Effect of reinforcing carbon black filler on thermally induced crosslinking of polyacrylic acid-epoxidized natural rubber blend

That carbon black filler influences the thermally induced crosslinking between polyacrylic acid (PAA) and epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) is evident from Monsanto rheometric studies, dynamic mechanical analyses, and physical property measurements. Considerable shift in glass transition temperature, as well as broadening of the loss peak due to ENR, along with disappearance of the loss peak due to PAA, indicate that HAF carbon black, at 20 parts per 100 of total polymer, make the immiscible PAA/ENR blend behave as a compatible blend. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Kinetics of Cation Redisribution in Ferrospinels

In situ electrical resistivity measurements were employed to follow the kinetics of cation redistribution in ferrospinels, x Fe₃O₄–(1 – x )MeFe₂O₄ (Me = Co, Mg, Mn, or Ni) or x Fe₃O₄–FeMe₂O₄ (Me = Al) with x ≥ 0.2. Relaxation temperatures (at 20°C/min heating rate) were established and kinetic parameters—activation energies and time constants—were determined for each cation. These parameters were insensitive to grain size, cation ratio, and oxygen nonstoichiometry. The mechanism was shown to be a local "homogeneous" point defect reaction in contrast to the "heterogeneous" nucleation and growth mechanism reported to take place in ferrispinels lacking Fe²⁺. Electron hopping between Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ in ferrospinels apparently screens the excess ionic charge associated with the diffusing species and enables homogeneous point defect reactions with lower attendant activation energies to take place.     

Optimization of operating parameters of video display units in text reading task: Luminance contrast,viewing distance,and character size

Abstract— The purpose of this study is to determine the reading performance of operators on a desktop computer. The effects of luminance contrast, viewing distance, and character size on the speed of reading were investigated. The luminance contrast between the background and character was varied while color contrast was held near‐constant. Stimuli with different levels of character size, viewing distance, and luminance contrast were considered while assessing the readability performance. The luminance contrast between the background and character (0.01, 0.15, and 1.00), character sizes (0.2, 1.5, and 4°), and viewing distance (40, 50, and 60 cm) were used, and the performance of the operators were recorded in terms of words per minutes (WPM). Standard workplace design recommendations to position the center of the visual display terminal (VDT) 15° and 40° below horizontal eye level were used for the visually intensive readability task. An orthogonal array, the signal‐to‐noise (S/N) ratio, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed to investigate the above‐mentioned operating parameters to determine the optimum readability performance. The results indicated that performance was better at a 15° viewing angle as compared to a 40° viewing angle.     

Impact properties of laminated angle ply composites

The impact properties of laminated composites have been studied as a function of fiber orientation angle, lamination configuration and specimen geometry. The energy absorbing mechanisms havebeen identified. The impact properties of laminated composites are influenced significantly by the fiber orientation angle, lamination configuration and specimen geometry. All off-axis composites (0° < θ < 90°) fail by brittle inter-fiber cleavage mode with little or no interlayer delamination. The longitudinal composites (θ = 0°), both unidirectional and crossplied, fail by a combination of failure modes which take place in a sequential manner—fiber failure and interfacial splitting followed by a layer-to-layer delamination. The presence of 0° layer(s) in transverse composite (θ ±90°) improves their impact performance.     

Effect of reversion of strain induced martensite on microstructure and mechanical properties in an austenitic stainless steel

Effect of reversion of strain induced α′ martensite on mechanical properties of an austenitic stainless steel has been examined. The α′ martensite formed by cold rolling (40%) at 0 °C has been reverted to austenite by carrying out annealing in the temperature range of 300–800 °C for 1 h. Microstructural investigation has demonstrated the enhanced reversion with increasing annealing temperature without any perceptible grain growth up to 800 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis has revealed that 40% cold rolling has resulted in the formation of 32% martensite. The residual martensite content has been found to be about 8% after reversion at 800 °C. Different stages of reversion behavior has been examined by differential scanning calorimetric measurement. The variation of dσ/dε with ε is examined to identify different stages of work hardening of the investigated steel. Both tensile strength and percent elongation values increase with increasing annealing temperature up to 500 °C. Beyond that annealing treatment results in the drop of tensile strength value with the consequent increase in percent elongation. Attractive strength–ductility combination (22.80 GPa%) has been achieved after annealing of the 40% cold deformed specimen at 800 °C for 1 h. The fractographic observation corroborates the tensile results.     

Effect of nanoclay and SEBS-g-MA on the morphology and properties of immiscible poly(methyl methacrylate)/polystyrene blend

In recent years, nanoclays are being used as compatibilizer for various immiscible polymer blends. However, little work has been done on the morphology of immiscible polymer blends in presence of both the nanoclay and a reactive compatibilizer. Here, we report the synergistic effect of nanoclay and SEBS-g-MA on the morphology and properties of (70/30 w/w) PMMA/PS blend. Scanning electron microscopy study of the blend with various amount of nanoclay and SEBS-g-MA indicated a reduction in the average domain sizes (D) of dispersed PS phase in PMMA matrix compared to that in the pure blend. Addition of both SEBS-g-MA and nanoclay significantly lowered the D of PS in the blend compared to that with only SEBS-g-MA or clay. X-ray diffraction study and transmission electron microscopy revealed the presence of intercalated clay platelets in PMMA matrix, as well as, at the interface of the (70/30 w/w) PMMA/PS blend-clay nanocomposites. Addition of SEBS-g-MA in the blend-clay nanocomposites promoted the exfoliation of clays in PMMA matrix. Thus, exfoliated clay platelets in PMMA matrix effectively restricted the coalescence of dispersed PS domains while SEBS-g-MA improved the adhesion between the phases at the interface. At certain loading (phr), storage modulus, elongation at break and thermal stability of the blend were greatly improved when both the nanoclay and SEBS-g-MA were present in the blend. The use of reactive compatibilizer and nanoclay in polymer blends may lead to a high performance material which combines the advantages of compatibilized polymer blends and the merits of polymer nanocomposites.     

CO2 saturation, distribution and seismic response in two-dimensional permeability model

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) has been actively researched as a strategy to mitigate CO(2) emissions into the atmosphere. The three components in CCS are monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA). Seismic monitoring technologies can meet the requirements of MVA, but they require a quantitative relationships between multiphase saturation distributions and wave propagation elastic properties. One of the main obstacles for quantitative MVA activities arises from the nature of the saturation distribution, typically classified anywhere from homogeneous to patchy. The emerging saturation distribution, in turn, regulates the relationship between compressional velocity and saturation. In this work, we carry out multiphase flow simulations in a 2-D aquifer model with a log-normal absolute permeability distribution and a capillary pressure function parametrized by permeability. The heterogeneity level is tuned by assigning the value of the Dykstra-Parson (DP) coefficient, which sets the variance of the log-normal horizontal permeability distribution in the entire domain. Vertical permeability is a 10th of the horizontal value in each gridcell. We show that despite apparent differences in saturation distribution among different realizations, CO(2) trapping and the V(p)-S(w) Rock Physics relationship are mostly functions of the DP coefficient. When the results are compared with the well accepted limits, Gassmann-Wood (homogeneous) (A Text Book of Sound; G. Bell and Suns LTD: London, 1941) and Gassmann-Hill (patchy) models, the V(p)-S(w) relationship never reaches the upper bound, that is, patchy model curve, even at the highest heterogeneity level in the model.     

Compact modeling and simulation of nanoscale fully depleted DG-SOI MOSFETS

A two dimensional analytical model for nanoscale fully depleted double gate SOI MOSFET is presented. Green??s function solution technique is adopted to solve the two dimensional Poisson??s equation using Dirichlet??s and Neumann??s boundary conditions at silicon-silicon di-oxide interface. Based on the derived 2D potential distribution, surface potential distributions in the Si film are analytically obtained. The calculated minimum surface potential is used to develop an analytic threshold voltage model. Simulation is done using ATLAS simulator for a 65?nm device and the results obtained are compared with the proposed 2D model. The model results are found to be in good agreement with the simulated data and other published results.     

A feasibility study of a post-buckled beam for actuating helicopter trailing edge flap

Active trailing edge flaps (TEFs) are one of the most promising devices for helicopter vibration reduction. Smart actuators such as the piezoelectric stack actuators (PEAs) are used for TEF actuation. PEAs possess high energy density and have large force in dynamic condition but are limited to small displacements. In this investigation, we study a linear to rotary motion amplification mechanism (AM-2) based on a pinned–pinned post-buckled beam to actuate trailing edge flaps. A linear motion amplification mechanism is developed and coupled with AM-2 to amplify angular flap deflections. Experiments are conducted on bench top-test setup, and maximum flap angle deflections of the order of 12° are achieved in the static case. An aeroelastic analysis is performed and 91 % reduction in helicopter vibration is obtained with multiharmonic control inputs.