Thermal Behaviour of a Slipping Wet Clutch Contact

Wet clutches are used in automatic transmissions to enable gear changes and also to reduce energy loss in the torque converter. These friction devices are susceptible to stick–slip effects, which result in the vehicle giving an unsteady ride. Stick–slip effects can be avoided by ensuring the wet clutch and lubricant combination produces a friction coefficient that increases with sliding speed. Although wet clutches have been studied throughout the industry for many decades, the mechanism of the generated friction is still not fully understood. It is known that, because of the fibrous nature and thus very large roughness of friction material, the overall contact between clutch plates actually consists of many small, independent, contact units, which are the sites of the generated friction. Some authors have suggested that a temperature rise due to friction either at these contact units or of the overall clutch plate may be important in controlling friction behaviour. In this study, the flash temperatures at the contact units formed in the wet clutch contact have been measured using an infrared camera. Three friction materials have been tested. It was found that measured flash temperature in a pure sliding system similar to that present in a slipping clutch remain well below 5 °C, and are therefore unlikely to play a major role in the observed friction-speed dependency of slipping wet clutches at speeds below 2 m/s.     

Anisotropic loss of toughness with physical aging of work toughened polycarbonate

We have studied the response of mechanically toughened and physically aged polycarbonate primarily using Charpy impact and ultrasonic wave speed measurements. The toughening was conducted through plastic compression on as‐received PC. The Charpy impact tests showed anisotropic toughening, both in the absorbed energy and in the mode of fracture. The amount of toughening with plastic compression, even though anisotropic, is centered around the response of annealed and quenched samples, which represent the response of an unaged PC. There was an anisotropic drop in the toughness of some samples with aging. The time of this drop was uncorrelated in the different directions and disappeared for the highly toughened samples. This transition was bimodal and statistically distributed between either a fully ductile or a fully brittle failure. As the samples were prepared in a manner to remove induced residual stresses, this drop in toughening may be associated with an intrinsic anisotropic thermal aging of the deformed material. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:794–804, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

山上的"大房子"姜乐静的"潭南国小"

这是台湾921地震(1999年)后重建民间捐助的代表性案例,坐落在日月潭南边高山偏远地区,建筑师以布农族"家屋"的转化来重建这一村落学习"机构",以"大房子"意象作为基本的建构形式,也形成村落重建的精神方舟.建筑师诚恳地让山本身来造就了这大房子.     

Constraints on Models of Electrical Transport in Optimally Doped La2?xSrxCuO4 from Measurements of Radiation-Induced Defect Resistance

Precise measurements of the temperature dependence of additional resistivity caused by defect scattering were used to constrain models of carrier transport in La_1.84Sr_0.16CuO₄. Where previous magnetotransport studies have delineated two distinct scattering processes, proportional to T and T ², respectively, the new defect scattering results suggest strongly that the two processes act as parallel conductance channels.     

Four-dimensional ultrasound current source density imaging of a dipole field

Ultrasound current source density imaging (UCSDI) potentially transforms conventional electrical mapping of excitable organs, such as the brain and heart. For this study, we demonstrate volume imaging of a time-varying current field by scanning a focused ultrasound beam and detecting the acoustoelectric (AE) interaction signal. A pair of electrodes produced an alternating current distribution in a special imaging chamber filled with a 0.9% NaCl solution. A pulsed 1 MHz ultrasound beam was scanned near the source and sink, while the AE signal was detected on remote recording electrodes, resulting in time-lapsed volume movies of the alternating current distribution.     

DNA aptamer-based bioanalysis of IgE by fluorescence anisotropy

A rapid, homogeneous aptamer-based bioanalysis is reported for the sensitive detection of immunoglobulin E (IgE) using fluorescence polarization (FP). 5'-End-labeled D17.4 DNA aptamer was used for IgE detection based on the anisotropy differences of the labeled ligand. Two different fluorophores, fluorescein and Texas Red, were used to analyze IgE in the low-nanomolar range with high specificity. Measurable anisotropy changes were observed with a short equilibration time. Analysis of the binding data reveals a possible cooperative binding process in solution. The nature of the fluorophore clearly influences the sensitivity of the analysis more than the tether length used for the dye conjugation. The local fluorophore motion is seen to influence the sensitivity of the FP probe significantly. Texas Red is seen to be relatively more sensitive for this approach and has apparently favorable dye-DNA interactions, and a limit of detection of 350 pM was obtained. Significant temperature dependence of the FP responses has been observed in this work. Ionic composition of the binding buffer also influences the assay sensitivity. The results confirm the promise and potential of similar homogeneous assays for aptamer-based bioanalysis.     

Wettability of NiAl by a liquid Ni–Si–B alloy

An investigation of the wettability of the intermetallic compound NiAl by a liquid Ni–4.5 wt% Si–3.2 wt% B filler metal is presented in this paper. Dynamic observations of spreading of Ni–Si–B droplets, conducted using hot-stage light microscopy, are correlated with post-cooling microscopy and analysis. The paper examines the influence of the oxide layer on the NiAl substrates, on the progression of spreading of the Ni–Si–B liquid. Termination of spreading of the Ni–Si–B droplets by the onset of isothermal solidification at the spreading front is considered. Spreading of the Ni–Si–B droplets was found to be rapid until the onset of isothermal solidification at the spreading front. However, once isothermal solidification commenced, negligible further spreading was observed. The Ni–Si–B filler metal was observed to spread by undermining of the substrate oxide. However, a marked reaction occurred between the substrate oxide and the Ni–Si–B filler metal. This reaction served to remove the substrate oxide layer. The paper contrasts the mechanisms of substrate oxide undermining and isothermal solidification of liquid Ni–Si–B droplets on NiAl with those occurring during the spreading of the same liquid on pure nickel and Ni–Cr alloys. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The solid modelling of part orienting tracks for automated assembly

Part orienting tracks used for feeding component parts to an automated assembly system are conventionally designed and fabricated manually by increasingly small numbers of skilled operators. It is time-consuming, labour-intensive and hence results in expensive tooling cost and long manufacture lead time. A new approach based on solid modelling has been developed to facilitate efficient track design and manufacture

This paper presents the methodology adopted in the development and implementation of the CAD system. It describes the conceptual model of an orienting track, discusses the overall data structure of the system, and outlines the method used in modelling tracks. The paper concludes with an example demonstrating how an orienting track can be designed using the CAD system.     

The clinical course and cardiohemodynamic status of patients with different variants of diphtheritic myocarditis

The clinical course was studied as was the condition of cardiohemodynamics in 126 patients with different variants of diphtherial myocarditis (DM) versus 23 patients with unspecific infectious and allergic myocarditis (UIAM). Early DM in the majority of cases runs a moderately severe or severe course because of a stronger--by comparison with late DM and UIAM--predisposition to cardiac insufficiency, sinus bradycardia and heart blocks as well as of a moderately severe systolic dysfunction of the left ventricle (LV), as evidenced by Echo-CG. Late DM runs, on the whole, a mild course, and is associated with minimal LV systolic function inadequacies.     

Clonal distribution of invasive Neisseria meningitidis isolates from the Norwegian county of Telemark, 1987 to 1995

Forty-two Neisseria meningitidis isolates were obtained from patients with meningococcal disease in the Norwegian county of Telemark (January 1987 to March 1995), and all were compared by PCR amplicon restriction endonuclease analysis (PCR-AREA) of the dhps gene, chromosomal DNA fingerprinting, and serological analysis. PCR-AREA divided the isolates into 11 classes, of which 4, comprising 15, 8, 6, and 2 isolates, were clonal while the remaining 8 classes were genetically heterogeneous or contained only 1 isolate. Three of the four clonal classes could be tentatively equated with recognized epidemic clones (ET5, ET37, and cluster A4) on the basis of their phenotypic characteristics, while the remaining clone appears to be new. There were significant differences in the geographical distribution of clones, with class 1 (ET5-like) isolates significantly overrepresented in rural parts of Telemark. Class 1 (ET5-like) isolates occurred throughout the study period and were dominant in 1987. Class 2 (ET37-like) isolates occurred from 1988 to 1992, and class 3 isolates (with no recognizable ET affinities) were found only in 1991 and 1992.