Densification and microstructural evolution of spark plasma sintered NiTi shape memory alloy

The effect of particle size and sintering temperature on the densification and microstructural characteristics of nickel-titanium shape memory alloy (NiTi-SMA) has been investigated using spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. The Ni and Ti elements in different particle sizes were alloyed in the composition of Ni_50.6Ti_49.4. The milled NiTi powders were consolidated using SPS process in a temperature range of 700–900?°C. The densification was characterized by plotting temperature, current and relative displacement of punch as a function of holding time. The results showed that a maximum relative density of ～98% can be achieved for NiTi-SMA with an average particle size of 10?µm at a sintering temperature of 900?°C. The microstructure of the sintered NiTi-SMA was examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and composition of NiTi alloy was analyzed using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. The effect of sintering temperature on the microstructural evolution and transformation was also studied.     

Electro-analysis of energetic materials

Cyclic voltammetric studies of triaminoguanidine nitrate (TAGN), 3,3'-hydrazino bis(bis[6,6'-(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-lyl])-1,2,4,5-tetrazine (HBPT), 4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxan (DNBF) and 3,3'-diamino-4,4'-azoxyfurazan (DAAF) were carried out at different pH conditions in 50% aqueous acetonitrile using glassy carbon electrode. Optimum pH was selected for individual compounds. Influence of scan rate and concentration on the voltammetric response were studied in optimum pH. The number of electron transferred was determined by controlled potential coulometry. All compounds undergo diffusion controlled electrochemical reaction. Based on cyclic voltammetric results, differential pulse and square wave voltammetric methods have been developed for the analytical determination. Instrumental parameters such as initial scan potential, amplitude, pulse increment, pulse period, pulse width and frequency were studied. Optimum experimental conditions for each compound were obtained. After fixing optimum conditions, the effect of concentration was studied and calibration plot was arrived. These plots can be used to determine the traces of the above said four energetic materials.     

A new method of embedded fourth order with four stages to study raster CNN simulation

A new Runge-Kutta （PK） fourth order with four stages embedded method with error control is presentea m this paper for raster simulation in cellular neural network （CNN） environment. Through versatile algorithm, single layer/raster CNN array is implemented by incorporating the proposed technique. Simulation results have been obtained, and comparison has also been carried out to show the efficiency of the proposed numerical integration algorithm. The analytic expressions for local truncation error and global truncation error are derived. It is seen that the RK-embedded root mean square outperforms the RK-embedded Heronian mean and RK-embedded harmonic mean.     

Developing Temperature–Time and Pressure–Time diagrams for diffusion bonding AZ80 magnesium and AA6061 aluminium alloys

The principal difficulty when joining magnesium (Mg) and aluminium (Al) lies in the existence of formation of oxide films and brittle intermetallic in the bond region. However diffusion bonding can be used to join these alloys without much difficulty. In this investigation, an attempt was made to develop Temperature–Time and Pressure–Time diagrams for diffusion bonding of AZ80 magnesium (Mg) and AA6061 aluminium (Al) dissimilar materials. The bonding quality of the joints was checked by microstructure analysis and lap shear tensile testing. Based on the results Temperature–Time and Pressure–Time diagrams were constructed. These diagrams will act as reference maps for selecting appropriate diffusion bonding process parameters to join AZ80 magnesium alloy and AA6061 aluminium alloy without trial experiments.     

Advertisement timeout driven bee's mating approach to maintain fair energy level in sensor networks

In wireless sensor network, dynamic cluster-based routing approach is widely used. Such practiced approach, quickly depletes the energy of cluster heads and induces the execution of frequent re-election algorithm. This repeated cluster head re-election algorithm increases the number of advertisement messages, which in turn depletes the energy of overall sensor network. Here, we proposed the Advertisement Timeout Driven Bee's Mating Approach (ATDBMA) that reduces the cluster set-up communication overhead and elects the standby node in advance for current cluster head, which has the capability to withstand for many rounds.Our proposed ATDBMA method uses the honeybee mating behaviour in electing the standby node for current cluster head. This approach really outperforms the other methods in achieving reduced number of re-election and maintaining fair energy nodes between the rounds.     

GA based heuristic for the open job shop scheduling problem

Open job shop scheduling is a kind of job shop scheduling in which operations can be performed in any order. In this paper an attempt is made to develop a heuristic for the open job shop scheduling problem using genetic algorithm to minimize makespan. Genetic algorithm operators are suitably modified to maintain feasibility. The results are statistically compared and found to be significantly better than the earlier reported results.     

Preparation of anatase TiO2 thin films for dye-sensitized solar cells by DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique

Anatase titanium dioxide (TiO₂) thin films are prepared by DC reactive magnetron sputtering using Ti target as the source material. In this work argon and oxygen are used as sputtering and reactive gas respectively. DC power is used at 100 W per 1 h. The distance between the target and substrate is fixed at 4 cm. The glass substrate temperature value varies from room temperature to 400 °C. The crystalline structure of the films is determined by X-ray diffraction analysis. All the films deposited at temperatures lower than 300 °C were amorphous, whereas films obtained at higher temperature grew in crystalline anatase phase. Phase transition from amorphous to anatase is observed at 400 °C annealing temperature. Transmittances of the TiO₂ thin films were measured using UV-visible NIR spectrophotometer. The direct and indirect optical band gap for room temperature and substrate temperature at 400 °C is found to be 3.50, 3.41 eV and 3.50, 3.54 eV respectively. The transmittance of TiO₂ thin films is noted higher than 75%. A comparison among all the films obtained at room temperature showed a transmittance value higher for films obtained at substrate temperature of 400 °C. The morphology of the films and the identification of the surface chemical stoichiometry of the deposited film at 400 °C were studied respectively, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The surface roughness and the grain size are measured using AFM.     

A new fourth order embedded RKAHeM(4,4) method with error control on multilayer raster cellular neural network

We introduce a new technique for solving initial value problems (IVPs) with error control by formulating an embedded method involving RK methods based on arithmetic mean (AM) and Heronian mean (HeM). The function of the simulator is that it is capable of performing raster simulation for any kind as well as any size of input image. It is a powerful tool for researchers to examine the potential applications of CNN. By using the newly proposed embedded method, a versatile algorithm for simulating multilayer CNN arrays is implemented. This article proposes an efficient pseudo code for exploiting the latency properties of CNN along with well known RK-fourth order embedded numerical integration algorithms. Simulation results and comparison have also been presented to show the efficiency of the numerical integration algorithms. It is found that the RK-embedded Heronian mean outperforms well in comparison with the RK-embedded centroidal mean, harmonic mean and contra-harmonic mean. A more quantitative analysis has been carried out to clearly visualize the goodness and robustness of the proposed algorithm. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Optical and thermal performance of a three-dimensional compound parabolic concentrator for spherical absorber

For medium range temperature applications, focusing type collectors like Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) are most commonly used. Considerable research work has been carried out to improve the performance of the two-dimensional compound parabolic concentrator (2D CPC). The three-dimensional compound parabolic concentrator (3D CPC) was found to be more efficient than 2D CPC because of the higher concentration ratio. In the present work a 3D CPC was fabricated with a half acceptance angle of 4° for a spherical absorber of radius 100 mm. UV stabilized aluminized polyester foil having high reflectivity (0·85) was pasted on the reflector for a total height of 441mm and an aperture width of 540 mm. The optical efficiency was estimated theoretically and compared with the experimental value. Experimentally determined values of optical and thermal efficiencies were in good agreement with theoretically predicted value. The experimental results shown that the optical efficiency obtained from the 3D CPC (0·626) was significantly higher than that of the 2D CPC (0·570) of similar dimensions. Since the optical efficiency of the 3D CPC was increased, the thermal efficiency of the collector was also increased. In addition to that, time constant of the concentrator was also calculated. The time constant of the 3D CPC (431 s) was fairly high when compared with the 2D CPC (110 s). An attempt was made to generate low pressure steam using 3D CPC in the in situ steam generation mode. The efficiency of the steam generation was about 38%, which was one of the possible applications of 3D CPC module.     

High-temperature resistivity and thermoelectric properties of coupled substituted Ca3Co2O6

Polycrystalline samples of Ca_3−xNa_xCo_2−xMn_xO₆ (x=0.0–0.5) have been prepared by the sol-gel cum combustion method using sucrose in order to investigate the effects of the coupled substitution of Na and Mn on Ca and Co sites on the transport properties of Ca₃Co₂O₆(Co326). The products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry (TGA), differential thermal analysis and scanning electron microscopy. XRD patterns reveal the formation of single-phase products up to x=0.5. Coupled substitution increases the solubility of both Na and Mn on Ca and Co sites, respectively, in contrast to the limited solubility of Na and Mn (x=0.2) when separately substituted. TGA confirms the formation of the Ca₃Co₂O₆ phase at temperatures ∼720 °C. The grain size of the parent and substituted products is in the range 150–250 nm. Electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient were measured in the temperature range 300–800 K. Resistivity shows semiconducting behavior for all the compositions, particularly in the low-temperature regime. The Seebeck coefficient increases with temperature throughout the measured temperature range for all compositions. The maximum Seebeck coefficient (200 μV K⁻¹) is observed for x=0.5 at 825 K, and this composition may be optimal for high-temperature thermoelectric applications.