelength multi/demultiplexer and variable delay lines fabricated by using silica-based planar lightwave circuit technology. We evaluated the device characteristics, including those of the key components and the encoding/decoding operation, and confirmed its flexible code assignment ability and good auto/cross correlations. We then tested the performance of the encoder/decoder by undertaking bit error rate measurements with 10-Gb/s pseudorandom binary sequence signals and confirmed its applicability to optical layer multicast routing and its ability to compensate for bit skew caused by fiber chromatic dispersion.     

Computational dynamics method for evaluating the mobility of charged biomolecules passing through the electrical potential field within the ion selective channel on an excitable membrane

A mathematical method is introduced to characterize the electrokinetic behavior (electrophoresis) of a biomolecular particle which passes through a specific channel pore on an excitable biological membrane. The basic approach was first proposed by Booth (1950). The system was described by an equation of continuity and an equation of motion in which the driving force involves the diffusion effect, the hydrostatic pressure, and the electrostatic potential. By assuming linear relations between the velocity and the applied electrical field, solutions for the potential, pressure, and velocity were given by a series expansion of the charges on the particle. To examine the influence of ions surrounding the particle and forming an ionic cloud, the Debye–Huckel parameter was introduced. As the thickness of the double layer around the particle increased, the potential, velocity, pressure, and viscosity were changed significantly. The maximum influence was obtained when the radius of the particle became equal to the thickness of the double layer. Although this theory is valid for a charged, spherical, nonconducting particle only, the method is available for evaluating the kinetic behavior of a biomolecule that passes through a channel pore on a cellular membrane.This work was presented, in part, at the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 24–26, 2003     

An algorithm for similar utterance section extraction for managing spoken documents

This paper proposes a new, efficient algorithm for extracting similar sections between two time sequence data sets. The algorithm, called Relay Continuous Dynamic Programming (Relay CDP), realizes fast matching between arbitrary sections in the reference pattern and the input pattern and enables the extraction of similar sections in a frame synchronous manner. In addition, Relay CDP is extended to two types of applications that handle spoken documents. The first application is the extraction of repeated utterances in a presentation or a news speech because repeated utterances are assumed to be important parts of the speech. These repeated utterances can be regarded as labels for information retrieval. The second application is flexible spoken document retrieval. A phonetic model is introduced to cope with the speech of different speakers. The new algorithm allows a user to query by natural utterance and searches spoken documents for any partial matches to the query utterance. We present herein a detailed explanation of Relay CDP and the experimental results for the extraction of similar sections and report results for two applications using Relay CDP. Yoshiaki Itoh has been an associate professor in the Faculty of Software and Information Science at Iwate Prefectural University, Iwate, Japan, since 2001. He received the B.E. degree, M.E. degree, and Dr. Eng. from Tokyo University, Tokyo, in 1987, 1989, and 1999, respectively. From 1989 to 2001 he was a researcher and a staff member of Kawasaki Steel Corporation, Tokyo and Okayama. From 1992 to 1994 he transferred as a researcher to Real World Computing Partnership, Tsukuba, Japan. Dr. Itoh's research interests include spoken document processing without recognition, audio and video retrieval, and real-time human communication systems. He is a member of ISCA, Acoustical Society of Japan, Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Information Processing Society of Japan, and Japan Society of Artificial Intelligence. Kazuyo Tanaka has been a professor at the University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan, since 2002. He received the B.E. degree from Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan, in 1970, and the Dr. Eng. degree from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, in 1984. From 1971 to 2002 he was research officer of Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), Tsukuba, Japan, and the National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, where he was working on speech analysis, synthesis, recognition, and understanding, and also served as chief of the speech processing section. His current interests include digital signal processing, spoken document processing, and human information processing. He is a member of IEEE, ISCA, Acoustical Society of Japan, Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, and Japan Society of Artificial Intelligence. Shi-Wook Lee received the B.E. degree and M.E. degree from Yeungnam University, Korea and Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1995, 1997, and 2001, respectively. Since 2001 he has been working in the Research Group of Speech and Auditory Signal Processing, the National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, as a postdoctoral fellow. His research interests include spoken document processing, speech recognition, and understanding.     

Influence of Y2O3 distribution on the rate of tetragonal to monoclinic phase transformation of yttria-stabilized zirconia during hydrothermal aging

Tetragonal to monoclinic phase transformation of yttria-stabilized zirconia, namely plasma-sprayed coatings and sintered bodies containing 4–8 mass % Y₂O₃ during hydrothermal aging was investigated with respect to Y₂O₃ distribution using 1 m area from electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and 20 nm area from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. Phase transformation at 473 K was prevented only in plasma-sprayed coatings having more than 6.7 mass % Y₂O₃ in 20 nm microscopic area. Furthermore, it was confirmed influence of Y₂O₃ distribution on the rate constants of this phase transformation was observed at 368 K.     

Small optical magnetic-field sensor that uses rare-Earth iron garnet films based on the faraday effect

Highly accurate optical magnetic-field probe sensors that use iron garnet films have been developed. New probe-type sensors were designed with a confocal optical system. A new garnet composition, Bi(0.98)Gd(0.92)La(0.03)Y(1.07)Fe(4.72)Ga(0.28)O(12), was found that shows high temperature stability for a sensitivity of less than 2.0% from -20 to +80 degrees C. The linearity error of the sensor output was within 1.0% for alternating magnetic fields from 0.3 to 42 mT. An optical current transformer that uses the proposed sensor has an ac linearity of 1.0% for input current up to nearly 300 A. The sensor realized high performance in actual use.     

Scanning and transmission electron microscopic studies on the upper and lower surfaces of the frog skin epidermal cells.

We examined the fine structure of the upper and lower surfaces of stratified squamous epithelial cells in the skin of frogs (Hyla japonica). SEM revealed the upper surface of superficial cells covered with ramified microridges (type 3). The width of the microridges was 0.20-0.24 microns. Microridges found at the cell boundary were about 0.30 microns in width and a narrow furrow was seen between the two cells. The numerous oval disk-like structures (0.23 x 0.32 microns in diameter) covered the lower surface of these superficial cells. The upper surface of cells in the 2nd layer was covered with baculiform or ramified microridges (type 2 or 3). On the cell boundary, two linear microridges (0.23-0.27 microns in width) were parallelly arranged. The width of the microridges covering the upper cell surface was 0.09-0.10 microns. Microvilli-like processes with a height of 0.32-0.37 microns were interspersed among the microridges. Their tip formed an oval plane (0.23 x 0.31 microns), which corresponded to the size of the disk-like structures on the lower surface of the superficial cells. Desmosomes were observed on the tip by TEM. These findings show that the disk-like structures on the lower surface of the superficial cells are the sites of binding with the microvilli-like processes on the upper surface of the 2nd layer cells. The disk-like structures observed in the present study seem to be equivalent to the binding site on the upper surface of the surface cell layer of mammalian stratified squamous epithelium.