Cohesive stresses and size effect in quasi-brittle materials

A novel approach to the derivation of Bažant’s size effect law is presented. Contrarily to the original Lagrangian derivation which hinged on energetic consideration, a Newtonian approach based on local stress intensity factors is presented. Through this approach, it is shown that Bažant’s size effect law is the first (and dominant) term in a series expansion for the nominal stress. Furthermore, analytical expressions forB are derived for selected specimen geometries.     

The effect of welded boundaries on the response of rectangular hot-rolled mild steel plates subjected to localised blast loading

A series of experiments examining the effects of welded boundaries on the localised blast load response of mild steel plates is presented in this short communication. Two types of welding are examined, TIG and MIG welding. The welded boundary response is compared with clamped boundary and straight and chamfer machined boundary responses. The overall trend of midpoint deflection–thickness ratio versus dimensionless damage number for all the plates follows previously reported empirical trends. The tearing threshold (Mode II*) in terms of the damage number is lowest for the machined plates followed by the welded plates with the clamped plates having the highest resistance to tearing.     

Current gain-Early voltage products in heterojunction bipolartransistors with nonuniform base bandgaps

The tradeoff between common-emitter current gain (β) and Early voltage (V_A) in heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) where the bandgap varies across the base has been studied. The Early voltage depends exponentially on the difference between the bandgap at the collector side of the base and the largest bandgap in the base, allowing very high Early voltages with only very thin narrow bandgap regions. Using Si/Si_1-xGe_x/Si HBTs with a two-layer stepped base, βV_A products of over 100000 V have been achieved for devices with a cutoff frequency expected to be about 30 GHz     

Photoelectrocatalytic humic acid degradation kinetics and effect of pH,applied potential and inorganic ions

This study addresses the removal of humic acid (HA) dissolved in an aqueous medium by a photoelectrocatalytic process. UV₂₅₄ removal and the degradation of color (Vis₄₀₀) followed pseudo‐first order kinetics. Rate constants were 1.1 × 10^?1 min^?1, 8.3 × 10^?2 min^?1 and 2.49 × 10^?2 min^?1 (R² > 0.97) for UV₂₅₄ degradation and 1.7 × 10^?1 min^?1, 6.5 × 10^?2 min^?1 and 2.0 × 10^?2 min^?1 for color removal from 5 mg dm^?3, 10 mg dm^?3 and 25 mg dm^?3 HA respectively. Following a 2 h irradiation time, 96% of the color, 98% of the humic acid and 85% of the total organic carbon (TOC) was removed from an initial 25 mg dm^?3 HA solution in the photoanode cell. Photocatalytic removal on the same photoanode was also studied in order to compare the two methods of degradation. Results showed that the photoelectrocatalytic method was much more effective than the photocatalytic method especially at high pH values and with respect to UV₂₅₄ removal. The effect of other important reaction variables, eg pH, external potential and electrolyte concentration, on the photoelectrocatalytic HA degradation was also studied. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry