Characterization of the cavity nucleation factor for life prediction under creep-fatigue interaction

It is understood that grain boundary cavitation is one of the detrimental processes for the degradation of materials that reduces the creep-fatigue life at high temperatures. In a previous investigation, a model for life prediction under creep-fatigue conditions was proposed in terms of cavity nucleation and growth. In that model, the cavity nucleation factor (P) was introduced to correlate between the number of cavities and the plastic strain range from which athermal vacancies are generated. It was considered to be a material specific constant which was independent of the experimental conditions. However, in this study, it is found that the cavity nucleation factor is a function of the plastic strain range but is independent of the testing temperature at near 0.5 T _m. In the light of this dependency, a new cavity nucleation factor (P'), is introduced. Using this new cavity nucleation factor (P'), a modified equation for life prediction is proposed, and it is shown that there is good agreement between predicted and experimental lives. Additionally, an interesting approach has been made to find the physical meaning of the new cavity nucleation factor (P'). According to this study, it is suggested that the new cavity nucleation factor, which is regarded as a material specific constant, is found to be strongly related to the density of the grain boundary precipitates with a linear relationship existing between them.     

Phase Transformations in Dicalcium Silicate: II, TEM Studies of Crystallography, Microstructure, and Mechanisms

The crystallography, microstructures, and phase transformation mechanisms in dicalcium silicate (Ca₂SiO₄) were studied by TEM. Three types of superlattice structures were observed in the α'_L and β phases. Almost all β grains were twinned and strained. Symmetry-related domain structures inherited from previous high-temperature transformations were observed in β grains. Both the α→α'_H and α'_L→β transformations were considered to be ferroelastic, and spontaneous strains were calculated. In terms of the crystal structures, the major driving force for the β→γ transformation is proposed to be strains and cation charge repulsions in the β structure. This mechanism can be displacive, but it needs to overcome a comparatively high energy barrier.     

Vertex-based inter-frame boundary encoding scheme

The boundary is approximated by a polygon which can be encoded with the smallest number of bits for maximum distortion. The temporal redundancy between two successive frames is efficiently removed with the proposed scheme, resulting in a lower bit rate than the conventional algorithms     

Polyaniline-multiwalled carbon nanotube composites: Characterization by WAXS and TGA

Polyaniline/carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotube (PAni/c-MWNT) nanocomposites have been synthesized by micellar aided emulsion polymerization with various c-MWNTs compositions, viz., 0.5, 1, 5, and 10 wt %. The microcrystalline parameters such as the nanocrystal size (〈N〉), lattice strain (g), interplanar distance (d_hkl), width of the crystallite size distribution, surface weighted crystal size (D_s), and volume of the ordered regions were calculated from the X-ray data by using two mathematical models, namely the Exponential distribution and Reinhold distribution methods. The effects of heat ageing on the microcrystalline parameters of the PAni/c-MWNT nanocomposites were also studied and the results are correlated. The thermal stability and electrical resistivity of the PAni/c-MWNT nanocomposites were examined with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and a conventional two-probe method. The TGA data indicate that the thermal stability of the nanocomposites improved after the incorporation of c-MWNTs. The influence of temperature on the resistivity of the nanocomposites was also measured. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2008     

Sustainable Basin-Scale Water Allocation with Hydrologic State-Dependent Multi-Reservoir Operation Rules

This study extends the PSO-MODSIM model, integrating particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and MODISM river basin decision support system (DSS) to determine optimal basin-scale water allocation, in two aspects. The first is deriving hydrologic state-dependent (conditional) operating rules to better account for drought and high-flow periods, and the second is direct, explicit consideration of sustainability criteria in the model’s formulation to have a better efficiency in basin-scale water allocation. Under conditional operating rules, the operational parameters of reservoir target storage levels and their priority rankings were conditioned on the hydrologic state of the system in a priority-based water allocation scheme. The role of conditional operating rules and policies were evaluated by comparing water shortages associated with objective function values under unconditional and conditional operating rules. Optimal basin-scale water allocation was then evaluated by incorporating reliability, vulnerability, reversibility and equity sustainability indices into the PSO objective function. The extended model was applied for water allocation in the Atrak River Basin, Iran. Results indicated improved distribution of water shortages by about 7.5% using conditional operating rules distinguishing dry, normal and wet hydrologic states. Alternative solutions with nearly identical objective function values were found with sustainability indices included in the model.     

Shear creep resistance of styrene–isoprene–styrene (SIS)‐based hot‐melt pressure‐sensitive adhesives

The effects of the properties of substrates and tackifier on the shear creep of SIS‐based HMPSAs were investigated. The holding power (t_b) and shear adhesion failure temperature (SAFT) were measured. The relationship between the complex viscosity and the holding power was examined. The holding power and SAFT values of the triblock SIS blends were higher than those of the diblock‐containing SIS blends, perhaps because blends using triblock SIS have higher crossover temperature and complex viscosity than those using diblock‐containing SIS. Higher levels of aromatic resin‐modified aliphatic tackifier and rosin ester were found to decrease the holding power of the HMPSAs. This maybe due to the fact that rosin ester and aromatic‐modified aliphatic resin are compatible with both the ends and midblocks of SIS. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 825–831, 2006     

Viscosity effect in polyolefin ternary blends and composites

Ternary blends of PP (80) /rubber (EPM, EPDM) (10) / PE (10) and PP (80) / rubber (10) / CaCO₃ (10) composites were prepared in a twin-screw extruder. With polyethylene (PE) viscosity comparable to, or higher than that of rubber, the dispersed phase formed a reticulate structure with reduced size. On the contrary, when the viscosity of PE was significantly lower than that of rubber, the dispersed phase formed almost homogeneous morphology. With reticulate morphology, PE crystallinity content, hardness, modulus, and elongation at break of the ternary blend increased. In polypropylene (PP) / rubber / CaCO₃ composites, better dispersion of CaCO₃ in the PP matrix was obtained when the viscosity of rubber was significantly higher than that of matrix. With better dispersion, hardness and tensile properties were improved, but the impact strength more or less decreased. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Biodegradability and mechanical properties of agro‐flour–filled polybutylene succinate biocomposites

The objective of this study was the production of rice husk flour (RHF) and wood flour (WF) filled polybutylene succinate (PBS) biocomposites as alternatives to cellulosic material filled conventional plastic (polyolefins) composites. PBS is one of the biodegradable polymers, made from the condensation reaction of 1,4‐butanediol and succinic acid that can be naturally degraded in the natural environment. We compared the mechanical properties between conventional plastics and agro‐flour–filled PBS biocomposites. We evaluated the biodegradability and mechanical properties of agro‐flour–filled PBS biocomposites according to the content and filler particle size of agro‐flour. As the agro‐flour loading was increased, the tensile and impact strength of the biocomposites decreased. As the filler particle size decreased, the tensile strength of the biocomposites increased but the impact strength decreased. The addition of agro‐flour to PBS produced a more rapid decrease in the tensile strength, notched Izod impact strength, and percentage weight loss of the biocomposites during the natural soil burial test. These results support the application of biocomposites as environmentally friendly materials. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 1513–1521, 2005     

Characteristics of selective adsorption using D-phenylalanine imprinted terpolymer beads

A D-Phenylalanine (Phe) imprinted terpolymer, Polyacrylonitrile-Poly(acrylic acid)-Poly(acryl amide) (Poly(AN-AA-AAm)) bead was prepared by the wet-phase inversion method. Acrylamide (AAm) and acrylic acid (AA) were used as the functional monomer and acrylonitrile (AN) was used as a physical cross linker. The characteristics of selective adsorption by the D-Phe imprinted terpolymer beads were investigated at high concentrations of Phe racemate solution, 1 g Phe/L, and 10 g Phe/L. The adsorption selectivity of the D-Phe imprinted terpolymer beads prepared by anin-situ implanting method reached 0.82 and 0.8 at 1.0 g and 10 g Phe/L racemate solution, respectively, and almost all of the adsorbed D-Phe and about 43% of the adsorbed L-Phe were desorbed by 4% acetic acid. The uptake capacities of the terpolymer beads were maintained for several repeated batches.