Modeling the viscoplastic behavior of Inconel 718 at 1200 F

A large number of tests, including tensile, creep, fatigue, and creep-fatigue were performed to characterize the mechanical properties of Inconel 718 (a nickel based superalloy) at 1200 F, the operating temperature for turbine blades. In addition, a few attempts were made to model the behavior of Inconel 718 at 1200 F using viscoplastic theories. The Chaboche theory of viscoplasticity can model a wide variety of mechanical behavior, including monotonic, sustained, and cyclic responses of homogeneous, initially-isotropic, strain hardening (or softening) materials. It is shown how the Chaboche theory can be used to model the viscoplastic behavior of Inconel 718 at 1200 F. First, an algorithm was developed to systematically determine the material parameters of the Chaboche theory from uniaxial tensile, creep, and cyclic data. The algorithm is general and can be used in conjunction with similar high temperature materials. A sensitivity study was then performed and an optimal set of Chaboche's parameters were obtained. This study has also indicated the role of each parameter in modeling the response to different loading conditions

Modelling and characterization of cell collapse in aluminium foams during dynamic loading

Plate-impact experiments have been conducted to investigate the elastic–plastic behaviour of shock wave propagation and pore collapse mechanisms of closed-cell aluminium foams. FE modelling using a meso-scale approach has been carried out with the FE software ABAQUS/Explicit. A micro-computed tomography-based foam geometry has been developed and microstructural changes with time have been investigated to explore the effects of wave propagation. Special attention has been given to the pore collapse mechanism. The effect of velocity variations on deformation has been elucidated with three different impact conditions using the plate-impact method. Free surface velocity (ufs) was measured on the rear of the sample to understand the evolution of the compaction. At low impact velocities, the free-surface velocity increased gradually, whereas an abrupt rise of free-surface velocity was found at an impact velocity of 845 m/s with a copper flyer-plate which correlates with the appearance of shock. A good correlation was found between experimental results and FE predictions

Spitzer observations of extragalactic H II regions - III. NGC 6822 and the hot star, H II region connection

Using the short-high module of the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope, we have measured the [S IV] 10.51, [Ne II] 12.81, [Ne III] 15.56, and [S III] 18.71-micron emission lines in nine H II regions in the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822. These lines arise from the dominant ionization states of the elements neon (Ne$^{++}$, Ne$^+$) and sulphur (S$^{3+}$, S$^{++}$), thereby allowing an analysis of the neon to sulphur abundance ratio as well as the ionic abundance ratios Ne$^+$/Ne$^{++}$ and S$^{3+}$/S$^{++}$. By extending our studies of H II regions in M83 and M33 to the lower metallicity NGC 6822, we increase the reliability of the estimated Ne/S ratio. We find that the Ne/S ratio appears to be fairly universal, with not much variation about the ratio found for NGC 6822: the median (average) Ne/S ratio equals 11.6 (12.2$\pm$0.8). This value is in contrast to Asplund et al.'s currently best estimated value for the Sun: Ne/S = 6.5. In addition, we continue to test the predicted ionizing spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from various stellar atmosphere models by comparing model nebulae computed with these SEDs as inputs to our observational data, changing just the stellar atmosphere model abundances. Here we employ a new grid of SEDs computed with different metallicities: Solar, 0.4 Solar, and 0.1 Solar. As expected, these changes to the SED show similar trends to those seen upon changing just the nebular gas metallicities in our plasma simulations: lower metallicity results in higher ionization. This trend agrees with the observations.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures. To be published in MNRAS. reference added and typos fixed. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0804.0828, which is paper II by Rubin et al. (2008

Validation of an electrogoniometry system as a measure of knee kinematics during activities of daily living

Purpose: The increasing use of electrogoniometry (ELG) in clinical research requires the validation of different instrumentation. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the concurrent validity of an ELG system during activities of daily living. Methods: Ten asymptomatic participants gave informed consent to participate. A Biometrics SG150 electrogoniometer was directly compared to a 12 camera three dimensional motion analysis system during walking, stair ascent, stair descent, sit to stand, and stand to sit activities for the measurement of the right knee angle. Analysis of validity was undertaken by linear regression. Standard error of estimate (SEE), standardised SEE (SSEE), and Pearson’s correlation coefficient r were computed for paired trials between systems for each functional activity. Results: The 95% confidence interval of SEE was reasonable between systems across walking (LCI = 2.43 °; UCI = 2.91 °), stair ascent (LCI = 2.09 °; UCI = 2.42 °), stair descent (LCI = 1.79 °; UCI = 2.10 °), sit to stand (LCI = 1.22 °; UCI = 1.41 °), and stand to sit (LCI = 1.17 °; UCI = 1.34 °). Pearson’s correlation coefficient r across walking (LCI = 0.983; UCI = 0.990), stair ascent (LCI = 0.995; UCI = 0.997), stair descent (LCI = 0.995; UCI = 0.997), sit to stand (LCI = 0.998; UCI = 0.999), and stand to sit (LCI = 0.996; UCI = 0.997) was indicative of a strong linear relationship between systems. Conclusion: ELG is a valid method of measuring the knee angle during activities representative of daily living. The range is within that suggested to be acceptable for the clinical evaluation of patients with musculoskeletal conditions

Parameterization of dust emissions in the global atmospheric chemistry-climate model EMAC: impact of nudging and soil properties

Abstract. Airborne desert dust influences radiative transfer, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, as well as nutrient transport and deposition. It directly and indirectly affects climate on regional and global scales. Two versions of a parameterization scheme to compute desert dust emissions are incorporated into the atmospheric chemistry general circulation model EMAC (ECHAM5/MESSy2.41 Atmospheric Chemistry). One uses a globally uniform soil particle size distribution, whereas the other explicitly accounts for different soil textures worldwide. We have tested these two versions and investigated the sensitivity to input parameters, using remote sensing data from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and dust concentrations and deposition measurements from the AeroCom dust benchmark database (and others). The two versions are shown to produce similar atmospheric dust loads in the N-African region, while they deviate in the Asian, Middle Eastern and S-American regions. The dust outflow from Africa over the Atlantic Ocean is accurately simulated by both schemes, in magnitude, location and seasonality. Approximately 70% of the modelled annual deposition data and 70–75% of the modelled monthly aerosol optical depth (AOD) in the Atlantic Ocean stations lay in the range 0.5 to 2 times the observations for all simulations. The two versions have similar performance, even though the total annual source differs by ~50%, which underscores the importance of transport and deposition processes (being the same for both versions). Even though the explicit soil particle size distribution is considered more realistic, the simpler scheme appears to perform better in several locations. This paper discusses the differences between the two versions of the dust emission scheme, focusing on their limitations and strengths in describing the global dust cycle and suggests possible future improvements

Data describing the eco-physiological responses of Elaeagnus angustifolia grown under contrasting regime of water and fertilizer in coal-mined spoils

To improve our understanding of how coal mining areas can be re-vegetated and ecosystem function restored, we examined the potential effects of five water (W) regimes (40, 50, 60, 70 and 80% of field capacity), five nitrogen (N) (0, 24, 60, 96 and 120 mg kg‒1 soil) and five phosphorus (P) fertilizer doses (0, 36, 90, 144 and 180 mg kg‒1 soil), which control the growth and development of Elaeagnus angustifolia under adverse environmental conditions. To optimize the W-N-P application rate, three factors and five levels of central composite design along with an optimization technique named response surface methodology were utilized. Here we provide data on root-shoot biomass ratio, leaf dry matter content, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll (Chl) a, Chl b, membrane stability index and soluble protein content of E. angustifolia. The data described in this article are available in Mendeley Data, DOI: 10.17632/2vfbrdxyf2.2 [1]. These data could be used to evaluate the improvement in growth performance of E. angustifolia subjected to various regimes of W, N and P. This dataset showed that E. angustifolia grew optimally in coal-mine spoils when irrigated at 66% of field capacity and supplemented with 74.0 mg N and 36.0 mg P kg‒1 soil. This could considerably help the success of revegetation in coal-mined degraded arid areas where W is scarce. This article contains data complementary to the main research entitled "Fine-tuning of soil water and nutrient fertilizer levels for the ecological restoration of coal-mined spoils using Elaeagnus angustifolia" in the Journal of Environmental Management (Roy et al., 2020)

Engineering squeezed states in high-Q cavities

While it has been possible to build fields in high-Q cavities with a high degree of squeezing for some years, the engineering of arbitrary squeezed states in these cavities has only recently been addressed [Phys. Rev. A 68, 061801(R) (2003)]. The present work examines the question of how to squeeze any given cavity-field state and, particularly, how to generate the squeezed displaced number state and the squeezed macroscopic quantum superposition in a high-Q cavity

Inertial range scaling of scalar flux spectra in uniformly sheared turbulence

A model based on two-point closure theory of turbulence is proposed and applied to study the Reynolds number dependency of the scalar flux spectra in homogeneous shear flow with a cross-stream uniform scalar gradient. For the cross-stream scalar flux, in the inertial range the spectral behavior agrees with classical predictions and measurements. The streamwise scalar flux is found to be in good agreement with the results of atmospheric measurements. However, both the model results and the atmospheric measurements disagree with classical predictions. A detailed analysis of the different terms in the evolution equation for the streamwise scalar flux spectrum shows that nonlinear contributions are governing the inertial subrange of this spectrum and that these contributions are relatively more important than for the cross-stream flux. A new expression for the scalar flux spectra is proposed. It allows us to unify the description of the components in one single expression, leading to a classical K^-7/3 inertial range for the cross-stream component and to a new K^-23/9 scaling for the streamwise component that agrees better with atmospheric measurements than the K^-3 prediction of J. C. Wyngaard and O. R. Cot\'e [Quart. J. R. Met. Soc. 98, 590 (1972)]

Primary care physicians' perceptions of barriers and facilitators to management of chronic kidney disease: A mixed methods study.

BackgroundGiven the high prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD), primary care physicians (PCPs) frequently manage early stage CKD. Nonetheless, there are challenges in providing optimal CKD care in the primary care setting. This study sought to understand PCPs' perceptions of barriers and facilitators to the optimal management of CKD.Study designMixed methods study.Settings and participantsCommunity-based PCPs in four US cities: Baltimore, MD; St. Louis, MO; Raleigh, NC and San Francisco, CA.MethodologyWe used a self-administered questionnaire and conducted 4 focus groups of PCPs (n = 8 PCPs/focus group) in each city to identify key barriers and facilitators to management of patients with CKD in primary care.Analytic approachWe conducted descriptive analyses of the survey data. Major themes were identified from audio-recorded interviews that were transcribed and coded by the research team.ResultsOf 32 participating PCPs, 31 (97%) had been in practice for >10 years, and 29 (91%) practiced in a non-academic setting. PCPs identified multiple barriers to managing CKD in primary care including at the level of the patient (e.g., low awareness of CKD, poor adherence to treatment recommendations), the provider (e.g., staying current with CKD guidelines), and the health care system (e.g., inflexible electronic medical record, limited time and resources). PCPs desired electronic prompts and lab decision support, concise guidelines, and healthcare financing reform to improve CKD care.ConclusionsPCPs face substantial but modifiable barriers in providing care to patients with CKD. Interventions that address these barriers and promote facilitative tools may improve PCPs' effectiveness and capacity to care for patients with CKD