Magnetic hysteretic characterization of the irradiation-induced embrittlement of Fe,Fe–Cu model alloys,and reactor pressure vessel steel

Neutron irradiation is known to cause embrittlement of iron-based materials; in the nuclear industry, this effect can be detrimental for reactor pressure vessel steels. In this paper, we investigate the variations of the magnetic hysteretic behavior due to neutron irradiation, for four materials, i.e. nominally pure Fe, Fe-0.1 wt% Cu and Fe-0.3 wt%Cu model alloys, and a reactor pressure vessel steel, JRQ A533-B. Two parameters related to the magnetization loop shape, i.e. maximum relative differential permeability and peak intensity of local interaction field distribution, are measured as a function of neutron fluence. For all materials both parameters decrease with increasing fluence, due to the irradiation-induced formation of nano-size defects. This decreasing trend in magnetic parameters during embrittlement is noticeable regardless the origin of the embrittlement, which can be only Cu-precipitation (thermal aging of Fe–Cu), only matrix damage (irradiation of pure Fe), or both mechanisms (irradiation of Fe–Cu or steel). The magnetic parameters relatively change up to 40%, which indicates the potential of magnetic characterization to assess irradiation-induced material hardening and embrittlement.     

Mössbauer studies of Soltmany and Shisr 176 meteorites – comparison with other ordinary chondrites

Two ordinary chondrites type L6: Soltmany and Shisr 176, were recently investigated in our laboratory. The distribution of iron in the 4 main iron bearing mineral phases (olivine, pyroxene, kamacite and troilite) determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy in Soltmany and Shisr 176 meteorites was very different from that in the Baszkowka meteorite (type L5). To explain the cause of this difference, a comparison of the distribution of iron among the main mineral phases present in other type L and H meteorites was performed. Our studies have shown that the Baszkowka meteorite is not a good point of reference for Soltmany and Shisr 176 meteorites.     

Development of a technique for high pressure neutron diffraction at 40 GPa with a Paris-Edinburgh press

ABSTRACT

We have developed a technique for neutron diffraction experiments at pressures up to 40?GPa using a Paris-Edinburgh press at the PLANET beamline in J-PARC. To increase the maximum accessible pressure, the diameter of the dimple for sample chamber at the top of the sintered diamond anvils is sequentially reduced from 4.0?mm to 1.0?mm. As a result, the maximum pressure increased and finally reached 40?GPa. By combining this technique with the beam optics which defines the gauge volume, diffraction patterns sufficient for full-structure refinements are obtainable at such pressures.     

Stress relaxation through ageing heat treatment – a comparison between in situ and ex situ neutron diffraction techniques

The effect of ageing heat treatment on the relaxation of residual stress in a water quenched polycrystalline nickel-base superalloy has been measured using neutron diffraction. Two separate experiments have been conducted; the first experiment was an ex situ study in which samples were individually processed with varying degrees of age time before measurement. The second experiment was an in situ heat treatment, which required heating and then holding the sample at ageing temperature while measuring strain using neutron diffraction. The in situ experiment was carried out twice using the same setup to assess the repeatability of the technique and found to be repeatable within experimental error. The agreement between in situ and ex situ experiments was found to be reasonable, particularly the manner in which the stresses relaxed with time. In both studies it was found that initial stress relaxation was rapid, approximately 200 MPa in 15–30 min, after this a slower linear relaxation remained for the rest of the ageing heat treatment. This behaviour suggests creep may be the means by which stress relaxation takes place in this material during ageing.     

Thermal assistance in TA – OSL signals of feldspar and polymineral samples; comparison with the case of pure quartz

Thermally assisted optically stimulated luminescence (TA – OSL) is studied for the cases of polymineral, rich in K-feldspar sample as well as one pure sample of K-feldspar. For both cases, the shape of the TA – OSL signal indicates an initial, fast decaying part which is followed by a flat, very slowly decaying part with intensity much larger than the ordinary background noise signal. Thermal assistance characteristics indicate that for the case of pure K-feldspar, the signal originates from a unique very deep trap. The experimental features of the TA – OSL signal in the case of polymineral sample resemble much the corresponding TA – OSL features of pure quartz, in terms of both glow curve shape, especially at high stimulation temperatures, as well as signal intensity and its dependence on the stimulation temperature. Nevertheless, TA – OSL stimulation at low, ambient temperatures provide strong hints towards the contribution of K – feldspars to this signal. Proper selection of the stimulation temperature could possibly discriminate the TA – OSL signal originating from quartz and feldspars.     

A comparison of algainas and InGaAsP-based 1.3 μm semiconductor lasers using high pressure

Abstract

We have compared the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the threshold current, I_th, and lasing energy, E_lase, of 1.3 pm quantum-well devices based upon AlGaInAs and InGaAsP. Whilst we observe a very similar dependence of E_lase on pressure for the two materials, we measure strikingly different variations of I_th. By applying pressure to 1.3 μm InGaAsP lasers, I_th typically decreases by ～ 10% over 1 GPa consistent with the reduction of Auger recombination, which forms ～ 50% of I_th at room temperature. However, for the 1.3 μm AlGaInAs-based lasers, we observe an increase in I_th by ～ 8% over the same pressure range. From these results we conclude that non-radiative recombination accounts for only ～ 20% of I_th in AlGaInAs-based devices. This is in good agreement with previous temperature dependence measurements and shows why AlGaInAs-based devices exhibit a reduced temperature sensitivity of I_th which is very important for telecommunications applications.     

Study of the effect of SHI irradiation on nanocrystalline vacancy doped (La,Sr)(Mn,Fe)O system and its comparison with hydrostatic pressure using Mössbauer spectroscopy

The swift heavy ion irradiated La_0.9Mn_0.8Fe_0.2O₃ (La-deficient) system with 200 Mev Ag^16?+? ion beam at fluence 5 × 10¹² ions/cm² was studied with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Mössbauer spectroscopic measurements. Comparison of Mössbauer parameters with those of unirradiated sample showed an increase in line width on irradiation which may be due to reduction in particle size as well as due to creation of defects. An increase in quadrupole splitting with no appreciable change in isomer shift showed ion-induced structural disorder in the material after irradiation. An attempt is made to compare the effect of fluence with the hydrostatic pressure on the sample.     

Structural studies with the use of XRD and Mössbauer spectroscopy of new high Manganese steels

New high-strength austenitic and austenitic-ferritic manganese steels represent a significant potential in applications for structural components in the automotive and railway industry due to the excellent combination of high mechanical properties and good plasticity. They belong to the group of steels called AHSS (Advanced High Strength Steels) and UHSS (Ultra High Strength Steels). Application of this combination of properties allows a reduction in the weight of vehicles by the use of reduced cross-section components, and thus to reduce fuel consumption. The development and implementation of industrial production of such interesting and promising steel and its use as construction material requires an improvement of their casting properties and susceptibility to deformation in plastic working conditions. In this work, XRD, Transmission Mössbauer Spectroscopy and Conversion Electron Mössbauer Spectroscopy were employed in a study of the new high-manganese steels with a austenite and austenite-ferrite structure. The influence of the plastic deformation parameters on the changes in the structure, distribution of ferrite and disclosure of the presence of carbides was determined. The analysis of phase transformations in various times using CEMS method made possible to reveal their fine details.     

Photoproduction of K 0 and Λ at HERA and a comparison with deep inelastic scattering

Inclusive K ⁰ and Λ photoproduction has been investigated at HERA with the H1 detector at an average photon-proton center of mass energy of 200 GeV in the transverse momentum range 0.5 < p _t < 5 GeV. The production rates as a function of p _t and center of mass rapidity are compared to those obtained in deep inelastic scattering at 〈Q ²〉 = 23 GeV². A similar comparison is made of the rapidity spectra of charged particles. The rate of strangeness photoproduction is compared with $p\bar p$ measurements. The observations are also compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations and the predictions of a Monte Carlo model.     

Studies of high-temperature electron–phonon interactions with inelastic neutron scattering and first-principles computations

Several recent studies of phonons combining inelastic neutron scattering and first-principles calculations are summarized. Inelastic neutron scattering was used to measure the phonon densities of states of the A15 compounds V₃Si, V₃Ge, and V₃Co at temperatures from 10 K to 1273 K. It was found that phonons in V₃Si and V₃Ge, which are superconducting at low temperatures, exhibit an anomalous stiffening with increasing temperature, whereas phonons in V₃Co have a normal softening behavior. Additional measurements of the phonon DOS of BCC V alloys were performed, and it was found that a stiffening anomaly present in pure V is suppressed upon introduction of extra d-electrons by alloying. First-principles calculations of the electronic and phonon densities of states show that in both these systems, the anomalous phonon stiffening originates with an adiabatic electron–phonon coupling mechanism. The anomaly is caused by the thermally-induced broadening of sharp peaks in the electronic density of states, which tends to decrease the electronic density at the Fermi level. These results illustrate how the combined use of first-principles calculations and inelastic neutron scattering provides powerful insights into couplings of excitations in condensed-matter.     

Bubble population phenomena in sonochemical reactor: I Estimation of bubble size distribution and its number density with pulsed sonication – Laser diffraction method

To characterize the bubble populations (size and its number distribution) in a sonochemical reactor, a simple but powerful technique based on the Fraunhofer laser diffraction (LD) has been proposed. In this method, the acoustic wave disturbance to the laser probe in the sonochemical reaction field was eliminated by the temporal separation using pulsed sonication (pulsed LD). With this relatively simple strategy, the temporal development of the bubble size distribution could be evaluated by pulsed LD. A number density of bubbles was estimated by using a calibration data obtained with monosized standard particles. In addition, the effect of pulse length and a surfactant on the bubble population phenomena in a multibubble system are discussed.     

Measuring nitrification in sediments – comparison of two techniques and three 15NO measurement methods

Nitrification is a crucial process in sediment nitrogen cycling. We compared two ¹⁵N tracer-based nitrification measurement techniques (isotope pairing technique (IPT) combined with ¹⁵N nitrate pool dilution and ¹⁵N ammonium oxidation) and three different ¹⁵N analyses from bottom water nitrate (ammonia diffusion, denitrifier and SPINMAS) in a sediment mesocosm. The ¹⁵N nitrate pool dilution technique combined with IPT can be used to quantify the in situ nitrification, but the minimum detection limit for the total nitrification is higher than that in the ¹⁵N ammonium oxidation technique. The ¹⁵N ammonium oxidation technique, however, is not applicable for sediments that have high ammonium content. If nitrate concentration and the amount of ¹⁵N label in the sample are low, the ¹⁵N nitrate analysis should be done with the denitrifier method. In higher ¹⁵N concentrations, the less sensitive SPINMAS method can also be applied. The ammonia diffusion method is not suitable for bottom water ¹⁵N nitrate analyses.     

Ab initio study of PN electronic states – a qualitative interpretation of the perturbation and predissociation effects on observed transitions

Valence and high electronic states of PN have been calculated with accurate quantum chemistry methods. The variety of theoretical methods used includes complete active space self-consistent field, multireference configuration interaction and the newly developed explicitly correlated coupled cluster methods. The large correlation-consistent atomic orbitals basis sets AVQZ, AV5Z and AV(5+d)Z are used for the potential energy curves calculations in the bonding and long-range regions. The spectroscopic constants (R_e, B_e, ω_e, ω_ex_e, α_e, D_e, T_e) and the vibrational levels of the bound valence states (X¹Σ⁺, A¹Π, a³Σ⁺, d ³Δ, e³Σ^?, C¹Σ^?, b³Π, D ¹Δ and E¹Σ⁺ and some higher bound states) are determined and compared with experimental findings when available. Significant spin–orbit interactions between triplet states and A¹Π and E¹Σ⁺ excited states are found near the crossing points of the potential energy curves and could explain predissociation phenomena and the perturbations of the vibrational levels experimentally observed for PN in their A¹Π and E¹Σ⁺ states.     

Modeling of acoustic wave propagation in time-domain using the discontinuous Galerkin method – A comparison with measurements

Simulations of acoustic wave propagation in time-domain are presented. In the simulations, the discontinuous Galerkin method for spatial derivatives and the low-storage Runge–Kutta approach for time derivatives are used. Three different simulation cases are studied. First, the directivity of loudspeaker is simulated. In the second case, acoustic wave propagation in free space is studied using a short pulse. In the last case, acoustic wave scattering from a metallic cylinder is simulated. All simulation results are compared with measurement results. The measurements for the acoustic wave scattering from the metallic cylinder are made in 2D planes using an automated measurement system. Comparison between the simulation and measurement results are made both temporally and spatially and a good agreement between the simulation and measurement results is found. The results suggest that the discontinuous Galerkin method coupled with the low-storage Runge–Kutta approach is a viable tool for modeling acoustic wave propagation in the time-domain.     

Mössbauer study of evolution with temperature of distributions of interstitials in Fe-N and comparison with predicted distributions by statistical thermodynamic analysis

by Mössbauer spectrometry. A statistical thermodynamic model shows that the observed environment densities can be explained only when the different local free energies _ij of E_ij surroundings are taken into account.     

Sonication in combination with heat and low pressure as an alternative pasteurization treatment – Effect on Escherichia coli K12 inactivation and quality of apple cider

Escherichia coli K12 cells suspended in apple cider were treated by manothermosonication (MTS, 400 kPa/59 °C), thermosonication (TS, 100 kPa/59 °C), and manosonication (MS, 400 kPa/55 °C) for up to 4 min. A 5-log reduction was achieved in 1.4 min by MTS, 3.8 min by TS, and 2.5 min by MS. The inactivation curves of the E. coli exhibited a fast initial reduction followed by a slow inactivation section. The Weibull, log–logistic, and biphasic linear models showed a good fit of the inactivation data. Quality analyses were conducted with raw apple cider (control), thermally-pasteurized (TP), and MTS-, TS-, and MS-treated cider samples over a 3-week period at refrigeration temperature. Titratable acidity and pH did not differ among any of the samples. During storage, the turbidity value of the control was the highest, followed by TP, TS, MTS and MS. All color parameters of the TP sample were significantly different from those receiving the other treatments. The control and sonicated samples showed similar color parameters during storage. In total, 97 aroma compounds were identified in the control, TS-, MS-, and MTS-treated cider samples, while 95 aroma compounds were found in the TP at Week 0. Among all the aroma compounds, 9 key ones were identified in all samples, including ethyl 2-methylbutanoate, butyl acetate, 1-butanol, ethyl hexanoate, 1-hexanol, butanoic acid, β-damascenone, hexanoic acid, and octanoic acid. The profiles of the key aroma compounds in all sonicated samples were more similar to the control than the TP sample at Weeks 0 and 3.     

Transmission scatter cross sections across two-dimensional random rough surfaces – full wave solutions and comparison with numerical results

Abstract

In this paper, the full wave expressions for the bistatic transmission scattering cross sections across two-dimensional random rough surfaces are obtained. The full wave analysis accounts for the surface height/slope correlations. Analytical and numerical comparisons of the full wave solutions with the small perturbation and physical optics solutions are made for isotropic random rough surfaces. The full wave results are also compared with the numerical results based on Monte Carlo simulations of one-dimensional random rough surfaces. Detailed consideration is given to illustrating the relationship between these full wave solutions and the original full wave solutions including the impact of accounting for the height/slope correlations in this analysis.     

Evaluation of the brain pH using a phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy technique – a comparison of women and men

The aim of this study was to determine the reference value of pH in healthy women and men using the phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy technique. The brains of 65 young volunteers were examined. The intracellular pH was calculated in the group of women and the group of men. In both groups, the average pH was slightly alkaline (respectively 7.10?±?0.08 and 7.08?±?0.12). No statistically significant sex difference in brain pH was found. Thus, in case if this method is used to estimate possible brain pathology in the young population, it is not needed to take the gender factor into consideration.     

Analysis and comparison of n-AlxGa1−xAs/GaAs QWIPs with different device structures and optical coupling

This paper discusses optical coupling for n-GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well infrared photodetectors (MQWIPs). The optical responsivity has been compared with different grating structures fabricated by reactive ion etching (RIE), device form, and incidence mode. The optical coupling efficiencies are further analyzed by the modal expansion model (MEM), including optical field distributions in different size photosensitive element and interrelated influences with scattering matrix method based on plane-wave expansion (PWE). Some extra coupling parameters have been obtained in designing and optimizing QWIPs FPA.