Elucidating the Interfacial Bonding Behavior of Over-Molded Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites: Experiment and Multiscale Numerical Simulation

This paper implements molecular dynamics (MD) simulation using reactive force field (ReaxFF) to evaluate the atomistic origin of the interfacial behavior in the overmolded hybrid unidirectional continuous carbon fiber low-melt PAEK (CFR-LMPAEK)-short carbon fiber reinforced PEEK (SFR-PEEK) polymer composites. From the MD simulation, it was observed that the interfacial properties improve with increasing maximum processing temperature and injection pressure although such an improving trajectory gets saturated beyond specific limits. The interfacial strength and fracture response of the hybrid polymer system at the interface are also evaluated. The mechanical responses obtained from MD simulation are used as adhesive properties in the macroscale finite element analysis (FEA)-based single lap joint (SLJ) model where the interfacial behavior between the adherends (CFR-LMPAEK and SFR-PEEK) is implemented using cohesive zone model (CZM). The simulated FE results show a good correlation with the SLJ experimental data. Thus, by linking the interfacial properties at the molecular scale to the performance of the interfacial bond at the macroscale, the comprehensive approach presented here opens up various efficient avenues toward atomistically engineered performance tuning in hybrid overmolded fiber-reinforced polymer composites to meet desired large-scale performance needs

Synthesis and Properties of a Novel Structural Binder Utilizing the Chemistry of Iron Carbonation

This paper explores, for the first time, the possibility of carbonating waste metallic iron powder to develop sustainable binder systems for concrete. The fundamental premise of this work is that metallic iron will react with aqueous CO₂ under controlled conditions to form complex iron carbonates which have binding capabilities. Chosen additives containing silica and alumina are added to facilitate iron dissolution and to obtain beneficial rheological and later-age properties. Water is generally only a medium for mass transfer in these systems thereby making the common reaction schemes in portland cement concretes inapplicable. The compressive and flexural strengths of the chosen iron-based binder systems increase with carbonation duration and the specimens carbonated for 4 days exhibit mechanical properties that are comparable to those of companion ordinary portland cement systems that are most commonly used as the binder in building and infrastructural construction. The influence of the additives, carbonation duration, and the air curing duration after carbonation are explored in detail. Thermogravimetric analysis demonstrate the presence of an organic carbonate complex (the dissolution agent used to dissolve iron is organic), the amount of which increases with carbonation duration. Thermal analysis also confirms the participation of some amount of limestone powder in the reaction product formation. The viability of this binder type for concrete applications is proved in this study

Photon Scattering from a System of Multi-Level Quantum Emitters. I. Formalism

We introduce a formalism to solve the problem of photon scattering from a system of multi-level quantum emitters. Our approach provides a direct solution of the scattering dynamics. As such the formalism gives the scattered fields amplitudes in the limit of a weak incident intensity. Our formalism is equipped to treat both multi-emitter and multi-level emitter systems, and is applicable to a plethora of photon scattering problems including conditional state preparation by photo-detection. In this paper, we develop the general formalism for an arbitrary geometry. In the following paper (part II), we reduce the general photon scattering formalism to a form that is applicable to $1$-dimensional waveguides, and show its applicability by considering explicit examples with various emitter configurations

Photon Scattering from a System of Multi-Level Quantum Emitters. II. Application to Emitters Coupled to a 1D Waveguide

In a preceding paper we introduced a formalism to study the scattering of low intensity fields from a system of multi-level emitters embedded in a $3$D dielectric medium. Here we show how this photon-scattering relation can be used to analyze the scattering of single photons and weak coherent states from any generic multi-level quantum emitter coupled to a $1$D waveguide. The reduction of the photon-scattering relation to $1$D waveguides provides for the first time a direct solution of the scattering problem involving low intensity fields in the waveguide QED regime. To show how our formalism works, we consider examples of multi-level emitters and evaluate the transmitted and reflected field amplitude. Furthermore, we extend our study to include the dynamical response of the emitters for scattering of a weak coherent photon pulse. As our photon-scattering relation is based on the Heisenberg picture, it is quite useful for problems involving photo-detection in the waveguide architecture. We show this by considering a specific problem of state generation by photo-detection in a multi-level emitter, where our formalism exhibits its full potential. Since the considered emitters are generic, the $1$D results apply to a plethora of physical systems like atoms, ions, quantum dots, superconducting qubits, and nitrogen-vacancy centers coupled to a $1$D waveguide or transmission line

Strongly correlated photon transport in waveguide QED with weakly coupled emitters

We show that strongly correlated photon transport can be observed in waveguides containing optically dense ensembles of emitters. Remarkably, this occurs even for weak coupling efficiencies. Specifically, we compute the photon transport properties through a chirally coupled system of $N$ two-level systems driven by a weak coherent field, where each emitter can also scatter photons out of the waveguide. The photon correlations arise due to an interplay of nonlinearity and coupling to a loss reservoir, which creates a strong effective interaction between transmitted photons. The highly correlated photon states are less susceptible to losses than uncorrelated photons and have a power-law decay with $N$. This is described using a simple universal asymptotic solution governed by a single scaling parameter which describes photon bunching and power transmission. We show numerically that, for randomly placed emitters, these results hold even in systems without chirality. The effect can be observed in existing tapered fiber setups with trapped atoms

A wave-function ansatz method for calculating field correlations and its application to the study of spectral filtering and quantum dynamics of multi-emitter systems

We develop a formalism based on a time-dependent wave-function ansatz to study correlations of photons emitted from a collection of two-level quantum emitters. We show how to simulate the system dynamics and evaluate the intensity of the scattered photons and the second-order correlation function $g^{(2)}$ in terms of the amplitudes of the different components of the wave function. Our approach is efficient for considering systems that contain up to two excitations. To demonstrate this we first consider the example of spectral filtering of photons emitted from a single quantum emitter. We show how our formalism can be used to study spectral filtering of the two-photon component of the emitted light from a single quantum emitter for various kinds of filters. Furthermore, as a general application of our formalism, we show how it can be used to study photon-photon correlations in an optically dense ensemble of two-level quantum emitters. In particular we lay out the details of simulating correlated photon transport in such ensembles reported recently by S. Mahmoodian {\it et.al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 121}, 143601 (2018)]. Compared to other existing techniques, the advantage of our formalism is that it is applicable to any generic spectral filter and quantum many-body systems involving a large number of quantum emitters while requiring only a modest computational resource

Table_1_Glass Fracture Upon Ballistic Impact: New Insights From Peridynamics Simulations.DOCX

Most glasses are often exposed to impact loading during their service life, which may lead to the failure of the structure. While in situ experimental studies on impact-induced damage are challenging due to the short timescales involved, continuum-based computational studies are complicated by the discontinuity in the displacement field arising from the propagation of cracks. Here, using peridynamics simulations, we investigate the role of the mechanical properties and geometry in determining the overall damage on a glass plate subjected to ballistic impact. In particular, we analyze the role of bullet velocity, bullet material, and elastic modulus, fracture energy, and radius of the plate. Interestingly, we observe a power-law dependence between the total damage and the fracture energy of the glass plate. Through an auto-regressive analysis of the evolution of cracks, we demonstrate that the self-affine growth of cracks leads to this power-law dependence. Overall, the present study illustrates how peridynamic simulations can offer new insights into the fracture mechanics of glasses subjected to ballistic impacts. This improved understanding can pave way to the design and development of glasses with improved impact-resistance for applications ranging from windshields and smart-phone screens to ballistics.</p