Dual extremum principles and the hypercircle for biharmonic problems

The canonical Euler-Hamilton theory is used to establish the connection between extremum principles and the hypercircle for a class of biharmonic problems. An illustration of the results is provided by calculations for a clamped plate.     

Direct sample fraction deposition using electrospray in narrow-bore size-exclusion chromatography/matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for polymer characterization

A direct sample fraction deposition method was developed for off-line size-exclusion chromatography (SEC)/matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight mass spectrometry. By using electrospray, the SEC eluent, together with a suitable matrix solution added coaxially, was directly deposited on the MALDI plate. Owing to the formation of very small droplets in electrospray, solvent evaporation is much faster. The fractionation volume in narrow-bore SEC, which can directly be collected in one MALDI spot, can easily be optimized in the range of a few microlitres. In addition, fairly homogeneous sample spots were obtained. The possible influence of composition variation of the SEC effluent on the analytical results using direct fraction deposition was investigated; no substantial effects were observed. The applicability of the method was demonstrated by characterizing a broad poly(methyl methacrylate) sample. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shear band formation in IF steel during cold rolling at medium reduction levels

The mechanisms of shear band formation in IF steel after cold rolling to ～50% reductions have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy. The observations revealed that shear bands were always parallel to a second set of microbands, where these exist, and contained within individual crystals, indicating that shear banding is controlled by orientation. Crystallographic analysis revealed that shear banding involves two mechanisms, dislocation glide and rigid-body rotation. In the first step, dislocation glide causes a rotation about the 〈211〉 axis to produce the so called ‘S’ band, which gives the shear band its crystallographic character. In the second step, when the most heavily stressed slip plane parallel to the shear band is of the form {110}〈111〉, rigid-body rotation continues about the 〈211〉 axis in the sheared zone and, then, a rotation about the transverse direction (TD) is promoted by the geometry of the sample. Using rigid-body matrix theory, the calculated orientations of shear bands are shown to be in agreement with experimental observations. The process outlined is capable of explaining how slip processes in grains that contain microbands, using either {110} or {112} slip planes, can produce crystallographic shear bands.     

Surface characteristics of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane modified clay and its application in polymerization of macrocyclic polyester oligomers

Novel porous aminopropyllsooctyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) modified montmorillonite clay complexes (POSS-Mts) with large interlayer distance and specific surface area have been successfully prepared via ion-exchange reaction and followed by freeze-drying treatment. The morphology of the POSS-Mts is highly influenced by the POSS concentration, pH of the suspension and drying procedure, but the interlayer distance of the POSS-Mts does not change much when the POSS concentration is above 0.4 CEC. The POSS-Mts were used as Sn-catalyst supporters to initiate the ring-opening polymerization of cyclic butylene terephthalate oligomers (CBT) for the first time. No diffraction peak was detected by wide-angle X-ray diffraction for the polymerized composites (pCBT/POSS-Mt), even at 10 wt % loading of POSS-Mt. A clay network rather than exfoliation structure was observed unexpectedly in the composites by transmission electron microscopy. The pCBT/POSS-Mt composite with 10 wt % POSS-Mt was further melt-compounded with commercial PBT resin as a master batch. The tensile properties of the resultant PBT/POSS-Mt composites were highly improved as compared to the pristine PBT due to the homogeneous dispersion of POSS-Mt in the PBT matrix.