Brazing in SiH4-Doped Inert Gases: A New Approach to an Environment Friendly Production Process

Engineering under protective atmospheres or in vacuum allows the production of materials and components, where the absence of oxygen is an essential requirement for a successful processing. Ideally, joining or coating of (and with) metallic materials needs oxide free material surfaces, in order to achieve durable joints or coatings. Using the established technology of brazing in controlled atmosphere, fundamental physical mechanisms for deoxidation of metal surfaces are presented and the role of oxygen and water residue in the process atmosphere is analyzed. Furthermore, the doping of gases with monosilane for generating virtually oxygen-free process atmospheres is introduced and its advantages for an oxygen-free production are discussed. © 2019, The Author(s)

Determination of thermal conductivity of eutectic Al-Cu compounds utilizing experiments, molecular dynamics simulations and machine learning

In this study, the thermal conductivity ( κ ) of Al-Cu eutectics were investigated by experimental and computational methods to shed light on the role of these compounds in thermal properties of Al-Cu connections in compound casting. Specifically, the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) method was utilized to simulate the lattice thermal conductivity ( κ l ) of six compositions of Al-Cu with 5-30 at.% Cu. To extend the results of the MD simulations to bulk materials, instead of using conventional linear extrapolation methods, a machine learning approach was developed for the dataset acquired from the MD simulations. The bootstrapping approach was utilized to find the most suitable method among the support vector machine (SVM) with polynomial and radial basis function (RBF) kernels and the random forest method. The results showed that the SVM model with RBF kernel performed the best, and thus was used to predict the bulk κ l . Subsequently, the chosen compositions were produced by induction casting and their electrical conductivities were measured via eddy current method for calculating the electronic contribution of κ using the Wiedemann-Franz law. Finally, the actual κ of the alloys were measured using the xenon flash method and the results were compared with the computational values. It was shown that the MD method is capable of successfully simulating the thermal conductivity of this system. In addition, the experimental results demonstrated that the κ of Al-Cu eutectics decreases almost linearly with formation of the Al2Cu phase due to increase in the Cu content. Overall, the current findings can be used to enhance the κ of cooling devices made via Al-Cu compound casting

Effect of off-stoichiometric compositions on microstructures and phase transformation behavior in Ni-Cu-Pd-Ti-Zr-Hf high entropy shape memory alloys

High entropy shape memory alloys (HE-SMAs) show reversible martensitic phase transformations at elevated temperatures. HE-SMAs were derived from binary NiTi, to which the elements Cu, Pd, Zr and Hf are added. They represent ordered complex solid solutions. Their high temperature phase is of B2 type, where the added elements occupy sites in the Ni-(Cu, Pd) and Ti-sub-lattices (Zr, Hf). In the present study, advanced microstructural and thermal characterization methods were used to study the effects of the additional alloy elements on microstructures and phase transformations. The ratios of Ni-equivalent (Ni, Cu, Pd) and Ti-equivalent (Ti, Zr, Hf) elements in HE-SMAs were varied to establish systems that correspond to stoichiometric, under- and over-stoichiometric binary alloys. It is shown that basic microstructural features of cast and heat-treated HE-SMAs are inherited from the nine binary X–Y subsystems (X: Ni, Cu, Pd; Y: Ti, Zr, Hf). The phase transition temperatures that characterize the martensitic forward and reverse transformations depend on the concentrations of all alloy elements. The data obtained demonstrate how martensite start temperatures are affected by deviations from the composition of an ideal stoichiometric B2 phase. The findings are discussed in the light of previous work on the concentration dependence of SMA transformation temperatures, and directions for the development of new shape memory alloy compositions are proposed. © 2020 The Author

Towards analytical approaches to the dynamical-cluster approximation

I introduce several simplified schemes for the approximation of the self-consistency condition of the dynamical cluster approximation. The applicability of the schemes is tested numerically using the fluctuation-exchange approximation as a cluster solver for the Hubbard model. Thermodynamic properties are found to be practically indistinguishable from those computed using the full self-consistent scheme in all cases where the non-interacting partial density of states is replaced by simplified analytic forms with matching 1st and 2nd moments. Green functions are also compared and found to be in close agreement, and the density of states computed using Pad\'{e} approximant analytic continuation shows that dynamical properties can also be approximated effectively. Extensions to two-particle properties and multiple bands are discussed. Simplified approaches to the dynamical cluster approximation should lead to new analytic solutions of the Hubbard and other models

Electrografting of BTSE: Zn films for advanced steel-aluminum joining by plastic deformation

This article presents the application of an adhesion promoting highly crosslinked ultrathin organic-inorganic hybrid layer applied to steel which promotes the subsequent joining process based on plastic deformation. The tensile shear results show that a significant increase of the bond strength between low-alloy steel (DC04) and aluminum (AW1050A H111), upon cold-pressure welding (CPW), could be achieved. Electrografting of an ultra-thin film of 1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane (BTSE) films on the steel surface was done from ethanolic solutions containing zinc ions. Based on surface spectroscopic analysis it is shown that silanol moieties present in the organosilane deposits can form stable chemical bonds with both the iron oxide covered steel and the aluminum oxide covered aluminum alloy. The successful modification of metal oxide surfaces with BTSE has been demonstrated via SEM-EDX, AFM, PM-IRRAS, and XPS measurements. In addition, electrochemical analysis of the BTSE:Zn films showed that the films lead to very good corrosion properties even at low thicknesses

Dissecting the knee - Air shower measurements with KASCADE

Recent results of the KASCADE air shower experiment are presented in order to shed some light on the astrophysics of cosmic rays in the region of the knee in the energy spectrum. The results include investigations of high-energy interactions in the atmosphere, the analysis of the arrival directions of cosmic rays, the determination of the mean logarithmic mass, and the unfolding of energy spectra for elemental groups

KASCADE: Astrophysical results and tests of hadronic interaction models

KASCADE is a multi-detector setup to get redundant information on single air shower basis. The information is used to perform multiparameter analyses to solve the threefold problem of the reconstruction of (i)the unknown primary energy, (ii) the primary mass, and (iii) to quantify the characteristics of the hadronic interactions in the air-shower development. In this talk recent results of the KASCADE data analyses are summarized concerning cosmic ray anisotropy studies, determination of flux spectra for different primary mass groups, and approaches to test hadronic interaction models. Neither large scale anisotropies nor point sources were found in the KASCADE data set. The energy spectra of the light element groups result in a knee-like bending and a steepening above the knee. The topology of the individual knee positions shows a dependency on the primary particle. Though no hadronic interaction model is fully able to describe the multi-parameter data of KASCADE consistently, the more recent models or improved versions of older models reproduce the data better than few years ago.Comment: to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.), Proc. of the XIII ISVHECRI, Pylos 2004 - with a better quality of the figure

Proton--induced deuteron breakup at GeV energies with forward emission of a fast proton pair

A study of the deuteron breakup reaction $pd \to (pp)n$ with forward emission of a fast proton pair with small excitation energy $E_{pp}<$ 3 MeV has been performed at the ANKE spectrometer at COSY--J\"ulich. An exclusive measurement was carried out at six proton--beam energies $T_p=$~0.6,~0.7,~0.8,~0.95,~1.35, and 1.9 GeV by reconstructing the momenta of the two protons. The differential cross section of the breakup reaction, averaged up to $8^{\circ}$ over the cm polar angle of the total momentum of the $pp$ pairs, has been obtained. Since the kinematics of this process is quite similar to that of backward elastic $pd \to dp$ scattering, the results are compared to calculations based on a theoretical model previously applied to the $pd \to dp$ process.Comment: 17 pages including 6 figures and 1 table v2: minor changes; v3: minor change of author list; v4: changes in accordance with referee remark

Cosmic Ray Energy Spectra and Mass Composition at the Knee - Recent Results from KASCADE -

Recent results from the KASCADE experiment on measurements of cosmic rays in the energy range of the knee are presented. Emphasis is placed on energy spectra of individual mass groups as obtained from an two-dimensional unfolding applied to the reconstructed electron and truncated muon numbers of each individual EAS. The data show a knee-like structure in the energy spectra of light primaries (p, He, C) and an increasing dominance of heavy ones (A > 20) towards higher energies. This basic result is robust against uncertainties of the applied interaction models QGSJET and SIBYLL which are used in the shower simulations to analyse the data. Slight differences observed between experimental data and EAS simulations provide important clues for further improvements of the interaction models. The data are complemented by new limits on global anisotropies in the arrival directions of CRs and by upper limits on point sources. Astrophysical implications for discriminating models of maximum acceleration energy vs galactic diffusion/drift models of the knee are discussed based on this data.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Nuclear Physics B, Proceedings Supplements, as part of the volume for the CRIS 2004, Cosmic Ray International Seminar: GZK and Surrounding

The KASCADE-Grande Experiment and the LOPES Project

KASCADE-Grande is the extension of the multi-detector setup KASCADE to cover a primary cosmic ray energy range from 100 TeV to 1 EeV. The enlarged EAS experiment provides comprehensive observations of cosmic rays in the energy region around the knee. Grande is an array of 700 x 700 sqm equipped with 37 plastic scintillator stations sensitive to measure energy deposits and arrival times of air shower particles. LOPES is a small radio antenna array to operate in conjunction with KASCADE-Grande in order to calibrate the radio emission from cosmic ray air showers. Status and capabilities of the KASCADE-Grande experiment and the LOPES project are presented.Comment: To appear in Nuclear Physics B, Proceedings Supplements, as part of the volume for the CRIS 2004, Cosmic Ray International Seminar: GZK and Surrounding