Evaluation of Metallurgical Quality of Cast Iron Using Quality Criteria

The metallurgical quality of the produced cast iron is related to its chemical composition (mainly the content of C, Si, Mn, P, and S), or other monitored elements—alloying elements (Cr, Ni, Cu, …), in some cases showing elements (Pb, Sn, As, Sb, …). The chemical composition of cast iron is determined by the degree of saturation (Sc) or carbon equivalent (CE). Other factors influencing the quality of cast iron are the metallurgical conditions of production (melting and treatment) of cast iron and the rate of solidification in the mold. The mechanical properties of cast iron (Rm, HB, and E0) are closely related to its chemical composition. In addition to this common evaluation of cast iron, other quality criteria of gray cast iron are also used in practice. This is a comparison of the mechanical properties of the produced gray cast iron with the optimal values determined for the same degree of saturation (Sc). This chapter concerns assessments of the metallurgical quality of gray cast iron and the results of operational melting of synthetic gray cast iron with different charge compositions in the Slovak Foundry and its analysis

Influence of thermal fluctuations on the Nernst signal in superconducting (K,Ba)BiO3 single crystals

International audienceWe report on the Nernst effect, specific heat and transportmeasurements performed in high quality (K,Ba)BiO3 single crystals close to optimal doping (Tc ∼ 31 K). We show that a nonzero Nernst effect remains visible well above the upper critical field unambiguously deduced from the onset of the specific heat anomaly. This finite Nernst signal is attributed to fluctuations of the amplitude of the order parameter in a region where the free energy is smaller than kBT . Despite the absence of any vortex liquid phase (and hence of any significant phase fluctuations), the field and temperature dependence of the Nernst coefficient is very similar to the one obtained in electron-doped cuprates

Two-Gap Superconductivity in 2H-NbS2

International audienceWe performed specific heat measurements of the superconducting single crystal of 2H-NbS2 in the temperature range down to 0.6 K and magnetic fields up to 14 T. The temperature and magnetic field dependence of the electronic specific heat consistently indicate existence of two superconducting energy gaps in the system. The superconducting anisotropy depends on both temperature and magnetic field. Moreover, the angular dependence of the upper critical field deviates from the Ginzburg-Landau behavior and rather reminds that of MgB2. All these features point to a multigap superconductivity in 2H-NbS2. Our measurements are in a perfect agreement with the previous scanning tunneling spectroscopy of Guillamón et al

Lower Critical Field Hc1(T) and Pairing Symmetry Based on Eilenberger Theory

We quantitatively estimate different T-dependences of Hc1 between s wave and d wave pairings by Eilenberger theory. The T-dependences of Hc1(T) show quantitative deviation from those in London theory. We also study differences of Hc1(T) between p+ and p- wave pairing in chiral p wave superconductors. There, Hc1(T) is lower in p- wave pairing, and shows the same T-dependence as in s wave pairing.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figur

Superconducting energy gap in MgCNi3 single crystals: Point-contact spectroscopy and specific-heat measurements

Specific heat has been measured down to 600 mK and up to 8 Tesla by the highly sensitive AC microcalorimetry on the MgCNi3 single crystals with Tc ~ 7 K. Exponential decay of the electronic specific heat at low temperatures proved that a superconducting energy gap is fully open on the whole Fermi surface, in agreement with our previous magnetic penetration depth measurements on the same crystals. The specific-heat data analysis shows consistently the strong coupling strength 2D/kTc ~ 4. This scenario is supported by the direct gap measurements via the point-contact spectroscopy. Moreover, the spectroscopy measurements show a decrease in the critical temperature at the sample surface accounting for the observed differences of the superfluid density deduced from the measurements by different techniques

Analysis of Cooling Curves of Nodular Cast Iron

The solidification of cast iron is a complex process with characterized entrance and marginal conditions. Thermal analysis is one of the processes that allows us to observe the solidification of alloys. There is a possibility of gaining information about the melted cast iron quality and predicting the final properties of the cast by evaluating the scanned cooling curves by solidification (stable and metastable system).This article deals with the study and analysis of cooling curves taken from production conditions of a foundry during ductile cast iron production. The aim is to discover the reproduction and reliability of the thermal analysis results of cast iron. The study of the progress of the cooling curves and their first derivation to follow the reactions of the curves to changing factors in the production process