Dynamic response of Ti3SiC2 under shock compression up to 112 GPa

Ti₃SiC₂ is of interest due to its unique dual nature reminiscent of both brittle ceramics and ductile metals at ambient conditions. In this work, plate-impact experiments have been performed to study the dynamic behavior of Ti₃SiC₂ under shock compression up to 112 GPa by using laser velocity interferometer and electric pin techniques. Hugoniot elastic limits (HEL), spall strength, and Hugoniot equations of state have been obtained based on measured particle velocity profiles and shock wave velocities. The ratio of spall strength to HEL for Ti₃SiC₂ is larger than brittle ceramics but smaller than metals. This result indicates that the dual nature of Ti₃SiC₂ remains at least up to 10 GPa. On the other hand, the linearity of the Hugoniot equation of state, $D=6.9\text{0}1(22)+1.153(53)u_{\text{p}}$, suggests that the initial structure of Ti₃SiC₂ should be stable up to 112 GPa, in contrast to the result reported by Jordan et al. [J. Appl. Phys., 93 (2003) 9639].     

Polyaniline for corrosion prevention of mild steel coupled with copper

Polyaniline emeraldine base/epoxy resin (EB/ER) coating was investigated for corrosion protection of mild steel coupled with copper in 3.5% NaCl solution. EB/ER coating with 5-10 wt% EB had long-term corrosion resistance on both uncoupled steel and copper due to the passivation effect of EB on the metal surfaces. During the 150 immersion days, the impedance at 0.1 Hz for the coating increased in the first 1-40 days and subsequently remained constant above 10⁹ Ω cm², whereas that for pure ER coating fell below 10⁶ Ω cm² after only 30 or 40 days. Immersion tests on coated steel-copper galvanic couple showed that EB/ER coating offered 100 times more protection than ER coating against steel dissolution and coating delamination on copper, which was mainly attributed to the passive metal oxide films formed by EB blocking both the anodic and cathodic reactions. Salt spray tests showed that 100 μm EB/ER coating protected steel-copper couple for at least 2000 h.     

Synthesis and characterization of copolythiophene

Copolythiophenes (Co‐PTs), poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐co‐3‐thiophene carboxylic acid) (P3HT‐TCa), poly(3‐hexyloxylthiophene‐co‐3‐thiophene carboxylic acid) (P3HOT‐TCa), and poly(3‐phenylthiophene‐co‐3‐thiophene carboxylic acid) (P3PhT‐TCa), were synthesized by chemical oxidized polymerization to investigate the effect of copolymerization on the properties of polythiophenes (PTs). Gel permeation chromatography showed that the molecular weight (MW) of Co‐PT was lower than that of homopolythiophene. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra indicated that the copolymerization was successful between the monomers. The λ_max of Co‐PTs gave a “blue shift” in ultraviolet‐visible (UV‐VIS) spectra. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra showed that the PL intensity of Co‐PT became weaker than that of homopolythiophene and the disappearance of PL had been observed in P3HOT‐TCa. The thermal stability of Co‐PT was influenced by the carboxyl for its low decomposition temperature. Furthermore, the copolymerization between multi‐wall carbon nanotube containing thiophene ring (MWNT‐Th) and 3‐hexyloxylthiphene could also take place successfully. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007     

Pattern synthesis of time‐modulated conformal arrays by an improved differential evolution algorithm

In this article, an improved differential evolution algorithm (IDE) based on two different colonies is proposed and applied to time‐modulated conformal arrays syntheses. The whole population of IDE is divided into two parts. The one part searches the solution globally while the other searches the neighborhood of the solution provided by the previous one. Benchmark functions are provided to testify IDE. Furthermore, IDE is applied to synthetize sum‐difference patterns with a 1 × 16 elements time‐modulated circular array and low sidelobe level (SLL) patterns with an 8 × 12 elements time‐modulated cone array. After optimization, the sideband level (SBL) of the circular array at the first sideband frequency is ?1.00 dB. The SLL and SBL at the first sideband frequency of the cone array are lower than ?30.00 and ?20.00 dB, respectively. Experiment results verify the superior performance of IDE. Moreover, to accelerate the computation speed, graphics processing unit parallel computing technique is introduced into pattern synthesis and the acceleration ratios of more than 23 times can be achieved. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:697–705, 2014.     

Synthesis of antenna arrays with an efficient multiobjective differential evolution algorithm

An efficient multiobjective differential evolution algorithm for array synthesis is proposed in this article. By introducing novel strategies in the generalized differential evolution (GDE3), the proposed algorithm can generate a better converged and distributed Pareto front than the standard GDE3. Five typical benchmark functions are optimized by the proposed improved GDE3 (IGDE) to verify its effectiveness. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is applied in two‐pattern synthesis problems, including an unequal spaced linear array and a conformal array. The superior performance of the proposed IGDE demonstrates that it is an efficient and competitive algorithm in the function optimization, pattern synthesis, and other electromagnetic problems. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:161–169, 2014.     

Dynamic deviation reduction‐based concurrent dual‐band digital predistortion

This article introduces the concurrent dual‐band digital predistortion (DPD) architecture with only one upconvertion unit, which is suitable for the linearization of wideband power amplifiers (PAs) excited by concurrent dual‐band signals. By extending the conventional dynamic deviation reduction (DDR) model to the concurrent dual‐band mode, we propose two DDR‐based concurrent dual‐band models, the dual‐band DDR (DB‐DDR) model and the simplified dual‐band DDR (SDB‐DDR) model. The performance of these two models is experimentally assessed with two types of wideband PAs (a GaN Class F PA and a GaN Doherty PA) driven by the concurrent dual‐band signal, and compared with the prior two‐dimensional digital predistortion (2D‐DPD) model and the two‐dimensional modified memory polynomial (2D‐MMP) model. The results prove the good DPD performance and low computational complexity of the proposed models. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:401–411, 2014.     

Classification of defects in steel strip surface based on multiclass support vector machine

In this paper, we use support vector machine to classify the defects in steel strip surface images. After image binarization, three types of image features, including geometric feature, grayscale feature and shape feature, are extracted by combining the defect target image and its corresponding binary image. For the classification model based on support vector machine, we utilize Gauss radial basis as the kernel function, determine model parameters by cross-validation and employ one-versus-one method for multiclass classifier. Experiment results show that support vector machine model outperforms the traditional classification model based on back-propagation neural network in average classification accuracy.     

Commutative encryption and watermarking based on orthogonal decomposition

Commutative Encryption and Watermarking (CEW) is a technology combined with encryption and watermarking, which is used for providing comprehensive security protection for multimedia information. This paper presents a novel CEW scheme based on orthogonal decomposition. Different from current CEW, the proposed CEW not only achieves the integration of encryption and watermarking in the final data but also has no specific restrictions in selecting encryption and watermarking algorithms. Therefore, the proposed CEW possesses higher security and applicability. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed CEW can keep the performances of selected encryption and watermarking algorithm and show more robustness than other current CEW schemes.     

Content-aware optimization on rate-distortion and network traffic for scalable video multicast networks

This paper aims to optimize the content-aware prioritization of scalable video multicast, which is coupled with multipath streaming and network coding based routing. It constructs multiple layer distribution meshes for the scalable video stream to minimize the total video distortion at all the receivers, determines the base layer meshes with minimum costs to maintain application-layer QoS and the layer synchronization of SVC streaming, and improves the network throughput by encouraging path-overlapping transmissions and thus allowing bandwidth sharing among different receivers for the same video layer by utilizing network coding. The targeted problem is formulated into a minimization programming in which the quality variation between layers, the transmission cost of the base layer, as well as the efficient resource utilization are jointly considered. By decomposition and dual approach, the global convex problem is solved by a two-level decentralized iterative algorithm. The implementation of the distributed algorithm is discussed with regard to the communication overhead, and the convergence performance is validated by numerical experiments. Packet-level simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm could approximately achieve the maximum flow rates determined by Max-Flow Min-Cut Theorem and benefit the overall received video quality.