Results demonstrating techniques for enhancing electrochemical reactions involving iron oxide in slags and C in liquid iron

Two techniques are described for the enhancement of the kinetics of reduction of iron oxide from slags by carbon in molten iron. Laboratory experiments have shown that the rate of iron oxide reduction by carbon-saturated iron can be increased by 5 to 10 times when the reaction is carried out under a reduced-pressure atmosphere. This effect is thought to be the result of the increased volumetric gas evolution through the slag layer and the associated increase in slag stirring. A model is presented, which relates the mass-transfer coefficient for ferrous ions in the slag to its stirring that is controlled by varying the ambient pressure. Additional laboratory experiments examined the electrochemical nature of iron oxide reduction from slag by carbon in liquid iron. Results indicate that the reduction of iron oxide from slag is increased in the presence of an applied electric field. The external circuit allows for the separation of the half-cell reactions associated with iron oxide reduction and decarburization and increases the reaction area available for the individual reactions. These results have significant implications for several important slag metal reactions, which occur during ironmaking and steelmaking operations.     

Correlation between ionic conductivity and fluidity of polymer gel electrolytes containing NH4CF3SO3

Nonaqueous polymer gel electrolytes containing ammonium triflate (NH₄CF₃SO₃) and dimethylacetamide (DMA) with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as the gelling polymer have been synthesized which show high value of conductivity (~ 10^-2 S/cm) at 25°C. The conductivity of polymer gel electrolytes containing different concentrations of NH₄CF₃SO₃ shows a small decrease with the addition of PMMA and this has been correlated with the variation of fluidity of these gel electrolytes. The small decrease in conductivity with PMMA addition shows that polymer plays the role of stiffener and this is supported by FTIR results which also indicates the absence of any active interaction between polymer and NH₄CF₃SO₃ in these gel electrolytes.     

Rough-fuzzy MLP: modular evolution, rule generation, and evaluation

A methodology is described for evolving a Rough-fuzzy multi layer perceptron with modular concept using a genetic algorithm to obtain a structured network suitable for both classification and rule extraction. The modular concept, based on "divide and conquer" strategy, provides accelerated training and a compact network suitable for generating a minimum number of rules with high certainty values. The concept of variable mutation operator is introduced for preserving the localized structure of the constituting knowledge-based subnetworks, while they are integrated and evolved. Rough set dependency rules are generated directly from the real valued attribute table containing fuzzy membership values. Two new indices viz., "certainty" and "confusion" in a decision are defined for evaluating quantitatively the quality of rules. The effectiveness of the model and the rule extraction algorithm is extensively demonstrated through experiments alongwith comparisons.     

Incorporating Ancestors' Influence in Genetic Algorithms

A new criterion of fitness evaluation for Genetic Algorithms is introduced where the fitness value of an individual is determined by considering its own fitness as well as those of its ancestors. Some guidelines for selecting the weighting coefficients for quantifying the importance to be given to the fitness of the individual and its ancestors are provided. This is done both heuristically and automatically under fixed and adaptive frameworks. The Schema Theorem corresponding to the proposed concept is derived. The effectiveness of this new methodology is demonstrated extensively on the problems of optimizing complex functions including a noisy one and selecting optimal neural network parameters.     

Some new indexes of cluster validity

We review two clustering algorithms (hard c-means and single linkage) and three indexes of crisp cluster validity (Hubert's statistics, the Davies-Bouldin index, and Dunn's index). We illustrate two deficiencies of Dunn's index which make it overly sensitive to noisy clusters and propose several generalizations of it that are not as brittle to outliers in the clusters. Our numerical examples show that the standard measure of interset distance (the minimum distance between points in a pair of sets) is the worst (least reliable) measure upon which to base cluster validation indexes when the clusters are expected to form volumetric clouds. Experimental results also suggest that intercluster separation plays a more important role in cluster validation than cluster diameter. Our simulations show that while Dunn's original index has operational flaws, the concept it embodies provides a rich paradigm for validation of partitions that have cloud-like clusters. Five of our generalized Dunn's indexes provide the best validation results for the simulations presented.     

Transmission electron microscopy and theoretical analysis of AuCu nanoparticles: atomic distribution and dynamic behavior

Though the application of bimetallic nanoparticles is becoming increasingly important, the local atomistic structure of such alloyed particles, which is critical for tailoring their properties, is not yet very clearly understood. In this work, we present detailed study on the atomistic structure of Au-Cu nanoparticles so as to determine their most stable configurations and the conditions for obtaining clusters of different structural variants. The dynamic behavior of these nanoparticles upon local heating is investigated. AuCu nanoparticles are characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and energy filtering elemental composition mapping (EFECM), which allowed us to study the internal structure and the elemental distribution in the particles. Quantum mechanical approaches and classic molecular dynamics methods are applied to model the structure and to determine the lowest energy configurations, the corresponding electronic structures, and understand structural transition of clusters upon heating, supported by experimental evidences. Our theoretical results demonstrate only the core/shell bimetallic structure have negative heat of formation, both for decahedra and octahedral, and energetically favoring core/shell structure is with Au covering the core of Cu, whose reverse core/shell structure is not stable and may transform back at a certain temperature. Experimental evidences corroborate these structures and their structural changes upon heating, demonstrating the possibility to manipulate the structure of such bimetallic nanoparticles using extra stimulating energy, which is in accordance with the calculated coherence energy proportions between the different configurations.     

Noninvasive 3D vital imaging and characterization of notochordal cells of the intervertebral disc by femtosecond near-infrared two-photon laser scanning microscopy and spatial-volume rendering

The central region of the intervertebral disc (IVD) in infant humans is made and maintained by notochordal cells (NCs). These cells disappear during maturation to be replaced by mature chondrocyte-like cells. NCs are completely different morphologically from the mature chondrocyte-like IVD cells and have complex and essential functions but little is known about them. Recently, two-photon laser scanning microscopy (TPLSM) using near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond pulsed lasers has emerged as a promising noninvasive optical technique for observing unfixed living 3D biological specimens in situ and in vitro. Several lines of evidence suggest that compared with conventional laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), femtosecond NIR laser-based TPLSM has any number of advantages including 3D resolution without a spatial filter (confocal pinhole), minimal photobleaching, and photodamage above and below the focal plane, and importantly, greater depth penetration. We have thus taken advantage of these unique features of femtosecond laser-based TPLSM for vital 3D imaging in conjunction with advanced spatial-volume rendering modalities to compare morphologies of NCs/clusters from pig caudal discs with chondrocyte-like IVD cells from bovine caudal discs, both in ex vivo tissue and when isolated and grown in vitro within 3D alginate scaffolds. Our results provide evidence that (a) ex vivo notochordal tissue consists of areas with NC clusters, and those dominated by tubular structures of low cell density (b) within 3D in vitro scaffolds the morphology of NC is heterogeneous and the cells contain distinct cytoplasmic vacuole-like structures occasionally including acidic subinclusions (c) a quantitative determination based on 3D spatial and volumetric-rendering reveals an average NC diameter of 22.05 microm (range 11.96-46.63 microm) and NC volume of 9701 microm(3) (2041-36427 microm(3)) whereas chondrocyte-like cells have a mean volume of 3279 microm(3) and diameter of 12.20 microm. Taken together, this study demonstrates that femtosecond TPLSM has unique advantages over other conventional histological and in particular LSCM for high resolution noninvasive vital characterization of notochordal and chondrocyte-like cells of IVD over extended depths beyond 300-500 microm.     

Effect of shielding gas mixture on gas metal arc welding of HSLA steel using solid and flux-cored wires

In this work, gas metal arc welding of high strength-low alloy (HSLA) steel with solid- and flux-cored arc welding wires using different shielding gas compositions was performed. The composition of filler wire and shielding gas in gas metal arc welds of HSLA steel determines the inclusion characteristics, microstructure and mechanical properties. Thus, acceptable weld metal properties in HSLA steel using gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process could be achieved with the proper combination of filler wire and shielding gas composition.     

Flexible diamond-like carbon films on rubber: Friction and the effect of viscoelastic deformation of rubber substrates

This paper focuses on the frictional behavior of flexible diamond-like carbon (DLC) film-coated hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber. By making use of the substantial thermal mismatch between DLC film and rubber substrate, a dense network of cracks forms in the DLC films and contributes to flexibility. The influence of the size of DLC film microsegments on the frictional performance is studied. The effect of viscoelasticity of the rubber substrate on the frictional behavior of the DLC film-coated system is scrutinized by tribo-tests and theoretical analysis. The importance of adhesive and hysteresis contributions to friction is revealed, and an overarching model is presented.     

Optimization of friction stir welding process using NSGA-II and DEMO

In welding processes, the selection of optimal process parameter settings is very important to achieve best weld qualities. In this work, neuro-multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are proposed to optimize the process parameters in friction stir welding process. Artificial neural network (ANN) models are developed for the simulation of the correlation between process parameters and mechanical properties of the weld using back-propagation algorithm. The weld qualities of the weld joint, such as ultimate tensile strength, yield stress, elongation, bending angle and hardness of the nugget zone, are considered. In order to optimize those quality characteristics, two multi-objective EAs that are non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II and differential evolution for multi-objective are coupled with the developed ANN models. In the end, multi-criteria decision-making method which is technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution is applied on the Pareto front to extract the best solutions. Comparisons are conducted between results obtained from the proposed techniques, and confirmation experiments are performed to verify the simulated results.