Plastic flow and structural heterogeneities in silicate glasses - A high throughput investigation

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Micro-pillar testing of amorphous silica

International audienceAmorphous silica exhibits a complex mechanical response. The elastic regime is highly non linear while plastic flow does not conserve volume, re- sulting in densification. As a result the quantification of a reliable constitutive equation is a difficult task. We have assessed the potential of micro-pillar compression testing for the investigation of the micromechanical properties of amorphous silica. We have calculated the response of amorphous silica mi- cropillars as predicted by Finite Element Analysis. The results were compared to preliminary micro-compression tests. In the calculations an advanced con- stitutive law including plastic response, densification and strain hardening was used. Special attention was paid to the evaluation of the impact of substrate compliance, pillar misalignment and friction conditions. We find that amor- phous silica is much more amenable than some metals to microcompression experiments due to a comparatively high ratio between yield stress and elastic modulus. The simulations are found to be very consistent with the experimen- tal results. However full agreement cannot be obtained without allowance for the non linear response of amorphous silica in the elastic regime

Is the second harmonic method applicable for thin films mechanical properties characterization by nanoindentation? Is the second harmonic method applicable for thin films mechanical properties characterization by nanoindentation?

The second harmonic method is a dynamic indentation technique independent of the direct indentation depth measurement. It can be used to determine near-surface mechanical properties of bulk materials more precisely than classical dynamic nano-indentation. In this paper, the second harmonic method is extended to the measurement of the mechanical properties of thin PMMA layers deposited onto silicon wafers. It is shown that this new technique gives precise results at small depths (less than 100nm), even for films with a thickness lower than 500nm, which was not possible to achieve with the classical CSM method. However, experimental and numerical results obtained both with classical nanoindentation and second harmonic methods differ at high indentation depth. Using FE simulations and AFM measurements, it is shown that the contact depth calculation with classical models can explain this difference

About the plastic response of silicate glasses at the micronscale

Despite their brittleness, silicate glasses undergo plastic deformation at the micron scale. Mechanical contact and indentation are the most common situations of interest. The plasticity of glasses is characterized not only by shear flow but also by a permanent densification process. We present novel observations of the deformation and fracture of amorphous silica micropillars of various sizes using In Situ SEM Micro-Compression (Fig 1), that can help better understand the mechanisms occurring prior to its fracture [1]. Exhibiting one of the highest ratios of shear stress on shear modulus, fused silica thus further distinguishes itself from other amorphous materials. Moreover, nanocompression allows successful observations of crack initiation and growth. In parallel to this experimental investigation, atomistic simulations [2] aiming to investigate the theoretical plastic response of silicate glasses under coupled shear-pressure stress state was run. The results were interpreted in terms of volumetric and shear hardening. A buckling-like behaviour is clearly evidenced at low density (large free-volume) whereas a BMG-like is observed for samples densified until saturation. Thanks to this rich set of data, it seems now possible to define a constitutive model taking into account both nanomechanical results, i.e. nanopillars, nanoindentation, diamond anvil cell, and molecular dynamics simulation Despite their brittleness, silicate glasses undergo plastic deformation at the micron scale. Mechanical contact and indentation are the most common situations of interest. The plasticity of glasses is characterized not only by shear flow but also by a permanent densification process. We present novel observations of the deformation and fracture of amorphous silica micropillars of various sizes using In Situ SEM Micro-Compression (Fig 1), that can help better understand the mechanisms occurring prior to its fracture [1]. Exhibiting one of the highest ratios of shear stress on shear modulus, fused silica thus further distinguishes itself from other amorphous materials. Moreover, nanocompression allows successful observations of crack initiation and growth. In parallel to this experimental investigation, atomistic simulations [2] aiming to investigate the theoretical plastic response of silicate glasses under coupled shear-pressure stress state was run. The results were interpreted in terms of volumetric and shear hardening. A buckling-like behaviour is clearly evidenced at low density (large free-volume) whereas a BMG-like is observed for samples densified until saturation. Thanks to this rich set of data, it seems now possible to define a constitutive model taking into account both nanomechanical results, i.e. nanopillars, nanoindentation, diamond anvil cell, and molecular dynamics simulation

GaN-AlGaN Heterostructure Field-Effect Transistors over Bulk GaN Substrates

We report on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures and heterostructurefield-effect transistors(HFETs) fabricated on high-pressure-grown bulk GaN substrates. The 2delectron gas channel exhibits excellent electronic properties with room-temperature electron Hall mobility as high as μ=1650 cm2/V s combined with a very large electron sheet density ns≈1.4×1013 cm−2.The HFET devices demonstrated better linearity of transconductance and low gate leakage, especially at elevated temperatures. We also present the comparative study of high-current AlGaN/GaN HFETs(nsμ\u3e2×1016 V−1 s−1) grown on bulk GaN, sapphire, and SiC substrates under the same conditions. We demonstrate that in the high-power regime, the self-heating effects, and not a dislocation density, is the dominant factor determining the device behavior

Can physiological endpoints improve the sensitivity of assays with plants in the risk assessment of contaminated soils?

Site-specific risk assessment of contaminated areas indicates prior areas for intervention, and provides helpful information for risk managers. This study was conducted in the Ervedosa mine area (Bragança, Portugal), where both underground and open pit exploration of tin and arsenic minerals were performed for about one century (1857-1969). We aimed at obtaining ecotoxicological information with terrestrial and aquatic plant species to integrate in the risk assessment of this mine area. Further we also intended to evaluate if the assessment of other parameters, in standard assays with terrestrial plants, can improve the identification of phytotoxic soils. For this purpose, soil samples were collected on 16 sampling sites distributed along four transects, defined within the mine area, and in one reference site. General soil physical and chemical parameters, total and extractable metal contents were analyzed. Assays were performed for soil elutriates and for the whole soil matrix following standard guidelines for growth inhibition assay with Lemna minor and emergence and seedling growth assay with Zea mays. At the end of the Z. mays assay, relative water content, membrane permeability, leaf area, content of photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids), malondialdehyde levels, proline content, and chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm and ΦPSII) parameters were evaluated. In general, the soils near the exploration area revealed high levels of Al, Mn, Fe and Cu. Almost all the soils from transepts C, D and F presented total concentrations of arsenic well above soils screening benchmark values available. Elutriates of several soils from sampling sites near the exploration and ore treatment areas were toxic to L. minor, suggesting that the retention function of these soils was seriously compromised. In Z. mays assay, plant performance parameters (other than those recommended by standard protocols), allowed the identification of more phytotoxic soils. The results suggest that these parameters could improve the sensitivity of the standard assays

Application of natural language to information systems (NLDB'14)

International audienceThis special issue consists of four revised and extended papers selected from the 19th International conference on Applications of Natural Language to Information Systems (NLDB 2014), which was organized in June 2014 in Montpellier, France. For nearly 20 years, NLDB conferences (http://nldb.org) bring together researchers interested in the use of natural language processing techniques in applications such as database querying, information systems architecture, software development, specification checking, and more recently, various applications dealing with automatic enrichment of and advanced search in large volumes of web content, including opinion mining and sentiment analysis. Authors of a selected number of contributions to the conference (13 full papers, 8 short papers, and 14 poster presentations, among the 73 submitted ones) were asked to develop their papers into journal articles. After additional reviewing, 4 papers were eventually selected for this special issue. The addressed topics (e.g, information retrieval, information extraction, reasoning, disambiguation) underline the various and complex issues addressed by the Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Systems (IS) communities