14,372 research outputs found
Fracture toughness and fatigue-crack propagation in a Zr–Ti–Ni–Cu–Be bulk metallic glass
The recent development of metallic alloy systems which can be processed with an amorphous structure over large dimensions, specifically to form metallic glasses at low cooling rates (similar to 10 K/s), has permitted novel measurements of important mechanical properties. These include, for example, fatigue-crack growth and fracture toughness behavior, representing the conditions governing the subcritical and critical propagation of cracks in these structures. In the present study, bulk plates of a Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 alloy, machined into 7 mm wide, 38 mm thick compact-tension specimens and fatigue precracked following standard procedures, revealed fracture toughnesses in the fully amorphous structure of K(lc)similar to 55 MPa root m, i.e., comparable with that of a high-strength steel or aluminum ahoy. However, partial and full crystallization, e.g., following thermal exposure at 633 K or more, was found to result in a drastic reduction in fracture toughness to similar to 1 MPa root m, i.e., comparable with silica glass. The fully amorphous alloy was also found to be susceptible to fatigue-crack growth under cyclic loading, with growth-rate properties comparable to that of ductile crystalline metallic alloys, such as high-strength steels or aluminum alloys; no such fatigue was seen in the partially or fully crystallized alloys which behaved like very brittle ceramics. Possible micromechanical mechanisms for such behavior are discussed
Some interactions among driver, vehicle, and roadway variables in normal driving
Effects of road and vehicle conditions, visual warning signs, direction of turns, night time, and skill on automobile driver performance are studied in several experiments. Considered criteria are variability in speed and acceleration
Electrometry using the quantum Hall effect in a bilayer 2D electron system
We discuss the development of a sensitive electrometer that utilizes a
two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the quantum Hall regime. As a
demonstration, we measure the evolution of the Landau levels in a second,
nearby 2DEG as the applied perpendicular magnetic field is changed, and extract
an effective mass for electrons in GaAs that agrees within experimental error
with previous measurements.Comment: 3.5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to APL
Origin of the hysteresis in bilayer 2D systems in the quantum Hall regime
The hysteresis observed in the magnetoresistance of bilayer 2D systems in the
quantum Hall regime is generally attributed to the long time constant for
charge transfer between the 2D systems due to the very low conductivity of the
quantum Hall bulk states. We report electrometry measurements of a bilayer 2D
system that demonstrate that the hysteresis is instead due to non-equilibrium
induced current. This finding is consistent with magnetometry and electrometry
measurements of single 2D systems, and has important ramifications for
understanding hysteresis in bilayer 2D systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figs. Accepted for publication in PR
Ordering our world: the quest for traces of temporal organization in autobiographical memory
An experiment examined the idea, derived from the Self Memory System model (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000), that autobiographical events are sometimes tagged in memory with labels reflecting the life era in which an event occurred. The presence of such labels should affect the ease of judgments of the order in which life events occurred. Accordingly, 39 participants judged the order of two autobiographical events. Latency data consistently showed that between-era judgments were faster than within-era judgments, when the eras were defined in terms of either: (a) college versus high school, (b) academic quarter within year, or (c) academic year within school. The accuracy data similarly supported the presence of a between-era judgment effect for the college versus high school dichotomy
L’environnement tardiglaciaire du Yukon septentrional, Canada
Le site des grottes du Poisson-Bleu, localisé sur une assise à calcaires dévoniens au sein de la forêt boréale du Yukon septentrional, a fourni, en plus d'un abondant matériel paléontologique et de quelques données archéologiques, des sédiments pollinifères. Le diagramme pollinique d'un dépôt consistant en un loess tardiglaciaire recouvert d'un humus à cailloutis d'âge holocène présente un assemblage inférieur dominé par des herbes de toundra et un assemblage supérieur dominé par l'épinette et l'aulne. Grâce à ces données ainsi qu'à celles tirées de sites avoisinants, il est possible d'en arriver à une reconstitution de la végétation dont les phases importantes sont les suivantes: une période tardiglaciaire, de 16 000 à 12 000 BP, caractérisée par une toundra herbacée, éparse sur les hauts plateaux et par des marécages à laiches et à graminées dans les basses terres; ultérieurement, au cours de l'Holocène, le phénomène d'entourbement du sol et le développement de bruyères et de pessières, conséquences d'un climat plus chaud.The Bluefish Caves site, located on a scarp of Devonian limestone in the northern boreal forest of the Yukon, has yielded pollen-bearing sediments in addition to abundant paleontological and some archaeological data. A pollen diagram based on samples of late-glacial lcess overlain by Holocene humus shows two main pollen assemblages, the lower dominated by herbs and dwarf shrubs and the upper by spruce and alder. Based on these results, but also drawing on recent findings from other sites in N. Yukon, we offer the following reconstruction of the vegetation history of the region. The vegetation of the late-glacial period, from 16 000 to 12 000 BP, was a sparse herb tundra on upland surfaces and a complex of sedge-grass marshes with willow on lowlands. There was a notable change in cover at the beginning of the Holocene when spruce forest spread to all upland surfaces except the highest ridges, and palu-dification in the lowlands resulted in the spread of bog and mire communities
Fracture toughness and crack-resistance curve behavior in metallic glass-matrix composites
Nonlinear-elastic fracture mechanics methods are used to assess the fracture toughness of bulk metallic glass (BMG) composites; results are compared with similar measurements for other monolithic and composite BMG alloys. Mechanistically, plastic shielding gives rise to characteristic resistance-curve behavior where the fracture resistance increases with crack extension. Specifically, confinement of damage by second-phase dendrites is shown to result in enhancement of the toughness by nearly an order of magnitude relative to unreinforced glass
Experimental position-time entanglement with degenerate single photons
We report an experiment in which two-photon interference occurs between
degenerate single photons that never meet. The two photons travel in opposite
directions through our fibre-optic interferometer and interference occurs when
the photons reach two different, spatially separated, 2-by-2 couplers at the
same time. We show that this experiment is analogous to the conventional
Franson-type entanglement experiment where the photons are entangled in
position and time. We measure wavefunction overlaps for the two photons as high
as 94 3%.Comment: Updated to published version, new fig. 4., corrected typo
- …