The Baum-Connes Conjecture via Localisation of Categories

We redefine the Baum-Connes assembly map using simplicial approximation in the equivariant Kasparov category. This new interpretation is ideal for studying functorial properties and gives analogues of the assembly maps for all equivariant homology theories, not just for the K-theory of the crossed product. We extend many of the known techniques for proving the Baum-Connes conjecture to this more general setting

Beam tuning and stabilization using beam phase measurement at GANIL

International audienc

Evaluation of fatigue life of recycled opaque PET from household milk bottle wastes

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is among the most used thermoplastic polymers in large scale manufacturing. Opaque PET is increasingly used in milk bottles to save weight and to bring a glossy white aspect due to TiO2 nanoparticles. The recyclability of opaque PET is an issue: whereas the recycling channels are well established for transparent PET, the presence of opaque PET in household wastes weakens those channels: opaque bottles cannot be mixed with transparent ones because the resulting blend is not transparent anymore. Many research efforts focus on the possibility to turn opaque PET into resources, as one key to a more circular economy. A recent study has demonstrated the improvement of the mechanical properties of recycled PET through reactive extrusion. In the present work, the lifespan of recycled opaque PET has been evaluated throughout tensile–tensile fatigue loading cycles at various steps of the recycling process: The specimens are obtained from flakes after grinding PET wastes (F-r-OPET), from a subsequent homogenization step (r-OPET-hom) and after reactive extrusion (Rex-r-OPET). Virgin PET is also considered as a comparison. First, tensile tests monitored by digital image correlation have been carried out to obtain the elastic modulus and ultimate tensile stress of each type of PET. The fatigue properties of reactive REx-r-OPET increase, probably associated with the rise of cross-linking and branching rates. The fatigue lifespan increases with the macromolecular weight. The fracture surface analysis of specimens brings new insight regarding the factors governing the fatigue behavior and the damaging mode of recycled PET. TiO2 nanoparticles act as stress concentrators, contributing to void formation at multiple sites and thus promoting the fracture process. Finally, the fatigue life of REx-r-OPET is comparable to those of virgin PET. Upcycling opaque PET by reactive extrusion may be a relevant new route to absorb some of the growing amounts of PET worldwide

Experimental and numerical study of crack healing in a nuclear glass

International audiencea b s t r a c t An experimental study of thermally or water-induced crack healing in an inactive borosil-icate glass, chemically analogous to that used in France for the vitrification of nuclear waste was carried out. Partial welding of glass plates was observed after annealing in air at 425 °C (77 °C below T g) when at least 20 MPa compressive stress was applied, while annealing at 450 °C under 20 MPa led to a complete disappearance of the interface. Closure of indenta-tion-induced cracks was observed during annealing at 400 °C in an ESEM as a result of viscous relaxation of residual stresses but it did not constitute a sufficient proof of crack healing. DCDC specimens were thus pre-cracked in an ESEM and then either annealed at various temperatures (350–490 °C) in secondary vacuum or in air, or left in water at 70–90 °C, sometimes under a compressive stress normal to the crack face. The specimens were then reloaded in the ESEM and the crack opening displacements under a given load were compared to those measured during pre-cracking. The cracks were bridged by an alteration layer over a distance from the crack tip which decreased as loading increased. The restraining effect of these bridges on crack opening was assessed via finite element simulations, using interface elements. The tensile strength of the bridging layer was estimated as 27–39 MPa after vacuum annealing at 400 °C, 11–20 MPa after 15 days in water at 90 °C and 44–78 MPa after 11 days in water at 70 °C under 5 MPa normal compression. Partially healed cracks did not resume propagation from their former crack tip, but due to branch cracks re-initiated a few hundred microns behind it which grow avoiding the healed area. This behaviour was explained using finite element simulations

Electron heating mechanisms in dual frequency capacitive discharges

We discuss electron heating mechanisms in the sheath regions of dual-frequency capacitive discharges, with the twin aims of identifying the dominant mechanisms and supplying closed-form expressions from which the heating power can be estimated. We show that the heating effect produced by either Ohmic or collisionless heating is much larger when the discharge is excited by a superposition of currents at two frequencies than if either current had acted alone. This coupling effect occurs because the lower frequency current, while not directly heating the electrons to any great extent, strongly affects the spatial structure of the discharge in the sheath regions

In-situ measurements of temperature distribution during transmission laser welding of poly(aryletherketone)

In this work, the temperature distribution inside the specimens has been measured during transmission laser welding. The material studied is a high performance thermoplastic of the polyaryletherketone (PAEK) family. The assembly consists of a quasi-amorphous sample as the upper part and a semi-crystalline sample as the lower part. The temperature fields were measured by infrared thermography with the camera sensor perpendicular to the welded interface. With an energy beam of 28 J.mm-2 and irradiation time of 15s, we have noticed that the maximum temperature inside the sample is kept far from the PAEK degradation one. Moreover, the temperature at the interface reaches the melting temperature thus assuring enough mobility for polymeric chains to get adhesion at the interface. Finally, the location and size of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) has been determined

SPIRAL facility at GANIL : ion beam simulation and optimisation method for the CIME cyclotron injection system

International audienc

Upper Bounding in Inner Regions for Global Optimization under Inequality Constraints

International audienceIn deterministic continuous constrained global optimization, upper bounding the objective function generally resorts to local minimization at several nodes/iterations of the branch and bound. We propose in this paper an alternative approach when the constraints are inequalities and the feasible space has a non-null volume. First, we extract an inner region , i.e., an entirely feasible convex polyhedron or box in which all points satisfy the constraints. Second, we select a point inside the extracted inner region and update the upper bound with its cost. We describe in this paper two original inner region extraction algorithms implemented in our interval B&B called IbexOpt. They apply to nonconvex constraints involving mathematical operators like +,x,power,sqrt,exp,log,sin. This upper bounding shows very good performance obtained on medium-sized systems proposed in the COCONUT suite