Optical Diagnostics Study of Gas Particle Transport Phenomena in Cold Gas Dynamic Spraying and Comparison with Model Predictions

Cold gas dynamic spraying (CGDS), a relatively new thermal spraying technique has drawn a lot of attention due to its inherent capability to deposit a wide range of materials at relatively low-operating temperatures. A De Laval nozzle, used to accelerate the powder particles, is the key component of the coating equipment. Knowledge concerning the nozzle design and effect of process parameters is essential to understand the coating process and to enable selection of appropriate parameters for enhanced coating properties. The present work employs a one-dimensional isentropic gas flow model in conjunction with a particle acceleration model to calculate particle velocities. A laser illumination-based optical diagnostic system is used for validation studies to determine the particle velocity at the nozzle exit for a wide range of process and feedstock parameters such as stagnation temperature, stagnation pressure, powder feed rate, particle size and density. The relative influence of process and feedstock parameters on particle velocity is presented in this work.     

Effect of cryo-induced microcracks on microindentation of hydrated cortical bone tissue

Microcracks accumulate in cortical bone tissue as a consequence of everyday cyclic loading. However, it remains unclear to what extent microdamage accumulation contributes to an increase in fracture risk. A cryo-preparation technique was applied to induce microcracks in cortical bone tissue. Microcracks with lengths up to approximately 20 μm, which were initiated mainly on the boundaries of haversian canals, were observed with cryo-scanning electron microscopy. A microindentation technique was applied to study the mechanical loading effect on the microcracked hydrated bone tissue. The microindentation patterns were section-scanned using confocal laser scanning microscopy to understand the deformation and bone damage mechanisms made by mechanical loading. The results show that there was no significant difference with respect to microhardness between the original and microcracked hydrated cortical bone tissues (ANOVA, p > 0.05). The cryo-induced microcracks in the bone tissue were not propagated further under the mechanical loads applied. The deformation mechanism of the microcracked cortical bone tissue was plastic deformation, not brittle fracture.     

Inhibition of lipoxygenase 1 by phosphatidylcholine micelles-bound curcumin

Curcumin (diferuloyl methane) from rhizomes of Curcuma longa L. binds to phosphatidylcholine (PC) micelles. The binding of curcumin with PC micelles was followed by fluorescence measurements. Curcumin emits at 490 nm with an excitation wavelength of 451 nm after binding to PC-mixed micelles stabilized with deoxycholate. Curcumin in aqueous solution does not inhibit dioxygenation of fatty acids by Lipoxygenase 1 (LOX1). But, when bound to PC micelles, it inhibits the oxidation of fatty acids. The present study has shown that 8.6 μM of curcumin bound to the PC micelles is required for 50% inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation. Lineweaver-Burk plot analysis has indicated that curcumin is a competitive inhibitor of LOX1 with K _l of 1.7 μM for linoleic and 4.3 μM for arachidonic acids, respectively. Based on spectroscopic measurements, we conclude that the inhibition of LOX1 activity by curcumin can be due to binding to active center iron and curcumin after binding to the PC micelles acts as an inhibitor of LOX1.     

Virtual Organizations [Guest Editors' Introduction]

Today's organizations are no longer constrained by traditional time and place barriers. Instead, information technology supports virtual organizations: flexible networks of independent, globally distributed entities that share knowledge and resources and work toward a common goal. Resources aren't limited to computing power, but include elements as diverse as storage, network links, data sets, analysis tools, sensors, and scientific instruments. Sharing policies are highly diverse, given that sharing must be controlled, secure, flexible, and limited in time.     

The influence of process parameters and heat treatment on the properties of cold sprayed silver coatings

Cold spray coating technology is a promising low temperature variant of thermal spray technology which can deposit pure, dense and thick coatings at a rapid rate. Unlike the other thermal spray coating techniques, cold spray is especially suitable for depositing coatings with high electrical and thermal conductivity as the integrity of the feedstock is maintained during the coating process. In the present study, the effect of process parameters and heat treatment on the properties of silver coatings has been investigated. An attempt has been made to correlate the powder particle velocity with the properties and microstructure of the coating. The effect of heat treatment temperature and atmosphere on the properties of the coatings, especially electrical conductivity, has been studied in detail in conjunction with a thorough analysis of the evolution of microstructure of the coatings.     

Choline-based ionic liquids-enhanced biodegradation of azo dyes

Industrial wastewaters such as tannery and textile processing effluents are often characterized by a high content of dissolved organic dyes, resulting in large values of chemical and biological oxygen demand (COD and BOD) in the aquatic systems into which they are discharged. Such wastewater streams are of rapidly growing concern as a major environmental issue in developing countries. Hence there is a need to mitigate this challenge by effective approaches to degrade dye-contaminated wastewater. In this study, several choline-based salts originally developed for use as biocompatible hydrated ionic liquids (i.e., choline sacchrinate (CS), choline dihydrogen phosphate (CDP), choline lactate (CL), and choline tartarate (CT)) have been successfully employed as the cosubstrate with S. lentus in the biodegradation of an azo dye in aqueous solution. We also demonstrate that the azo dye has been degraded to less toxic components coupled with low biomass formation.     

On the Constraint Factor and Tabor Coefficient Pertinent to Spherical Indentation

Measuring the uniaxial stress–strain response from indentation testing has been of great interest to the materials community ever since the seminal work on spherical indentation by David Tabor. In this regard, spherical indentation is the primary choice due to the ability to access a wide range of strains in a single test. While indentation testing is fairly simple to perform, the conversion factors required to calculate the uniaxial flow stress from hardness, which is commonly referred to as constraint factor and uniaxial strain from indentation contact radius and ball radius, which is called the Tabor coefficient, are not necessarily constant and most of the prior work involves assumptions about one of these conversion factors to calculate the other. In this work, we present a finite element analysis-based approach to independently determine the constraint factor and Tabor coefficient in the fully plastic indentation regime which is a pre-requisite for this analysis. The criteria to determine whether fully plastic indentation regime is satisfied has also been presented. The proposed approach has been validated by comparing the uniaxial stress–strain response from spherical indentation tests on OFHC copper and the data obtained by conventional uniaxial testing. Excellent agreement has been found between the two approaches which can be readily applied for measuring the uniaxial stress–strain response of coatings which is otherwise difficult to determine.     

Improving Data Availability for Better Access Performance: A Study on Caching Scientific Data on Distributed Desktop Workstations

Client-side data caching serves as an excellent mechanism to store and analyze the rapidly growing scientific data, motivating distributed, client-side caches built from unreliable desktop storage contributions to store and access large scientific data. They offer several desirable properties, such as performance impedance matching, improved space utilization, and high parallel I/O bandwidth. In this context, we are faced with two key challenges: (1) the finite amount of contributed cache space is stretched by the ever increasing scientific dataset sizes and (2) the transient nature of volunteered storage nodes impacts data availability. In this article, we address these challenges by exploiting the existence of external, primary copies of datasets. We propose a novel combination of prefix caching, collective download, and remote partial data recovery (RPDR), to deal with optimal cache space consumption and storage node volatility. Our evaluation, performed on our FreeLoader prototype, indicates that prefix caching can significantly improve the cache hit rate and partial data recovery is better than (or comparable to) many persistent-data availability techniques.     

The Corrosion Behavior of Cold Sprayed Zinc Coatings on Mild Steel Substrate

Zinc and its alloy coatings have been used extensively for the cathodic protection of steel. Zinc coating corrodes in preference to the steel substrate due to its negative corrosion potential. Numerous studies have been conducted on the corrosion behavior of zinc and its alloy coatings deposited using several techniques viz., hot dip galvanizing, electrodeposition, metalizing or thermal spray etc. Cold spray is an emerging low temperature variant of thermal spray family which enables deposition of thick, dense, and pure coatings at a rapid rate with an added advantage of on-site coating of steel structures. In the present study, the corrosion characteristics of cold sprayed zinc coatings have been investigated for the first time. In addition, the influence of heat treatment of zinc coating at a temperature of 150 °C on its corrosion behavior has also been addressed.     

Large deflection behavior effect in reinforced concrete columns exposed to extreme dynamic loads

Reinforced concretes (RC) have been widely used in constructions. In construction, one of the critical elements carrying a high percentage of the weight is columns which were not used to design to absorb large dynamic load like surface bursts. This study focuses on investigating blast load parameters to design of RC columns to withstand blast detonation. The numerical model is based on finite element analysis using LS-DYNA. Numerical results are validated against blast field tests available in the literature. Couples of simulations are performed with changing blast parameters to study effects of various scaled distances on the nonlinear behavior of RC columns. According to simulation results, the scaled distance has a substantial influence on the blast response of RC columns. With lower scaled distance, higher peak pressure and larger pressure impulse are applied on the RC column. Eventually, keeping the scaled distance unchanged, increasing the charge weight or shorter standoff distance cause more damage to the RC column. Intensive studies are carried out to investigate the effects of scaled distance and charge weight on the damage degree and residual axial load carrying capacity of RC columns with various column width, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and concrete strength. Results of this research will be used to assessment the effect of an explosion on the dynamic behavior of RC columns.