Indentation responses of piezoelectric films

Frictionless indentation responses of transversely isotropic piezoelectric film/rigid substrate systems under circular cylindrical indenter (i.e., punch), conical indenter (i.e., cone), and spherical indenter (i.e., sphere) are investigated. Both insulating and conducting indenters are considered. The technique of Hankel transformation is employed to derive the corresponding dual integral equations for the mixed boundary value indentation problems. For the two limiting cases of infinitely thick and infinitely thin piezoelectric films, closed-form solutions are obtained. For piezoelectric films of finite thickness, a numerical method is constructed to solve the dual integral equations and semi-empirical models having only two unknown parameters are proposed for the responses of indentation force, electric charge and electric potential, and contact radius. With the two parameters inferred from the numerical results, the semi-empirical formulae are found to provide good estimates of the indentation responses for the two limiting cases of infinitely thick and thin piezoelectric films, as well as those in between. The inferred parameters in the proposed semi-empirical formulae for normalized indentation force and electric charge are checked against four different piezoelectric materials and are found to be insensitive to the selection of piezoelectric materials. It is believed that the proposed semi-empirical indentation formulae are useful in developing experimental indentation techniques to extract the material properties of piezoelectric films.     

Static and dynamic detection of axial surface defects on metallic wires by conical triple laser reflection

The quality of the surface of metallic wires is relevant for different applications. The reflection of a laser beam on the surface of a metallic cylindrical wire provides an efficient way to inspect the quality of its surface. Our interest is focused in the detection of axially oriented defects, which are the most relevant for the wire drawing process. We present a simple interference-geometrical model to describe the light pattern reflected from a wire with defects. This model adequately accounts for the observed results from an industrial prototype developed for the purpose. It incorporates three-laser beams incident on the wire at equidistant locations in its perimeter, which produce three reflection cones with a CCD. This configuration permits to explore the whole perimeter of the wire. Several results are presented, both in static operation and in production line, in agreement with qualitative and quantitative predictions.     

Vertical migration of 85Sr, 137Cs and 131I in various arable and undisturbed soils

The vertical migration of ⁸⁵Sr, ¹³⁷Cs and ¹³¹I in some arable and undisturbed single-contaminated soils was studied by gamma-spectrometry measurements under lysimetric laboratory conditions during irrigation of the soil profiles with wet atmospheric precipitation for about one year, except ¹³¹I. A new simple exponential compartment (box) model was derived, which makes it possible to calculate the migration rate constants and migration rates in the individual soil layers (vertical sections) as well as the total vertical migration rate constants and total vertical migration rates of radionuclides in the bulk soil horizon. The relaxation times of radionuclides in respective soil horizons can also be evaluated.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel polyimides with 2,2‐bis[4(4‐aminophenoxy)phenyl]phthalein‐3′,5′‐bis(trifluoromethyl)anilide

2,2‐Bis[4(4‐aminophenoxy)phenyl]phthalein‐3′,5′‐bis(trifluoromethyl)anilide (6FADAP), containing fluorine and phthalimide moieties, was synthesized via the Williamson ether condensation reaction from 1‐chloro‐4‐nitrobenzene and phenolphthalein‐3′,5′‐bis(trifluoromethyl)anilide, which was followed by hydrogenation. Monomers such as 2,2‐bis[4(4‐aminophenoxy)phenyl]phthalein‐anilide containing phthalimide groups and 2,2‐bis[4(4‐aminophenoxy)phenyl]phthalein containing only phthalein moieties were also synthesized for comparison. The monomers were first characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), ¹H NMR, ¹⁹F NMR, elemental analysis, and titration and were then used to prepare polyimides with 2,2‐bis(3,4‐dicarboxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane dianhydride. The polyimides were designed to have molecular weights of 20,000 g/mol via off‐stoichiometry and were characterized by FTIR, NMR, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis. Their solubility, water absorption, dielectric constant, and refractive index were also evaluated. The polyimides prepared with 6FADAP, containing fluorine and phthalimide moieties, had excellent solubility in N‐methylpyrrolidinone, N,N‐dimethylacetamide, tetrahydrofuran, CHCl₃, tetrachloroethane, and acetone, and GPC analysis showed a molecular weight of 18,700 g/mol. The polyimides also exhibited a high glass‐transition temperature (290 °C), good thermal stability (～500 °C in air), low water absorption (1.9 wt %), a low dielectric constant (2.81), a low refractive index, and low birefringence (0.0041). © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3361–3374, 2003     

On the Solution of Discontinuous IVPs by Adaptive Runge–Kutta Codes

In this paper an automatic technique for handling discontinuous IVPs when they are solved by means of adaptive Runge–Kutta codes is proposed. This technique detects, accurately locates and passes the discontinuities in the solution of IVPs by using the information generated by the code along the numerical integration together with a continuous interpolant of the discrete solution. A remarkable feature is that it does not require additional information on the location of the discontinuities. Some numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the reliability and efficiency of the proposed algorithms.     

A categorical characterization of varieties

A simple, direct proof of the following characterization of varieties of (finitary) algebras is presented: a cocomplete category is equivalent to a variety iff it has an algebraic generator, i.e., a regular generator which is exactly projective and finitely generated. This improves somewhat a recent restatement, due to Pedicchio and Wood, of the classical characterization theorem of Lawvere. A bijective correspondence between algebraic theories and algebraic generators is established.     

硅色敏器件对复色光色差辨识能力的数值分析

对复色光的光谱功率分布和色敏器件光谱响应的实验曲线进行了函数拟合，采用Mathematica 4．2计算了具有不同峰值波长和半高宽的高斯分布的复色光在色敏器件中产生的电流比．计算结果表明，待测复色光的峰值波长和半高宽变化对两种典型的色敏器件的输出信号影响的权重比分别为100：1和10：1。权重比说明色敏器件的输出电流比随峰值波长和半高宽的变化非常灵敏，但两者权重不同，其中峰值波长的变化影响更为显著，是影响复色光颜色变化的主要因素．数值分析的结果表明，硅双结色敏器件对复色光色差有良好的辨识能力．两种器件权重比的差异说明了器件制作工艺与其辨识能力的关系，为器件合理设计提供了理论依据．     

Dynamic stability of weakly damped oscillators with elastic impacts and wear

The dynamics of non-linear oscillators comprising of a single-degree-of-freedom system and beams with elastic two-sided amplitude constraints subject to harmonic loads is analyzed. The beams are clamped at one end, and constrained against unilateral contact sites near the other end. The structures are modelled by a Bernoulli-type beam supported by springs using the finite element method. Rayleigh damping is assumed. Symmetric and elastic double-impact motions, both harmonic and sub-harmonic, are studied by way of a Poincaré mapping that relates the states at subsequent impacts. Stability and bifurcation analyses are performed for these motions, and domains of instability are delineated. Impact work rate, which is the rate of energy dissipation to the impacting surfaces, is evaluated and discussed. In addition, an experiment conducted by Moon and Shaw on the vibration of a cantilevered beam with one-sided amplitude constraining stop is modelled. Bifurcation observed in the experiment could be captured.     

Robust Output Tracking Control of an Uncertain Linear System via a Modified Optimal Linear-Quadratic Method

This study investigates the robust output tracking problem for a class of uncertain linear systems. The uncertainties are assumed to be time invariant and to satisfy the matching conditions. According to the selected nominal parameters, an optimal solution with a prescribed degree of stability is determined. Then, an auxiliary input via the use of an adapting factor, connected to the nominal optimal control, is introduced to guarantee the robustness and prescribed degree of stability for the output tracking control of the uncertain linear systems. This method is very simple and effective and can reject bounded uncertainties imposed on the states. A maglev vehicle model example is given to show its effectiveness.     

Stable Subnorms II

In this paper we continue our study of stability properties of subnorms on subsets of finite-dimensional, power-associative algebras over the real or the complex numbers.