The investigation of contact performance of oxide reinforced copper composite via mechanical alloying

In this study, the electrical performance of ODS Cu-based contact materials produced by mechanical alloying (MA) was investigated. Cu-based powder mixtures that contain various oxides at different proportions were milled by the high energy planetary ball mill for 5 h. Mechanically alloyed powder mixtures containing ZnO, Al₂O₃ and Y₂O₃ at the ratios of 1, 2, 4 and 6 wt.% were pressed and sintered at 800 °C in vacuum environment. These compacts were then forged axially at the ratio of 75% at 650 °C so as to increase the density. At the first step, electrical conductivity experiments were applied to these samples to determine the best conductivity. Results showed that, reinforced Cu samples containing 4% oxides exhibited the best. At the second step, contact count experiments were made with these samples for determining contact performance for the counts of 3000, 6000 and 9000 turn on/off. The samples of 4 wt.% ZnO, 4 wt.% Al₂O₃, 4 wt.% Y₂O₃ reinforced Cu materials, respectively, exhibited both the best conductivity and the best contact performances.     

Structural analysis of 5-[thiazol-2-yldiazenyl]pyrimidine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione in both solid state and solution

The synthesis, crystal structure analysis and characterisation of 5-[thiazol-2-yldiazenyl]pyrimidine-2,4,6(1 H ,3 H ,5 H )-trione are reported. This dye was characterised by ultraviolet–visible, Fourier Transform–infrared, proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry techniques and elemental analysis. Both the effects of pH value and solvent polarity upon the absorption properties of the dye have been presented. In addition, the structure of the dye has been determined by a single crystal X-ray diffraction method. The dye was triclinic in P-1 with a  = 8.2419(2) Å, b  = 10.6225(3) Å, c  = 12.5106(3) Å, α = 90.543(1)°, β = 102.79(3)°, γ = 103.858(1)°, V  = 1035.26(5) Å³, D _calc = 1.634 g/cm³ and Z  = 2. The asymmetric unit contains two crystallographically independent C₇H₅N₅O₃S molecules, alongside one half of the solvent C₂H₆O₂ molecule. In the crystal structure, intramolecular N–H…N and intermolecular N–H…N, N–H…O, O–H…N, C–H…O and C–H…N hydrogen bonds link the molecules to form a supramolecular network in which they seem to be effective in the stabilisation of the structure.     

Scheduling problems with the nonlinear effects of learning and deterioration

In this paper, we present both nonlinear job deterioration and nonlinear learning which exist simultaneously. Job deterioration and learning co-exist in many realistic scheduling situations. By the effects of learning and deterioration, we mean that the processing time of a job is defined by the increasing function of its execution start time and position in the sequence. The following objectives are considered: single-machine makespan and sum of completion times (square) and the maximum lateness. For the single-machine case, we derive polynomial time optimal solutions. For the case of an m-machine permutation flowshop, we present polynomial time optimal solutions for some special cases of the problems to minimize makespan and total completion time.     

Cooperative Communications in Future Home Networks

The basic idea behind cooperative communications is that mobile terminals collaborate to send data to each other. This effectively adds diversity in the system and improves the overall performance. In this paper, we investigate the potential gains of cooperative communication in future home networks. We derive analytical expressions for the error probability of binary phase shift keying (BPSK) signals over Nakagami-m fading channels in a multi relay communication network. Following to the analytical study, we analyze the contribution of cooperative relaying to the 60GHz network connectivity through simulations using a realistic indoor environment model. We compare the performance of different relay configurations under variable obstacle densities. We show that a typical 60GHz indoor network should employ either a multi-relay configuration or a single-relay configuration with a smart relay selection mechanism to achieve acceptable outage rates. In the use of multiple-relay configuration, both analytical and simulation studies indicate that increasing the number of cooperative relays does not improve the system performance significantly after a certain threshold.     

High-Frequency Loss Calculation in a Smooth Rotor Induction Motor Using FEM

In this paper, a new approach for the calculation of high-frequency losses in induction motors is presented. The input to the motors is assumed to be supplied from a sinusoidal voltage source. The method is based on the two-dimensional (2-D) field solutions of the magnetic circuit, obtained by using a nonlinear ldquoharmonicrdquo solution. Hence, the solution time is very short. From the ldquoharmonicrdquo solution, the air-gap field distribution as well as the fundamental frequency eddy current losses are determined. The high-frequency loss calculation is based on the assumption of a path for eddy currents within a lamination. A constant k is introduced that defines the width of the current flow path. The empirically found k value is verified by a theoretical calculation. The new method is applied to the calculation of losses of two smooth rotor induction motors. The prediction accuracy is found to be very good. The method is also applied to two open rotor slot motors to observe the change in the prediction accuracy. It is found that due to the small slot openings accurate predictions are still possible. The approach presented in this paper requires little time for loss calculation, and is very suitable for minimizing losses at the design stage.     

Discriminative analysis of lip motion features for speaker identification and speech-reading.

There have been several studies that jointly use audio, lip intensity, and lip geometry information for speaker identification and speech-reading applications. This paper proposes using explicit lip motion information, instead of or in addition to lip intensity and/or geometry information, for speaker identification and speech-reading within a unified feature selection and discrimination analysis framework, and addresses two important issues: 1) Is using explicit lip motion information useful, and, 2) if so, what are the best lip motion features for these two applications? The best lip motion features for speaker identification are considered to be those that result in the highest discrimination of individual speakers in a population, whereas for speech-reading, the best features are those providing the highest phoneme/word/phrase recognition rate. Several lip motion feature candidates have been considered including dense motion features within a bounding box about the lip, lip contour motion features, and combination of these with lip shape features. Furthermore, a novel two-stage, spatial, and temporal discrimination analysis is introduced to select the best lip motion features for speaker identification and speech-reading applications. Experimental results using an hidden-Markov-model-based recognition system indicate that using explicit lip motion information provides additional performance gains in both applications, and lip motion features prove more valuable in the case of speech-reading application.     

The strength, elongation and toughness of fresh and weathered bituminous roofing membranes

The author describes in detail, complete with diagrams and test data, the procedures adopted and results obtained. The main problem involving the elongation of the membranes is the large difference between the elongation of the polyester-fibre-based modified bituminous membranes, and the elongation of the glass-fibre-based oxidized bitumen membranes.     

Effects of aging on latex film formation from polystrene particles: A photon transmission study

Aging due to the storage time on latex film formation was studied using the photon transmission method. The UV visible technique was used to monitor the evolution of transparency during film formation from two different polystyrene (PS) particles produced by using two different steric stabilizers, i.e., polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinyl pyrrolidone. The latex films were prepared from PS particles at room temperature before and after aging and annealed at elevated temperatures in various time intervals above glass transition (T_g). The increase in the transmitted photon intensity I_tr was attributed to the increase in the number of disappeared particle–particle interfaces. Relative decrease in transparency and delay in film formation were observed in the aged latex films compared to the nonaged ones. The Prager–Tirrell model was employed to interpret the increase in crossing density at the junction surface. The back and forth activation energies (ΔE) were measured and found to be dependent on aging for a diffusing polymer chain across the junction surface. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 79: 2014–2021, 2001     

Molecular weight dependent changes with time during latex film formation: a photon transmission study

A photon transmission method was used to probe the change with time of transparency during film formation from latex particles. Two different latex films were prepared from high (HM) and low (LM) molecular weight poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) particles, which were annealed at 10min time intervals at various temperatures above the glass transition T_g. The increase in the transmitted photon intensity I_tr is attributed to the increase in ‘crossing density’ at the junction surface. The back and forth activation energies (ΔE) were measured for HM and LM films and found to be around 29kcalmol^-1 and 53kcalmol^-1, respectively, for a reptating polymer chain across the junction surface. Monte Carlo simulations were performed for photon transmission through a rectangular lattice. The number of transmitted photons N_tr was calculated as a function of the mean free path of the photons. It was observed that N_tr increased similarly to I_tr as the square of the mean free path of the photons increased. © 1998 Society of Chemical Industry     

Fluorescence and UV techniques for studying neck growth and equilibration processes during latex film formation

Steady state fluorescence (SSF) and UV–visible techniques have been used to study neck growth and equilibration processes during the coalescence of hard latex particles. Latex films were prepared separately by annealing pyrene (P_y) labelled and unlabelled poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) particles above their glass transition temperature. During the annealing processes, the optical clarity of the films increased considerably. Direct fluorescence emission of excited pyrene from labelled latex films was monitored as a function of annealing temperature to detect this change. Void closure temperature (T_c) and time (t_c) were determined at the point where the fluorescence emission intensity became maximal. Below this point, the increase in fluorescence intensity (I_op) against temperature was used to determine the activation energy for viscous flow (ΔH≈47kcalmol⁻¹). The decrease in I_op above the void closure temperature was used to determine the backbone activation energy (ΔE≈44kcalmol⁻¹) for the interdiffusing chains. Unlabelled PMMA particles were used to prepare films for UV–vis measurements. The transmitted photon intensity (I_tr) from these films increased as the annealing temperature was increased. This behaviour was also used to determine the backbone activation energy (ΔE≈35kcalmol⁻¹) for the interdiffusing chains. © Society of Chemical Industry.