Correlation of temperature rise and velocity along an inclined fire plume axis in crosswinds

Experiments with a single fire source were carried out in crosswinds in order to elucidate the correlation between temperature rise and velocity along an inclined fire plume axis. A circular propane burner with a diameter of 0.2 m was used as a model fire source. The temperature and velocity were measured along the inclined fire plume axis, and these were compared with fire plume data obtained in a calm condition. An empirical formula to represent the correlation of the temperature rise and velocity was developed. The values of empirical coefficients and exponents were derived from the experimental results of the circular burner. In order to verify the availability of the proposed empirical formula, the comparison was carried out with the data obtained from square and/or rectangular burners.     

Swelling behaviour of rubber vulcanizates: 2. Effects of tensile strain on swelling

The effects of tensile strain on the swelling behaviour of acrylonitrile-butadiene copolymer rubber vulcanizates were studied by real-time pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (n.m.r.) measurements and volume swelling measurements at equilibrium. It was shown that tensile strain causes an increase of the initial swelling rate evaluated by n.m.r. measurements and of the swelling ratio of the rubber matrix at equilibrium. This behaviour was discussed qualitatively in terms of the molecular mobility of the network chains on the basis of Treloar's theory for swelling under deformation. It was suggested that the presence of reinforcing fillers in the rubber matrix exerts two noticeable effects on swelling under deformation: (1) a transient effect through some oriented structure induced by stretching, which restricts the increase of the swelling rate; (2) a strain amplification effect, which causes the increase of the average local strain in the rubber matrix and enhances the swelling ratio more remarkably proportional to the filler concentration as compared with that of the unfilled system.     

Mechanism of high energy absorption by foamed materials-foamed rigid polyurethane and foamed glass

Energy absorbability of foamed rigid materials, polyurethane and glass, was studied under a compressive load. The brittle materials were proved to absorb much energy in a manner similar to ductile materials. A mechanism for such high energy absorption was proposed, based on a fracture model in which crushing of cells initiates at the weakest cell followed by propagation to cells lying in the layer containing the weakest one and lying in a direction perpendicular to the compressive force; then the crushing propagates to another layer under the compressive force after the completion of the first layer crushing. In the period of one layer crushing, the strain energy stored in the period of compression prior to the crushing is temporarily released, and it is stored again in the period of compression after the crushing. The store and release of strain energy is assumed to be repeated until all cell layers are crushed. This mechanism of layer-by-layer crushing allows the cells to absorb strain energy repeatedly, and causes high energy absorption in the brittle foamed material. The calculated energy based on the mechanism agrees well with the observed one.     

Analyzing the Boundary Thermal Resistance of Epitaxially Grown Fe<Subscript>2</Subscript>VAl/W Layers by Picosecond Time-Domain Thermoreflectance

To gain deep insight into the mechanism of phonon scattering at grain boundaries, we investigated the boundary thermal resistance by using picosecond pulsed-laser time-domain thermoreflectance for epitaxially grown W/Fe₂VAl/W films. By using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering, we prepared a series of the three-layer films whose Fe₂VAl thickness ranged from 1 nm to 37 nm. The fine oscillation of reflectivity associated with the top W layer clearly appeared in synchrotron x-ray reflectivity measurements, indicating a less obvious mixture of elements at the boundary. The areal heat diffusion time, obtained from the time-domain thermoreflectance signal in the rear-heating front-detection configuration, reduced rapidly in samples whose Fe₂VAl layer was thinner than 15 nm. The ～ 10% mismatch in lattice constant between Fe₂VAl and W naturally produced the randomly distributed lattice stress near the boundary, causing an effective increase of boundary thermal resistance in the thick samples, but the stress became homogeneous in the thinner layers, which reduced the scattering probability of phonons.     

Initial stages of high-temperature CaF2/Si(001) epitaxial growth studied by surface X-ray diffraction

Surface X-ray diffraction was applied to study structure of the fluorite-silicon interface forming upon epitaxial growth of CaF2 on Si(001) surface kept at 750 degrees C. Samples with CaF2 coverage of 1.5-4 (110)-monolayers were grown and in-situ characterized using synchrotron radiation. The 3 x 1-like surface reconstruction was observed in agreement with the previous studies by electron diffraction. Interestingly, a well pronounced splitting of the fractional x 1/3 reflections was revealed. This splitting was ascribed to the effect of antiphase domain boundaries in the row-like structure of the interface layer. The in-plane integrated intensities were used to reconstruct two-dimensional atomic structure of the high-temperature CaF2/Si(001) interface.     

Grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray diffraction study on molecular aggregation state of imprinted polyimide film before and after hard baking

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) was carried out on precursor of polyimide (PI), poly(amic acid) film, and then hard baking to obtain imprinted PI film. The molecular aggregation states of imprinted PI films before and after hard baking were investigated by grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray diffraction comparing with the one of flat PI film. It was found that NIL and hard baking can strongly affect the molecular aggregation states of PI film. Before hard baking, PI chain is aligned parallel to the line direction on the line. After hard baking, the alignment in ordered domain was changed to that the PI molecule of which chain axis is perpendicular to the line direction is significantly increased, while, PI molecule of which chain axis is parallel to the line direction is decreased after hard baking. Through comparing with the flat PI, crystallinity of imprinted PI film has been significantly enhanced.     

Strengthening of Alumina by Reactions with Silicon Film on the Surface and Effects of Ion Irradiation

Deposition of Si film on sintered alumina, followed by annealing at 1673 K in air, increased the flexural strength by ∼28%. Mullite formation on the surface was confirmed by X–ray diffraction analysis. Ion irradiation of the Si/alumina interface, followed by annealing, produced anorthite but not mullite, and the flexural strength also increased by ∼35%. Thermal expansion mismatch between surface compounds and the alumina body may be responsible for the strengthening.     

Roads for HTS power applications to go into the real world: Cost issues and technical issues

Owing to recent progress of high temperature superconductor (HTS) technology, Bi2223/Ag-sheathed tapes are produced in production scale and a 100 m long YBCO has been developed. R&D of various HTS power apparatuses are ongoing in many countries. Technical feasibility of HTS apparatuses is being demonstrated and now the economic feasibility needs to be demonstrated. In the paper, costs of HTS conductors are projected and the required costs of HTS conductors are estimated for the HTS apparatuses to be cost-completive to conventional or alternative apparatuses and technological key issues are also studied. Based on these studies, road maps for the HTS power apparatuses to go into the real world are discussed. In the discussions importance of R&Ds of industrial applications is pointed on the way to the developments of large scale power apparatuses.