以柠檬酸铵为TiO2分散剂控制Si3N4-TiN复相陶瓷的显微结构

以Si3N4,AlN和TiO2为原料,Y2O3和Al2O3为烧结助剂,通过添加柠檬酸铵作为TiO2的分散剂,采用原位反应合成法制备TiN体积分数为5%的Si3N4-TiN复相陶瓷,在高温烧结过程中原料中的TiO2和AlN反应生成TiN.通过扫描电子显微镜观察了柠檬酸铵分散剂用量对Si3N4-TiN复相陶瓷显微结构的影响.结果表明:添加柠檬酸铵分散剂降低原料混合粉体中TiO2的团聚,获得组分均匀的Si3N4-TiO2-AlN复合粉体,从而提高Si3N4-TiN复相陶瓷中TiN相在Si3N4基体中的分散性,烧结后获得显微结构均匀的Si3N4-TiN复相陶瓷.当在体系中添加0.20g柠檬酸铵分散剂可以显著改善Si3N4-TiN复相陶瓷的显微结构,TiN晶粒被控制在0.2～0.3μm.     

Effects of Heating,Vacuum Drying and Steeping on Gelatinization Properties and Dynamic Viscoelasticity of Various Starches

Starches having A‐ and B‐type X‐ray diffraction patterns (A‐ and B‐type starches) were modified by heating at 120 °C for 2 h (HT), vacuum drying at room temperature for 20 h (VD) and steeping at 50 °C for 20 h (ST). The properties of starches were compared using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic viscoelasticity behavior during heat processing (G' behavior). As observed by DSC, HT rarely changed the gelatinization properties for A‐type starches, but decreased the gelatinization temperatures and enthalpies (ΔH) for B‐type starches. A shift of the X‐ray diffractograms from B‐type to A‐type patterns was not detected after HT. Similar changes in gelatinization properties were observed for B‐type starches after VD. ST increased the gelatinization temperatures and also narrowed the gelatinization temperature range irrespective of crystal type. Both HT and VD decreased the peak temperature (T_p) in G' behavior and increased the peak G' value for B‐type starches. ST increased T_p and also decreased the peak G' value irrespective of starch crystal type. G' values after reaching T_p — which indicate the viscoelasticity of the swollen starch granules without breakdown — showed significant increases only for B‐type starches after HT.     

Gait and foot trajectory planning for versatile motions of a six-legged robot

This article deals with the problem of planning and controlling a radially symmetric six-legged walker on an uneven terrain when a smooth time-varying body motion is required. The main difficulties lie on the planning of gaits and foot trajectories. As for the gaits, this article discusses the forward wave gait of a variable duty factor and a variable wave direction. With the commanded body motion, the maximum possible duty factor is computed using the speed limit of the leg swing motion. Guaranteeing this maximum duty factor contributes to obtain higher stability. We prove the “continuity” of this forward wave gait planning algorithm adds the versatility to gaits planned. The foot trajectory planning algorithm dynamically generates a smooth foot trajectory as a function of the instantaneous body motions by modifying standard leg motion templates. The robot can negotiate an uneven terrain by modifying a vertical leg motion by a signal of tactile sensors on the foot. The experiments prove that the robot can successfully track smooth curves with body rotations on an uneven terrain, and thus prove the robustness of the algorithms. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Development of one-dimensional two-fluid model with consideration of void fraction covariance effect

Accurate evaluation of gas-liquid two-phase flow behavior within rod bundle geometry is crucial for the safety assessment of the nuclear power plants. In safety assessment codes, two-phase flow in rod bundle geometry has been treated as a one-dimensional flow. In order to obtain the reliable one-dimensional two-fluid model, it is essential to utilize proper area-averaged models for governing equations and constitutive relations. The area-averaged interfacial drag term utilized to evaluate two-phase interfacial drag force is typically given by the drift-flux parameters which consider the velocity profile in two-phase flow fields. However, in a rigorous sense, the covariance due to void fraction profile is ignored in traditional formulations. In this paper, the rigorous formulation of one-dimensional momentum equation was derived by taking consideration of void fraction covariance, and a new set of one-dimensional momentum equation and constitutive relations for interfacial drag was proposed. The newly obtained set of formulations was embedded into TRAC-BF1 code and numerical simulation was performed to compare against the traditional model without covariance. It was found that effect of covariance was almost negligible for steady-state adiabatic conditions, but for high void fraction condition with added perturbation, the traditional model underpredicted the damping ratio at around 8%.     

Effect of wet-jet milling on the c-axis orientation of hydroxyapatite ceramics fabricated using a strong magnetic field

Controlling the crystal orientation of hydroxyapatite, an inorganic material that is a major component of human hard tissues is important to fabricate better artificial bones and artificial tooth roots. To obtain highly oriented hydroxyapatite ceramics under a strong magnetic field, a good dispersion of the raw materials in the slurry must be obtained. This study investigates the effect of wet-jet milling of a slurry on the orientation of hydroxyapatite ceramics fabricated using a strong magnetic field. Although the prolonged ball milling with ZrO₂ balls of the raw powder fractures the primary particles of hydroxyapatite, wet-jet milling is used to successfully pulverize agglomerated hydroxyapatite raw powder without changing the morphology of the primary particles. Evidently, ceramics with a highly oriented c-axis of hydroxyapatite are obtained by molding the wet-jet milled slurry in a strong rotating magnetic field. They exhibit anisotropy in fracture toughness, and the fracture toughness calculated from the crack length perpendicular to the rotating axis is higher than that calculated from the crack length parallel to it. Furthermore, these values are higher than those of randomly oriented hydroxyapatite ceramics, which may be owing to the crystal orientation dependence of the fracture toughness of the hydroxyapatite grains and grain boundaries.     

Performance improvement and decolourization in the high-solid thermophilic anaerobic digestion of thermally pretreated sewage sludge

This laboratory-scale study attempted performance improvement and decolourization in the high-solid thermophilic anaerobic digestion of thermally pretreated sewage sludge, as it tends to be disturbed by ammonia inhibition and colour generation. Sewage sludge was adjusted to 7%–8% total solids (TS), and pretreated at 150°C for 1 h. The digesters were operated at 55°C and 20 days hydraulic retention time. An addition of powdered activated carbon (approximately 2% of the feed TS) significantly contributed to the removal of propionate and reduced the colour in digested sludge by about 27%. Microbial analysis detected less abundance of bacterial Synergistia and archaeal Methanosarcina and implied more hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis with the activated carbon addition. Conditioning with ferric chloride for dewatering digested sludge mitigated the colour of dewatered liquor by about 67%. Therefore, these methods were demonstrated to be effective and partly overcome the above-mentioned problems.     

In situ observation of evolution of internal structure of alumina during sintering by swept-source OCT

In situ observation of sintering of ceramics is important to understand the sintering behavior, including the development of internal structures, and to fabricate ceramics with superior properties. However, there has been no studies thus far on high-speed in situ observation of the internal structure of green and sintered bodies at high temperatures with micrometer-scale resolution. Here, we applied swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) to observe the evolution of the internal structure in Al₂O₃ green bodies during sintering. In situ OCT observations revealed that internal structure changes during sintering, such as the development of density distribution and growth of coarser pores. We could also obtain the sintering shrinkage ratio and relative density from the OCT images. The OCT observation of the internal structure during sintering of green bodies with added or stacked granules of different primary particle sizes confirmed that inhomogeneous regions developed as the densification progressed at high temperatures. These results indicate that in situ observation of the sintering behavior of ceramic green bodies using swept-source OCT is a novel technique that facilitates real-time observation of the evolution of the internal structure during sintering.