Experimental studies of the bond response of three-wire strands and some influencing parameters

The bond behavior of prestressing strands is of great importance for the capacity of precast prestressed concrete structures. In the present study, the bond behavior of three-wire strands, and some influencing parameters, were examined by means of steel encased pull-through and push-in tests. The three mechanisms: adhesion, friction and other mechanical actions were found to be present at the strand-concrete interface at different slip values. The results from the experiments showed that the micro roughness of the strand surface strongly affected the initial bond response of the strand, that is the adhesion in the interface. The maximum bond capacity of indented three-wire strands was found to be directly connected to the geometric properties of the strand indents. The influence of the concrete strength on the bond capacity of the strand was hard to interpret. However, the density of the concrete matrix was found to be a better parameter for determine the influence of the concrete rather than the compressive strength.     

Experimental and modeling approaches of MR behaviors under large step strains

Rheological properties of MR fluids under large step strain shear are presented in this paper. The experiments were carried out using a rheometer with parallel-plate geometry. Under the large step strain shear, MR fluids behave as nonlinear viscoelastic properties, where the stress relaxation modulus, G(t, γ), shows a decreasing trend with step strain. The experimental results indicate that G(t, γ) obeys time-strain separability. Thus, a mathematical form based on finite exponential serials is proposed to predict MR behavior. In this model, G(t, γ) is represented as the product of a linear stress relaxation, G(t), and the damping function, h(γ), i.e. G(t, γ)=G(t) h(γ). G(t) is simply represented as a three-parameter exponential serial and h(γ) has a sigmoidal form with two parameters. The parameters are identified by adopting an efficient optimization method proposed by Stango et al. The comparison between the experimental results and the model-predicted values indicates that this mathematical model can accurately predict MR behavior.     

The anisotropic effect of a weak magnetic field on the photoconductivity of C<Subscript>60</Subscript> single crystals

The effect of crystal orientation on the photogeneration of free charge carriers was studied for C₆₀ single crystals in a weak magnetic field. The photoconductivity sharply depends on the orientation of magnetic field with respect to the crystallographic directions, showing a 5–8% increase for seven axes of the C₆₀ crystal.     

Thermodynamic stability of GaInSb,InAsSb, and GaInP epitaxial films

The miscibility gaps and the critical temperatures of spinodal decomposition of ternary semiconducting Ga-In-Sb, Ga-In-P, and In-As-Sb systems are calculated by taking into account the deformation energy and the effect of plastic relaxation caused by the misfit dislocations. It is shown that taking into consideration elastic energy narrows the ranges of spinodal decomposition and lowers its critical temperature. The introduction of the phenomenological parameter into Matthews-Blakeslee formula makes it possible to reach a satisfactory agreement between theoretically calculated values of critical thickness of epitaxial films and the experimental data.     

Electrochemical synthesis and characterization of chloride doped polyaniline

Chloride doped polyaniline conducting polymer films have been prepared in a protic acid medium (HCl) by potentiodynamic method in an electrochemical cell and studied by cyclic voltammetry and FTIR techniques. The FTIR spectra confirmed Cl^- ion doping in the polymers. The polymerization rate was found to increase with increasing concentration of aniline monomer. But the films obtained at high monomer concentration were rough having a nonuniform flaky polyaniline distribution. Results showed that the polymerization rate did not increase beyond a critical HCl concentration. Cyclic voltammetry suggested that, the oxidation-reduction current increased with an increase in scan rate and that the undoped polyaniline films were not hygroscopic whereas chloride doped polyaniline films were found to be highly hygroscopic.     

High-efficiency LEDs of 1.6–2.4 µm spectral range for medical diagnostics and environment monitoring

High efficient LED structures covering the spectral range of 1.6–2.4 μm have been developed on the basis of GaSb and its solid solutions. The electroluminescent characteristics and their temperature and current dependences have been studied. The radiative and nonradiative recombination mechanisms and their effect on the quantum efficiency have been investigated. A quantum efficiency of 40–60% has been obtained in the quasi-steady mode at room temperature. A short-pulse optical power of 170 mW was reached. __________ Translated from Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, Vol. 37, No. 8, 2003, pp. 996–1009. Original Russian Text Copyright ? 2003 by Stoyanov, Zhurtanov, Astakhova, Imenkov, Yakovlev.     

EBSP study of the annealing behavior of aluminum deformed by equal channel angular processing

Commercial purity aluminum (99.5%) was fabricated by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) up to total accumulated strains of approx. 10. The annealing behavior of material deformed to total strains of approx. 1 and 10 was investigated, using heat treatments of 2 h at various temperatures from 100 to 500 °C. The microstructure of the annealed materials was characterized using the electron back-scatter pattern technique. A number of parameters were determined including the distribution and average values of both the boundary spacings and misorientations. For samples deformed to a total strain of 1, annealing resulted in discontinuous recrystallization. For samples deformed to a total strain of 10, annealing resulted in microstructures exhibiting characteristics of both uniform coarsening and, in a number of places, of discontinuous recrystallization. An attempt was made, based on the boundary spacing distributions, to separate these two components. The grain size after annealing was still however small, being just 6.4 μm after 2 h at 300 °C.     

1/f noise in large-area Hg<Subscript>1−x</Subscript>Cd<Subscript>x</Subscript>Te photodiodes

The 1/f noise in photovoltaic (PV) molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown Hg_1−xCd_xTe double-layer planar heterostructure (DLPH) large-area detectors is a critical noise component with the potential to limit sensitivity of the cross-track infrared sounder (CrIS) instrument. Therefore, an understanding of the origins and mechanisms of noise currents in these PV detectors is of great importance. Excess low-frequency noise has been measured on a number of 1000-μm-diameter active-area detectors of varying “quality” (i.e., having a wide range of I-V characteristics at 78 K). The 1/f noise was measured as a function of cut-off wavelength under illuminated conditions. For short-wave infrared (SWIR) detectors at 98 K, minimal 1/f noise was measured when the total current was dominated by diffusion with white noise spectral density in the mid-10⁻¹⁵A/Hz^1/2 range. For SWIR detectors dominated by other than diffusion current, the ratio, α, of the noise current in unit bandwidth i_n(f = 1 Hz, V_d = −60 mV, and Δf = 1 Hz) to dark current I_d(V_d = −60 mV) was α_SW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 1 × 10⁻³. The SWIR detectors measured at 0 mV under illuminated conditions had median α_SW-P = i_n/I_ph ∼ 7 × 10⁻⁶. For mid-wave infrared (MWIR) detectors, α_MW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 2 × 10⁻⁴, due to tunneling current contributions to the 1/f noise. Measurements on forty-nine 1000-μm-diameter MWIR detectors under illuminated conditions at 98 K and −60 mV bias resulted in α_MW-P = i_n/I_ph = 4.16 ± 1.69 × 10⁻⁶. A significant point to note is that the photo-induced noise spectra are nearly identical at 0 mV and 100 mV reverse bias, with a noise-current-to-photocurrent ratio, α_MW-P, in the mid 10⁻⁶ range. For long-wave infrared (LWIR) detectors measured at 78 K, the ratio, α_LW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 6 × 10⁻⁶, for the best performers. The majority of the LWIR detectors exhibited α_LW-d on the order of 2 × 10⁻⁵. The photo-induced 1/f noise had α_LW-P = i_n/I_ph ∼ 5 × 10⁻⁶. The value of the noise-current-to-dark-current ratio, α appears to increase with increasing bandgap. It is not clear if this is due to different current mechanisms impacting 1/f noise performance. Measurements on detectors of different bandgaps are needed at temperatures where diffusion current is the dominant current. Excess low-frequency noise measurements made as a function of detector reverse bias indicate 1/f noise may result primarily from the dominant current mechanism at each particular bias. The 1/f noise was not a direct function of the applied bias.     

Moving Least-Squares Differential Quadrature Method for Free Vibration of Antisymmetric Laminates

In this paper, the moving least-squares differential quadrature (MLSDQ) method is employed for free vibration of thick antisymmetric laminates based on the first-order shear deformation theory. The generalized displacements of the laminates are independently approximated with the centered moving least-squares (MLS) technique within each domain of influence. The MLS nodal shape functions and their partial derivatives are computed quickly through back-substitutions after only one LU decomposition. Subsequently, the weighting coefficients in the MLSDQ discretization are determined with the nodal partial derivatives of the MLS shape functions. The MLSDQ method combines the merits of both the differential quadrature and meshless methods which can be conveniently applied to complex domains and irregular discretizations without loss of implementation efficiency and numerical accuracy. The natural frequencies of the laminates with various edge conditions, ply angles, and shapes are calculated and compared with the existing solutions to study the numerical accuracy and stability of the MLSDQ method. Effects of support size, order of completeness of basis functions, and node irregularity on the numerical accuracy are investigated in detail.     

The Influence and Interpretation of Surface Parameters for Wetting Transitions in Ternary Mixtures

Starting from a microscopic Hamiltonian defined on a semi-infinite cubic lattice, and employing a mean-field approximation, the surface parameters relevant for wetting in confined ternary mixtures are derived. These are found in terms of the microscopic coupling constants, and yield a physical interpretation of their origins. In comparison with the standard expression for the surface free-energy density, several new terms arising from the derivation are identified. The influence of the surface parameters on a predicted unbinding transition in a mixture of oil, water, and amphiphile demonstrate that existing results are robust to the addition of the extra surface terms.