611 research outputs found
Influence of Densification Method on Some aspects of Undrained Silty Sand Behavior
Different specimen preparation methods such as moist tamping, dry funnel deposition, slurry deposition, dry air pluviation have been reported in the literature to investigate the undrained behavior of silty sands. Similarly, different means have been used to densify the soils prepared with such methods. Ongoing research shows that the change in undrained behavior (e.g. change in initial peak deviator stress and instability angle) due to different deposition densities is significantly affected by the densification technique utilized within a particular deposition method. It is believed that those variations are closely related with changes in the initial soil fabric that is achieved after the deposition. In this study, a relatively new densification technique, avoiding mold tapping, is used with the dry funnel deposition method. This new method of densification is thought to create a soil fabric that is much closer to the initial fabric than other techniques. The experimental results show that the change in undrained behavior with increasing density by densification is much less pronounced when compared to the other densification methods reported in the literature
The Effect of Nonplastic Silt Gradation on the Liquefaction Behavior of Sand
Various researchers have published results regarding the effect of non plastic silts on the liquefaction behavior of sands. Some concluded that increasing fines content decrease the liquefaction potential, whereas others observed the opposite. Some of those discrepancies might be explained via various factors such as different confining stresses, different depositional methods, different consolidation histories and possibly different comparison bases (i.e. void ratio, intergranular void ratio, relative density). New experimental results from monotonic undrained triaxial compression tests performed on Nevada Sand-A mixed with different silts indicate that liquefaction behavior is also significantly influenced by the gradation of the fines
Magnetic and Transport Properties of Fe-Ag granular multilayers
Results of magnetization, magnetotransport and Mossbauer spectroscopy
measurements of sequentially evaporated Fe-Ag granular composites are
presented. The strong magnetic scattering of the conduction electrons is
reflected in the sublinear temperature dependence of the resistance and in the
large negative magnetoresistance. The simultaneous analysis of the magnetic
properties and the transport behavior suggests a bimodal grain size
distribution. A detailed quantitative description of the unusual features
observed in the transport properties is given
The relationship between fragility, configurational entropy and the potential energy landscape of glass forming liquids
Glass is a microscopically disordered, solid form of matter that results when
a fluid is cooled or compressed in such a fashion that it does not crystallise.
Almost all types of materials are capable of glass formation -- polymers, metal
alloys, and molten salts, to name a few. Given such diversity, organising
principles which systematise data concerning glass formation are invaluable.
One such principle is the classification of glass formers according to their
fragility\cite{fragility}. Fragility measures the rapidity with which a
liquid's properties such as viscosity change as the glassy state is approached.
Although the relationship between features of the energy landscape of a glass
former, its configurational entropy and fragility have been analysed previously
(e. g.,\cite{speedyfr}), an understanding of the origins of fragility in these
features is far from being well established. Results for a model liquid, whose
fragility depends on its bulk density, are presented in this letter. Analysis
of the relationship between fragility and quantitative measures of the energy
landscape (the complicated dependence of energy on configuration) reveal that
the fragility depends on changes in the vibrational properties of individual
energy basins, in addition to the total number of such basins present, and
their spread in energy. A thermodynamic expression for fragility is derived,
which is in quantitative agreement with {\it kinetic} fragilities obtained from
the liquid's diffusivity.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Construction of the free energy landscape by the density functional theory
On the basis of the density functional theory, we give a clear definition of
the free energy landscape. To show the usefulness of the definition, we
construct the free energy landscape for rearrangement of atoms in an FCC
crystal of hard spheres. In this description, the cooperatively rearranging
region (CRR) is clealy related to the hard spheres involved in the saddle
between two adjacent basins. A new concept of the simultaneously rearranging
region (SRR) emerges naturally as spheres defined by the difference between two
adjacent basins. We show that the SRR and the CRR can be determined explicitly
from the free energylandscape.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to J. Chem. Phy
Theoretical Evaluation of the Reaction Rates for 26Al(n,p)26Mg and 26Al(n,a)23Na
The reactions that destroy 26Al in massive stars have significance in a
number of astrophysical contexts. We evaluate the reaction rates of
26Al(n,p)26Mg and 26Al(n,a)23Na using cross sections obtained from the codes
EMPIRE and TALYS. These have been compared to the published rates obtained from
the non-smoker code and to some experimental data. We show that the results
obtained from EMPIRE and TALYS are comparable to those from non-smoker. We also
show how the theoretical results vary with respect to changes in the input
parameters. Finally, we present recommended rates for these reactions using the
available experimental data and our new theoretical results
Harmonic Vibrational Excitations in Disordered Solids and the "Boson Peak"
We consider a system of coupled classical harmonic oscillators with spatially
fluctuating nearest-neighbor force constants on a simple cubic lattice. The
model is solved both by numerically diagonalizing the Hamiltonian and by
applying the single-bond coherent potential approximation. The results for the
density of states are in excellent agreement with each other. As
the degree of disorder is increased the system becomes unstable due to the
presence of negative force constants. If the system is near the borderline of
stability a low-frequency peak appears in the reduced density of states
as a precursor of the instability. We argue that this peak
is the analogon of the "boson peak", observed in structural glasses. By means
of the level distance statistics we show that the peak is not associated with
localized states
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