Diamond-Fluoroplastic Composites for Abrasive Tools

Composite materials based on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and natural technical diamond powders from Yakutia diamond deposits are developed. It is shown that the compositions based on PTFE and a technical diamond powder at a content of up to 60 wt.%, due to their good physicomechanical characteristics, low friction coefficient, and good wetting of diamond particles by polymer, make is possible to create abrasive tools for polishing and grinding hard metals and semiprecious and precious stones with high serviceability and operational life combined with a considerable increase in the quality of treated surfaces and operational stability of the tools. It is found that PTFE, being a more elastic and softer matrix than the traditional ones, exhibits a self-sharpening effect of diamond grains upon grinding hard surfaces, when the grains go deep into the elastic matrix, the matrix wears out, and the working part of the tool becomes enriched with the diamond powder. These conclusions are confirmed by electron microscopic investigations. It is shown that the introduction of ultradisperse fillings (up to 2 wt.%) into such compositions allows us to improve the characteristics of abrasive tools considerably, especially for grinding hard semiprecious stones. The physicomechanical and frictional characteristics of the compositions and specific examples of their application in the jewelry industry and in stone working are discussed.     

Quality rating of a metal matrix-diamondcomposite from its thermal conductivity and electric resistance

The efficiency of hot-pressed diamond-containing composite materials (DCM) for various tool applications is greatly affected by microdefects, namely, the residual porosity of the metal matrix, damaged diamond grains, and imperfect diamond-matrix interfaces. An instrumental evaluation of these microdefects, predetermining the quality of a tool equipped with DCM, is rather difficult due to the small size, the nonstandard shape, and the strong heterogeneity of specimens. Proposed here is an alternative, nondestructive technique of DCM quality rating, which includes the measurement of electric resistance and thermal conductivity of diamond-containing composites and processing the obtained data by the methods of composite mechanics. It exploits the fact that diamond, being a dielectric, possesses an extremely high thermal conductivity, which allows estimating the residual porosity of a sintered metal matrix from the ratio of specific electric resistances, one being measured and another predicted by a theory. These data, in turn, are utilized to predict the thermal conductivity ofDCMwith an imperfect matrix. Matching with experiments, after solving the inverse problem gives the thermal resistance of diamond-matrix interface, which, within the frame work of the given model, simulates the damage of both the diamond grains and their bonds with the matrix. Thus, the numerical rating of quality is given in terms of two dimensionless parameters. The first one, 0 < K < 1, reflects the quality of the sintered metal matrix, whereas the second one, 0 < R <1, is an aggregate measure of the integrity of diamond grains and the perfection degree of composite interfaces. The quite satisfactory agreement observed between the theory and experiment confirms the efficiency of the technique and the reliability of the data obtained. Russian translation published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 361–374, May–June, 2006.     

Physicomechanical characteristics of a disperse-filled polytetrafluoroethylene

Composite polymer materials based on PTFE containing ultradisperse -sialon (1–10 wt.%) as the cross-linking agent are studied. It is shown that the injection of small amounts of fillers (1–2 wt.%) increases the degree of composite crystallinity. A correlation between the structure, element distribution on the surface layers of samples, and tribotechnical characteristics of composites is found. The change in the physicomechanical characteristics is associated with the effect of the interstructural plasticization.Ammosov Yakutsk State University, Yakutsk, Russia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 797–806, November–December, 1999.     

Cellulose-Containing Fillers for Polymer Composites

The form and sizes of the particles of cellulose-containing disperse systems obtained by dry grinding or dispersing in water a source material (wood pulp and sawdust), destructed by the thermocatalytic method, have been investigated. Their physicochemical and rheological (for aqueous dispersions) properties as well as the physicomechanical properties of composites based on such systems have been studied. By dry grinding, a powder of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) (in the case of wood pulp) and technical powder (in the case of sawdust) containing particles of sizes from 3 to 20 m were obtained. By dispersing in an aqueous medium the wood pulp destructed to the levelling-off degree of polymerization (LODP), MCC dispersions containing separate microcrystallites and their aggregates were obtained. In the case of their sufficiently high concentration ( 8%), MCC gels having rheological properties typical of liquid-crystalline polymers were formed. It is shown that the cellulose-containing disperse systems obtained may be useful in composites made with polymer materials for improving their strength properties.     

Effect of electron irradiation on the mechanical and thermal properties of some polymer materials

The effect of electron irradiation on the mechanical properties (deformability) of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyimide (PI), and Fenilon (Fe) films, as well as the thermal properties (heat conductivity and capacity) of PTFE is studied experimentally. The thickness of the films was 40–50 m. Mechanical tests showed that polyimide films were more resistant to radiation than the other films. The investigation of the changes in the thermal properties of PTFE due to electron irradiation revealed that the phase transitions observed at temperatures of 293 and 303 K in unirradiated PTFE were shifted to lower temperature regions.Abai Alma-Ata State University, Kazakhstan. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 34, No. 5, pp. 683–689, 1998.     

Effect of the adhesion interaction and the degree of filling on the internal stresses in finely divided crystalline fillers of epoxy composites

Two kinds of model composite materials with finely divided (1) crystal fillers—LiF or polyethylene-filled epoxy resin cured by polyethylenepolyamine — are investigated by X-ray diffractometry. It is found that tensile stresses arise in LiF crystals, which show a strong adhesion interaction with the binder, for all degrees of filling (from =2.2 to =74 vol.%) examined. Their values remain constant up to a degree of filling at which the boundary layers come into contact with one another. Then, the inner stresses decrease with increasing . In the crystalline regions of polyethylene, where the adhesion between the binder and crystals is weak, the inner stresses are compressive. It is shown that the thickness of the boundary layer of the matrix on the surface of filler particles can be evaluated by the method used.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Latvian University, Riga, LV-1006 Latvia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 807–820, November–December, 1999.     

μ-Reducible Languages

A word w is said to be a primitive word if it cannot be expressed as a power of any other word. A language L consisting of non-empty words is called -reducible if there exists a non-empty word w such that Lw contains only finitely many powers of each primitive word. We show that every regular component, context-free component, local language and every regular language containing no primitive words are -reducible. Languages which are not -reducible are investigated and characterized. We show that every code is -reducible. But there are 2-codes which are not -reducible. The -annihilator of a language L is the set of all non-empty words w such that Lw contains only finitely many powers of each primitive word. This paper also concerns the properties of the -annihilators of languages. The -annihilators of 2-codes and some other languages are investigated and characterized in this paper. The results provide an outline of the relationship between the catenation of languages and the powers of primitive words.     

Moments of the Mean of Dubins–Freedman Random Probability Distributions

Explicit formulas are given to recursively generate the moments of the mean M for Dubins–Freedman random distribution functions with arbitrary base measure . Using a standard inversion formula for moments of a distribution on the unit interval, the distribution of M is approximated for several natural choices of . The support of the mean is also considered. It is shown that the support of M is connected whenever is concentrated on the vertical bisector of the unit square S, but may have arbitrarily many gaps otherwise.     

Aperiodische Wahrscheinlichkeitsmaße auf topologischen Gruppen

Several conditions are shown to be equivalent to the aperiodicity of a regular probability measure on a locally compact, separated topological GroupG. In particular, is aperiodic if and only if the sequence ( ( ⁽ⁿ⁾ denoting then-th convolution power of ) is convergent for any nonvoid open subsetU ofG with compact closure. It is always assumed that the support of generatesG as a closed semigroup.     

Some remarks on Rademacher's theorem in infinite dimensions

We provide an infinite dimensional version of Rademacher's theorem in a linear space provided with a bounded Radon measure . The underlying concepts of the Lipschitz property and differentiability hold -almost everywhere and only in the linear subspace of directions along which is quasiinvariant. The particular case where (X, ) is the Wiener space (and for which the subspace of quasiinvariance coincides with the Cameron-Martin space) was proved in Enchev and Stroock (1993).Partially supported by the fund for promotion of research at the Technion.     

Estimation du nombre des μ-valeurs propres

La notion de -valeur propre de –+V sera définie pour un ouvert borné de R ^d ; étant une mesure dans la classe de Kato généralisée. On établira une estimation du nombre des -valeurs propres inférieures à un réel positif E.The notion of -eigenvalue of –+V will be defined for a bounded open subset of R ^d ; is in the generalized Kato class. An estimate for the number of -eigenvalues which are smaller then a positive real E is given.     

Finitely subadditive and countably subadditive outer measures

Results are given comparing countably subadditive (csa) outer measures and finitely subadditive (fsa) outer measures, especially relating to regularity and measurability conditions such as (*) condition:A setE (of an arbitrary setX), is measurable ( an outer measure),ES (the collection of measurable sets) iff (X)=(E)+(E). Specific examples are given contrasting csa and fsa outer measures. In particular fsa and csa outer measures derived from finitely additive measures defined on an algebra of sets generated by a lattice of sets, are investigated in some detail.     

Departures from queues with changeover times

We consider the M/M ^ij /1 queue as a model of queues with changeover times, i.e., the service is exponential with parameter _ij depending on the previous job type (i) and the current job type (j). It is shown that the departure process is renewal and Poisson iff _ij = (constant). In this case, types of departures are dependent renewal processes. Crosscovariance and crosscorrelations are given.     

Conditioned super-Brownian motion

Summary We investigate classes of conditioned super-Brownian motions, namely H-transformsP ^H with non-negative finitely-based space-time harmonic functionsH(t, ). We prove thatH ^H is the unique solution of a martingale problem with interaction and is a weak limit of a sequence of rescaled interacting branching Brownian motions. We identify the limit behaviour of H-transforms with functionsH(t, )=h(t, (1)) depending only on the total mass (1). Using the Palm measures of the super-Brownian motion we describe for an additive spacetime harmonic functionH(t, )=h(t, x) (dx) theH-transformP ^H as a conditioned super-Brownian motion in which an immortal particle moves like an h-transform of Brownian motion.     

Operator stable laws: Series representations and domains of normal attraction

LetX,X ₁,X ₂,... be i.i.d. random vectors in ^d. The limit laws that can arise by suitable affine normalizations of the partial sums,S _n=X ₁+...+X _n, are calledoperator-stable laws. These laws are a natural extension to ^d of the stable laws on. Thegeneralized domain of attraction of [GDOA()] is comprised of all random vectorsX whose partial sums can be affinely normalized to converge to . If the linear part of the affine transformation is restricted to take the formn ^–B for some exponent operatorB naturally associated to thenX is in thegeneralized domain of normal attraction of [GDONA()]. This paper extends the theory of operator-stable laws and their domains of attraction and normal attraction.     

Perturbation of Dirichlet forms by measures

Perturbations of a Dirichlet form by measures are studied. The perturbed form –_–+₊ is defined for _– in a suitable Kato class and ₊ absolutely continuous with respect to capacity. L _p-properties of the corresponding semigroups are derived by approximating _– by functions. For treating ₊, a criterion for domination of positive semigroups is proved. If the unperturbed semigroup has L _p -L _q -smoothing properties the same is shown to hold for the perturbed semigroup. If the unperturbed semigroup is holomorphic on L ₁ the same is shown to be true for the perturbed semigroup, for a large class of measures.     

The Choquet-Deny convolution equation μ=μ*σ for probability measures on Abelian semigroups

In this note, we characterize the regular probability measures satisfying the Choquet-Deny convolution equation =* on Abelian topological semigroups for a given probability measure .     

Independent complements of subalgebras and product measures

For a complete Boolean algebra X with measure , one gives conditions on the structure of the subalgebras X¹ and X² which guarantee the existence on of a strictly positive measure =¹×² such that the marginal measures ⁱ are the projections of onto Xⁱ.Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov Leningradskogo Otdeleniya Matematicheskogo Instituta im. V. A. Steklova AN SSSR, Vol. 149, pp. 158–159, 1986.     

On the nuclearity of a dual space with the convergence in probability topology

Summary Let be a probability measure on a separable locally convex Fréchet space E and let s denote the topology on E of the convergence in . Then (E, s ) is nuclear iff ((E', s ))=1.     

Representations of integers as sums of powers with increasing exponents

Let(n) be the least integer such thatn may be represented in the formn=x ₁ ² +x ₂ ³ +...+x _(n) ⁽ⁿ⁾⁺¹ wherex ₁,x ₂, ...,x _(n) are natural numbers. We computed(n) forn 250 000 and found that(n) 5 for all thesen exceptn=56, 160 for which(n)=6. Also(n) 4 for 41542<n<=250 000.