Relationship between solidification microstructure and hot cracking susceptibility for continuous casting of low-carbon and high-strength low-alloyed steels: A phase-field study

© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2013Hot cracking is one of the major defects in continuous casting of steels, frequently limiting the productivity. To understand the factors leading to this defect, microstructure formation is simulated for a low-carbon and two high-strength low-alloyed steels. 2D simulation of the initial stage of solidification is performed in a moving slice of the slab using proprietary multiphase-field software and taking into account all elements which are expected to have a relevant effect on the mechanical properties and structure formation during solidification. To account for the correct thermodynamic and kinetic properties of the multicomponent alloy grades, the simulation software is online coupled to commercial thermodynamic and mobility databases. A moving-frame boundary condition allows traveling through the entire solidification history starting from the slab surface, and tracking the morphology changes during growth of the shell. From the simulation results, significant microstructure differences between the steel grades are quantitatively evaluated and correlated with their hot cracking behavior according to the Rappaz-Drezet-Gremaud (RDG) hot cracking criterion. The possible role of the microalloying elements in hot cracking, in particular of traces of Ti, is analyzed. With the assumption that TiN precipitates trigger coalescence of the primary dendrites, quantitative evaluation of the critical strain rates leads to a full agreement with the observed hot cracking behavior. © 2013 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International

Critical behavior at superconductor-insulator phase transitions near one dimension

I argue that the system of interacting bosons at zero temperature and in random external potential possesses a simple critical point which describes the proliferation of disorder-induced topological defects in the superfluid ground state, and which is located at weak disorder close to and above one dimension. This makes it possible to address the critical behavior at the superfluid-Bose glass transition in dirty boson systems by expanding around the lower critical dimension d=1. Within the formulated renormalization procedure near d=1 the dynamical critical exponent is obtained exactly and the correlation length exponent is calculated as a Laurent series in the parameter \sqrt{\epsilon}, with \epsilon=d-1: z=d, \nu=1/\sqrt{3\epsilon} for the short range, and z=1, \nu=\sqrt{2/3\epsilon}, for the long-range Coulomb interaction between bosons. The identified critical point should be stable against the residual perturbations in the effective action for the superfluid, at least in dimensions 1\leq d \leq 2, for both short-range and Coulomb interactions. For the superfluid-Mott insulator transition in the system in a periodic potential and at a commensurate density of bosons I find \nu=(1/2\sqrt{\epsilon})+ 1/4+O(\sqrt{\epsilon}), which yields a result reasonably close to the known XY critical exponent in d=2+1. The critical behavior of the superfluid density, phonon velocity and the compressibility in the system with the short-range interactions is discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 1 Postscript figure, LaTe

Superconductor-insulator quantum critical point in 1+\epsilon dimensions

A system of spinless fermions in $d=1+\epsilon$ dimensions, at zero-temperature and in random potential is studied using the perturbative renormalization group to first order in disorder and to second order in interaction. We find a superconductor-to- Anderson insulator quantum fixed point at an infinitesimal value of disorder and calculate the correlation length and the dynamical exponents to the lowest order in $\epsilon$ and in interaction. The scaling of conductivity with temperature and the behavior of characteristic temperature scales on both sides of the transition is determined. The model may have relevance for a p-wave superconductor at low temperatures in strongly disordered media.Comment: 8 pages, LaTex, one figure available upon request, typos corrected, discussion of conductivity made more precis

Hermeneutics and Nature

This paper contributes to the on-going research into the ways in which the humanities transformed the natural sciences in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. By investigating the relationship between hermeneutics -- as developed by Herder -- and natural history, it shows how the methods used for the study of literary and artistic works played a crucial role in the emergence of key natural-scientific fields, including geography and ecology

Effect of Crystallographic Texture on Magnetic Characteristics of Cobalt Nanowires

Cobalt nanowires with controlled diameters have been synthesized using electrochemical deposition in etched ion-track polycarbonate membranes. Structural characterization of these nanowires with diameter 70, 90, 120 nm and length 30 μm was performed by scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction techniques. The as-prepared wires show uniform diameter along the whole length and X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that [002] texture of these wires become more pronounced as diameter is reduced. Magnetic characterization of the nanowires shows a clear difference of squareness and coercivity between parallel and perpendicular orientations of the wires with respect to the applied field direction. In case of parallel applied field, the coercivity has been found to be decreasing with increasing diameter of the wires while in perpendicular case; the coercivity observes lower values for larger diameter. The results are explained by taking into account the magnetocrystalline and shape anisotropies with respect to the applied field and domain transformation mechanism when single domain limit is surpassed

Measurement and Interpretation of Fermion-Pair Production at LEP energies above the Z Resonance

This paper presents DELPHI measurements and interpretations of cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries, and angular distributions, for the e+e- -> ffbar process for centre-of-mass energies above the Z resonance, from sqrt(s) ~ 130 - 207 GeV at the LEP collider. The measurements are consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model and are used to study a variety of models including the S-Matrix ansatz for e+e- -> ffbar scattering and several models which include physics beyond the Standard Model: the exchange of Z' bosons, contact interactions between fermions, the exchange of gravitons in large extra dimensions and the exchange of sneutrino in R-parity violating supersymmetry.Comment: 79 pages, 16 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

A Determination of the Centre-of-Mass Energy at LEP2 using Radiative 2-fermion Events

Using e+e- -> mu+mu-(gamma) and e+e- -> qqbar(gamma) events radiative to the Z pole, DELPHI has determined the centre-of-mass energy, sqrt{s}, using energy and momentum constraint methods. The results are expressed as deviations from the nominal LEP centre-of-mass energy, measured using other techniques. The results are found to be compatible with the LEP Energy Working Group estimates for a combination of the 1997 to 2000 data sets.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

A Measurement of the Tau Hadronic Branching Ratios

The exclusive and semi-exclusive branching ratios of the tau lepton hadronic decay modes (h- v_t, h- pi0 v_t, h- pi0 pi0 v_t, h- \geq 2pi0 v_t, h- \geq 3pi0 v_t, 2h- h+ v_t, 2h- h+ pi0 v_t, 2h- h+ \geq 2pi0 v_t, 3h- 2h+ v_t and 3h- 2h+ \geq 1pi0 v_t) were measured with data from the DELPHI detector at LEP.Comment: 53 pages, 18 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.