Synergistic Effects of Polybenzimidazole and Aramide on Enhancing Flame-Retardancy and Solubility

Aromatic and functional polymers with processibility derived from biobased starting materials are prerequisite considering sustainable society. Poly(2,5-benzimidazole)s are rigid-rod polymers to show ultrahigh thermal stability such as flame retardance, while usually suffer from poor solubility. Here, poly(benzimidazole-co-amide)s are synthesized from two biobased monomers, 3,4-diaminobenzoic acid and a semirigid comonomer, 4-aminohydrocinnamic acid. The copolymers with an amide composition of 80 mol% and higher are soluble in widely used polar solvents to fabricate the films keeping high flame retardance, which is comparable with popular high-performance polymers such as aromatic polyimides, polyetheretherketone, polyphenylene sulfide, etc.     

An efficient verifiable (t,n)-threshold secret image sharing scheme with ultralight shares

Multimedia Tools and Applications - A secret sharing scheme partitions a secret into a set of shares and distributes them among the eligible participants, with each participant receiving one share...     

Analysis of Scaling Strategies for Sub-30 nm Double-Gate SOI N-MOSFETs

State-of-the-art device simulation is applied to the analysis of possible scaling strategies for the future CMOS technology, adopting the ultrathin silicon body (UTB) double-gate (DG) MOSFET and considering the main figures of merit (FOM) for the high-performance N-MOS transistor. The results of our analysis confirm the potentials of UTB-DG MOSFETs. In particular, the possibility to control the short-channel effects by thinning the silicon layer is fully exploited allowing to adopt almost undoped silicon channel, leading to reduced transversal field. As a consequence, the impact of surface roughness at the Si-oxide interface and the gate tunneling leakage current are substantially reduced compared to the case of highly doped bulk MOSFETs. According to our results, thanks to the suppression of gate leakage current, scaling of the UTB-DG MOSFET down to the 32 nm technology node appears possible adopting -based gate dielectrics. In spite of the improved mobility at given inversion charge density, the simulated on-currents are substantially lower than those required by the 2005 ITRS for the 45 and 32 nm nodes . Nonetheless, thanks to relaxed scaling of the oxide thickness, hence to reduced gate capacitance, the requirements in terms of intrinsic delay and power-delay product can be satisfied. The issue of variability is analyzed by evaluating the dependence of the key FOM on the variation of critical dimensions such as the thickness of the gate oxide and of the silicon layer.     

Ergonomics in sickle operation

Sickle operation in harvesting has been analysed with reference to design features of nine different types of sickles, and field and laboratory based investigations on biomechanical stresses and physiological valuation on six farmers. It has been indicated that the blade geometry contributes significantly to human performance and there is ample scope for further design optimisation. The suggested modifications are: (i) sickle weight - 200 g; (ii) total length of sickle - 33 cm; (iii) handle length - 11 cm; (iv) handle diameter - 3 c cm; (v) radius of blade curvature - 15 cm; (vi) blade concavity - 5 cm; (vii) serrated sickle: tooth pitch - 0.20 cm and tooth angle - 60 degrees; (viii) ratio of the length of cutting surface to chord length - 1.20.     

An Experimental Investigation into the Effectiveness of OOA for Specifying Requirements

The application of object oriented concepts (OO) to the requirements phase of information systems (IS) and software development has been adopted by many proponents of IS and software development methodologies. Although many claims have been made about the effectiveness of OO techniques for improving requirements analysis, very few experimental studies have been done to substantiate these claims. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by conducting an experimental study that attempts to validate the effectiveness of object-oriented analysis (OOA) by comparing it to structured analysis (SA) for producing requirements. We argue that the quality of the requirements specification can be measured and that measurement can be used to compare the effectiveness of OOA and SA. We present an overview of the basic models and principles associated with OOA and SA, a discussion of quality in requirements definition, and a detailed discussion of the research methodology used. A review of relevant research is also presented and directions for further research are suggested. Our findings suggest that the OOA methodology does not necessarily produce better requirements statements.     

Quantitative analysis of the ankle strategy under translational platform disturbance.

The ankle strategy is one of the postural adjustment maneuvers humans utilize when the support platform is disturbed. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the ankle strategy. A three-link sagittal biped model is considered. The first link represents the two legs locked together. The second link represents the two thighs locked together. The third link represents the hip, the torso, the upper limbs, the neck, and the head. The dynamics, control, and stability of the three-link biped, under platform translation, are considered. The disturbance of the platform is represented as an input and the effect of the muscular system is reduced to a set of torques applied to the joints and across the joints. Two digital computer simulations are presented to demonstrate the behavior of the biped under backward or forward platform disturbance. The simulations are compared with experimental measurements of humans subjected to postural disturbances. It is shown that the effect of a horizontal disturbance at the ankle appears to be about 40 times that of the effect of the disturbance at the knees and at least a few hundred times larger than the effect of a disturbance at the hip. This means that, under translational platform disturbance, the ankle angle is subjected to the largest excursion. The knee and the hip angle excursions are relatively minor. Consequently, the biped, as a whole, appears to move as a single inverted pendulum. Major postural corrections are initiated by the ankle excursion. Further, when the available ankle torque is limited or nonexistent, the stability requires resorting to the knee or hip strategies.     

On the Role of C Addition on α Precipitation in a β Titanium Alloy

The onset of α nucleation in a carbon containing β-titanium alloy has been investigated by coupling atom probe tomography (APT) with transmission electron microscopy. The analysis of the APT results indicates that in addition to ω precipitates that can act as potential α nucleation sites, carbon atoms tend to form clusters within the β-matrix, which in turn give rise to additional nucleation sites for α, resulting in finer scale α precipitates due to increased nucleation density.     

Experimental evidence of concurrent compositional and structural instabilities leading to ω precipitation in titanium-molybdenum alloys

The ω phase is commonly observed in many commercial β or near-β titanium alloys on rapidly cooling from the single β phase field and also during subsequent isothermal annealing. However, the crystallographic formation mechanism for the ω particles is hitherto unclear/under discussion. The present study primarily focuses on ω precipitation within the β (body-centered cubic (bcc)) matrix of simple model binary titanium-molybdenum (Ti-Mo) alloys. It provides direct experimental evidence of the formation of ω-like embryos from competing compositional and structural instabilities arising in the bcc lattice of Ti-Mo alloys during rapid cooling from the high-temperature single β phase field. The displacive partial collapse of the {1 1 1} planes of the parent bcc structure within compositionally phase-separated regions containing several at.% less of Mo, forming ω-like embryos, has been conclusively shown by coupling aberration-corrected high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy with atom probe tomography observations. Growth and coarsening of these ω-like embryos take place during subsequent isothermal annealing, accompanied with both a completion of the collapse of the {1 1 1} β planes leading to a fully developed ω structure as well as rejection of Mo from these precipitates, resulting in near-equilibrium compositions.     

Effect of Heat Treatment, Pre-stress and Surface Hardening on Fracture Toughness of Micro-Alloyed Steel

Micro-alloyed steels are being increasingly accepted by industry in various fields of application and are available with a wide variety of microstructures. Extensive literature is available on their microstructure-property relationships. The superior mechanical properties of micro-alloyed steels are caused by fine-grained microstructures and precipitation of micro-alloying elements such as V, Ti and Nb that led to an improvement in yield strength, in the product of tensile strength and total elongation and in Charpy V-notch impact energy as well. The microstructural changes caused by heat treatment or residual stress state caused by surface hardening or mechanical means may influence the fracture toughness of these micro-alloyed steels. It is in this context that the present work begins with experimental determination of quasi-static initiation fracture toughness (J _1c) of low carbon (0.19%) micro-alloyed steel in as-rolled condition without any heat treatment. The study further explores the effect of normalizing, shot-peening and cyaniding followed by shot-peening on fracture toughness of as-rolled steel under study. The normalizing heat treatment, shot-peening and cyaniding followed by shot-peening—each indicates a positive influence on initiation fracture toughness. Results, when compared, show that cyaniding followed by shot-peening have led to a 2.7 times increase in J _1c. Cyaniding followed by shot-peening may therefore be considered as having the most positive influence on initiation fracture toughness in as-rolled condition for the type of micro-alloyed steel under study. Although initiation fracture toughness is in general known to decrease with increase in yield strength in LEFM arena, the micro-alloyed steel under study when normalized displayed simultaneous improvement in yield strength and J _1c. All these observed effects of normalizing, shot-peening and cyaniding on initiation fracture toughness (elastic-plastic fracture mechanics) were explained on the basis of microstructural study and stress depth profiles.     

EFFECT OF OPERATING VARIABLES ON BED TO WALL HEAT TRANSFER IN A CIRCULATING FLUIDIZED BED

Heat transfer coefficients were measured for 227 and 87 micron size particles of silica sand in a 102 mm dia. and 5.5 m tall circulating fluidized bed made of plexiglass. Effects of solid circulation rate, fluidization velocity, bed density and particle sizes were studied. The heat transfer coefficients were calculated from the temperatures measured along the axis of a 25 mm dia 100 mm long cylindrical heat flux meter.