Rigidly connected overlapping spherical particles: a versatile grain model

This paper describes a method to simulate the dynamics of granular systems consisting of irregularly shaped grains. This method is a simplification and partial improvement of a method that has been developed and employed earlier in simulating the toning process in electro-photographic copiers. Here, grains are modeled as rigidly connected overlapping spherical particles. For each grain a bounding sphere around the center-of-mass is known. Therefore, it can efficiently be decided whether two particles intersect and thus exert contact forces upon each other. A second order time stepping algorithm for such grains is given which needs only one evaluation of the interparticle forces in a time step. In a ten grain example system a favorable but poorly understood phenomenon of energy restoration is exemplified.U. Mutze retired from R&D for a subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, after R&D work for a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Company.     

New approach in depositing thick, layered cubic boron nitride coatings by oxygen addition—structural and compositional analysis

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) can be produced by PVD and PA-CVD techniques by intensive ion bombardment leading to highly stressed films limiting its use in industrial applications. Various attempts have been undertaken to reduce the compressive stress of c-BN thin films. A significant reduction in compressive stress and a substantially improved adhesion was achieved by a new coating concept consisting of a two-step adhesion-promoting base layer, a compositional-graded nucleation layer obtained by a stepwise decrease of the oxygen content in the Ar/N₂/O₂ atmosphere and a low-stressed c-BN:O top layer with controlled oxygen addition. The four-layer c-BN:O film with a thickness of 3 μm was deposited by unbalanced radio frequency magnetron sputtering of a hot-pressed hexagonal boron nitride target on silicon substrates. The adhesion layer was deposited in a mixed Ar/O₂ atmosphere of 0.26 Pa with a stepwise increased nitrogen gas flow and a subsequent increase of the ion energy by increasing the substrate bias from 0 to − 250 V. The c-BN nucleation was gradually initiated by decreasing the O₂ gas flow. The present study was focused on the investigation of the morphology, the microstructure on the nanoscale, and the bonding structure using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-Transmission infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) employing analytical scanning transmission electron microscopy (ASTEM). The HRTEM images revealed a four-layer coating consisting of a gradual nucleation of t-BN, on which a gradual nucleation of c-BN was achieved by decreasing the oxygen gas flow.     

Biblio service

Shapiro’s most recent finance textbook represents an introductory overview of the capital budgeting problem, i.e. the selection and management of real investments. The book combines a general treatment of basic valuation techniques with capital budgeting principles. It heavily draws on the author’s other publications, in particular Multinational Financial Management, for many years the standard reference for the international dimension of corporate finance.     

Metallurgical Development in Steel‐plant‐internal Multi‐injection Hot Metal Desulphurisation

The use of thermodynamic, statistical, and light and electron‐optical microscopic methods has made it possible to analyse the course of reactions during steel‐plant‐internal hot metal desulphurisation. The theoretical dependence between oxygen and sulphur activity has been used to develop an EMF‐measurement‐based technique for determining the sulphur content as the hot metal is desulphurised. The absence of magnesium sulphide from the collection of phases in the final slag because of the greater stability and secondary formation of calcium sulphide has been explained with the aid of thermo‐chemical calculations.     

Intentions Determine the Effect of Invisible Metacontrast-Masked Primes: Evidence for Top-Down Contingencies in a Peripheral Cuing Task.

In 5 experiments, the authors tested whether the processing of nonconscious spatial stimulus information depends on a prior intention. This test was conducted with the metacontrast dissociation paradigm. Experiment 1 demonstrated that masked primes that could not be discriminated above chance level affected responses to the visible stimuli that masked them. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that this effect was abolished when the task instruction was changed in such a way that the primes ceased to be task relevant. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that a prime's effect depended on whether it was associated with the same response as the target or with an opposite response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low temperature silicon direct bonding for application in micromechanics: bonding energies for different combinations of oxides

Plain or structured hydrophillic silicon wafers covered with native oxide or with thermally grown oxide layers have been directly bonded at room temperature; afterwards, the samples were annealed at 100°C to 400°C. There is a significant difference in the observed bonding energy depending on the wafer pairing chosen. If one or both wafers are covered with a native oxide layer, high bonding strengths are reached even at low temperatures. This can be explained by the different diffusion behaviour of water molecules through a thick thermal oxide layer on one hand, and through a thin native oxide layer on the other hand. Two different methods for the activation of the wafer surfaces just prior to bonding are described.     

A reliability based maintenance policy; a case study

Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) incorporates sound guidance for managers who wish to attain high standards of maintenance at their operating plants. Since the amount and type of maintenance which is applied depend strongly on the machine or components age (DFR, CFR or IFR), on its replacement cost as well as on the cost and safety consequences of system failure, a careful analysis of the system components based on their reliability data should be done in order to optimize the maintenance program. This paper describes the methodology which was used at an aluminum plant in order to select critical machines and to develop an optimal maintenance policy based on reliability data of each machine, safety consequences of system failure, lead time and repair time, and components criticality.     

Fuse regrowth kinetics

The kinetics of fuse regrowth during temperature humidity bias (THB) stresses were modeled with a power law for relative humidity (exponent /spl sim/2.3) and a power law for bias voltage (exponent /spl sim/1.7). Using these results we determined the optimal laser cut parameters to maximize product reliability.