12,744 research outputs found
Thermal expansion mismatch and plasticity in thermal barrier coating
The basic objective of this investigation is the quantitative determination of stress states in a model thermal barrier coating (TBC) as it cools in the air to 600 C from an assumed stress-free state at 700 C. This model is intended to represent a thin plasma-sprayed zirconia-yttria ceramic layer with a nickel chromium-aluminum-yttrium bond coat on a cylindrical substrate made of nickel-based superalloys typically found in gas turbines
A study on thermal barrier coatings including thermal expansion mismatch and bond coat oxidation
The present investigation deals with a plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coating (TBC) intended for high temperature applications to advanced gas turbine blades. Typically, this type of coating system consists of a zirconia-yttria ceramic layer with a nickel-chromium-aluminum bond coat on a superalloy substrate. The problem on hand is a complex one due to the fact that bond coat oxidation and thermal mismatch occur in the TBC. Cracking in the TBC has also been experimentally illustrated. A clearer understanding of the mechanical behavior of the TBC is investigated. The stress states in a model thermal barrier coating as it cools down in air is studied. The powerful finite element method was utilized to model a coating cylindrical specimen. Four successively refined finite element models were developed. Some results obtained using the first two models have been reported previously. The major accomplishment is the successful development of an elastic TBC finite element model known as TBCG with interface geometry between the ceramic layer and the bond coat. An equally important milestone is the near-completion of the new elastic-plastic TBC finite element model called TBCGEP which yielded initial results. Representative results are presented
Characterization and durability testing of plasma-sprayed zirconia-yttria and hafnia-yttria thermal barrier coatings. Part 1: Effect of spray parameters on the performance of several lots of partially stabilized zirconia-yttria powder
Initial experiments conducted on thermal barrier coatings prepared in the newly upgraded research plasma spray facility and the burner rig test facilities are discussed. Part 1 discusses experiments which establish the spray parameters for three baseline zirconia-yttria coatings. The quality of five similar coating lots was judged primarily by their response to burner rig exposure supplemented by data from other sources such as specimen characterizations and thermal diffusivity measurements. After allowing for burner rig variability, although there appears to be an optimum density (i.e., optimum microstructure) for maximum burner rig life, the distribution tends to be rather broad about the maximum. In Part 2, new hafnia-yttria-based coatings were evaluated against both baseline and alternate zirconia-yttria coatings. The hafnia-yttria coatings and the zirconia-yttria coatings that were prepared by an alternate powder vendor were very sensitive to plasma spray parameters, in that high-quality coatings were only obtained when certain parameters were employed. The reasons for this important observation are not understood. Also not understood is that the first of two replicate specimens sprayed for Part 1 consistently performed better than the second specimen. Subsequent experiments did not display this spray order affect, possibly because a chiller was installed in the torch cooling water circuit. Also, large changes in coating density were observed after switching to a new lot of electrodes. Analyses of these findings were made possible, in part, because of the development of a sensitive density measurement technique described herein in detail. The measured thermal diffusivities did not display the expected strong relationship with porosity. This surprising result was believed to have been caused by increased microcracking of the denser coatings on the stainless steel substrates
The Role of Projection in the Control of Bird Flocks
Swarming is a conspicuous behavioural trait observed in bird flocks, fish
shoals, insect swarms and mammal herds. It is thought to improve collective
awareness and offer protection from predators. Many current models involve the
hypothesis that information coordinating motion is exchanged between neighbors.
We argue that such local interactions alone are insufficient to explain the
organization of large flocks of birds and that the mechanism for the exchange
of long-ranged information necessary to control their density remains unknown.
We show that large flocks self-organize to the maximum density at which a
typical individual is still just able to see out of the flock in many
directions. Such flocks are marginally opaque - an external observer can also
just still see a substantial fraction of sky through the flock. Although
seemingly intuitive we show that this need not be the case; flocks could easily
be highly diffuse or entirely opaque. The emergence of marginal opacity
strongly constrains how individuals interact with each other within large
swarms. It also provides a mechanism for global interactions: An individual can
respond to the projection of the flock that it sees. This provides for faster
information transfer and hence rapid flock dynamics, another advantage over
local models. From a behavioural perspective it optimizes the information
available to each bird while maintaining the protection of a dense, coherent
flock.Comment: PNAS early edition published online at
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.140220211
Estimation of the Cost of a Newark Promise
This report offers an estimate of the cost of a place-based scholarship program, with a similar program structure as the Kalamazoo Promise, for the City of Newark, New Jersey. It is assumed that the projected Newark Promise scholarship program would begin in the fall of 2013, and the full cost of the scholarship would not occur until 2016 when four years of students are enrolled with Promise scholarships. Once fully loaded, annual cost estimates for a Newark Promise range from approximately 11.5 million per year, although costs would be substantially lower in the initial years of the program. Only the scholarship costs are estimated in this report; costs associated with administering the scholarship program or any related support programs are not included
Iron-Line Emission as a Probe of Bardeen-Petterson Accretion Disks
In this work we show that Bardeen-Petterson accretion disks can exhibit
unique, detectable features in relativistically broadened emission line
profiles. Some of the unique characteristics include inverted line profiles
with sharper red horns and softer blue horns and even profiles with more than 2
horns from a single rest-frame line. We demonstrate these points by
constructing a series of synthetic line profiles using simple two-component
disk models. We find that the resultant profiles are very sensitive to the two
key parameters one would like to constrain, namely the Bardeen-Petterson
transition radius r_{BP} and the relative tilt \beta between the two disk
components over a range of likely values [10 < r_{BP}/(GM/c^2) < 40 ; 15deg <
\beta < 45deg]. We use our findings to show that some of the ``extra'' line
features observed in the spectrum of the Seyfert-I galaxy MCG--6-30-15 may be
attributable to a Bardeen-Petterson disk structure. Similarly, we apply our
findings to two likely Bardeen-Petterson candidate Galactic black holes - GRO
J1655-40 and XTE J1550-564. We provide synthetic line profiles of these systems
using observationally constrained sets of parameters. Although we do not
formally fit the data for any of these systems, we confirm that our synthetic
spectra are consistent with current observations.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Ap
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