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.     

Reductions in overshoot following intense sound exposures

Overshoot refers to the poorer detectability of brief signals presented soon after the onset of a masking noise compared to those presented after longer delays. In the present experiment, brief tonal signals were presented 2 or 190 ms following the onset of a broadband masker that was 200 ms in duration. These two conditions of signal delay were tested before and after a series of exposures to a tone intense enough to induce temporary threshold shift (TTS). The magnitude of the overshoot was reduced after the exposure when a TTS of at least 10 dB was induced, but not when smaller amounts of TTS were induced. The reduction in overshoot was due to a decrease in the masked thresholds with the 2-ms delay; masked thresholds with the 190-ms delay were not different pre- and post-exposure. The implication is that the mechanisms responsible for the normal overshoot effect are temporarily inactivated by the same stimulus manipulations that produce a mild exposure-induced hearing loss. Thus the result is the paradox that exposure to intense sounds can produce a loss of signal detectability in certain stimulus conditions and a simultaneous improvement in detectability in other stimulus conditions.     

Research,teaching, and social activities of academician Sergey Alekseevich Khristianovich

Sergey Alekseevich Khristianovich is one of the famous Russian mechanical engineers of the 20th century together with N.E. Zhukovsky, S.A. Chaplygin, N.E. Kochin, and others. He made an immense contribution to some aspects of mechanics, such as aerogasdynamics, rock mechanics, theory of plasticity, filtration theory, and environmental power engineering. All this was preceded by a long, hard, and fruitful life full of outstanding events.     

Simplifying equations in Arabic algebra

Historians have always seen jabr (restoration) and muqābala (confrontation) as technical terms for specific operations in Arabic algebra. This assumption clashes with the fact that the words were used in a variety of contexts. By examining the different uses of jabr, muqābala, ikmāl (completion), and radd (returning) in the worked-out problems of several medieval mathematics texts, we show that they are really nontechnical words used to name the immediate goals of particular steps. We also find that the phrase al-jabr wa'l-muqābala was first used within the solutions of problems to mean al-jabr and/or al-muqābala, and from there it became the name of the art of algebra.     

Enumeration of inequivalent irreducible Goppa codes

We consider irreducible Goppa codes over F_q of length qⁿ defined by polynomials of degree r, where q is a prime power and n,r are arbitrary positive integers. We obtain an upper bound on the number of such codes.     

Bump formation on a glass surface with a transparent coating using femtosecond laser processing

The morphology of a glass surface having a transparent coating processed with focused femtosecond laser pulses is investigated. The transparent coating is formed of poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA). When the glass was coated with a PMMA film with a thickness of 2.8 μm, bumps were formed over a wide range of axial focus positions. The same laser pulse energy produced cavities when processing bare glass with no coating. The bumps were formed as a result of suppressing material emission from the glass surface by a shielding effect of plasma generated by ablation of the PMMA film and by physical blocking of the PMMA film. A thinner film with a thickness of 0.7 μm produced a reduced shielding effect, forming an exploded bump with a small pit at its center and debris around the periphery. PACS 44.10.+i; 61.80.Ba; 79.20.Ds     

Spray thermometry using thermographic phosphors

In this study a novel technique for 2D spray temperature measurement is presented. For this purpose the thermographic phosphor (TP) Mg₄GeO_5.5F:Mn was dispersed in n-dodecane and atomised using a conventional semi solid-cone nozzle. The thermographic phosphor was excited electronically by a frequency tripled Nd:YAG laser (355 nm). An ICCD-camera in combination with an image doubler detected the subsequently emitted phosphorescence at both peak emission wavelengths located at 633 nm and 659 nm, respectively. Utilising suitable calibration measurements, the local spray temperature was determined by evaluating the intensity ratio of both emission wavelengths. To the knowledge of the authors this is the first approach of spray temperature measurement exploiting the temperature dependent intensity ratio of thermographic phosphors. PACS 07.20.Dt; 32.50.+d