A model for predicting grain boundary cracking in polycrystalline viscoplastic materials including scale effects

A model is developed herein for predicting the mechanical response of inelastic crystalline solids. Particular emphasis is given to the development of microstructural damage along grain boundaries, and the interaction of this damage with intragranular inelasticity caused by dislocation dissipation mechanisms. The model is developed within the concepts of continuum mechanics, with special emphasis on the development of internal boundaries in the continuum by utilizing a cohesive zone model based on fracture mechanics. In addition, the crystalline grains are assumed to be characterized by nonlinear viscoplastic mechanical material behavior in order to account for dislocation generation and migration. Due to the nonlinearities introduced by the crack growth and viscoplastic constitution, a numerical algorithm is utilized to solve representative problems. Implementation of the model to a finite element computational algorithm is therefore briefly described. Finally, sample calculations are presented for a polycrystalline titanium alloy with particular focus on effects of scale on the predicted response

An adrenomedullin fragment retains the systemic vasodepressor activity of rat adrenomedullin

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of human adrenomedullin, a newly discovered peptide present in normal human plasma, as well as a fragment of adrenomedullin, on systemic hemodynamics in the anesthetized rat. Intravenous (i.v.) bolus injections of rat adrenomedullin, rat adrenomedullin-(11-50), human adrenomedullin, and human adrenomedullin-(13-52) decreased mean systemic arterial pressure in a dose-dependent manner. Since rat adrenomedullin and human adrenomedullin did not decrease cardiac output, the decreases in systemic arterial pressure reflect dose-dependent reductions in systemic vascular resistance. The systemic vasodepressor responses to similar doses of the adrenomedullin fragments studied and to their respective parent adrenomedullin peptides were similar. The present data demonstrate that the entire adrenomedullin molecule is not required for full systemic vasodilator activity in vivo suggesting that rat adrenomedullin-(11-50) or a structurally similar peptide, if formed endogenously, could mediate the hemodynamic properties of adrenomedullin in vivo. Since rat adrenomedullin had significantly greater systemic vasodilator activity than human adrenomedullin at similar doses in the rat, the present data suggest that adrenomedullin has greater systemic vasodilator activity in its native species and that limited changes in the peptide's sequence confer markedly different vascular activity in vivo.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Solubility trapping in formation water as dominant CO2 sink in natural gas fields

Injecting CO2 into deep geological strata is proposed as a safe and economically favourable means of storing CO2 captured from industrial point sources1, 2, 3. It is difficult, however, to assess the long-term consequences of CO2 flooding in the subsurface from decadal observations of existing disposal sites1, 2. Both the site design and long-term safety modelling critically depend on how and where CO2 will be stored in the site over its lifetime2, 3, 4. Within a geological storage site, the injected CO2 can dissolve in solution or precipitate as carbonate minerals. Here we identify and quantify the principal mechanism of CO2 fluid phase removal in nine natural gas fields in North America, China and Europe, using noble gas and carbon isotope tracers. The natural gas fields investigated in our study are dominated by a CO2 phase and provide a natural analogue for assessing the geological storage of anthropogenic CO2 over millennial timescales1, 2, 5, 6. We find that in seven gas fields with siliciclastic or carbonate-dominated reservoir lithologies, dissolution in formation water at a pH of 5–5.8 is the sole major sink for CO2. In two fields with siliciclastic reservoir lithologies, some CO2 loss through precipitation as carbonate minerals cannot be ruled out, but can account for a maximum of 18 per cent of the loss of emplaced CO2. In view of our findings that geological mineral fixation is a minor CO2 trapping mechanism in natural gas fields, we suggest that long-term anthropogenic CO2 storage models in similar geological systems should focus on the potential mobility of CO2 dissolved in wate