Fabrication and characterization of carbon fiber reinforced clay/epoxy composite

In this study, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and flexural tests were performed on unfilled, 1, 2, 3, and 4 wt% clay filled SC-15 epoxy to identify the effect of clay weight fraction on thermal and mechanical properties of the epoxy matrix. The flexural results indicate that 2.0 wt% clay filled epoxy showed the highest improvement in flexural strength. DMA studies also revealed that 2.0 wt% system exhibit the highest storage modulus and T _g as compared to neat and other weight fraction. However, TGA results show that thermal stability of composite is insensitive to the clay content. Based on these results, the nanophased epoxy with 2 wt% clay was then utilized in a vacuum assisted resin transfer molding set up with carbon fabric to fabricate laminated composites. The effectiveness of clay addition on thermal and mechanical properties of composites has been evaluated by TGA, DMA, tensile, flexural, and fatigue test. 5 °C increase in glass transition temperature was found in nanocomposite, and the tensile and flexural strengths improved by 5.7 and 13.5 %, respectively as compared to the neat composite. The fatigue strength was also improved significantly. Based on the experimental result, a linear damage model combined with the Weibull distribution function has been established to describe static failure processing of neat and nanophased carbon/epoxy. The simulated stress–strain curves from the model are in good agreement with the test data. Simulated results show that damage processing of neat and nanophased carbon/epoxy described by bimodal Weibull distribution function.     

Low cost CuInSe2 thin films production by stacked elemental layers process for large area fabrication of solar cell application

Low cost deposition of large area CuInSe₂ (CIS) thin films have been grown on Mo-coated glass substrate by simple and economic stacked elemental layer deposition technique in vacuum. The grown parameters such as concentration of Cu, In and Se elements have been optimized to achieve uniform thin film in vacuum chamber. The as-grown Cu/In/Se stacked layers have been annealed at 200 °C and 350 °C for 1 h in air ambient. The as-grown and annealed films have been further subjected to characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical absorption, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and I-V measurement techniques. XRD patterns revealed that as-grown Cu/In/Se stacked layers represent amorphous nature while annealed CIS film reproduces nano-polycrystalline nature with chalcopyrite structure. The optical band gap of annealed films increases with respect to air annealing which confirms the reduction of crystallite size. Surface morphology of as-grown Cu/In/Se stacked layers and annealed CIS thin films have been confirmed by AFM images. The electrical measurements show enhancement of conductivity which is useful for solar cell application.     

Combined buoyancy and viscous effects in liquid–liquid flows in a vertical pipe

This paper presents experimental and numerical results of interfacial dynamics of liquid–liquid flows when an immiscible core liquid is introduced into a continuous liquid flow. The fully developed flow model predicts multiple solutions of the jet diameter over a range of dimensionless numbers: flow rate ratio, viscosity ratio, Bond and Capillary numbers. Experiments have been carried out using Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) and Canola oil to investigate the realizability of the three possible solutions predicted by the fully developed flow model. The measured values of inner fluid radii agree very well with the lower branch of the three branched solution while deviating from the top branch beyond a critical flow ratio value. This deviation is attributed to the fact that the flow develops a non-axisymmetric solution at this critical point. Computational fluid dynamics simulations have also been performed to examine the developing core annular flow and to compare the analytical solution results of liquid jet radius. The results predicted by numerical simulations agree very well with both the lower and upper branches of solution predicted by the analytical theory.     

Study the performance of photogalvanic cells for solar energy conversion and storage: Rose Bengal-d-Xylose-NaLS system

The Rose Bengal is used as photosensitizer with d-Xylose as reductant and sodium lauryl sulphate (NaLS) as surfactant for the enhancement of the conversion efficiency and storage capacity of photogalvanic cell for its commercial viability. The observed value of the photogeneration of photopotential was 885.0 mV and photocurrent was 460.0 μA whereas maximum power of the cell was 407.10 μW. The observed power at power point was 158.72 μW and the conversion efficiency was 1.52%. The fill factor 0.3151 was experimentally determined at the power point of the cell. The rate of initial generation of photocurrent was 63.88 μA min⁻¹. The photogalvanic cell so developed can work for 145.0 min in dark on irradiation for 165.0 min, i.e. the storage capacity of the photogalvanic cell is 87.87%. A simple mechanism for the photogeneration of photocurrent has also been proposed.     

An Unbiased Method for Probabilistic Fire Safety Engineering,Requiring a Limited Number of Model Evaluations

The rise of Performance Based Design methodologies for fire safety engineering has increased the interest of the fire safety community in the concepts of risk and reliability. Practical applications have however been severely hampered by the lack of an efficient unbiased calculation methodology. This is because on the one hand, the distribution types of model output variables in fire safety engineering are not known and traditional distribution types as for example the normal and lognormal distribution may result in unsafe approximations. Therefore unbiased methods must be applied which make no (implicit) assumptions on the PDF type. Traditionally these unbiased methods are based on Monte Carlo simulations. On the other hand, Monte Carlo simulations require a large number of model evaluations and are therefore too computationally expensive when large and nonlinear calculation models are applied, as is common in fire safety engineering. The methodology presented in this paper avoids this deadlock by making an unbiased estimate of the PDF based on only a very limited number of model evaluations. The methodology is known as the Maximum Entropy Multiplicative Dimensional Reduction Method (ME-MDRM) and results in a mathematical formula for the probability density function (PDF) describing the uncertain output variable. The method can be applied with existing models and calculation tools and allows for a parallelization of model evaluations. The example applications given in the paper stem from the field of structural fire safety and illustrate the excellent performance of the method for probabilistic structural fire safety engineering. The ME-MDRM can however be considered applicable to other types of engineering models as well.     

Microstructure and High Temperature Impression Creep Properties of Mg–3Ca–xZr (x = 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 wt%) Alloys

The current study has investigated the influence of zirconium (Zr) addition to Mg–3Ca–xZr (x = 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 wt%) alloys prepared using argon arc melting on the microstructure and impression properties at 448–498 K under constant stress of 380 MPa. Microstructural analysis of as-cast Mg–3Ca–xZr alloys showed grain refinement with Zr addition. The observed grain refinement was attributed to the growth restriction effect of Zr in hypoperitectic Mg–3Ca–0.3 wt% Zr alloys. Heterogeneous nucleation of α-Mg in properitectic Zr during solidification resulted in grain refinement of hyperperitectic Mg–3Ca–0.6 wt% Zr and Mg–3Ca–0.9 wt% Zr alloys. The hardness of Mg–3Ca–xZr alloys increased as the amount of Zr increased due to grain refinement and solid solution strengthening of α-Mg by Zr. Creep resistance of Mg–3Ca–xZr alloys increased with the addition of Zr due to solid solution strengthening of α-Mg by Zr. The calculated activation energy (Q_a) for Mg–3Ca samples (131.49 kJ/mol) was the highest among all alloy compositions. The Q_a values for 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 wt% Zr containing Mg–3Ca alloys were 107.22, 118.18 and 115.24 kJ/mol, respectively.     

Effect of Lead Addition and Milling on Densification and Mechanical Properties of 6061 Aluminium Alloys

In the present work, one batch of prealloyed 6061Al powder was mixed with different lead compositions (5, 10, 15 vol.%) and another set with same composition was ball-milled for 5 h at 300 rpm. Microstructural features such as lattice constant, crystallite size, particle size and morphology were studied using XRD, particle size analyzer and SEM. Both the as-mixed as well as ball-milled powders were compacted at 300 MPa and sintered under N₂ atmosphere for 1 h in tube furnace at 590 °C. The ball milling of 6061Al alloy powder improved sinter density and densification while lead addition showed negligible influence on these parameters. The microstructure of as-mixed 6061Al–Pb alloys exhibited equiaxial morphology whereas ball-milling resulted in elongated grains with uniform lead distribution. Quasi-static compressive mechanical behavior was investigated for 6061Al–Pb alloys at 1 × 10^?3 s^?1 strain rate. Results indicated that ultimate compressive and yield strength were sensitive to milling and lead volume fraction.     

Effect of two-step sintering on rare earth (RE = Y2O3, Pr6O11) doped ZnO–Bi2O3 varistors processed from ‘nano-precursor’ powders

Nano size ZnO–Bi₂O₃ varistor precursor powders containing Y₂O₃ and Pr₆O₁₁ rare earth dopants were prepared by low temperature refluxing at 80 °C. Effect of rare earth dopants, densification by two-step sintering, evolution of microstructures and their influence on varistor properties were investigated. Chemically synthesized nano- precursor varistor powders produced controlled grain size in two-step sintering in which the average sintered ZnO grain size was reduced to at least half compared to the conventionally processed ZnO–Bi₂O₃ varistors. The study revealed that such grain size reduction is highly beneficial to attain enhanced varistor properties.