Residual stresses in weld overlay tubes: A finite element study

Residual stresses and strains in a tube with circumferential weld overlay were analyzed by the finite element (FE) method. The objective of this work was to develop and verify a FE model, to determine the magnitude and distribution of residual stresses in the weld overlay tube, and to evaluate the significance of two contributing factors to residual stress: (1) difference in material properties between tube and weld material, and (2) thermal gradients in the weld. An axisymmetric FE model was developed to simulate the circumferential two-layer welding process of alloy 625 overlay on SA210 tube. The first layer was modeled as a gas metal arc welding process with filler metal, whereas the autogenous gas tungsten arc welding process was modeled for the second layer. Neutron diffraction technique was used to experimentally determine residual elastic strains in the weld overlay tube. Comparison with the FE results shows overall good agreement. Both the experimental and FE results show high compressive stresses at the inside tube surface and high tensile stresses in the weld overlay. This suggests that weld overlay may be used to relieve tensile or produce compressive stresses at the inside tube surface, which is significant for applications where crack initiation is found at the root pass of the joining weld

A Mechanical Mass Sensor with Yoctogram Resolution

Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have generated considerable interest as inertial mass sensors. NEMS resonators have been used to weigh cells, biomolecules, and gas molecules, creating many new possibilities for biological and chemical analysis [1-4]. Recently, NEMS-based mass sensors have been employed as a new tool in surface science in order to study e.g. the phase transitions or the diffusion of adsorbed atoms on nanoscale objects [5-7]. A key point in all these experiments is the ability to resolve small masses. Here we report on mass sensing experiments with a resolution of 1.7 yg (1 yg = 10^-24 g), which corresponds to the mass of one proton, or one hydrogen atom. The resonator is made of a ~150 nm long carbon nanotube resonator vibrating at nearly 2 GHz. The unprecedented level of sensitivity allows us to detect adsorption events of naphthalene molecules (C10H8) and to measure the binding energy of a Xe atom on the nanotube surface (131 meV). These ultrasensitive nanotube resonators offer new opportunities for mass spectrometry, magnetometry, and adsorption experiments.Comment: submitted version of the manuscrip

Toward Objective Quantification of Perfusion-weighted Computed Tomography in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Quantification of Symmetry and Automated Delineation of Vascular Territories

Rationale and Objectives: Perfusion-weighted computed tomography (CTP) is a relatively recent innovation that estimates a value for cerebral blood flow (CBF) using a series of axial head CT images tracking the time course of a signal from an intravenous contrast bolus. Materials and Methods: CTP images were obtained using a standard imaging protocol and were analyzed using commercially available software. A novel computer-based method was used for objective quantification of side-to-side asymmetries of CBF values calculated from CTP images. Results: Our method corrects for the inherent variability of the CTP methodology seen in the subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) patient population to potentially aid in the diagnosis of cerebral vasospasm (CVS). This method analyzes and quantifies side-to-side asymmetry of CBF and presents relative differences in a construct termed a Relative Difference Map (RDM). To further automate this process, we have developed a unique methodology that enables a computer to delineate vascular territories within a brain image, regardless of the size and shape of the brain. Conclusions: While both the quantification of image symmetry using RDMs and the automated assignment of vascular territories were initially designed for the analysis of CTP images, it is likely that they will be useful in a variety of applications

Residual stress distribution in FeAl weld overlay on steel

Neutron diffraction was used to measure the residual stress distribution in an FeAl weld overlay on steel. It was found that the residual stresses accumulated during welding were essentially removed by the post-weld heat treatment that was applied to the specimen; most residual stresses in the specimen developed during cooling following the post-weld heat treatment. The experimental data were compared with a plasto-elastic finite element analysis. While some disagreement exists in absolute strain values, there is satisfactory agreement in strain spatial distribution between the experimental data and the finite element analysis

Modeling and validation of residual stress distribution in an HSLA-100 disk

The residual stress distribution in a GTA spot we 100 steel disk was analyzed using thermomechanically uncoupled and semi-coupled finite element (FE) formulations and measured with the neutron diffraction technique. The computations used temperature-dependent the and mechanical properties of the base metal. The thermal analysis was based on the heat conduction formulation with the Gaussian heat input from the arc. The semi-coupled approach is an effective alternative to the fully coupled approach in which the incompatibility in the thermal and mechanical time increments often leads to numerical convergence difficulties. Convergence was achieved in the semi-coupled approach where a larger time increment for temperature calculation was automatically divided into some sub-intervals for the thermal stress calculation. The temperature, deformation configurations, and state variables were updated at the end of the temperature increment. The predictions from the FE models are in very good agreement with the neutron measurement results in the far heat-affected zone (HAZ) and in the base metal. Both models over-predicted the residual stress field in the fusion zone and near HAZ as measured by the neutron diffraction method. The discrepancy could be attributed to the changes in microstructures and material properties in the HAZ and fusion zone due to phase transformations during the welding thermal cycle. The formation of cracks in the fusion zone is another factor that possibly contributes to the lower measured residual stress values

Effects of signs in tunneling matrix elements on transmission zeros and phase

The effect of the signs in the tunneling matrix elements on the transmission zeros and the transmission phase in transport through a quantum dot is studied. The existence of the transmission zeros is determined by both the relative signs and the strength of the tunneling matrix elements for two neighboring energy levels of a dot. The experimentally observed oscillating behavior of the transmission phase over several Coulomb peaks can be explained by the uniform distribution of the relative signs. Based on the simple model of a quantum dot, we present a possible scenario which can give the uniform signs over several conductance peaks. We suggest that the location of the transmission zeros can be identified by inspecting the Fano interference pattern in the linear response conductance of the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer with an embedded quantum as a function of the number of electrons in a dot and the AB flux.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Effects of Preterm Birth on Cortical Thickness Measured in Adolescence

Despite the extensive research into brain development after preterm birth, few studies have investigated its long-term effects on cortical thickness. The Stockholm Neonatal Project included infants between 1988 and 1993 with birth weight (BW) ≤1500 g. Using a previously published method, cortical thickness was estimated on T1-weighted 3D anatomical images acquired from 74 ex-preterm and 69 term-born adolescents (mean age 14.92 years). The cortex was significantly thinner in ex-preterm individuals in focal regions of the temporal and parietal cortices as indicated by voxel-wise t-tests. In addition, large regions around the central sulcus and temporal lobe as well as parts of the frontal and occipital lobes tended also to be thinner in the ex-preterm group. Although these results were not significant on voxel-wise tests, the spatially coherent arrangement of the thinning in ex-preterm individuals made it notable. When the group of ex-preterm individuals was divided by gestational age or BW, the thinning tended to be more pronounced in the anterior and posterior poles in those born nearer term or with a BW closer to 1500 g. These results support the notion that preterm birth is a risk factor for long-term development of cortical thickness

Graphite and Hexagonal Boron-Nitride Possess the Same Interlayer Distance. Why?

Graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) are two prominent members of the family of layered materials possessing a hexagonal lattice. While graphite has non-polar homo-nuclear C-C intra-layer bonds, h-BN presents highly polar B-N bonds resulting in different optimal stacking modes of the two materials in bulk form. Furthermore, the static polarizabilities of the constituent atoms considerably differ from each other suggesting large differences in the dispersive component of the interlayer bonding. Despite these major differences both materials present practically identical interlayer distances. To understand this finding, a comparative study of the nature of the interlayer bonding in both materials is presented. A full lattice sum of the interactions between the partially charged atomic centers in h-BN results in vanishingly small monopolar electrostatic contributions to the interlayer binding energy. Higher order electrostatic multipoles, exchange, and short-range correlation contributions are found to be very similar in both materials and to almost completely cancel out by the Pauli repulsions at physically relevant interlayer distances resulting in a marginal effective contribution to the interlayer binding. Further analysis of the dispersive energy term reveals that despite the large differences in the individual atomic polarizabilities the hetero-atomic B-N C6 coefficient is very similar to the homo-atomic C-C coefficient in the hexagonal bulk form resulting in very similar dispersive contribution to the interlayer binding. The overall binding energy curves of both materials are thus very similar predicting practically the same interlayer distance and very similar binding energies.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Evaluation of Ischemic Stroke Hybrid Segmentation in a Rat Model of Temporary Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion using Ground Truth from Histologic and MR data

A segmentation method that quantifies cerebral infarct using rat data with ischemic stroke is evaluated using ground truth from histologic and MR data. To demonstrate alternative approach to rapid quantification of cerebral infarct volumes using histologic stained slices that requires scarifying animal life, a study with MR acquire volumetric rat data is proposed where ground truth is obtained by manual delineations by experts and automated segmentation is assessed for accuracy. A framework for evaluation of segmentation is used that provides more detailed accuracy measurements than mere cerebral infarct volume. Our preliminary experiment shows that ground truth derived from MRI data is at least as good as the one obtained from the histologic slices for evaluating segmentation algorithms for accuracy. Therefore we can develop and evaluate automated segmentation methods for rapid quantification of stroke without the necessitating animal sacrifice