Numerical investigation of nitriding of refractory metals (with account of the phase constitution diagrams for metal-gas systems)

A mathematical model of dissolution of gas in a metal is suggested with account of phase formation in accordance with the phase constitution diagram (PCD). The stage-by-stage saturation process to the final product formation is shown for an individual particle, through which a reaction wave passes, depending on the diffusion permeability of the metal and solubility conditions that obey Sieverts's law. The effect of the filtration supply of the oxidant to the reaction zone and the process exothermicity on the course of the process is shown.Institute of Structural Macrokinetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka, Russia. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 65, No. 4, pp. 447–450, October, 1993.     

Drug therapy of hemiballism. Review of the literature and personal observations

Hemiballism is a rare hyperkinetic disorder which is characterized by irregular vigorous rotatory movements of the limbs of one side of the body. The disabling and exhausting movements with their high risk of severe injuries require an acute drug treatment. However, there are no common guidelines for the treatment of this disorder. Therefore we reviewed the available literature to establish a concept for a rational symptomatic drug treatment. Furthermore, own observations in 6 patients with hemiballism of different origins are reported.     

Solar/UV-induced photocatalytic degradation of three commercial textile dyes.

The photocatalytic degradation of three commercial textile dyes with different structure has been investigated using TiO(2) (Degussa P25) photocatalyst in aqueous solution under solar irradiation. Experiments were conducted to optimise various parameters viz. amount of catalyst, concentration of dye, pH and solar light intensity. Degradation of all the dyes were examined by using chemical oxygen demand (COD) method. The degradation efficiency of the three dyes is as follows: Reactive Yellow 17(RY17) > Reactive Red 2(RR2) > Reactive Blue 4 (RB4), respectively. The experimental results indicate that TiO(2) (Degussa P25) is the best catalyst in comparison with other commercial photocatalysts such as, TiO(2) (Merck), ZnO, ZrO(2), WO(3) and CdS. Though the UV irradiation can efficiently degrade the dyes, naturally abundant solar irradiation is also very effective in the mineralisation of dyes. The comparison between thin-film coating and aqueous slurry method reveals that slurry method is more efficient than coating but the problems of leaching and the requirement of separation can be avoided by using coating technique. These observations indicate that all the three dyes could be degraded completely at different time intervals. Hence, it may be a viable technique for the safe disposal of textile wastewater into the water streams.     

Equipment for Testing Sheet Structural Materials under Biaxial Tension. Part 2. Testing by Biaxial Loading in the Plane of the Sheet

We analyze specific features of the design of equipment used for mechanical testing of sheet structural materials under the conditions of biaxial static, cyclic, or dynamic loading. We propose original solutions of the problems related to the fatigue testing of crosslike specimens performed without using complex hydraulic systems and their dynamic testing carried out by using very simple testing machines for uniaxial tension–compression.     

Analytical Calculation of Large-Scale Deflection of Pulse-Loaded Elliptic Plates

Large deflections of pulse-loaded elliptic and round plates made of hardenable elastoplastic materials are investigated analytically using an energy-based approach. Formulas that are convenient for engineering design have been derived.     

Prediction of processing-induced distortion of curved flanged composite laminates

It is well known that angles in composite parts contract as they are cooled down from the curing temperature, this is often referred to as spring-in. It is caused mainly by the significantly different thermal contractions and cure shrinkage's experienced between the fibre direction and the through-thickness direction during the manufacturing process. A number of works have reported on the spring-in of straight angle composite parts. However, little has been done to investigate the distortion of curved flanged composite parts, which will distort differently owing to the introduction of the additional curvature, thus constraint.

In the present work, the distortion of the circularly curved flanged laminates is studied numerically. The finite element method is used to predict the processing-induced distortion of the part with two different approaches. In the first approach, the shear angles of the composite plies are predicted by a draping analysis. The effect of the fibre shearing on the mechanical properties of the laminates is considered in the model used to predict the distortion. The second simplified approach assumes that the in-plane properties of the laminates are isotropic. The results obtained by these two approaches are compared with those obtained experimentally.     

Makespan estimation and order acceptance in batch process industries when processing times are uncertain

Batch process industries are characterized by complex precedence relationships between operations, which renders the estimation of an acceptable workload very difficult. A detailed schedule based model can be used for this purpose, but for large problems this may require a prohibitive large amount of computation time. We propose a regression based model to estimate the makespan of a set of jobs. We extend earlier work based on deterministic processing times by considering Erlang-distributed processing times in our model. This regression-based model is used to support customer order acceptance. Three order acceptance policies are compared by means of simulation experiments: a scheduling policy, a workload policy and a regression policy. The results indicate that the performance of the regression policy can compete with the performance of the scheduling policy in situations with high variety in the job mix and high uncertainty in the processing times. Correspondence to: C.V. Ivanescu     

Mesh data structure selection for mesh generation and FEA applications

The data structure representing a mesh and the operators to create and query such a database play a crucial role in the performance of mesh generation and FE analysis applications. The design of such a database must balance the conflicting requirements of compactness and computational efficiency. In this article, 10 different mesh representations are reviewed for linear tetrahedral and hexahedral meshes. A methodology for calculating the storage and computational costs of mesh representations is presented and the 10 data structures are analysed. Also, a system for ranking different data structures based on their computational and storage costs is devised and the various mesh representations are ranked according to this measure. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.