Stress intensity factors of parallel cracks in a finite width sheet

Two and three parallel cracks in a finite sheet subjected to remote tensile loading have been studied. This paper presents empirical stress intensity factor formulae for these crack configurations. The stress intensity factors used to develop these formulae were obtained from finite element analysis. For central cracks and edge cracks, the formulae were within 1 and 3% of the finite element results, respectively.     

The removal of NOx from a lean exhaust gas using storage and reduction on H3PW12O40·6H2O

NO_x sorption and reduction capacities of 12-tungstophosphoric acid hexahydrate (H₃PW₁₂O₄₀·6H₂O, HPW) were measured under representative alternating conditions of lean and rich exhaust-type gas mixture. Under lean conditions, the sorption of NO_x is large and is equivalent to 37 mg of NO_x/g_HPW. Although a part of these NO_x remains unreduced, HPW is able to reduce some of the NO_x to produce N₂ by a reaction between the sorbed NO₂ and hydrocarbon (HC), but this process is slow. The addition of 1% Pt affects strongly the chemical behaviour occurring during the course of a rich operation. The NO desorption observed at the beginning of the rich phase is strongly accelerated. The direct correlation between NO₂ consumption and CO₂ production shows that the principal pathway is the reaction CO+NO₂→CO₂+NO. In a mixture of reducing gas (CO, HC, H₂), the competition is strongly in favour of CO though in its absence the reaction observed was the hydrogenation of propene to propane.     

Processing and properties of transparent hydroxyapatite and β tricalcium phosphate obtained by HIP process

Stoichiometric β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) and hydroxyapatite (HA) powders were synthesized by chemical precipitation of aqueous solutions of diammonium phosphate and calcium nitrate. After a calcination treatment and a milling step, the powders were shaped by slip casting. The sintering temperature effect on the relative density and the average grain size was investigated. By natural sintering at 1200 and 1120 °C, densities of 98% and 99% were obtained for HA and TCP, respectively. After determination of minimum temperatures to obtain only closed porosity and a pre-sintering at these temperatures, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) treatment was carried out. Transparent or translucent samples were obtained, indicating a relative density very close to the theoretical value (>99.9%). Mechanical properties (three-point bending strength, fracture toughness, Young's modulus and Vickers hardness) were measured on both materials with similar grain size (～ 1 μm). Bending strengths of 181 and 105 MPa were measured for TCP and HA, respectively.     

Low voltage stress induced leakage current and time to breakdown in ultra-thin (1.2–2.3 nm) oxides

Ultra-thin gate-oxide reliability is an essential factor in CMOS technologies. The low voltage gate current in ultra-thin oxide of metal–oxide–semiconductor devices is very sensitive to electrical stresses. It can be used as a reliability monitor when the oxide thickness becomes too small for traditional electrical measurements. In this paper, the low voltage stress induced leakage current (LVSILC) for various oxide thicknesses ranging from 1.2 to 2.3 nm is investigated during constant voltage stress (CVS). From the LVSILC measurements, we shown that time to breakdown can be deduced as a function of the stress voltage. We also study the effect of elevated stress temperature on the time to breakdown. We show that temperature dependence of the time to breakdown is non-Arrhenius and decreases in a drastic way with a slope of 0.036 decade/°C.