Geometry: The leading parameter for the Poisson’s ratio of bending-dominated cellular solids

Control over the deformation behaviour that a cellular structure shows in response to imposed external forces is a requirement for the effective design of mechanical metamaterials, in particular those with negative Poisson’s ratio. This article sheds light on the old question of the relationship between geometric microstructure and mechanical response, by comparison of the deformation properties of bar-and-joint-frameworks with those of their realisation as a cellular solid made from linear-elastic material. For ordered planar tessellation models, we find a classification in terms of the number of degrees of freedom of the framework model: first, in cases where the geometry uniquely prescribes a single deformation mode of the framework model, the mechanical deformation and Poisson’s ratio of the linearly-elastic cellular solid closely follow those of the unique deformation mode; the result is a bending-dominated deformation with negligible dependence of the effective Poisson’s ratio on the underlying material’s Poisson’s ratio and small values of the effective Young’s modulus. Second, in the case of rigid structures or when geometric degeneracy prevents the bending-dominated deformation mode, the effective Poisson’s ratio is material-dependent and the Young’s modulus View the MathML sourceE˜cs large. All analysed structures of this type have positive values of the Poisson’s ratio and large values of View the MathML sourceE˜cs. Third, in the case, where the framework has multiple deformation modes, geometry alone does not suffice to determine the mechanical deformation. These results clarify the relationship between mechanical properties of a linear-elastic cellular solid and its corresponding bar-and-joint framework abstraction. They also raise the question if, in essence, auxetic behaviour is restricted to the geometry-guided class of bending-dominated structures corresponding to unique mechanisms, with inherently low values of the Young’s modulus

β-Decay Half-Lives of 110 Neutron-Rich Nuclei across the N = 82 Shell Gap: Implications for the Mechanism and Universality of the Astrophysical r Process

G. Larusso et al.; 7 pags.; 5 figs.; 2 tabs.; PACS numbers: 23.40.-s, 26.30.Hj, 27.60.+j© 2015 American Physical Society. The β-decay half-lives of 110 neutron-rich isotopes of the elements from 37Rb to 50Sn were measured at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. The 40 new half-lives follow robust systematics and highlight the persistence of shell effects. The new data have direct implications for r-process calculations and reinforce the notion that the second (A ≈ 130) and the rare-earth-element (A ≈ 160) abundance peaks may result from the freeze-out of an (n, γ) ⇄ (γ,n) equilibrium. In such an equilibrium, the new half-lives are important factors determining the abundance of rare-earth elements, and allow for a more reliable discussion of the r process universality. It is anticipated that universality may not extend to the elements Sn, Sb, I, and Cs, making the detection of these elements in metal-poor stars of the utmost importance to determine the exact conditions of individual r-process events.Part of the WAS3ABi was supported by the Rare Isotope Science Project which is funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST) and National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea. This work was partially supported by KAKENHI (Grants No. 25247045, No. 2301752, and No. 25800130), the RIKEN Foreign Research Program, the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Contracts No. FPA2009-13377-C02 and No. FPA2011-29854-C04), the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357, the NASA Grant No. NNX10AH78G, and the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund OTKA Contract No. K100835.Peer Reviewe

First Direct Mass Measurements of Nuclides around Z=100 with a Multireflection Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrograph

The masses of 246Es, 251Fm, and the transfermium nuclei 249−252Md and 254No, produced by hot- and cold-fusion reactions, in the vicinity of the deformed N=152 neutron shell closure, have been directly measured using a multireflection time-of-flight mass spectrograph. The masses of 246Es and 249,250,252Md were measured for the first time. Using the masses of 249,250Md as anchor points for α decay chains, the masses of heavier nuclei, up to 261Bh and 266Mt, were determined. These new masses were compared with theoretical global mass models and demonstrated to be in good agreement with macroscopic-microscopic models in this region. The empirical shell gap parameter δ2n derived from three isotopic masses was updated with the new masses and corroborates the existence of the deformed N=152 neutron shell closure for Md and Lr

Half-lives of Sr-73 and Y-76 and the consequences for the proton dripline

The half-lives of seven nuclei have been determined in the neutron-deficient mass-70 region following their production via fragmentation of a 345 MeV/nucleon Xe-124 primary beam on a 740 mg/cm(2) Be-9 target at the RI Beam Factory, RIKEN. The results include two new (Sr-73 and Y-76) half-lives and a more precise measurement for the ground-state half-life of Sr-74. The new results are discussed with reference to previously published calculations that predict the location of the proton dripline in the light Sr and Y region of the nuclear chart. In addition, differences in the ground-state structure of Rb-72 and Y-76 are discussed with the aid of density functional theory calculations. These provide a possible explanation for why Rb-72 undergoes proton decay while the alpha-conjugate nucleus Y-76 predominantly undergoes beta(+) decay.Peer reviewe

Paricle identification at VAMOS++ with machine learning techniques

Multi-nucleon transfer reaction between 136Xe beam and 198Pt target was performed using the VAMOS++ spectrometer at GANIL to study the structure of n-rich nuclei around N=126. Unambiguous charge state identification was obtained by combining two supervised machine learning methods, deep neural network (DNN) and positional correction using a gradient-boosting decision tree (GBDT). The new method reduced the complexity of the kinetic energy calibration and outperformed the conventional method improving the charge state resolution by 8%

Finding auxetic frameworks in periodic tessellations

It appears that most models for micro-structured materials with auxetic deformations were found by clever intuition, possibly combined with optimization tools, rather than by systematic searches of existing structure archives. Here we review our recent approach of finding micro-structured materials with auxetic mechanisms within the vast repositories of planar tessellations. This approach has produced two previously unknown auxetic mechanisms, which have Poisson's ratio νss = -1 when realized as a skeletal structure of stiff incompressible struts pivoting freely at common vertices. One of these, baptized Triangle-Square Wheels, has been produced as a linear-elastic cellular structure from Ti-6Al-4V alloy by selective electron beam melting. Its linear-elastic properties were measured by tensile experiments and yield an effective Poisson's ratio νLE ≈ -0.75, also in agreement with finite element modeling. The similarity between the Poisson's ratios νSS of the skeletal structure and νLE of the linear-elastic cellular structure emphasizes the fundamental role of geometry for deformation behavior, regardless of the mechanical details of the system. The approach of exploiting structure archives as candidate geometries for auxetic materials also applies to spatial networks and tessellations and can aid the quest for inherently three-dimensional auxetic mechanisms