Effect of Substrate Temperature on Deposition Behavior of Copper Particles on Substrate Surfaces in the Cold Spray Process

The deposition behavior of sprayed individual metallic particles on the substrate surface in the cold spray process was fundamentally investigated. As a preliminary experiment, pure copper (Cu) particles were sprayed on mirror-polished stainless steel and aluminum (Al) alloy substrate surfaces. Process parameters that changed systematically were particle diameter, working gas, gas pressure, gas temperature, and substrate temperature, and the effect of these parameters on the flattening or adhesive behavior of an individual particle was precisely investigated. Deposition ratio on the substrate surface was also evaluated using these parameters. From the results obtained, it was quite noticeable that the higher substrate temperature brought about a higher deposition rate of Cu particles, even under the condition where particles were kept at room temperature. This tendency was promoted more effectively using helium instead of air or nitrogen as a working gas. Both higher velocity and temperature of the particles sprayed are the necessary conditions for the higher deposition ratio in the cold spraying. However, instead of particle heating, substrate heating may bring about the equivalent effect for particle deposition. This article is an invited paper selected from presentations at the 2007 International Thermal Spray Conference and has been expanded from the original presentation. It is simultaneously published in Global Coating Solutions, Proceedings of the 2007 International Thermal Spray Conference, Beijing, China, May 14-16, 2007, Basil R. Marple, Margaret M. Hyland, Yuk-Chiu Lau, Chang-Jiu Li, Rogerio S. Lima, and Ghislain Montavon, Ed., ASM International, Materials Park, OH, 2007.     

Oxidation Behavior of a Re-Base Diffusion-Barrier/β-NiAl Coating on Nb–5Mo–15W at High Temperatures

A β-NiAl coating with or without a Re-base alloy layer was formed on a Nb–5Mo–15W alloy. The coated alloys were oxidized isothermally in air at 1373 and 1473 K. Electroplating of a high (more than 70at.%)-Re–Ni film, Cr-pack cementation, Ni plating, and then Al-pack cementation, in this sequence, formed a coating structure with Re-base alloy and β-NiAl layers. The Re-base alloy layers were comprised of an outer σ-phase in the Re–Cr(Ni) system and an inner χ-phase in the Re–Nb(Cr) system. It was found that reaction between the β-NiAl and the alloy substrate was significantly suppressed when the Re-base alloy layers were present. The Re-base σ and χ phases were found to be good candidates for a diffusion barrier against inward-Al diffusion because they have very low solubilities for Al.     

Using model uncertainty for robust optimization in approximate inference control

Recently, the optimization-by-inference approach has been proposed as a new means for solving high-dimensional optimization problems quickly. Approximate Inference COntrol (AICO) is one of the most successful and promising methods that implement the optimization-by-inference approach. AICO is able to solve stochastic optimal control problems and has already been successfully used in many applications. However, it is known that the iterative inference of AICO sometimes fails to converge to the optimal solution. To make the optimization more robust, in this paper, we propose to take model uncertainty into account. In AICO, the cost function to be minimized is accurate around a particular state of a given stochastic system, but the accuracy is uncertain in regions far from that state. Because using such an uncertain function is harmful to the convergence, we modify AICO, so that it does not use the function in uncertain regions. Our method is easy to implement and does not add much computational time to the original AICO. Experiments using two different scenarios show that our method substantially improves AICO in terms of the rate at which the algorithm produces convergent results.     

Electrocatalytic activities of metal electrodes in anodic oxidation of hydrazine in alkaline solution

The electrocatalytic activities of various metals and alloys in the anodic oxidation of hydrazine in alkaline solution have been studied by means of palladium membrane method in which the contact side of the membrane was electrodeposited with a thin layer of the electrocatalytic metals. The electrode materials studied can be divided into two groups. In the first group, platinum, rhodium, cobalt, cobalt—phosphor and cobalt—boron, anodic current of hydrogen oxidation on the diffusion side decreased remarkably with an increase of the electro-oxidation of hydrazine on the contact side. The anodic oxidation of hydrazine occurs through the preliminary stepwise dehydrogenation on this group metals.On the other hand, the amount of sorbed hydrogen in the palladium, gold, nickel and nickel—phosphor electrodes increased with an increase of the electro-oxidation of hydrazine on the contact side. Thus, the anodic oxidation of hydrazine on the latter group metals may proceed through the anodic formation of the intermediate radicals which readily decompose into hydrogen and the related compounds.     

Study of the flexural modulus of natural fiber/polypropylene composites by injection molding

Effect of fiber compression on flexural modulus of the natural fiber composites was examined. The kenaf, bagasse, and polypropylene were mixed into pellets, and composites were fabricated by injection molding. To predict flexural modulus of the composites, the Young's modulus of kenaf and bagasse fiber were measured. Using the obtained Young's modulus, the flexural modulus of the composites was predicted by Cox's model that incorporates the effect of fiber compression. It was found that those fibers with high Young's modulus were more compressed than that with low Young's modulus. Moreover, the distribution of fiber length and orientation in the composites were also investigated. To calculate the orientation factor for the prediction model, the distribution function of fiber orientation was determined to a triangular function. The flexural modulus of the composites increased with increase of volume fraction. The predicted values were in good agreement with the experimental values. Furthermore, it was revealed by SEM that the porous structure of the natural fibers was compressed. The fiber compression ratio (3.6) in bagasse was higher than that in kenaf (1.4) due to the difference in porous structure. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 911–917, 2006     

Shape optimization of continua using NURBS as basis functions

The present paper introduces a numerical solution to shape optimization problems of domains in which boundary value problems of partial differential equations are defined. In the present paper, the finite element method using NURBS as basis functions in the Galerkin method is applied to solve the boundary value problems and to solve a reshaping problem generated by the H1 gradient method for shape optimization, which has been developed as a general solution to shape optimization problems. Numerical examples of linear elastic continua illustrate that this solution works as well as using the conventional finite element method.     

Construction and development of a time-resolved x-ray magnetic circular dichroism-photoelectron emission microscopy system using femtosecond laser pulses at BL25SU SPring-8

A femtosecond pulsed laser system has been installed at the BL25SU soft x-ray beamline at SPring-8 for time-resolved pump-probe experiments with synchronization of the laser pulses to the circularly polarized x-ray pulses. There are four different apparatuses situated at the beamline; for photoemission spectroscopy, two-dimensional display photoelectron diffraction, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) with electromagnetic coils, and photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM). All four can be used for time-resolved experiments, and preliminary investigations have been carried out using the PEEM apparatus to observe magnetization dynamics in combination with XMCD. In this article, we describe the details of the stroboscopic pump-probe XMCD-PEEM experiment, and present preliminary data. The repetition rate of the laser pulses is set using a pulse selector to match the single bunches of SPring-8's hybrid filling pattern, which consists of several single bunches and a continuous bunch train. Electrons ejected during the bunch train, which do not provide time-resolved signal, are eliminated by periodically reducing the channel plate voltage using a custom-built power supply. The pulsed laser is used to create 300 ps long magnetic field pulses, which cause magnetic excitations in micron-sized magnetic elements which contain magnetic vortex structures. The observed frequency of the motion is consistent with previously reported observations and simulations.     

Local stresses at the intersection of cross-beam flange with box-girder web

Local stresses at the intersection of a top flange of a cross beam with a box-girder web are investigated analytically and experimentally. Finite element analyses of a T-shaped welded joint and a loading test of a cantilever beam of acrylic material reveal that a local stress which is different from the one caused by the stress concentrations at a weld toe is developed at the intersection. Finite element analyses of an I-section beam show that the restraint of the vertical deformation of the cross beam at the box-girder web induces the local stress. It is pointed out that the local stress must be considered in fatigue design. A method of determining the local stress is proposed.     

Performance improvement of induction motor speed sensor‐less vector control system using an adaptive observer with an estimated flux feedback in low‐speed range

Because of various errors caused by the dead time of an inverter, temperature variation of resistances, and so on, speed estimation error is inevitable in speed sensor‐less vector control of an induction motor. In particular, the speed control loop becomes unstable at near‐zero frequencies. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a novel design of an adaptive observer for speed estimation. By adding a feedback loop of the error between the estimated flux and the flux command, the sensitivity of speed estimation and primary resistance identification is improved. The proposed system is analyzed and appropriate feedback gains are derived. Experimental results showed good performance in the low‐speed range. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 169(3): 33–46, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience. wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20909