Mechanical and tribological properties of glass–epoxy composites with and without graphite particulate filler

The objectives of this research article is to evaluate the mechanical and tribological properties of glass‐fiber‐reinforced epoxy (G–E) composites with and without graphite particulate filler. The laminates were fabricated by a dry hand layup technique. The mechanical properties, including tensile strength, tensile modulus, elongation at break, and surface hardness, were investigated in accordance with ASTM standards. From the experimental investigation, we found that the tensile strength and dimensional stability of the G–E composite increased with increasing graphite content. The effect of filler content (0–7.5 wt %) and sliding distance on the friction and wear behavior of the graphite‐filled G–E composite systems were studied. Also, conventional weighing, determination of the coefficient of friction, and examination of the worn surface morphological features by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were done. A marginal increase in the coefficient of friction with sliding distance for the unfilled composites was noticed, but a slight reduction was noticed for the graphite‐filled composites. The 7.5% graphite‐filled G–E composite showed a lower friction coefficient for the sliding distances used. The wear loss of the composites decreased with increasing weight fraction of graphite filler and increased with increasing sliding distance. Failure mechanisms of the worn surfaces of the filled composites were established with SEM. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 2472–2480, 2007     

Wear Studies on Metal Matrix Composites: a Taguchi Approach

1. IntroductionDiscontinuously reinforced aluminium metal matrixcomposites (DRAMMCs) are a class of composite materi-als, which have desirable properties including low density,high specific stiffness, high specific strength, controlledco-efficient of thermal expansion, increased fatigue re-sistance, superior dimensional stability at elevated tem-peratures etc[1]. The most commonly employed metalmatrix composite system consists of aluminium alloy re-inforced with hard ceramic particles usuall…     

Alternative search techniques for face detection using location estimation and binary features

The sliding window approach is the most widely used technique to detect an object from an image. In the past few years, classifiers have been improved in many ways to increase the scanning speed. Apart from the classifier design (such as the cascade), the scanning speed also depends on a number of different factors (such as the grid spacing, and the scale at which the image is searched). When the scanning grid spacing is larger than the tolerance of the trained classifier it suffers from low detections. In this paper, we present a technique to reduce the number of missed detections when fewer subwindows are processed in the sliding window approach for face detection. This is achieved by using a small patch to predict the location of the face within a local search area. We use simple binary features and a decision tree for location estimation as it proved to be efficient for our application. We also show that by using a simple interest point detector based on quantized gradient orientation, as the front-end to the proposed location estimation technique, we can further improve the performance. Experimental evaluation on several face databases show better detection rate and speed with our proposed approach when fewer number of subwindows are processed compared to the standard scanning technique.     

Magnetic, optical and structural studies on Ag doped ZnO nanoparticles

The influences of annealing effects have been explored on the crystallinity, morphology, optical and magnetic properties of Ag–ZnO nanostructures prepared by a simple sol–gel method. X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscope, high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), vibrating sample magnetometer and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) have been used to characterize the crystal structures, surface morphology, magnetic and optical properties of the pure ZnO and Ag–ZnO nanostructures respectively. The synthesized Ag–ZnO nanostructures are found to have hexagonal wurtzite crystal structures and their grain size increases while lattice strain decreases on annealing. From HRTEM observation, it is found that the annealed samples show nanorod like structures with Ag nanoparticles (NPs) embedded on the surface. Due to annealing effect, Ag–ZnO shows higher saturation magnetization at room temperature.     

Experimental Analysis and Simultaneous Heat and Moisture Transfer with Coupled CFD Model for Convective Drying of Moist Object

Convective drying of rectangular-shaped moist object has been analyzed both experimentally and numerically. Transient mass of the potato sample is measured experimentally. Moisture content, diffusivity, and density of the object are calculated at different drying air temperatures from 40°C to 70°C with an air velocity of 2 m/s. A three-dimensional (3D) finite volume method (FVM) based numerical model is developed to predict the temperature and moisture distribution. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code is used for predicting heat and mass transfer coefficients required in the boundary conditions of the heat and mass transfer model. The experimental and numerical data are compared and good agreement is observed.     

Three-body abrasive wear behaviour of particulate-filled glass–vinyl ester composites

The incorporation of silicon carbide (SiC) and graphite fillers on three-body abrasive wear behaviour of glass–vinyl ester (G–V) composites has been investigated. Dry sand/rubber wheel abrasion tests (RWAT) were carried out at 200 rpm test speed. The tests were carried out at 22 and 32 N loads by varying the abrading distance from 270 to 1080 m in steps of 270 m. The worn surfaces were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The wear volume and specific wear rate of G–V composite reduces significantly on the addition of SiC filler. Graphite filler, however, performed poorly resulting deterioration in wear performance of SiC-filled G–V composite. The SEM studies indicate the reasons for failure of composites and influencing parameters.     

Structural and photoluminescence properties of swift heavy ion irradiated CdS thin films

This paper reports the results on structural and photoluminescence (PL) properties of thermally evaporated CdS thin films subjected to 100 MeV Ag⁺⁷ ion irradiation. The structure of the pristine and irradiated films was found to be polycrystalline with preferred orientation along the (0 0 2) diffraction line of the CdS hexagonal phase. The films retain their crystallinity upon irradiation indicating structural stability against irradiation. Formation of Cd clusters due to loss in sulfur atoms during irradiation was identified. However, the structural parameters such as grain size, strain and dislocation density have shown significant changes in their values as a result of irradiation. An increase in the grain size from 19.6 nm for pristine to a maximum of 63.1 nm for the irradiated films was estimated. The irradiation caused relaxation in the c-lattice parameter and shrinkage in the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM). The PL spectrum was dominated by red emission band due to loss of sulfur atoms.     

Drilling of hybrid metal matrix composites—Workpiece surface integrity

The main concern in the present study is the surface roughness variations on the drilled surface and extension of surface and sub-surface deformation due to drilling. The influence of different tools and cutting conditions on Al2219/15%SiCp and Al2219/15%SiCp-3%Graphite (hybrid) composites is investigated experimentally. The composites are fabricated by liquid metallurgy method. The drilling tests are conducted with carbide and coated carbide tools. The surface roughness decreases with the increase in cutting speed and increases with the increase in feed rate. The surface is analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Microhardness profiles indicate that the subsurface deformation extends up to a maximum of 120 μm below the machined surface for Al2219/15SiCp-3Gr composite when compared to 150 μm in Al2219/15SiCp composite.     

An analytic multiservice performance model for a digital link witha wide class of bandwidth reservation strategies

The author presents a study of a digital link that carries two traffic streams, each with its own bandwidth and service time requirements. The streams are modeled as two-state Markov-modulated Poisson processes. Thus, in addition to Poisson streams, one can study peaked streams or streams requiring a more complex specification. The author defines a flexible class of controls called extended bandwidth reservation (EXBR) that may be used to achieve a variety of objectives. EXBR includes as special cases most of the control strategies studied in the literature and thus provides a single platform to study different service integration alternatives. The model will predict the blocking performance of each service and the channel throughput. Numerical results illustrating the model are presented