Failure mechanisms of thermal barrier coatings on MCrAlY-type bondcoats associated with the formation of the thermally grown oxide

The effect of the thermally grown oxide (TGO) formation on the lifetime of the thermal barrier coatings (TBC) with MCrAlY-bondcoats (BC) is reviewed. A number of factors affecting the TGO-formation and TBC-failure are discussed including the coating microstructure, geometrical (coating roughness and thickness) and processing parameters. Under given testing conditions for a specific EB-PVD-TBC-system forming a flat, uniform alumina TGO a critical TGO-thickness for TBC-failure can be defined. This TGO-morphology is, however, not necessarily optimum for obtaining long TBC-lifetime, which can be extended by formation of TGO’s with an uneven TGO/BC interface. In contrast, APS-TBC-systems are prone to formation of intrinsically inhomogeneous TGO-morphologies. This is attributed to non-uniform depletion of Y and Al underneath rough MCrAlY-surfaces as well as due to the commonly observed repeated-cracking/re-growth of the TGO during temperature cycling. The latter phenomenon depends on the exposure temperature and the mechanical properties of the APS-TBC. In both types of TBC-systems the TGO-formation and TBC-lifetime appear to be very sensitive to the manufacturing parameters, such as vacuum quality during bondcoat spraying and temperature regime of the bondcoat vacuum heat-treatment.     

Automatic generation of hypsometric layers for small-scale maps

This paper describes a new method for hypsometric tinting for small-scale maps. The method generalises digital elevation models by removing small unnecessary details and accentuating major valleys and ridgelines. The elevation data are filtered with lower and upper quartile filters that are combined using a drainage network. The lower quartile filter is applied in valleys, delimited by the drainage network, the upper quartile filter is used elsewhere. The level of generalisation is adjusted by simplifying the drainage network with an algorithm that removes the shortest streams. The resulting hypsometric layers match the quality standards of manually generalised reference layers and are appropriate for small-scale mapping.     

Partitioned state encoding for low power in FPGAs

The problem of finite state machine (FSM) encoding for low power in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) is addressed. In this technology, one-hot encoding is typically recommended for large FSMs and binary encoding for small FSMs. A partitioned encoding approach is proposed which uses a combination of both binary encoding and zero-one-hot encoding with intermediate code size. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed encoding approach can produce significant power savings.     

Identification of Various Transition Velocities in a Bubble Column Based on Kolmogorov Entropy

The Kolmogorov entropy (KE) algorithm was applied successfully to gas holdup fluctuations measured in a 0.102 m I.D. stainless steel bubble column equipped with a perforated plate distributor (19 holes ?? 1 mm). Nitrogen was used as the gas, while both 1‐butanol and gasoline were used as liquids. 1‐Butanol was aerated at pressures, P = 0.1 and 0.5 MPa, whereas gasoline was aerated at P = 0.1 and 0.2 MPa. Based on the peaks in the KE values under the pressures examined in both liquids, the boundaries of the following five regimes were identified: bubbly flow, first transition, second transition, coalesced bubble (4‐region flow) and coalesced bubble (3‐region flow). As the pressure increases to P = 0.5 MPa in 1‐butanol, all four transition velocities shift to higher superficial gas velocity, u_G. In addition, in gasoline at P = 0.2 MPa and u_G ≤ 0.017 m s^–1, the existence of a chain bubbling regime was detected, whereas in 1‐butanol at P = 0.5 MPa and u_G ≤ 0.02 m s^–1, both laminar and turbulent chain bubbling subregimes were identified. It was found that in 1‐butanol under ambient pressure, the second and fourth transition velocities occur earlier than in gasoline.     

LINC01133 Inhibits Invasion and Promotes Proliferation in an Endometriosis Epithelial Cell Line

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder characterized by ectopic growth of endometrium outside the uterus and is associated with chronic pain and infertility. We investigated the role of the long intergenic noncoding RNA 01133 (LINC01133) in endometriosis, an lncRNA that has been implicated in several types of cancer. We found that LINC01133 is upregulated in ectopic endometriotic lesions. As expression appeared higher in the epithelial endometrial layer, we performed a siRNA knockdown of LINC01133 in an endometriosis epithelial cell line. Phenotypic assays indicated that LINC01133 may promote proliferation and suppress cellular migration, and affect the cytoskeleton and morphology of the cells. Gene ontology analysis of differentially expressed genes indicated that cell proliferation and migration pathways were affected in line with the observed phenotype. We validated upregulation of p21 and downregulation of Cyclin A at the protein level, which together with the quantification of the DNA content using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis indicated that the observed effects on cellular proliferation may be due to changes in cell cycle. Further, we found testis-specific protein kinase 1 (TESK1) kinase upregulation corresponding with phosphorylation and inactivation of actin severing protein Cofilin, which could explain changes in the cytoskeleton and cellular migration. These results indicate that endometriosis is associated with LINC01133 upregulation, which may affect pathogenesis via the cellular proliferation and migration pathways.     

Mechanical Behavior of Deformation‐Induced α′‐Martensite and Flow Curve Modeling of a Cast CrMnNi TRIP‐Steel

For the modeling of the mechanical behavior of a two phase alloy with the rule of mixture (RM), the flow stress of both phases is needed. In order to obtain these information for the α′‐martensite in high alloyed TRIP‐steels, compression tests at cryogenic temperatures were performed to create a fully deformation‐induced martensitic microstructure. This martensitic material condition was subsequently tested under compressive loading at ?60, 20, and 100°C and at strain rates of 10^?3, 10⁰, and 10³ s^?1 to determine the mechanical properties. The α′‐martensite possesses high strength and surprisingly good ductility up to 60% of compressive strain. Using the flow stress behavior of the α′‐martensite and that of the stable austenitic steel AISI 316L, the flow stress behavior of the high alloyed CrMnNi TRIP‐steel is modeled successfully using a special RM proposed by Narutani et al.