Hartstoffschichten für das Pressen und Prägen von Gläsern bei hohen Temperaturen

Hard and wear resistant coatings for the moulding and embossing of glasses at elevated temperatures Hard and wear resistant coatings of Titanium Aluminium Nitride TiAlN were deposited on various substrates by the application of different reactive deposition processes: RF-magnetron-sputtering, ion beam-sputtering and by the energetic cluster impact (ECI) process. The deposition of the coatings was performed under variation of biasing conditions and of process parameters such as pressures and flow rates of the process gases argon and nitrogen as well as of energies of species hitting the substrate surfaces. The microstructure particularly the growth morphology of several films was investigated by pictures of film cross sections recorded by transmission electron microscopy. Residual intrinsic film stresses were analyzed by measuring deflections of substrates in an interference optical microscope before and after the deposition of the coatings. By heating coated substrates and in-situ observation of deflections at elevated temperatures dependencies of thermally induced stresses on temperatures and variations of intrinsic stresses due to changes within the films could be analyzed and related to microstructure and growth conditions. In the paper specific characteristics of the deposition processes occuring on the scale both of atoms and of clusters which may contain several thousand of atoms are described and related to microstructure, residual stress states and damaging conditions. Different contributions to residual film stresses are analyzed on the base of theoretical considerations taking into account deposition kinetics and thermomecanical properties. The significance of achieved film properties for application, i. e. for the coating of tools for the manufacturing of optical components by moulding and embossing of glasses is discussed.     

Pollinosis

Pollinosis is an extremely common disorder affecting between 10 to 30% of the population. There are regional and seasonal variations with allergies occurring between february (in south of France) and autumn. Pollen calenders allow one to identify the pollens specific to each region. Treatment is based on the utilisation of antihistaminic and local antiinflammatory agents. Specific desensitization is efficacious when quality extracts are used, but should be reversed for particular cases as the therapeutic risk should in no case exceed that of the illness.     

A model for the seismic reliability assessment of electric power transmission systems

A comprehensive model to evaluate the seismic reliability of electric power transmission systems is presented. The model provides information on the probability of structural failure of critical equipment at the major substations, from which the corresponding probabilities of power disruption to a given service area are determined. With the proposed methodology earthquake ground motions are defined as stochastic processes, and seismic capacities of electrical equipment are determined on the basis of available test data and simple modeling, from which fragility functions of critical equipment and specific substations are developed. Probabilities of power disruption resulting from network disconnectivity and abnormal power flow are assessed through Monte Carlo simulation. As a case study, the proposed model is applied to the electric power network in San Francisco and vicinity under the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and the probabilities of power interruption are contrasted with the actual power failures observed during that earthquake.     

Interaction between monitorability indicators and operational characteristics of communications equipment

This article considers the influence of changes in monitorability indicators on the operational characteristics of communications equipment. For indicators of monitorability we take the depth of defect search, failure localizability, overhead, and others. Among the operational characteristics, those considered include time to repair, probability of undetected failure, probability of failure-free operation, etc. The results obtained make it possible to estimate, during the design phase, the influence of changes in monitorability factors on the operational characteristics of equipment and to make selections that meet given requirements. Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 6, pp. 23–26, June, 1996.     

High-cycle fatigue characterization of titanium 5Al-2.5Sn alloy

High-cycle fatigue behaviour of titanium 5Al-2.5Sn alloy at room temperature has been studied. S-N curve characterization is performed at different stress ratios ranging from 0 to 0.9 on a subsized fatigue specimen. Both two-stress and three-stress level tests are conducted at different stress ratios to study the cumulative fatigue damage. Life prediction techniques of linear damage rule, double linear damage rule and damage curve approaches are applied, and results are compared with the experimental data. The agreement between prediction and experiment is found to be excellent.     

Consideration of measurement of electrostriction in quartz usingBragg reflection of X-rays

Calculation shows that the linear piezoelectric effect should be readily demonstrated in X-cut quartz by Bragg reflection of X-rays, equipment for which is available in every crystal finishing room. Electrostriction should also be observable and measurable in X-cut, Y-cut and Z-cut quartz, and in other cuts having their major surfaces parallel to X-ray diffracting planes of the crystal. Mechanical compression of the quartz due to the charge on the electrodes must be considered     

Principal axes and surface fitting methods for three-dimensional image registration

We evaluated the effect of the image acquisition parameters on the accuracy of the principal axes and surface-fitting techniques for three-dimensional image registration. Using two types of phantom objects, MR brain image and a mathematically defined ellipsoid, we simulated pairs of scans with known acquisition parameters, including longitudinal coverage, magnitude of mis-registration, number of sections and section thickness. Both methods are sensitive to the systematic deformation of contours. The principal axes method is also sensitive to incomplete scan coverage and to the x-axis and y-axis misangulation. Both methods are insensitive to the number of sections, section thickness and the number of points per section. Surface fitting performed well without user supervision. There is no need for routine inclusion of the scaling factors as search parameters. The results confirm the feasibility of three-dimensional multimodality registration of brain scans with accuracy 1-2 mm, with surface fitting being the method of choice.