DSC Model for Soil and Interface Including Liquefaction and Prediction of Centrifuge Test

Realistic predictions of dynamic soil–structure interaction problems require appropriate constitutive models for the characterization of soils and interfaces. This paper presents a unified model based on the disturbed state concept (DSC). The parameters for the models for the Nevada sand, and sand–metal interface are obtained based on available triaxial test data on the sand and interfaces. The predicted stress–strain–pore water pressure behavior for the sand using the DSC model is compared with the test data. In addition, a finite element procedure with the DSC model, based on the generalized Biot’s theory, is used to predict the measured responses for a pile (aluminum) sand foundation problem obtained by using the centrifuge test. The predictions compared very well with measured pore water pressures. The DSC model is used to identify microstructural instability leading to liquefaction. A procedure is proposed to apply the proposed method for analysis and design for dynamic response and liquefaction.     

Transient stress analysis of sandwich plate and shell panels with functionally graded material core under thermal shock

A finite element formulation for stress analysis of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates and shell panels under thermal shock is presented in this work. A higher-order layerwise theory in conjunction with Sanders’ approximation for shells is used to develop the finite element formulation for transient stress analysis of FGM sandwich panels. The top and the bottom surfaces of FGM sandwich panels are made of pure ceramic and metal, respectively, and core of the sandwich is assumed to be made of FGM. The temperature profile in the thickness direction of the panels is considered to be varying as per the Fourier’s law of heat conduction equation for unsteady state. The heat conduction equations are solved using the central difference method in conjunction with the Crank–Nicolson approach. Transient thermal displacements of the sandwich panels are obtained using Newmark average acceleration method and the transient thermal stresses are obtained using stress–strain relations, subsequently. Results obtained from the present layerwise finite element formulations are first validated with available solutions in literature. Parametric studies are taken up to study the effects of volume fraction index, temperature dependency of material properties, core thickness, panel configuration, geometric and thermal boundary conditions on transient thermal stresses of FGM sandwich plates and shells.     

A survey of power and energy efficient techniques for high performance numerical linear algebra operations

Extreme scale supercomputers available before the end of this decade are expected to have 100 million to 1 billion computing cores. The power and energy efficiency issue has become one of the primary concerns of extreme scale high performance scientific computing. This paper surveys the research on saving power and energy for numerical linear algebra algorithms in high performance scientific computing on supercomputers around the world. We first stress the significance of numerical linear algebra algorithms in high performance scientific computing nowadays, followed by a background introduction on widely used numerical linear algebra algorithms and software libraries and benchmarks. We summarize commonly deployed power management techniques for reducing power and energy consumption in high performance computing systems by presenting power and energy models and two fundamental types of power management techniques: static and dynamic. Further, we review the research on saving power and energy for high performance numerical linear algebra algorithms from four aspects: profiling, trading off performance, static saving, and dynamic saving, and summarize state-of-the-art techniques for achieving power and energy efficiency in each category individually. Finally, we discuss potential directions of future work and summarize the paper.     

Alloy-oxide equilibria in the system Pt-Rh-O

The composition of Pt-Rh alloys that co-exist with Rh₂O₃ in air have been identified by experiment at 1273 K. The isothermal sections of the phase diagram for the ternary system Pt-Rh-O at 973 K and 1273 K have been computed based on experimentally determined phase relations and recent thermodynamic measurements on Pt_1−X Rh _X alloys and Rh₂O₃. The composition dependence of the oxygen partial pressure for the oxidation of Pt_1−X Rh _X alloys at different temperatures, and temperature for the oxidation of the alloys in air are computed. The diagrams provide quantitative information for optimization of the composition of Pt_1−X Rh _X alloys for high temperature application in oxidizing atmospheres.     

Theoretical studies on solvation contribution to the thermodynamic stability of mutants of lysozyme T4

Atomic solvation parameters (ASPs) are widely used to estimatethe solvation contribution to the thermodynamic stability ofproteins as well as the free energy of association for protein–ligandcomplexes. In view of discrepancies in the results of free energiesof solvation of folding for various proteins obtained usingdifferent atomic solvation parameter sets, systematic studieshave been carried out for the calculation of accessible surfacearea and the changes in free energy of solvation of folding(     

Effect of piezoelectric grain size on magnetoelectric coefficient of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3–Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 particulate composites

This study investigates the variation of magnetoelectric (ME) coefficient as a function of the piezoelectric grain size in the composite system of 0.8 Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃–0.2 Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄. It was found that as the piezoelectric-phase grain size increases the overall resistivity, piezoelectric, dielectric, and ferroelectric property of the composite increases and saturates above 600 nm. Below 200 nm average grain size, piezoelectric and dielectric properties decrease rapidly. The ferroelectric Curie temperature was found to decrease from 377 to 356 °C as the average grain size decreases from 830 to 111 nm. ME coefficient of the composite showed a rapid change below grain size of 200 nm and was found to saturate above 600 nm to a value of 155 mV/cm.Oe.     

Local Structure of Magnetoelectric BiFeO3–BaTiO3 Ceramics Probed by Synchrotron X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy

The novel Cu- and Mn-doped and Cu/Mn codoped 0.75BiFeO₃–0.25BaTiO₃ magnetoelectric ceramics were successfully prepared by a solid-state reaction method. The dielectric, ferroelectric, ferromagnetic, and magnetoelectric properties were determined and all the results suggested that Cu and Mn dopants occupied different B-site lattices in the 0.75BiFeO₃–0.25BaTiO₃ structure. To identify the preferential sites of Cu and Mn in the lattice, Synchrotron X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (SXAS) measurements were carried out. A combination of both measured and simulated XAS results with a linear combination fitting (LCF) revealed that in Cu- and Mn-doped 0.75BiFeO₃–0.25BaTiO₃ ceramics both Mn and Cu substituted at Fe-site and Ti-site with slightly different proportion. On the other hand, both dopants were found to occupied different sites in Cu/Mn codoped 0.75BiFeO₃–0.25BaTiO₃ ceramics.     

Technology innovation and process integrations for sub-100nm gate patterning

This paper presents a brief overview of the Applied Centura(R)DPS(R)system,configured with silicon etch DPS Ⅱ chamber, with emphasis on discussing tuning capability for CD uniformity control. It also presents the studies of etch process chemistry and film integration impact for an overall successful gate patterning development. Discussions will focus on resolutions to key issues, such as CD uniformity, line-edge roughness, and multilayer film etching integration.     

Use of Hot Rolling for Generating Low Deviation Twins and a Disconnected Random Boundary Network in Inconel 600 Alloy

In this investigation, Inconel 600 alloy was thermomechanically processed to different strains via hot rolling followed by a short-time annealing treatment to determine an appropriate thermomechanical process to achieve a high fraction of low-Σ CSL boundaries. Experimental results demonstrate that a certain level of deformation is necessary to obtain effective “grain boundary engineering”; i.e., the deformation must be sufficiently high to provide the required driving force for postdeformation static recrystallization, yet it should be low enough to retain a large fraction of original twin boundaries. Samples processed in such a fashion exhibited 77 pct length fraction of low-Σ CSL boundaries, a dominant fraction of which was from Σ3 (~ 64 pct), the latter with very low deviation from its theoretical misorientation. The application of hot rolling also resulted in a very low fraction of Σ1 (~ 1 pct) boundaries, as desired. The process also leads to so-called “triple junction engineering” with the generation of special triple junctions, which are very effective in disrupting the connectivity of the random grain boundary network.