On the development of a direct method of determining the microcrack resistance curve

This report deals with direct observations of microcrack linkage at the crack tip prior to macroscopic crack initiation. It is shown that this process is directly linked to the inclusion distribution in the material and can be considered in terms of an R curve to describe microcrack development.     

The contact of elastic regular wavy surfaces

A complete solution in closed form to the elastic contact of a one-dimensional sinusoidal surface with a flat surface was presented by Westergaard in 1939. This paper is concerned with the elastic contact of a two-dimensional sinusoidal surface with a flat. In this case the stress distribution within the elastic solids is three-dimensional. As the load is increased the contact areas change in shape from being circular to square and finally leave a circular region of no contact when the waves are almost squashed flat. The problem is solved in general using a numerical method due to Kalker, but asymptotic solutions in closed form have been found for light loads and also for heavy loads at which contact is almost complete. The variation of the mean separation with load, which determines the volume of the space trapped between the two surfaces, is also found.     

Iterative multiuser joint decoding: unified framework andasymptotic analysis

We present a framework for iterative multiuser joint decoding of code-division multiple-access (CDMA) signals, based on the factor-graph representation and on the sum-product algorithm. In this framework, known parallel and serial, hard and soft interference cancellation algorithms are derived in a unified way. The asymptotic performance of these algorithms in the limit of large code block length can be rigorously analyzed by using density evolution. We show that, for random spreading in the large-system limit, density evolution is considerably simplified. Moreover, by making a Gaussian approximation of the decoder soft output, we show that the behavior of iterative multiuser joint decoding is approximately characterized by the stable fixed points of a simple one-dimensional nonlinear dynamical system     

Homogeneity characterisation of sintered (U,Gd)O2 pellets by X-ray diffraction

(U,Gd)O₂ sintered pellets are fabricated by different methods. The homogeneity characterisation of the Gd content seems to be necessary for a production control to qualify the process and the final product obtained. In this paper, we propose an analysis of the X-ray diffraction powder patterns through the Rietveld method, in which the differences between the experimental and the calculated data proposed from a crystalline structure model are evaluated. This result allows us to determine the cell parameters, that can be correlated with the Gd concentration, and the existence of other phases with different Gd contents.     

Crisis phenomena upon evaporation in grid capillary and porous coatings and arterial structures of heat pipes

The article presents the results of experimental investigations of critical (limit) heat fluxes upon evaporation on porous coatings, and it substantiates the physical model of the process.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 607–614, October, 1985.     

Structure and composition of guanidine acrylate, guanidine methacrylate, their homopolymers, and copolymers with diallyldimethylammonium chloride

Structures and compositions of the monomers guanidine acrylate and guanidine methacrylate, their homopolymers, and copolymers with diallyldimethylammonium chloride enriched in acrylate comonomer units were determined. It was shown that ampholytic copolymers, owing to their ionic nature, contained comonomeric guanidine acrylate or methacrylate units and diallyldimethylammonium chloride units, as well as the acrylate comonomer with the diallyl counterion and polymeric acrylate and diallyl ion pairs. It follows from IR and ¹H NMR data that guanidine methacrylate has the same structure (with two hydrogen bonds) in the solid state and in solutions. Guanidine acrylate structures in the solid state and in dimethylsulfoxide are identical and analogous to guanidine methacrylate structure in this solvent. In water, the guanidine acrylate structure has another type of hydrogen bonding (with one hydrogen bond, where the proton is shifted toward the guanidine group). These features of hydrogen bonding of guanidine acrylate and guanidine methacrylate are also retained in their homopolymers and copolymers with diallyldimethylammonium chloride. It was shown that the thermal stability of the copolymers was higher than that of their homopolymers, confirming the formation of intramolecular ion pairs of oppositely charged units of ampholytic copolymers. Moreover, the thermal stability of guanidine methacrylate-diallyldimethylammonium chloride copolymers is higher than that of guanidine acrylate-diallyldimethylammonium chloride copolymers.     

Experimental Electronuclear Setup at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics

The purpose and current construction status, at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, of an experimental electronuclear setup, combining a pulsed proton linear accelerator (36 MeV, 0.5 mA) and a subcritical blanket thermal-power assembly 100 kW, are discussed. The main equipment is already available or is being built in industry. The setup can be used to investigate the dynamics of the interaction of a linac–driver and a subcritical reactor and problems concerning the accelerator–driver and the target–blanket assembly. The proton beams and neutron fluxes will be used for applied purposes. In the future it will be possible to increase substantially the current and energy of the proton beam.     

Vapor pressure and thermodynamic functions of TeI<Subscript>4</Subscript> and its decomposition products

Using a flow method, we have measured the vapor pressure of tellurium tetraiodide, an attractive reagent for chemical vapor deposition technology. The results, combined with earlier tensimetric data, have been used to evaluate the basic thermodynamic functions of TeI₄ and its thermolysis products.