Calculating glass-forming ability in absence of key kinetic and thermodynamic parameters

Glass-forming ability (GFA) as defined by a critical cooling rate R_c to vitrify a liquid upon solidification is a complex function of many parameters. Some of the parameters, such as liquid-crystal interfacial energy, temperature-dependent liquid viscosity, and influence of heterogeneities, are crucial but their accurate experimental determination is challenging. Here, instead of relying on the experimental data, we draw random values for the difficult parameters and use the classical theory to examine probabilistic distributions of Rc for two well-known metallic glasses. Direct random parameterization produces extremely broad distributions spanning tens of orders of magnitude. Dramatically sharpened distributions are obtained around experimental R_c upon guiding the random parameterization with limited calorimetric data. The results suggest that it is plausible to determine GFA even in absence of data for crucial parameters

Radiation-Induced Segregation and Phase Stability in Candidate Alloys for the Advanced Burner Reactor

Major accomplishments of this project were the following: 1) Radiation induced depletion of Cr occurs in alloy D9, in agreement with that observed in austenitic alloys. 2) In F-M alloys, Cr enriches at PAG grain boundaries at low dose (<7 dpa) and at intermediate temperature (400°C) and the magnitude of the enrichment decreases with temperature. 3) Cr enrichment decreases with dose, remaining enriched in alloy T91 up to 10 dpa, but changing to depletion above 3 dpa in HT9 and HCM12A. 4) Cr has a higher diffusivity than Fe by a vacancy mechanism and the corresponding atomic flux of Cr is larger than Fe in the opposite direction to the vacancy flux. 5) Cr concentration at grain boundaries decreases as a result of vacancy transport during electron or proton irradiation, consistent with Inverse Kirkendall models. 6) Inclusion of other point defect sinks into the KLMC simulation of vacancy-mediated diffusion only influences the results in the low temperature, recombination dominated regime, but does not change the conclusion that Cr depletes as a result of vacancy transport to the sink. 7) Cr segregation behavior is independent of Frenkel pair versus cascade production, as simulated for electron versus proton irradiation conditions, for the temperatures investigated. 8) The amount of Cr depletion at a simulated planar boundary with vacancy-mediated diffusion reaches an apparent saturation value by about 1 dpa, with the precise saturation concentration dependent on the ratio of Cr to Fe diffusivity. 9) Cr diffuses faster than Fe by an interstitial transport mechanism, and the corresponding atomic flux of Cr is much larger than Fe in the same direction as the interstitial flux. 10) Observed experimental and computational results show that the radiation induced segregation behavior of Cr is consistent with an Inverse Kirkendall mechanism

The Type Ic Supernova 1994I in M51: Detection of Helium and Spectral Evolution

We present a series of spectra of SN 1994I in M51, starting 1 week prior to maximum brightness. The nebular phase began about 2 months after the explosion; together with the rapid decline of the optical light, this suggests that the ejected mass was small. Although lines of He I in the optical region are weak or absent, consistent with the Type Ic classification, we detect strong He I λ10830 absorption during the first month past maximum. Thus, if SN 1994I is a typical Type Ic supernova, the atmospheres of these objects cannot be completely devoid of helium. The emission-line widths are smaller than predicted by the model of Nomoto and coworkers, in which the iron core of a low-mass carbon-oxygen star collapses. They are, however, larger than in Type Ib supernovae