Surface evaluation of cardiac angiographic catheters after simulated use and reprocessing

Reprocessing of single-use intravascular catheters is a common practice in public health services and hospitals. The determination of safe number of reprocessing cycles before the catheter integrity becomes compromised has been a priority issue. The present paper addresses the evaluating molecular and micro-structural integrity of reprocessed cardiac angiographic catheters. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy were carried out to elucidate morphological changes. The tensile test was performed on catheters to examine changes in bulk characteristics. In this work, samples of catheters were reprocessed until nine times and sterilized by hydrogen peroxide plasma. It was observed that the number of hydrogen-bonded carbonyls groups increased in 0.05 u.a. (p < 0.001) after each reprocessing cycle. The spectra indicated degradation products included acids, esters, alcohols, and small amounts of other products containing a carbonyl functional group. The micrographs revealed that only after the fourth reprocessing cycle the effect increased in the surface roughness was more pronounced. On the other hand, after each reprocessing cycle and as consequence of extensive aging of polyamide/polyurethane blends of the catheters surface, it was observed that the micro-fissures, micro-scratches and micro-pores increased in quantity and length. The mechanical test proved that the Young modulus increased in average 3.26 MPa (p = 0.0003) at increasing number of reprocessing cycles, also suggestive of crosslinking in this material.     

Effect of cooling speed on structure and properties of rapidly solidified Pb–25wt.% Sn alloy

The effect of cooling speed on structure, hardness, mechanical and electrical transport properties of rapidly solidified Pb–25wt.% Sn alloy have been investigated. A single roller melt spinning technique with linear speeds 15.7 and 31.7 m/s, was used for the preparation of specimens. The results showed that a lower cooling speed increased the precipitation of Sn in a Pb-matrix phase as compared with the higher cooling speed. This decomposition behavior decreased the electrical resistivity and increased the internal friction, thermal diffusivity and Vickers microhardness of the lower cooling speed as compared with those of the higher cooling speed.     

镍基合金激光熔覆数值模拟及凝固参数预测

本文采用有限体积法对激光熔覆过程的温度场分布和熔体流动进行了数值模拟.基于CALPHAD相图法计算了基体和粉末的热物理性质,采用三维热源精确预测了凝固过程和温度分布,研究了Marangoni对流对熔池尺寸的影响.在熔池凝固过程中模拟所得出的温度梯度和凝固速度,预测了熔覆层凝固组织的演变趋势,相应的显微组织与实验结果吻合...     

Mechanical Properties and Morphology of LDPE/PP Blends

Two types of polypropylene (PP) with different molecular structure, namely, homogeneous PP (PPH) and PP block‐copolymer (PPC), were blended with a long chain, branched, low density polyethylene (LDPE) in a twin screw extruder and then injection moulded into test specimens; the mechanical properties and morphology of the blends are reported. The tensile strength, elastic modulus, flexural strength, and flexural modulus of the blends increased monotonically with increasing PP content, although exhibiting a slightly negative deviation from the rules of mixtures due to the relatively poor compatibility of the components, which caused the blends to separate into individual phases. Comparatively, these mechanical properties of the LDPE/PPH blend were much higher than that of the LDPE/PPC blend, which was attributable mainly to the fact that the mechanical properties of neat PPH are stronger than that of neat PPC. With respect to the impact strength of the blends, a maximum value appeared in LDPE/PPH blends when PPH content was about 20% and also in LDPE/PPC blends when PPC content was about 40%.     

An optical absorption method of detecting iodine-containing substances in liquid acid media formed during the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel

We propose an absorption method for determining the concentrations of iodine-containing substances (I₂ and IO ₃ ^? ) in real time in liquid acid media formed when spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed at nuclear fuel cycle plants. The essence of the method is to measure simultaneously at two wavelengths the intensity of the radiation that passes through the solution being analyzed. The sensitivity of this method allows reliable and real-time control to be exercised over both the technological process of fuel reprocessing and the operations of purification systems.     

Correlation of the Morphological and Mechanical Properties of a Biodegradable Blend Based on Polylactic Acid

A series of binary and ternary blends composed of polylactic acid (PLA), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and chitosan (CS) were prepared and characterized in terms of their morphological and mechanical properties. The mechanical properties of the prepared blends, including tensile properties and impact strength, were compared with neat PLA. In addition, the effect of incorporation of maleic anhydride-grafted linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE-g-MA) as a compatibilizing agent, and the order of mixing on the mechanical and morphological properties of the ternary blends were also studied. It was observed that addition of CS enhanced the stiffness of PLA/LDPE blends while it decreased the toughness and tensile strength. It was demonstrated that addition of LLDPE-g-MA, up to 10 wt%, had no significant compatibilizing effect. However, the mechanical results indicated that when 15 wt% of LLDPE-g-MA was loaded, it started to play a compatibilizing role and caused an improvement in the toughness properties of ternary blend.     

Solute transport and composition profile during direct metal deposition with coaxial powder injection

Direct metal deposition (DMD) with coaxial powder injection allows fabrication of three-dimensional geometry with rapidly solidified microstructure. During DMD, addition of powder leads to the interaction between laser and powder, and also the redistribution of solute. The concentration distribution of the alloying element is very important for mechanical properties of the deposited clad material. The evolution of concentration distribution of carbon and chromium in the molten pool is simulated using a self-consistent three-dimensional model, based on the solution of the equations of mass, momentum, energy conservation and solute transport in the molten pool. The experimental and calculated molten pool geometry is compared for model validation purposes.     

Influence of the number of passes under equal-channel angular pressing on the elastic-plastic properties,durability, and defect structure of the Al + 0.2 wt % Sc alloy

The regularities of the influence of the number of passes under equal-channel angular pressing on the mechanical properties and defect structure of an aluminum alloy have been elucidated. It has been established that the degradation of the mechanical properties (a decrease in the durability) is associated with the formation of nanoregions of an excess free volume in the course of severe plastic deformation under equalchannel angular pressing. A correlation between the nucleation of excess free volume regions and the formation of high-angle grain boundaries under equal-channel angular pressing has been revealed. The nature of the influence of severe plastic deformation on the elastic modulus, the vibration decrement, and the microplastic flow stress has been analyzed.     

Processing of concretes with a high power CO2 laser

Laser material processing, being a non-contact process, minimizes many of the complexities involved in the decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. A high power laser beam incident on a concrete surface can produce spalling, glazing or vaporization, depending upon the laser power density and scan speed. This paper presents effect of various laser processing parameters on the efficiency of material removal by surface spalling and glazing. The size of laser beam at constant fluence or energy density had significantly different effect on the spalling process. In thick concrete block cutting the flow or removal of molten material limits the cutting depth. By employing repeated laser glazing followed by mechanical scrubbing process cutting of 150 mm thick concrete block was carried out. Gravitation force was utilized for molten materials to flow out while drilling holes on vertical concrete walls. The dependence of the incident laser beam angle on drilling time was experimentally studied.     

Controlling mechanical and physical properties of Al-Si alloys by controlling grain size through grain refinement and electromagnetic stirring

The present study concerns the influence of a travelling magnetic field (TMF) on the hardness, tensile strength and electrical conductivity of directionally solidified grain-refined and non-refined Al-7 wt.% Si alloys. Upwards and downwards travelling fields have been applied to force convection within the solidifying melt. Modifications of the examined physical and mechanical properties depend on the formation of a fine equiaxed structure caused by both the addition of grain refining AlTi5B1-particles and by electromagnetic stirring as well. Electromagnetic stirring without grain refining particles leads to an increase in tensile strength. The addition of grain refiners into the melt leads to the highest reduction of the mean grain size and results in a decrease in electrical conductivity. A melt stirring by a sufficiently high magnetic field provides a homogeneous grain size distribution in the sample volume which impacts the distribution of hardness, tensile strength and electrical conductivity.     

Microstructure, hardness and stress in melted zone of 42CrMo steel by wide-band laser surface melting

Using laser surface melting (LSM) of a roller, to obtain the desired distribution of the microstructure, hardness and residual stresses with minimum distortion, is essential in order to improve machining efficiency and to achieve reliable service performance. In this study, a 3D finite element model has been developed to simulate the wide-band LSM process and predict the thermal and mechanical properties in the melted zone. The microstructure evolution, hardness distribution and stress field in the melted zone with different laser power were simulated. With the increase of the laser power from 3000 to 3800 W, the width and the depth of the laser melted layer increase, while the laser power has a little effect on the martensite contents, which exceed 90% in the melt-hardened zone. It greatly affects the mechanical properties in the melt-hardened zone with its volumetric expansion effect and the hardness increases by 2-3 times. The residual stress distributed within the melt-hardened zone is always of the compressive type. The amplitude of compressive stress exists in the transition region, and the amplitude of von Mises stress within the heat affected-zone (HAZ) decreases with the increase in laser power. The accuracy of the developed finite element simulation strategy is validated for phase proportion and hardness distributions through the wide-band LSM on roller steel with proper instrumentation for data measurement. This agreement is encouraging.     

Studies on wettability, mechanical and tribological properties of the polyurethane composites filled with talc

A series of polyurethane (PU)/talc composites modified by a high molecular weight hydroxyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (HTPDMS) were prepared. The effect of the talc content on the mechanical, wettability and tribological properties of the PU composites was studied. Tensile strength of the PU composites reached to the maximum after adding 5% talc. The water contact angles (CA) of the original surfaces and worn surfaces of the polyurethane composites were measured. The experimental results indicated that the contact angles of the worn surface increased after friction. The friction and wear experiments were tested on a MRH-3 model ring-on-block test rig at different sliding speeds and loads under dry sliding and water lubrication. Experimental results revealed that the talc contributed to largely improve the tribological properties of the PU composites. The coefficient of friction (COF) of the composites increased with increasing talc. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) investigations showed that the worn surfaces of the talc filled PU composites were smoother than pure polyurethane under given load and sliding speed.     

钨在瞬态热流下熔融重凝对脉冲参数的依赖性

为了研究钨在瞬态热流下达到熔融状态后，不同脉冲参数对其熔融重凝行为的影响，实验观察了钨在脉宽5 ms与0.1 ms的脉冲辐照下熔融重凝行为的特征，并考虑熔融层流动驱动力、冷却速率、温度梯度等多项因素，分析了分层结构与柱状晶对热源参数的依赖性。通过计算两种热源参数下的热作用特性分析了钨在脉宽0.1 ms的脉冲辐照下出现柱状晶而在脉宽5 ms的脉冲辐照下未出现的原因。研究发现，高流强和短脉宽的脉冲束流易于促进形成分层结构，其原因是较高流强能引起材料表层熔化层流动，同时较短脉宽能使熔化层流痕来不及恢复平整，而被快速冷却固化；当样品在瞬态热流下发生熔化时，较短的脉宽有利于形成柱状晶，较长的脉宽有利于形成等轴晶粒和出现晶粒长大。     

Effect of Enhanced Gravity on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Al0.9CoCrFeNi High-Entropy Alloy

The influence of enhanced gravity on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the Al_0.9CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy, which was solidified under normal gravity (acceleration 1 g) and enhanced gravity (acceleration 140 g, acceleration 210 g, and acceleration 360 g) conditions is reported in this paper. Its solidification under enhanced gravity fields resulted in refinement of the columnar nondendritic grain structure and an increase in the area fraction of the body-centered cubic (BCC) structure phases. The mass transfer strengthened by enhanced gravity promoted element diffusion and enrichment, which caused changes in the composition and microstructure that, in turn, affected the mechanical properties of the alloy. The compressive strength and plasticity of the sample solidified at acceleration 360 g were equal to 2845 MPa and 36.4%, respectively, which are the highest values reported to date for Al_0.9CoCrFeNi alloy.     

Microstructure and mechanical behavior of UFG copper processed by ECAP following different processing regimes

Commercially pure (99.9%) copper was severe plastically deformed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) following route-Bc in three different processing regimes in order to obtain ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructures leading to improved mechanical properties. In regime-1, the billets were processed at room temperature up to eight passes. The billets were processed at 200°C up to eight passes in regime-2. Regime-3 is a hybrid regime by which the billets were deformed at 200°C up to four passes first, and these billets were then processed at room temperature for one, two and four passes. In all regimes, the ECAP processing results in a refinement of the conventionally grained (CG) initial microstructure of copper down to sub-micron level leading to a great improvement in the strength as compared to CG copper. Among the regimes applied, regime-3 was found to be the best regime for improvement in strength along with adequate ductility. The samples showed more than eight times increases in yield strength after processing in regime-3 for 4?+?4 passes, from 47?MPa for CG copper to about 408?MPa for the UFG sample. Such improvement in strength was accompanied by a 16.9% total elongation and 6% uniform elongation. The processing in regime-2 resulted in the best elongation to failure of about 22% after eight passes, but it gave the lowest strength values among others.     

双轴压缩下颗粒物质剪切带的形成与发展

本文采用离散元方法,研究了双轴压缩的颗粒体系在刚性边界约束下,局部剪切带的形成和发展过程,注重分析了细观的体积分数、配位数、颗粒旋转角度等参数以及力链结构形态的演变.并从颗粒体系jamming 相图中J点附近的边壁压强和配位数随体积分数的标度规律出发,分析了剪切带内外的体积分数和配位数的变化.结果表明:剪切带形成于颗粒体系的塑性变形开始阶段,此时体系发生剪胀,颗粒体积分数减小,颗粒体系抵抗旋转的能力降低,开始出现细小剪切带,随着轴向应变的继续,细小剪切带发生连接,最终导致贯穿性优势剪切带形成 关键词： 颗粒物质 力链 双轴压缩 剪切带     

Morphology,mechanical, rheological,and thermal properties study on the PTT/ABS/SCF composites

In order to improve the mechanical properties of the poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT), both maleinized acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) and short carbon fiber (SCF) were melt-blended with PTT to prepare the composites and their morphology and properties were investigated in detail. When ABS content is fixed at 5?wt.% in composites, SCF can significantly improve the tensile and flexural strength as well as the impact strength of the matrix. The SCF has good interface adherence with the matrix. At glassy state, the storage modulus increases much with increasing SCF content. At rubbery state, the composites have larger cold-crystallization rate. At molten state, SCF first serves as lubricants and then as viscosity reinforcing agent for the matrix with increasing SCF. The composites melt exhibits increasing elastic behaviors with SCF. The composites have larger crystallization rate, but this accelerating effect decreases with excessive SCF content. The crystals formed in different composites are quite different in size or perfection.     

Abrasive Wear Behavior of LDPE Filled with Silane Treated Flyash Cenospheres

Lightweight, high mechanical strength insulating materials exhibiting high resistance to corrosion, solvents and abrasive wear are desired for wire and cable insulation as well as protection. Polyethylenes are generally used for such applications owing to their good electrical insulation properties and being inert to solvents at room temperature. However, their abrasion resistance is quite poor. Hence, in the present work, an attempt has been made to improve the abrasive wear resistance of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) by incorporating hollow microspheres, known as cenospheres, in the base polymer to form composites. These cenospheres are obtained from flyash particles, a thermal power plant waste, and do not tend to increase the weight of the polymer composite when used as a filler. The composites were developed by changing the weight fraction of untreated as well as silane treated cenospheres to the extent of 5 wt%. Tribological characterization of these composites was done in abrasive wear mode by varying the operating parameters, such as speed and sliding distance against silicon carbide paper. It was found that 10 wt% silane treated cenosphere filled LDPE composite showed the maximum wear resistance (～×10^?11 m³/N m) among the six composites. However, a further increase in filler concentration decreased the wear resistance. The improvement in wear resistance was supported by scanning electron microscopy and attributed to the strong interaction between silane treated cenosphere and LDPE molecules which resisted the elongation and shearing of polymer chains by the abrasive grits.     

垂直圆管氮气-磁性液体两相流电磁感应现象

基于磁性液体与非磁性气泡磁导率的差异,理论分析与实验研究了氮气-磁性液体两相流的电磁感应现象。以颗粒体积浓度为3.83%的水基Fe₃O₄磁性液体为工质,同时采用物性与其相近的去离子水进行流型的可视化对比研究。研究结果表明,当管内为泡状流、弹状流、搅拌流时均能产生毫伏级的感应电压,且感应电压的峰峰值随着气体流量的增加而增大,另外根据感应电压随时间变化的波形可以辨识出管内的流型。     

Ultrasonic precision casting

A new technique for precision casting of small forms as in dentistry and jewelery is described. Ultrasonic energy was applied for the first time to promote flow and improve the properties of castings from moulds prepared by the lost wax process.^1,2

Dental castings are small in sizse. To flow and fill the mould completely, the high surface tension of the molten metal must be overcome. Three methods currently in use by which surface forces are overcome are: centrifugal force; gas pressure; and, less frequently, vacuum (atmospheric pressure). The casting technique used in these experiments utilizes ultrasonic energy to increase molecular motion, thereby promoting flow. Ultrasonic energy imparts a driving force to the melt which enables the molten metal to fill the mould.