Controlling thermomechanical behavior of semicrystalline hydrogenated polynorbornene through the cis- to trans-cyclopentylene ratio

Though polynorbornene synthesized by ring-opening metathesis polymerization has an intrinsically all-cis configuration of the cyclopentylene backbone rings, a fraction of these rings can be epimerized to the trans configuration during hydrogenation over suitable catalysts. By varying the method of hydrogenation, semicrystalline hydrogenated polynorbornenes (hPNs) with trans levels between 0 and 36% were obtained. With increasing trans content, the glass transition temperature, melting point, and enthalpy of melting decrease modestly. By contrast, the temperature at which the hPN crystal transitions into a rotationally disordered polymorph varies strongly with trans content, ranging from 126 °C (all-cis) to 71 °C at 27% trans; at trans contents of 34% and above, no rotationally-ordered phase is observed at any temperature. The room-temperature Young's modulus shows no dependence on trans content, while the yield stress drops by 20% at 1% trans content and slowly decreases further with additional epimerization. The temperature dependence of the Young's modulus differs for trans-containing versus all-cis polymers, while the temperature dependence of the yield stress is set by the polymorph type (rotationally ordered vs. disordered).     

基于应变梯度理论的微尺度蜂窝等效模量计算方法

本文提出了一种新的能够计及尺度效应的微纳米蜂窝等效模量的计算方法。将一种单参数应变梯度理论引入到本构方程当中,并基于能量等效原理推导了蜂窝面内等效模量地计算公式。算例分析表明,本文方法能够有效地计及尺度效应对蜂窝等效模量的影响。尺度效应与胞壁厚度和长度的值都有关,当胞壁厚度较小时,尺度效应显著,本文方法预测的模量会明显高于传统方法;而当胞壁厚度较大时,尺度效应变得微弱乃至可以忽略不计。但如果胞壁的长度/厚度比很大,则面内等效模量会趋近于0,此时是否考虑尺度效应意义不大。     

Strain induced strengthening of soft thermoplastic polyurethanes under cyclic deformation

We investigate the cyclic mechanical behavior in uniaxial tension of three different commercial thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPU) often considered as a sustainable replacement for common filled elastomers. All TPU have similar hard segment contents and linear moduli but sensibly different large strain properties as shown by X-ray analysis. Despite these differences, we found a stiffening effect after conditioning in step cyclic loading which greatly differs from the common softening (also referred as Mullins effect) observed in chemically crosslinked filled rubbers. We propose that this self-reinforcement is related to the fragmentation of hard domains, naturally present in TPU, in smaller but more numerous sub-units that may act as new physical crosslinking points. The proposed stiffening mechanism is not dissimilar to the strain-induced crystallization observed in stretched natural rubber, but it presents a persistent nature. In particular, it may cause a local reinforcement where an inhomogeneous strain field is present, as is the case of a crack propagating in cyclic fatigue, providing a potential explanation for the well-known toughness and wear resistance of TPU.     

Local process-dependent structural and mechanical properties of extrusion blow molded high-density polyethylene hollow parts

Although applied for several decades, production of hollow plastic parts by extrusion blow molding (EBM) is still over-dimensioned. To overcome this issue, a thorough investigation of the process-structure-property relationship is required. In this study, the local process-structure-property relationship for high-density polyethylene EBM containers is analyzed with differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanic analysis microindentation. Local process-dependent crystallinity and complex modulus data at various processing conditions are supplemented with wide-angle X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The crystallinities and the complex moduli clearly show lower values close to the mold side than at the inner side and the middle of the cross-section, which reflects the temperature gradient during processing. Additionally, the orientation of the polymer chain (c-axis) reveals a low level of biaxiality with a slight tendency towards transverse direction. The biaxiality increases for low mold temperature and high draw ratio. Finally, biaxiality is confirmed with TEM, which reveals no preferred lamellar orientation.     

The formation of dead zones in nonisothermal porous catalyst with temperature-dependent diffusion coefficient

This paper considers the formation of dead zones in the porous catalyst pellets due to the chemical reaction and diffusion. We established and investigated the model with nonisothermal reaction of fractional order and activated temperature-dependent diffusivity. The effects of process parameters, catalyst shape, and reaction and diffusion parameters on the formation of the dead zone are studied numerically and characterized by the critical Thiele modulus. The lower bounds for the critical Thiele modulus are derived analytically in terms of process parameters for exothermic and endothermic reactions and verified numerically. The critical Thiele modulus increases with increasing Arrhenius number for diffusion and decreasing Arrhenius number for reaction in the case of exothermic reactions, whereas the opposite trends hold for the endothermic reactions. The critical Thiele modulus also increases with increasing fractional reaction order as well as with decreasing energy generation function, and increasing Biot numbers for heat and mass transfer. Moreover, the critical Thiele modulus is the highest for spherical pellets and the lowest for pellets with planar shape.     

Macroscopic and microscopic electrical properties of a ferrofluid in a low frequency field

Using the complex dielectric permittivity measurements, in the frequency range 20 Hz – 2 MHz and at temperatures between (25–70) ^∘C, the polarizability (α), the electric modulus (M) and the electrical conductivity (σ), of a ferrofluid sample, were determined. The results enabled the computation of the thermal activation energy of electrical conduction, the obtained value being approximately equal, at 0.15 eV. By eliminating the losses arising from electrical conduction, we highlighted the existence of a Schwarz type dielectric relaxation, in the sample, at the frequency above 5 kHz. These results allowed, for the first time, the evaluation of the mechanical mobility, u, of the ions on the particle surface, resulting in a value of, $u=3.4\cdot {10}^8$ m/s N. Knowledge of macroscopic and microscopic electrical properties is useful in explaining the dielectric polarization mechanisms and relaxation processes of ferrofluids, and also in the use of ferrofluids in technological and biomedical applications.     

Bulk and shear rheology of silica/polystyrene nanocomposite: Reinforcement and dynamics

Bulk and shear rheological studies were performed on a 10 wt % silica nanoparticle‐filled polystyrene nanocomposite. The limiting moduli in glassy and rubbery states are higher for the nanocomposite than for the neat polymer; the increase is consistent with hydrodynamic reinforcement and is slightly higher than the lower bound of the rule of mixtures prediction. All evidence indicates that the presence of nanoparticles does not significantly change the polymer dynamics associated with glass transition, except to increase the T_g by 3 K. Comparison of the bulk and shear retardation spectra suggests that the underlying mechanisms for both responses are similar at short times and that the long‐time chain modes available to the shear are not available to the bulk, consistent with Plazek's earlier findings. In addition, T ? T_g and TV^γ scaling, along with the findings of thermorheological complexity, are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 621–632     

A summation‐integral type modification of Szász–Mirakjan operators

In this paper, we introduced a summation‐integral type modification of Szász–Mirakjan operators. Calculation of moments, density in some space, a direct result and a Voronvskaja‐type result, are obtained. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Construction of a new family of Bernstein‐Kantorovich operators

In the present paper, we construct a new sequence of Bernstein‐Kantorovich operators depending on a parameter α. The uniform convergence of the operators and rate of convergence in local and global sense in terms of first‐ and second‐order modulus of continuity are studied. Some graphs and numerical results presenting the advantages of our construction are obtained. The last section is devoted to bivariate generalization of Bernstein‐Kantorovich operators and their approximation behaviors.     

Kantorovich variant of a new kind of q‐Bernstein–Schurer operators

Ren and Zeng (2013) introduced a new kind of q‐Bernstein–Schurer operators and studied some approximation properties. Acu et al. (2016) defined the Durrmeyer modification of these operators and studied the rate of convergence and statistical approximation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a Kantorovich modification of these operators by using q‐Riemann integral and investigate the rate of convergence by means of the Lipschitz class and the Peetre's K‐functional. Next, we introduce the bivariate case of q‐Bernstein–Schurer–Kantorovich operators and study the degree of approximation with the aid of the partial modulus continuity, Lipschitz space, and the Peetre's K‐functional. Finally, we define the generalized Boolean sum operators of the q‐Bernstein–Schurer–Kantorovich type and investigate the approximation of the Bögel continuous and Bögel differentiable functions by using the mixed modulus of smoothness. Furthermore, we illustrate the convergence of the operators considered in the paper for the univariate case and the associated generalized Boolean sum operators to certain functions by means of graphics using Maple algorithms. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.