Quick assessment methodology for reliability of solder joints in ball grid array (BGA) assembly—Part I: Creep constitutive relation and fatigue model

In this study, a new unified creep constitutive relation and a modified energy-based fatigue model have been established respectively to describe the creep flow and predict the fatigue life of Sn−Pb solders. It is found that the relation successfully elucidates the creep mechanism related to current constitutive relations. The model can be used to describe the temperature and frequency dependent low cycle fatigue behavior of the solder. The relation and the model are further employed in part II to develop the numerical simulation approach for the long-term reliability assessment of the plastic ball grid array (BGA) assembly. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (59705008)     

具有分支电路的可控压电阻尼减振技术

对近10年来国内外关于具有分支电路的可控压电阻尼减振技术研究的进展进行了较为详细的评述和讨论.文中首先说明了具有分支电路的压电阻尼减振技术的基本原理和基本形式,然后较为全面的评述不同形式基本分支电路压电阻尼系统的基本特点和研究进展,在讨论了以基本分支电路压电阻尼系统为基础的各种具有可控特性的分支电路压电阻尼系统(包括半主动的和主动-被动杂交的分支电路压电阻尼系统)的研究与发展之后,说明了这种技术在实际工程中的应用,最后建议了今后应深入研究的问题.     

Pinning synchronization with low energy cost

The pinning synchronization on complex networks with low energy cost was investigated. Two basic problems were considered, in this paper. One is how to achieve synchronization on complex network with weak coupling. Another is how to reduce the energy cost in the process of achieving and keeping synchronization. On the other hand, for a good pinning strategy, the synchronizing speed should also be ensured. In this paper, a switching pinning strategy was proposed to enhance the synchronizing speed. And from the point of view of energy saving, some selected links were strengthened. Theoretical analysis and simulations on different complex networks indicate that the proposed pinning strategy is effective. Compare with conventional existing method, the superiority of our method is significant.     

Condition-based maintenance with imperfect inspections for continuous degradation processes

A condition-based maintenance (CBM) strategy is now recognized as an efficient approach to perform maintenance at the best time before failures so as to save lifetime cycle cost. For continuous degradation processes, a significant source of variability lies in measurement errors caused by imperfect inspections, and this may lead to “false positive” or “false negative” observations, and consequently to inopportune maintenance decisions. To the best of our knowledge, researches on CBM optimization with imperfect inspections remain limited for continuous degradation processes, even though the subject is of practical interest for the implementation of a CBM policy. Imperfect inspections are indeed imperfect but still return interesting information on the system degradation level, and making them perfect can be expensive. Therefore, we analyze the economic performance of a maintenance policy with imperfect inspections, and compare it with the classical policy with perfect inspections to see which policy offers the best benefit in a given situation. Furthermore, a CBM policy with a two-stage inspection scheme is proposed to take benefit of mixing both perfect and imperfect inspections in the same maintenance policy. Through numerical experiments and a real case study, it is shown that the policy with imperfect inspections can be better than the classical one, and that the proposed policy with a two-stage inspection scheme always leads to the minimum long run maintenance cost rate.     

Novel correction method for X-ray beam energy fluctuation of high energy DR system with a linear detector

A high energy digital radiography (DR) testing system has generated diverse scientific and technological interest in the field of industrial non-destructive testing. However, due to the limitations of manufacturing technology for accelerators, an energy fluctuation of the X-ray beam exists and leads to bright and dark streak artifacts in the DR image. Here we report the utilization of a new software-based method to correct the fluctuation artifacts. The correction method is performed using a high pass filtering operation to extract the high frequency information that reflects the X-ray beam energy fluctuation, and then subtracting it from the original image. Our experimental results show that this method is able to rule out the artifacts effectively and is readily implemented on a practical scanning system.     

Reflection and transmission of obliquely incident Rayleigh surface waves by a viscoelastic interphase

The reflection and transmission of obliquely incident Rayleight surface waves by an interphase between two quarter spaces of identical or different materials, have been investigated. The mechanical behavior of the interphase is represented by a thin viscoelastic layer. By using the full space Green's functions due to a spatially harmonic line load, the mathematical statement of the 3-dimension problem is reduced to a 2-dimension system of singular integral equations. The far-field behavior of the scattered waves leads to the definition of reflection and transmission coefficients,R andT. The system of the singular integral equations are solved forR andT with the boundary element method. The results are presented for selected values of the elastic constants of the joined quarter spaces, the parameters of the interphase and the incident angles of Rayleigh surface waves.     

Interval parameter perturbation method for evaluating the bounds on natural frequencies of structures with interval parameters

For structural parameters with uncertainties, interval mathematics can, in the case where the probabilistic distribution density of uncertain variables is unavailable, deal with the influence of uncertainties in structural parameters on the response of structures. In order to evaluate the region containing natural frequencies of structures with interval parameters, the interval parameter perturbation method is presented in this paper. The advantage of the present method is its computational efficiency in evaluating the region containing natural frequencies. A numerical example is used to illustrate the efficiency of the method proposed. The project is supported by National Youth Natural Science Foundation of China and National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China.     

Photochemically-induced crystallization of protein

I demonstrate photochemically induced crystallization of metastable hen egg-white lysozyme solution by weak UV irradiation for several tens seconds. The most effective irradiation time range is 10–60 s, and in this range the enzyme activity is maintained. Intermediates, neutral radicals at tryptophan residual produced by one-photon absorption, enhance nucleation. When the intermediate is selectively excited by visible light, the intermediate is denatured. At that time the light-induced nucleation is inhibited. This result indicates the intermediate induces nucleation. The radical forms lysozyme dimer that is detected by an SDS-PAGE electrophoresis experiment. An addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) greatly enhances light-induced nucleation. PEG affects to shorten the intermediate radical lifetime, which suggests that PEG assists to form dimer. We consider that the photochemical dimer behaves as smallest cluster to grow critical nucleus. The smallest cluster formation is the rate determining step in classical nucleation theory due to surface energy disadvantage. The photochemical dimer is formed by a covalent bond, and the nucleation is initiated from stable dimer. The nucleation enhancement is reasonably explained. The present researches results point out the development of a new method for controlling nucleation and growth that could be applied for structural genomics and pharmaceutical industry for instance.     

An improved AUSM-family scheme with robustness and accuracy for all Mach number flows

With the increasing popularity of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the reliability of numerical scheme becomes prominent. The work presents a newly improved scheme more reliable in all Mach number regimes to circumvent some typical symptoms of the previous AUSM-family schemes observed in hypersonic and very low speeds. This scheme is facilitated by reconstructing pressure diffusion term in mass flux, velocity diffusion term in pressure flux and numerical sound speed. Then, a variety of benchmark test cases are selected to systematically assess the effects of these key ingredients and investigate the additional features in terms of robustness and accuracy. The proposed scheme attains stronger shock robustness against carbuncle instability, better low-speed accuracy and higher resolution of oblique shocks compared with many existing upwind schemes. Moreover, it can exactly resolve contact discontinuity, preserve positivity, damp numerical overshoots and avert the global cut-off strategy. Numerical results for a wide spectrum of Mach numbers indicate its potential and reliable application to all Mach number flows.