The influence of grafted cellulose nanofibers and postextrusion annealing treatment on selected properties of poly(lactic acid) filaments for 3D printing

l ‐lactide monomers were grafted onto cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) via ring‐opening polymerization, forming poly(lactic acid) grafted cellulose nanofibers (PLA‐g‐CNFs). PLA‐g‐CNFs and pristine PLA were then blended in chloroform and dried to prepare a master batch. PLA‐g‐CNFs/PLA composite filaments targeted for 3D printing were produced by compounding the master batch in PLA matrix and melt extrusion. The as‐extruded composite filaments were subsequently thermal annealed in a conventional oven, and their morphological, thermal, and mechanical properties were evaluated. PLA was successfully grafted on the surface of CNFs as demonstrated by elemental analysis, and the concentration of grafted PLA was estimated to be 33 wt %. The grafted PLA were highly crystallized, contributing to the growth of crystalline regions of PLA matrix. The incorporation of PLA‐g‐CNFs improved storage modulus of the composite filaments in both low temperature glassy state and high temperature rubbery state. Postextrusion annealing treatment led to 28 and 63% increases for tensile modulus and strength of the filaments, respectively. Simulated Young's moduli from the Halpin‐Tsai and Krenchel models were found comparable with the experimental values. The formed composite filaments are suitable for use in 3D printing. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 847–855     

Optimal orientation field to manufacture magnetostrictive composites with high magnetostrictive performance

Magnetostrictive properties have relationship with the applied orientation field during the preparation of giant magnetostrictive composites. To understand the dependence of the optimal orientation field on particle volume fraction, composites with 20%, 30% and 50% particles by volume were fabricated by distributing Terfenol-D particles in an unsaturated polyester resin under various orientation fields. Their magnetostrictive properties were tested without pre-stress at room temperature. The results indicate that as the particle volume fraction increases, the optimal orientation field increases. The main reason for this phenomenon is the packing density for the composites with higher particle volume fraction is larger than that for those with lower particle content.     

晶粒尺寸对Ba0.70Sr0.30TiO3陶瓷介电性能的影响规律及机理研究

通过制备晶粒尺寸处于0.1-10 μm之间的致密Ba0.70Sr0.30TiO3陶瓷,系统研究了晶粒尺寸对居里温度TC、铁电相介电常数εF、峰值介电常数εM的影响规律,并深入分析了其内在的影响机理.研究表明:晶粒尺寸减小时,TC刚开始基本不变,直到晶粒尺寸小到一定程度时才开始降低,此变化规律可由Buesseum的内应力模型解释;随晶粒尺寸的增加,εF先增加后减小,此变化规律可由Shaikh的串并联模型来解释,主要影响因素有内应力、畴、晶界;εM随晶粒尺寸的增加,在晶粒尺寸较小时先增加后减小,晶粒尺寸较大时略有增加,此变化规律可由弥散相变理论和串并联模型共同解释,在晶粒尺寸较小时主要影响因素为内应力、微畴和晶界,晶粒尺寸较大时主要影响因素为晶界.     

Attack structural vulnerability of power grids: A hybrid approach based on complex networks

Power grids have been studied as a typical example of real-world complex networks. Different from previous methods, this paper proposes a hybrid approach for structural vulnerability analysis of power transmission networks, in which a DC power flow model with hidden failures is embedded into the traditional error and attack tolerance methodology to form a new scheme for power grids vulnerability assessment and modeling. The new approach embodies some important characteristics of power transmission networks. Furthermore, the simulation on the standard IEEE 118 bus system demonstrates that a critical region might exist and when the power grid operates in the region, it is vulnerable to both random and intentional attacks. Finally, a brief theoretical analysis is presented to explain the new phenomena.     

An eigen-based high-order expansion basis for structured spectral elements

We present an eigen-based high-order expansion basis for the spectral element approach with structured elements. The new basis exhibits a numerical efficiency significantly superior, in terms of the conditioning of coefficient matrices and the number of iterations to convergence for the conjugate gradient solver, to the commonly-used Jacobi polynomial-based expansion basis. This basis results in extremely sparse mass matrices, and it is very amenable to the diagonal preconditioning. Ample numerical experiments demonstrate that with the new basis and a simple diagonal preconditioner the number of conjugate gradient iterations to convergence has essentially no dependence or only a very weak dependence on the element order. The expansion bases are constructed by a tensor product of a set of special one-dimensional (1D) basis functions. The 1D interior modes are constructed such that the interior mass and stiffness matrices are simultaneously diagonal and have identical condition numbers. The 1D vertex modes are constructed to be orthogonal to all the interior modes. The performance of the new basis has been investigated and compared with other expansion bases.     

Annealing effect on the ultrafast dynamics of Ag nanoparticles embedded in soda-lime silicate glasses

Ag nanoparticles embedded in soda-lime silicate glasses were fabricated by the ion-exchange technique. Effects of thermal treatment on the optical nonlinearity and ultrafast dynamics of Ag nanoparticles were investigated by applying time-resolved optical Kerr effect and pump-probe techniques. The results indicate that thermal treatment is an efficient method to improve the nonlinear optical performance of this kind of material.