A review of cryogenic cooling in machining processes

The cooling applications in machining operations play a very important role and many operations cannot be carried out efficiently without cooling. Application of a coolant in a cutting process can increase tool life and dimensional accuracy, decrease cutting temperatures, surface roughness and the amount of power consumed in a metal cutting process and thus improve the productivity. In this review, liquid nitrogen, as a cryogenic coolant, was investigated in detail in terms of application methods in material removal operations and its effects on cutting tool and workpiece material properties, cutting temperature, tool wear/life, surface roughness and dimensional deviation, friction and cutting forces. As a result, cryogenic cooling has been determined as one of the most favourable method for material cutting operations due to being capable of considerable improvement in tool life and surface finish through reduction in tool wear through control of machining temperature desirably at the cutting zone.     

Determination of optimal loading profiles in warm hydroforming of lightweight materials

In this study, a methodology is developed to determine proper profiles of the hydraulic pressure and the blank holder force under warm hydroforming conditions at different punch speeds. First, finite element models (2-D and 3-D) are developed and validated through comparisons with the experimental results from the literature. To determine the optimal hydraulic pressure and blank holder force profiles simultaneously, an adaptive FE analysis with fuzzy control algorithm was developed. Thinning, wrinkling, punch wall contact, die corner floating and conduction were used as criteria in the fuzzy control algorithm. The effects of the determined loading profiles are then presented in terms of thickness, strain and stress, and temperature distributions as well as success/failure of the forming process. The effect of punch speed was also investigated to reveal its impact on part formability. It was found that the optimal process conditions can be rapidly and accurately obtained with the developed adaptive FEA method coupled with fuzzy control algorithm.     

Comparative pyrolysis of polyolefins (PP and LDPE) and PET

In the present study, thermal degradation of polyolefins (PP and LDPE) and PET in a tubular reactor in an inert atmosphere was conducted. Each polymer was subjected to pyrolysis at the temperatures of 673, 773, 873, and 973 K. Yields of tar, residual coke and gas, and conversion degrees were calculated. Tars which include valuable chemicals were characterized by GC–MS, ¹H-NMR, FTIR, and GPC. Pyrolysis gases (C1 + C2, C3, C4, C5, and C6 + C7) were also analyzed by GC analysis. From the comparison of data, it can be said that pyrolysis of PP and LDPE leads to the formation of tar containing mainly paraffinic structures, while aromatic structures were produced by the pyrolysis of PET.     

Investigations on thermo-mechanical fabrication of micro-scale porous surface features

In this paper, we present the preliminary results of our investigations to fabricate porous micro-feature surface structure arrays on large surface areas for fuel cell and other heat/mass transfer applications. We hypothesized that micro-channels of around 200–400 μm height and width with porosity levels of 30–50% and with strong bonding to a thin substrate could be fabricated using hot powder compaction and/or hot roll powder compaction. We investigated the effects of compaction pressure, temperature, holding time, powder size and substrate conditions on the attainable porosity and channel size. Our feasibility study findings indicate that both pressure and temperature have significant effect on the porosity level. Suggested temperature levels are around 450 °C to ensure strong bonding among powders and between powders and the thin substrate. Minimum pressure level can be around 50 MPa, but it depends on the temperature levels. Roughened substrate surface condition is found to slightly assist in achieving strong bonds and high porosity. In order to have high porosity levels, uniform powder size is preferred. Although not tested extensively, hot compacted specimens up to 450 °C temperature levels are found to be not very strong. Hence, subsequent sintering is necessary.     

Application of Markov chains on image enhancement

Stochastic image processing tools have been widely used in digital image processing in order to improve the quality of the images. Markov process is one of the well-known mathematical modeling tools in stochastic theory. In this study, a Markov chain model has been developed and applied to image denoising. The transition probabilities were obtained from Fokker–Planck diffusion equation. According to the results, the proposed Markov chain model supplies very good peak signal to noise ratio values along with low computational cost.     

以抗坏血酸作协同试剂时红土镍矿在硫酸溶液中的溶解（英文）

研究硫酸与抗坏血酸联用对恰尔达红土镍矿中镍和钴的溶解作用。作为比较,也研究柠檬酸、马来酸和硬脂酸等有机酸作为协同试剂的应用情况。结果表明,抗坏血酸和柠檬酸的使用显著改善了钴的溶解,而其他两种有机酸对浸出率的协同作用很小。对于镍的溶解,抗坏血酸是最有效的协同试剂,其次是柠檬酸、马来酸和硬脂酸。在本研究获得的最优条件下,即1 mol/L硫酸中加入4 g/L抗坏血酸、80°C、固液比1/10,浸出4 h后钴和镍的浸出率分别达到99%和98%以上。此外,浸出行为对抗坏血酸浓度的变化(2~4 g/L)较不敏感,这从操作角度来看是非常理想的。     

Determination of hydroquinone using poly(3‐methylthiophene) synthesized electrochemically on pt electrode in methylene chloride

Poly(3‐methylthiophene) (P3MT) film was synthesized by potentiodynamic method on Pt electrode in methylene chloride solution containing 0.10M tetrabuthlammonium perchlorate supporting electrolyte and used for the determination of hydroquinone (HQ) with amperometric I–t method in solution consisting of NaHSO₄/Na₂SO₄ (SBS; pH 2.0). This modified electrode has a lower working potential and good operational stability due to reducing electrode fouling when compared with the direct oxidation of HQ at the bare Pt electrode. Limit of detection, limit of quantification, and the linear response range were found to be 1.32 × 10^?5 mM, 4.41 × 10^?5 mM, and between 4.41 × 10^?5 – 50.0 mM (R² = 0.997), at 0.50 V versus saturated calomel electrode, respectively. HQ determination in complex matrix was checked using real samples to demonstrate the applicability of modified electrode. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40859.     

Fabrication of micro-channel arrays on thin metallic sheet using internal fluid pressure: Investigations on size effects and development of design guidelines

Micro-feature (channel, protrusion, cavity, etc.) arrays on large area-thin metallic sheet alloys are increasingly needed for compact and integrated heat/mass transfer applications (such as fuel cells and fuel processors) that require high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, good electrical/thermal conductivity, etc. The performance of these micro-feature arrays mainly affects the volume flow velocity of the reactants inside the arrays which directly controls the rate of convection mass/heat transport. The key factors that affect the flow velocity include channel size and shape, flow field pattern, flow path length, fluid pressure, etc. In this study, we investigated these micro-feature arrays from the manufacturability perspective since it is also an important factor to be considered in the design process. Internal fluid pressure (hydroforming) technique is investigated in this study with the specific goals to, first, understand if the so-called “size effects” (grain vs. feature size) are effective on the manufacturability of thin metallic sheet into micro-channels, and second, to establish design guidelines for the micro-channel hydroforming technique for robust mass production conditions. Thin stainless steel 304 blanks of 0.051 mm thick with three different grain sizes of 9.3, 10.6, and 17.0 μm were used in hydroforming experiments to form micro-channels with the dimensions between 0.46–1.33 and 0.15–0.98 mm in width and height, respectively. Based on the experimental results, the effect of the grain size on the channel formability was found to be insignificant for the grain size range used in this study. On the other hand, the effect of the channel (feature) size was shown to dominate the overall formability. In addition, FE models of the process were developed and validated with the experimental results, then used to conduct a parametric study to establish micro-channel design guidelines. The results from the parametric study suggested that in order to obtain the maximum aspect ratio (height-to-width ratio) a small channel width should be used. Even though a large channel width would result in a higher channel height, the height-to-width ratio was found to be lower in this case. In addition, higher aspect ratio could be obtained by using larger corner radius (R_d), wider distance between adjacent channels (W_int), or less number of channels. On the other hand, the variation in draft angle (α) between 5° and 20° in combinations with the other channel geometries was found to be insignificant on the channel formability/height. All in all, these channel parameters (W, R_d, W_int, α, channel number, etc.) should be taken into account simultaneously in the design process in order to obtain such a design of the micro-feature arrays that would meet both performance and manufacturing requirements and constraints.     

Investigation of size effects on material behavior of thin sheet metals using hydraulic bulge testing at micro/meso-scales

Reliable material models are necessary for accurate analysis of micro-forming and micro-manufacturing processes. The grain-to-feature size ratio (d/D_c) in micro-forming processes is predicted to have a critical impact on the material behavior in addition to the well-known effect of the grain size (d) itself as manifested by the Hall–Petch relation. In this study, we investigated the “size effects” on the material flow curve of thin sheet metals under hydraulic bulge testing conditions. The ratio of the sheet thickness to the material grain size (N=t₀/d) was used as a parameter to characterize the interactive effects between the specimen and the grain sizes at the micro-scales, while the ratio of the bulge die diameter to the sheet thickness (M=D_c/t₀) was used to represent the effect of the feature size in the bulge test. Thin sheets of stainless steel 304 (SS304) with an initial thickness (t₀) of 51 μm and three different grain sizes (d) of 9.3, 10.6, and 17 μm were tested using five bulge diameters (D_c) of 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 100 mm. A systematic approach for determining the flow curve of thin sheet metals in bulge testing was discussed and presented. The results of the bulge tests at different scales showed a decrease in the material flow curve with decreasing N value from 5.5 to 3.0, and with decreasing M value from 1961 to 191. However, as M value was decreased further from 191 to 49, an inversed relation between the flow curve and M value was observed; that is, the flow curve was found to increase with decreasing M value from 191 to 49, a new observed phenomenon that has never been reported in any open literature. New material models, both qualitatively and quantitatively, were developed to explain the size effects on the material flow curve by using the N and M as the characteristic parameters of relative size between the grain, the specimen (i.e., sheet thickness), and the part feature (i.e., bulge diameter). The explanation and prediction of the flow curve behavior based on these models were shown to be in good agreement with the bulge test results in this study and in the literature.