Path to achieving molecular dispersion in a dense reactive mixture

A uniform dispersion of reactants is necessary to achieve a complete reaction involving multicomponents. In this study, we have examined the role of plasticizer in the reaction of two seemingly unlikely reactants: a highly crystalline hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) and a strongly hydrogen bonded phenol formaldehyde resin. By combining information from NMR, infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry, we were able to determine the role of specific intermolecular interactions necessary for the plasticizer to dissolve the highly crystalline HMTA and to plasticize the phenol formaldehyde resin in this crosslinking reaction. The presence of the plasticizer increased the segmental mobility, disrupted the hydrogen bonded matrix, and freed the hydroxyl units, which further increased the solubility of the HMTA. Both the endothermic and exothermic transitions are accounted for in the calorimetric data obtained. For the first time, it is possible to obtain the effective molar ratio of each component needed to complete the crosslinking reaction efficiently. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1519–1526     

Deformation Quantization for Systems with Fermions

Deformation quantization, which achieves the passage from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics by the replacement of the pointwise multiplication of functions on phase space by the star product, is a powerful tool for treating systems involving bosonic degrees of freedom, both in quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory. In the present paper we show how these methods may be naturally extended to systems involving fermions. In particular we show how supersymmetric quantum mechanics can be formulated in this approach and consider examples involving both non-relativistic and relativistic systems.     

Plasmon-induced terahertz absorption and photoconductivity in a grid-gated double-quantum-well structure

The terahertz absorption spectra of plasmon modes in a grid-gated double-quantum-well field-effect transistor structure is analyzed theoretically and numerically using the scattering matrix approach and is shown to faithfully reproduce strong resonant features of recent experimental observations of terahertz photo-conductivity in such a structure.     

Synthesis of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Particles by Sol-Gel Chemistry

The synthesis of ORganically MOdified SILica (ORMOSIL) particles has been carried out using both the hydrolytic and non-hydrolytic sol-gel routes. The hybrid (nano)composites are organically modified with an alkyl or aryl group covalently bonded to silicon. Hybrids have been synthesised in an aqueous sol-gel process by a modified Stöber route, producing spherical nanoparticles with diameters in the range 50–300 nm. The size of the particles can be controlled by control of certain reaction parameters. Smaller ormosil nanoparticles can be synthesised by a base-catalysed emulsion polymerisation route, by varying the type and concentration of surfactant and precursor feed rate. In this case, particles in the size range 3.5–10 nm can be obtained. Hybrids have been synthesised from hyperbranched polyesters by encapsulation in a silica matrix using the hydrolytic sol-gel route. Optimisation of the reaction conditions allows the hybrids to be produced as isolated sub-micron spherical particles. Ormosil particles have also been synthesised using the non-hydrolytic sol-gel route, which may lead to products of different morphologies because of the different polarity of the reaction medium. Different reaction conditions were studied in order to optimise the size and shape of the particles, including choice of solvent, use of surfactants and addition of polystyrene. Dimethylsulfoxide acts as a novel oxygen donor for the catalyst-free formation of colourless silsesquioxanes.     

Gain depletion due to amplified spontaneous emission in multi-pass laser amplifiers

Calculations of the effects of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in laser amplifiers designed to amplify sub-picosecond pulses are presented. A one-dimensional code is used with some simple approximations to account for aspect ratio variation in cases of cylindrical symmetry. Gain depletion due to ASE is compared for various multi-pass geometries. Optimisation for short pulse amplification of a telescopic, beam-expanding, 4-pass amplifier is considered.On leave from Electrotechnical Laboratory, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan     

Adaptive local grid refinement algorithms for finite-element collocation

An adaptive grid refinement procedure allows accurate solutions to advection-dominated, time-dependent flows using finite-element collocation. The technique relies on a data structure that is readily amenable to parallel computing. The paper discusses computational aspects of the method.     

Global Optimization of Stochastic Black-Box Systems via Sequential Kriging Meta-Models

This paper proposes a new method that extends the efficient global optimization to address stochastic black-box systems. The method is based on a kriging meta-model that provides a global prediction of the objective values and a measure of prediction uncertainty at every point. The criterion for the infill sample selection is an augmented expected improvement function with desirable properties for stochastic responses. The method is empirically compared with the revised simplex search, the simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation, and the DIRECT methods using six test problems from the literature. An application case study on an inventory system is also documented. The results suggest that the proposed method has excellent consistency and efficiency in finding global optimal solutions, and is particularly useful for expensive systems.     

Effect of hardness and composition gradients on Barkhausen emission in case hardened steel

The effect of gradients in hardness, structure and composition in the surface layers on magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) was investigated in two widely used low alloy steels. One material was case hardened by induction hardening. The other was case carburised. Similar hardness profiles were produced by the two treatments. It was found that the variation in structure and hardness through the case in the induction-hardened steel had a minor effect on the MBN profile. In contrast, the inhomogeneity in the case-carburised material showed up clearly. This took the form of a broadened or two-peak MBN profile. When the surface layer containing the case was removed by etching, the broadened profile was replaced by a profile with a single peak. It is concluded that the shape and position of the MBN profile is significantly affected when a gradient in microstructure is induced by a gradient in carbon content. On the other hand, a gradient in microstructure induced by heat treatment with a constant carbon level has much less affect on the MBN profile for the induction-hardened steel.