Existence and time-discretization for the finite-strain Souza–Auricchio constitutive model for shape-memory alloys

We prove the global existence of solutions for a shape-memory alloys constitutive model at finite strains. The model has been presented in Evangelista et al. (Int J Numer Methods Eng 81(6):761–785, 2010) and corresponds to a suitable finite-strain version of the celebrated Souza–Auricchio model for SMAs (Auricchio and Petrini in Int J Numer Methods Eng 55:1255–1284, 2002; Souza et al. in J Mech A Solids 17:789–806, 1998). We reformulate the model in purely variational fashion under the form of a rate-independent process. Existence of suitably weak (energetic) solutions to the model is obtained by passing to the limit within a constructive time-discretization procedure.     

Kinetics of the acid and alkaline hydrolysis of Monofluorophosphite

The kinetics of the acid and alkaline hydrolysis of monoflorophosphorous acid has been studied by P-31 NMR and static pH titration over a wide temperature range. The acid catalyzed hydrolysis has a rate constant at 25°C equal to 0.35 dm³ mol^?1 s^?1 and an activation energy of 53 kJ while the alkaline hydrolysis has a rate constant of 4.6 dm³ mol^?1 s^?1 and an activation energy of 42 kJ. When the hydrogen in this compound is replaced by either fluorine or a hydroxyl group, the rates of reaction decrease by two orders of magnitude. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Effects of surfactant and polymerization method on the synthesis of magnetic colloidal polymeric nanoparticles

The addition of superparamagnetic iron nanoparticles into polystyrene matrix allows for the modification of the physical properties as well as the implementation of new features in the hybrid nanomaterials. These materials have excellent potential for biomedical and bioengineering applications. Nevertheless, it is necessary to achieve a good dispersion of magnetic nanoparticles for its successful incorporation into polymer particles. This can be obtained through the use of a stabilizer, which provides stability against aggregation. In this work, magnetic nanoparticles were dispersed using different stabilizers. Subsequently, ferrofluids stabilized using the mixture of ABEX/IGEPAL and acrylic acid (AA) were used to synthesize PS-Fe₃O₄ nanocomposites, through miniemulsion and emulsion polymerization conventional techniques. Semicontinuous and batch processes were compared, by varying surfactants and their concentrations. The PS-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were characterized by dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Magnetic nanoparticle dispersions show better results when the anionic and nonionic surfactants are used as a mixture rather than when used alone. Results of DLS showed that the semicontinuous process allowed obtaining monodisperse materials, whereas polidisperse systems are generated in batch process. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of magnetite and polystyrene in the nanocomposites. PS-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles showed superparamagnetic behavior with final magnetization of around 0.01 emu/g and low coercivity, properties that make them suitable for applications in wide fields of technology. Particle size (Dz), was lower than 300 nm in all cases. Moreover, the use of AA as stabilizer allows enhancing the PS-Fe₃O₄ composite properties. These findings showed that particle size, morphology, and agglomeration are directly influenced by the concentration and the type of surfactant employed.     

Absence of Differential Correlations Between the Wave Equations for Upper-Lower One-Index Twistor Fields Borne by the Infeld-van derWaerden Spinor Formalisms for General Relativity

It is pointed out that the wave equations for any upper-lower one-index twistor fields which take place in the frameworks of the Infeldvan der Waerden γε-formalisms must be formally the same. The only reason for the occurrence of this result seems to be directly related to the fact that the spinor translation of the traditional conformal Killing equation yields twistor equations of the same form. It thus appears that the conventional torsionless devices for keeping track in the γ-formalism of valences of spinor differential configurations turn out not to be useful for sorting out the typical patterns of the equations at issue.     

On some nonlocal evolution equations in Banach spaces

This note is concerned with the initial value problem for the abstract nonlocal equation where A is a maximal monotone operator from a reflexive Banach space E to its dual E^*, while B is a nonlocal maximal monotone operator from . Under proper boundedness and coercivity assumptions on the operators, a solution is achieved by means of a discretization argument. Uniqueness and continuous dependence are also discussed and we prove some estimates for the discretization error. Finally, we deal with the approximation of linear Volterra integrodifferential operators.     

Nonlocal quasivariational evolution problems

This note addresses a class of abstract quasivariational evolution equations taking into account nonlocality with respect to time. We present an existence result for suitably weak solutions to such problems, which extend previous contributions. The existence argument relies on some order technique and exploits a fixed point result for multivalued applications in ordered spaces. Moreover, we discuss the application of our results to classes of ODE and parabolic PDE problems.