Optimization of Ladle Tilting Speed for Preventing Temperature Drops in the Die Casting Process

In die casting, molten metal poured into a shot sleeve is pressed into a mold by a plunger at high speed. The temperature of the metal drops significantly while it is being poured from the ladle to the shot sleeve, resulting in casting defects such as misrun flow lines. Although it is important to control the temperature at all stages of the process, a method for minimizing temperature loss has not yet been clarified to date. In this study, the cause of the temperature drop in the shot sleeve was clarified, and a method of optimizing the ladle tilting speed was proposed to prevent temperature drop. First, experiments were conducted to measure the decrease in metal temperature in the sleeve during pouring. These experiments revealed that the metal cools significantly from the moment it touches the shot sleeve. Therefore, the time from the first contact between the shot sleeve and the metal to the start of pouring was set as the objective function. A genetic algorithm was then used to derive the optimal ladle tilting speed pattern to suppress the temperature drop. This analysis confirmed that the metal was poured without flowing out or running ahead and that the immediate liquid level vibration after pouring was suppressed, thus ensuring stable pouring

Non-volatile optical phase shift in ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide

A non-volatile optical phase shifter is a critical component for enabling large-scale, energy-efficient programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) on a silicon (Si) photonics platform. While ferroelectric materials like BaTiO3 offer non-volatile optical phase shift capabilities, their compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabs is limited. Hence, the search for a novel CMOS-compatible ferroelectric material for non-volatile optical phase shifting in Si photonics is of utmost importance. Hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) is an emerging ferroelectric material discovered in 2011, which exhibits CMOS compatibility due to the utilization of high-k dielectric HfO2 in CMOS transistors. Although extensively studied for ferroelectric transistors and memories, its application in photonics remains relatively unexplored. Here, we show the optical phase shift induced by ferroelectric HZO deposited on a SiN optical waveguide. We observed a negative change in refractive index at a 1.55 um wavelength in the pristine device regardless of the direction of an applied electric filed. We achieved approximately pi phase shift in a 4.5-mm-long device with negligible optical loss. The non-volatile multi-level optical phase shift was confirmed with a persistence of > 10000 s. This phase shift can be attributed to the spontaneous polarization within the HZO film along the external electric field. We anticipate that our results will stimulate further research on optical nonlinear effects, such as the Pockels effect, in ferroelectric HZO. This advancement will enable the development of various devices, including high-speed optical modulators. Consequently, HZO-based programmable PICs are poised to become indispensable in diverse applications, ranging from optical fiber communication and artificial intelligence to quantum computing and sensing

Efficient Implementation of Tate Pairing on a Mobile Phone using Java

Pairing-based cryptosystems (PBC) have been attracted by researchers in cryptography. Some implementations show that PBC are relatively slower than the standard public key cryptosystems. We present an efficient implementation for computing Tate pairing on a mobile phone using Java. We implemented the $\eta_T$ pairing (a recent efficient variation of Duursma-Lee algorithm) over some finite fields of characteristic 3 with extension degree $m= \{ 97, 167, 193, 239 \}$. Our optimized implementation for $m=97$ achieved about 0.5 seconds for computing Tate pairing over FOMA SH901iS, NTT DoCoMo. Then our implementation of Tate pairing is compared in the same platform with other Java program of the standard cryptosystems, i.e., RSA cryptosystem and elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC). The computation speed of Tate pairing is comparable to that of RSA or ECC on the same mobile device

CFD Optimization Method to Design Foam Residue Traps for Full Mold Casting

Full mold casting is a casting process in which a mold made of wood or metal is substituted for a styrofoam model. This metal casting process is advantageous for the production of large-sized castings because it uses a foamed model. However, this unique process of melting a foamed model causes a problem which is the foamed model remains dissolved in the casting. This is called foam residue defect and is specific to full mold casting. In this study, we propose a new casting design called a residue trap to reduce these residue defects. This residue trap collects the residue of foam models included in the molten metal, which tends to be generated when the temperature of the molten metal becomes low by being attached to the product part in the same way to overflows. We also optimized the shape of the residue trap in terms of easing of post-treatment and increasing efficiency of collecting foam residue. Eventually, the effectiveness of the residue trap was verified by actual full mold casting experiments

Practical Grammar Compression Based on Maximal Repeats

This study presents an analysis of RePair, which is a grammar compression algorithm known for its simple scheme, while also being practically effective. First, we show that the main process of RePair, that is, the step by step substitution of the most frequent symbol pairs, works within the corresponding most frequent maximal repeats. Then, we reveal the relation between maximal repeats and grammars constructed by RePair. On the basis of this analysis, we further propose a novel variant of RePair, called MR-RePair, which considers the one-time substitution of the most frequent maximal repeats instead of the consecutive substitution of the most frequent pairs. The results of the experiments comparing the size of constructed grammars and execution time of RePair and MR-RePair on several text corpora demonstrate that MR-RePair constructs more compact grammars than RePair does, especially for highly repetitive texts

Method for Visualizing Fractures Induced by Laboratory-Based Hydraulic Fracturing and Its Application to Shale Samples

A better understanding of the process of stimulation by hydraulic fracturing in shale gas and oil reservoirs is necessary for improving resource productivity. However, direct observation of hydraulically stimulated regions including induced fractures has been difficult. In the present study, we develop a new approach for directly visualizing regions of shale specimens impregnated by fluid during hydraulic fracturing. The proposed laboratory method uses a thermosetting resin mixed with a fluorescent substance as a fracturing fluid. After fracturing, the resin is fixed within the specimens by heating, and the cut sections are then observed under ultraviolet light. Based on brightness, we can then distinguish induced fractures and their surrounding regions impregnated by the fluid from other regions not reached by the fluid. Polarization microscope observation clearly reveals the detailed structures of tortuous or branched fractures on the micron scale and interactions between fractures and constituent minerals. The proposed experimental and observation method is useful for understanding the process of stimulation by hydraulic fracturing and its relationship with microscopic rock characteristics, which is important for fracturing design optimization in shale gas and oil resource development