Continuous carbon nanotube reinforced composites

Carbon nanotubes are considered short fibers, and polymer composites with nanotube fillers are always analogues of random, short fiber composites. The real structural carbon fiber composites, on the other hand, always contain carbon fiber reinforcements where fibers run continuously through the composite matrix. With the recent optimization in aligned nanotube growth, samples of nanotubes in macroscopic lengths have become available, and this allows the creation of composites that are similar to the continuous fiber composites with individual nanotubes running continuously through the composite body. This allows the proper utilization of the extreme high modulus and strength predicted for nanotubes in structural composites. Here, we fabricate such continuous nanotube polymer composites with continuous nanotube reinforcements and report that under compressive loadings, the nanotube composites can generate more than an order of magnitude improvement in the longitudinal modulus (up to 3,300%) as well as damping capability (up to 2,100%). It is also observed that composites with a random distribution of nanotubes of same length and similar filler fraction provide three times less effective reinforcement in composites.     

Comparison of conventional and soft computing-based power control methods in mobile communications systems

 In this paper, we give a comparison between the conventional power control scheme and soft computing-based approaches in a mobile communications application. At the base station, the `bang–bang' control strategy and a neural network-based prediction control method are employed. In addition, full power command transmission mode, single-bit command transmission mode, and fuzzy logic-based power command enhancement unit are considered. Based on simulation experiments, we quantitatively evaluate the performance of various combinations of these control methods and command transmission modes. Conclusions on the optimal configuration are finally drawn.     

Spatially Variant Convolution With Scaled B-Splines

We present an efficient algorithm to compute multidimensional spatially variant convolutions-or inner products-between N-dimensional signals and B-splines-or their derivatives-of any order and arbitrary sizes. The multidimensional B-splines are computed as tensor products of 1-D B-splines, and the input signal is expressed in a B-spline basis. The convolution is then computed by using an adequate combination of integration and scaled finite differences as to have, for moderate and large scale values, a computational complexity that does not depend on the scaling factor. To show in practice the benefit of using our spatially variant convolution approach, we present an adaptive noise filter that adjusts the kernel size to the local image characteristics and a high sensitivity local ridge detector.     

On scheduling all-to-all personalized connection and cost-effectivedesigns in WDM rings

We consider the problem of scheduling all-to-all personalized connections (AAPC) in WDM rings. Scheduling one connection for every source-destination pair in a network of limited connectivity provides a way to reduce routing control and guarantee throughput. For a given number of wavelengths K and a given number of transceivers per node T, we first determine the lower bound (LB) on the schedule length, which depends on both K and T. To achieve the LB, either the network bandwidth, the I/O capacity, or both should be fully utilized. This approach first constructs and then schedules circles, each of which is formed by up to four non-overlapping connections and can fully utilize the bandwidth of one wavelength. The proposed circle construction and scheduling algorithms can achieve the LB if K⩽T相似文献   

Modeling of microstructure effects on the mechanical behavior of ultrafine-grained nickels processed by hot isostatic pressing

Bulk ultrafine-grained nickel specimens having grain sizes in the range of 0.25-5 μm were consolidated by hot isostatic pressing technique. The resulting microstructures were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. Compression tests were carried out at room temperature and at strain rate of 1.6×10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. It was found that the measured yield strength does not follow the Hall-Petch law as a consequence of the presence of oxide phase. Therefore, the use of micromechanics based model, which takes into account only the Hall-Petch relationship at grain level for predicting the grain sized effects on mechanical behavior of this kind of materials, is not accurate yet. In this study, a modification made to the generalized self-consistent model was proposed for studying both grain size and oxide phase dependence of ultrafine-grained materials behavior. Because of the novel modification, an optimization procedure with two steps was required to identify the parameters of micromechanical model. An acceptable agreement between experimental and numerical results was achieved. Moreover, the influence of texture on the yield strength and the application of the proposed model to the spark plasma sintering processed materials were also discussed.     

Amphiphilic and photocatalytic behaviors of TiO2 nanotube arrays on Ti prepared via electrochemical oxidation

Amphiphilic TiO₂ nanotube arrays (TiO₂ NTs) were fabricated through electrochemical oxidation of Ti in solution containing H₃PO₄ and NaF. Scanning electron microscopic analysis shows that the as-prepared TiO₂ NTs have an average pore diameter of 100 nm and a wall thickness of 15 nm. The electrochemical oxidation of Ti can be divided into four stages. In the first stage, when the potential is very low, oxygen formation and Ti dissolution are the major reactions. The second stage corresponds to a slightly higher potential, but less than 2.5 V. In this stage, the formation of TiO₂ film occurs. When the potential is increased to the even higher range from 2.5 V to 6 V, the TiO₂ film dissolves and nanoporous surface structure is generated. This is the third stage. Further increase of the potential enters stage four. The high potentials cause the self-organization of the nanostructure and allow the formation of well-aligned TiO₂ NTs. We also found that the change in surface condition of Ti by annealing heat treatment affects the film dissolution kinetics. As compared with TiO₂ thin film, the TiO2 NTs show higher photocatalytic activity on decomposing Rhodamine B. The surface of the TiO₂ NTs can be wetted by both water and oil. Such an amphiphilic property comes from the capillary effect of the nanochannel structure of the TiO₂ NTs. Because of the amphiphilic property and the photocatalytic activity, we conclude that the TiO₂ NTs have the capability of self-cleaning.     

Dynamic behavior of a Zr-based metallic glass at cryogenic temperature

The dynamic behavior of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass at cryogenic temperature is investigated by a miniaturized split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus. As that at room temperature, the failure stress decreases suddenly and then tends to hold steady along with increasing strain rate at cryogenic temperature, but the strain rate regime corresponding to the sudden decrease of the failure stress moves up. The failure stress also increases along with decreasing temperature, whereas there is no obvious change for the plasticity.     

Increasing the accuracy of level-based volume detection of medical liquids in test tubes by including the optical effect of the meniscus

A novel system for liquid volume detection is reported in this paper. The system uses two lasers with different wavelengths to scan the entire height of tubes. By detecting the shape and position of the meniscus that is formed at the liquid-air interface, the volume of liquid in a tube of known geometry can be determined. To increase the accuracy of this level-based volume detection, the shape of the meniscus must be considered. The optical effect of the meniscus in such a system was modeled and its effect on the volume detection simulated. A laboratory prototype was built and the biggest difference between the measured power of the transmitted light through the meniscus and the simulated data was less than 8%.     

Thermal conductivity measurement of the epoxies and composite material for low temperature superconducting magnet design

The thermal conductivities of solid materials were measured by a G-M cryo-cooler based apparatus in the temperature range of 2.6–21.0 K. The performance of this apparatus was verified by measuring the thermal conductivity of 304-stainless steel, and good reproducibility as well as accuracy was shown when compared with the certified values. The thermal conductivities of EC1017 and Stycast2850FT and a composite material were measured. Similar behavior to amorphous materials was shown for EC1017 and Stycast2850FT in that there was an apparent plateau, which could be ascribed to a very lower crystallinity of epoxy. An equivalent model was proposed to predict the thermal conductivity of the composite material.