70,120 research outputs found
Novel method for refinement of retained austenite in micro/nano-structured bainitic steels
A comparative study was conducted to assess the effects of two different heat treatments on the amount and morphology of the retained austenite in a micro/nano-structured bainitic steel. The heat treatments used in this work were two-stage bainitic transformation and bainitic-partitioning transformation. Both methods resulted in the generation of a multi-phase microstructure containing nanoscale bainitic ferrite, and/or fresh martensitic phases and much finer retained austenite. Both heat treatments were verified to be effective in refining the retained austenite in micro/nano-structured bainite and increasing the hardness. However, the bainitic transformation followed by partitioning cycle was proved to be a more viable approach than the two-stage bainitic transformation due to much shorter processing time, i.e. ∼2 h compared to ∼4 day, respectively
XAFS spectroscopy. I. Extracting the fine structure from the absorption spectra
Three independent techniques are used to separate fine structure from the
absorption spectra, the background function in which is approximated by (i)
smoothing spline. We propose a new reliable criterion for determination of
smoothing parameter and the method for raising of stability with respect to
k_min variation; (ii) interpolation spline with the varied knots; (iii) the
line obtained from bayesian smoothing. This methods considers various prior
information and includes a natural way to determine the errors of XAFS
extraction. Particular attention has been given to the estimation of
uncertainties in XAFS data. Experimental noise is shown to be essentially
smaller than the errors of the background approximation, and it is the latter
that determines the variances of structural parameters in subsequent fitting.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, for freeware XAFS analysis program, see
http://www.crosswinds.net/~klmn/viper.htm
An Analysis Of Fatigue Crack Growth Of A Notched Aircraft Component Under Compression-Dominated Spectrum Loading
In engineering structures, fatigue cracks often emanate from geometrical discontinuities such as holes and notches. Experimentally it has been observed that there exists a notch-affected zone, in which the crack growth exhibits a transitional behaviour. Depending on the loading level and the geometry of the notch, the crack growth rate may initially decrease with crack length to reach a minimum. It will then either grow at an accelerated rate, or stop growing. This report details ongoing work in modelling crack growth in the presence of notch plasticity. The local stress-strain distribution ahead of a notch root is determined based on an empirical distribution of the equivalent stress, and the evolution of the notch root stress and strain is calculated using Neuber's rule and an Armstrong-Chaboche type nonlinear kinematic hardening model. The stress intensity factor is then calculated using a Green's function approach. A crack growth analysis program has been developed, implementing the above procedures
Lattice model study of the thermodynamic interplay of polymer crystallization and liquid-liquid demixing
We report Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice-polymer model that can account
for both polymer crystallization and liquid-liquid demixing in solutions of
semiflexible homopolymers. In our model, neighboring polymer segments can have
isotropic interactions that affect demixing, and anisotropic interactions that
are responsible for freezing. However, our simulations show that the isotropic
interactions also have a noticeable effect on the freezing curve, as do the
anisotropic interactions on demixing. As the relative strength of the isotropic
interactions is reduced, the liquid-liquid demixing transition disappears below
the freezing curve. A simple, extended Flory-Huggins theory accounts quite well
for the phase behavior observed in the simulations.Comment: Revtex, 7 pages, the content accepted by J. Chem. Phy
Indirect exchange of magnetic impurities in zigzag graphene ribbon
We use quantum Monte Carlo method to study the indirect coupling between two
magnetic impurities on the zigzag edge of graphene ribbon, with respect to the
chemical potential . We find that the spin-spin correlation between two
adatoms located on the nearest sites in the zigzag edge are drastically
suppressed around the zero-energy. As we switch the system away from
half-filling, the antiferromagnetic correlation is first enhanced and then
decreased. If the two adatoms are adsorbed on the sites belonging to the same
sublattice, we find similar behavior of spin-spin correlation except for a
crossover from ferromagnetic to antiferromagentic correlation in the vicinity
of zero-energy. We also calculated the weight of different components of
d-electron wave function and local magnet moment for various values of
parameters, and all the results are consistent with those of spin-spin
correlation between two magnetic impurities.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, conference proceedin
Lensing effect on the relative orientation between the Cosmic Microwave Background ellipticities and the distant galaxies
The low redshift structures of the Universe act as lenses in a similar way on
the Cosmic Microwave Background light and on the distant galaxies (say at
redshift about unity). As a consequence, the CMB temperature distortions are
expected to be statistically correlated with the galaxy shear, exhibiting a
non-uniform distribution of the relative angle between the CMB and the galactic
ellipticities. Investigating this effect we find that its amplitude is as high
as a 10% excess of alignement between CMB and the galactic ellipticities
relative to the uniform distribution. The relatively high signal-to-noise ratio
we found should makes possible a detection with the planned CMB data sets,
provided that a galaxy survey follow up can be done on a sufficiently large
area. It would provide a complementary bias-independent constraint on the
cosmological parameters.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; uses emulateapj.sty; submitted to Ap
The 6-vertex model of hydrogen-bonded crystals with bond defects
It is shown that the percolation model of hydrogen-bonded crystals, which is
a 6-vertex model with bond defects, is completely equivalent with an 8-vertex
model in an external electric field. Using this equivalence we solve exactly a
particular 6-vertex model with bond defects. The general solution for the
Bethe-like lattice is also analyzed.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; added references for section
Probability-Changing Cluster Algorithm for Potts Models
We propose a new effective cluster algorithm of tuning the critical point
automatically, which is an extended version of Swendsen-Wang algorithm. We
change the probability of connecting spins of the same type, , in the process of the Monte Carlo spin update. Since we approach the
canonical ensemble asymptotically, we can use the finite-size scaling analysis
for physical quantities near the critical point. Simulating the two-dimensional
Potts models to demonstrate the validity of the algorithm, we have obtained the
critical temperatures and critical exponents which are consistent with the
exact values; the comparison has been made with the invaded cluster algorithm.Comment: 4 pages including 5 eps figures, RevTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
- …