On high-speed turning of a third-generation gamma titanium aluminide

Gamma titanium aluminides are heat-resistant intermetallic alloys predestined to be employed in components suffering from high mechanical stresses and thermal loads. These materials are regarded as difficult to cut, so this makes process adaptation essential in order to obtain high-quality and defect-free surfaces suitable for aerospace and automotive parts. In this paper, an innovative approach for longitudinal external high-speed turning of a third-generation Ti-45Al-8Nb- 0.2C-0.2B gamma titanium aluminide is presented. The experimental campaign has been executed with different process parameters, tool geometries and lubrication conditions. The results are discussed in terms of surface roughness/integrity, chip morphology, cutting forces and tool wear. Experimental evidence showed that, due to the high cutting speed, the high temperatures reached in the shear zone improve chip formation, so a crack-free surface can be obtained. Furthermore, the use of a cryogenic lubrication system has been identified in order to reduce the huge tool wear, which represents the main drawback when machining gamma titanium aluminides under the chosen process condition

Vibration suppression and coupled interaction study in milling of thin wall casings in the presence of tuned mass dampers

Damping of machining vibrations in thin-wall structures is an important area of research due to the ever-increasing use of lightweight structures such as jet engine casings. Published literature has focussed on passive/active damping solutions for open geometry structure (e.g. cantilever thin wall), whereas more challenging situations such as closed geometry structures (e.g. thin wall ring-type casings) were not taken into consideration. In this study, a passive damping solution in the form of tuned viscoelastic dampers is studied to minimise the vibration of thin wall casings while focussing on the change in coupled interaction between tool and workpiece due to added tuned dampers. Finite element simulation was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of tuned dampers in single impact excitation, and this was further validated experimentally through modal impact testing. A reduction in root mean square value, with tuned dampers, of about 2.5 and 4 times is noted at higher and lower depths of cut, respectively, indicating a moderate dependency on depth of cut. A change in coupled interaction of workpiece with tool’s torsional mode (in undamped state) to that of tool’s bending mode (with tuned dampers) was also noted. Variation in machined wall thickness of the order of 6 mm is noted due to the change in coupled interaction from torsional mode to bending mode of tool

Magnetic and electronic structures of superconducting RuSr2_2GdCu2_2O8_8

The coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity in RuSr$_2$GdCu$_2$O$_8$ was reported both from experiments (by Tallon et. al.) and first-principles calculations (by Pickett et. al.). Here we report that our first-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) calculations, employing the precise crystal structure with structural distortions (i.e., RuO$_6$ rotations) determined by neutron diffraction, demonstrate that antiferromagnetic ordering of the Ru moments is energetically favored over the previously proposed ferromagnetic ordering. Our results are consistent with recently performed magnetic neutron diffraction experiments (Lynn et. al). Ru $t_{2g}$ states, which are responsible for the magnetism, have only a very small interaction with Cu $e_g$ states, which results in a small exchange splitting of these states. The Fermi surface, characterized by strongly hybridized $dp\sigma$ orbitals, has nesting features similar to those in the two-dimensional high $T_c$ cuprate superconductors.Comment: 6 pages,6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Scaling of Gene Expression with Transcription-Factor Fugacity

The proteins associated with gene regulation are often shared between multiple pathways simultaneously. By way of contrast, models in regulatory biology often assume these pathways act independently. We demonstrate a framework for calculating the change in gene expression for the interacting case by decoupling repressor occupancy across the cell from the gene of interest by way of a chemical potential. The details of the interacting regulatory architecture are encompassed in an effective concentration, and thus, a single scaling function describes a collection of gene expression data from diverse regulatory situations and collapses it onto a single master curve

Photon pressure induced test mass deformation in gravitational-wave detectors

A widely used assumption within the gravitational-wave community has so far been that a test mass acts like a rigid body for frequencies in the detection band, i.e. for frequencies far below the first internal resonance. In this article we demonstrate that localized forces, applied for example by a photon pressure actuator, can result in a non-negligible elastic deformation of the test masses. For a photon pressure actuator setup used in the gravitational wave detector GEO600 we measured that this effect modifies the standard response function by 10% at 1 kHz and about 100% at 2.5 kHz

Analysis of OPM potentials for multiplet states of 3d transition metal atoms

We apply the optimized effective potential method (OPM) to the multiplet energies of the 3d$^n$ transition metal atoms, where the orbital dependence of the energy functional with respect to orbital wave function is the single-configuration HF form. We find that the calculated OPM exchange potential can be represented by the following two forms. Firstly, the difference between OPM exchange potentials of the multiplet states can be approximated by the linear combination of the potentials derived from the Slater integrals $F^2({\rm 3d,3d})$ and $F^4({\rm 3d,3d})$ for the average energy of the configuration. Secondly, the OPM exchange potential can be expressed as the linear combination of the OPM exchange potentials of the single determinants.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, to be published in J. Phys.

A comparison between different propagative schemes for the simulation of tapered step index slab waveguides

The performance and accuracy of a number of propagative algorithms are compared for the simulation of tapered high contrast step index slab waveguides. The considered methods include paraxial as well as nonparaxial formulations of optical field propagation. In particular attention is paid to the validity of the paraxial approximation. To test the internal consistency of the various methods the property of reciprocity is verified and it is shown that for the paraxial algorithms the reciprocity can only be fulfilled if the paraxial approximation of the power flux expression using the Poynting vector is considered. Finally, modeling results are compared with measured fiber coupling losses for an experimentally realized taper structure

Direct Minimization Generating Electronic States with Proper Occupation Numbers

We carry out the direct minimization of the energy functional proposed by Mauri, Galli and Car to derive the correct self-consistent ground state with fractional occupation numbers for a system degenerating at the Fermi level. As a consequence, this approach enables us to determine the electronic structure of metallic systems to a high degree of accuracy without the aid of level broadening of the Fermi-distribution function. The efficiency of the method is illustrated by calculating the ground-state energy of C$_2$ and Si$_2$ molecules and the W(110) surface to which a tungsten adatom is adsorbed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Lines of Descent: Kuhn and Beyond

yesThomas S. Kuhn is famous both for his work on the Copernican Revolution and his ‘paradigm’ view of scientific revolutions. But Kuhn later abandoned the notion of paradigm (and related notions) in favour of a more ‘evolutionary’ view of the history of science. Kuhn’s position therefore moved closer to ‘continuity’ models of scientific progress, for instance ‘chain-of-reasoning’ models, originally championed by D. Shapere. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate around Kuhn’s new ‘developmental’ view and to evaluate these competing models with reference to some major innovations in the history of cosmology, from Copernicanism to modern cosmology. This evaluation is made possible through some unexpected overlap between Kuhn’s earlier discontinuity model and various versions of the later continuity models. It is the thesis of this paper that the ‘chain-of-reasoning’ model accounts better for the cosmological evidence than both Kuhn’s early paradigm model and his later developmental view of the history of science