Stress State of Multilayer Thin-Walled Elements with Interfacial Defects of Structure

Based on the discrete-structural theory of thin plates and shells, a calculation model for thin-walled elements consisting of a number of rigid anisotropic layers is put forward. It is assumed that the transverse shear and compression stresses are equal on the interfaces. Elastic slippage is allowed over the interfaces between adjacent layers. The solution to the problem is obtained in a geometrically nonlinear statement with account of the influence of transverse shear and compression strains. The stress-strain state of circular two-layer transversely isotropic plates, both without defects and with a local area of adhesion failure at their center, is investigated numerically and experimentally. It is found that the kinematic and static contact conditions on the interfaces of layered thin-walled structural members greatly affect the magnitude of stresses and strains. With the use of three variants of calculation models, in the cases of perfect and weakened contact conditions between layers, the calculation results for circular plates are compared. It is revealed that the variant suggested in this paper adequately reflects the behavior of layered thin-walled structural elements under large deformations. __________ Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 41, No. 6, pp. 761–772, November–December, 2005.     

Wavelets and adaptive grids for the discontinuous Galerkin method

In this paper, space adaptivity is introduced to control the error in the numerical solution of hyperbolic systems of conservation laws. The reference numerical scheme is a new version of the discontinuous Galerkin method, which uses an implicit diffusive term in the direction of the streamlines, for stability purposes. The decision whether to refine or to unrefine the grid in a certain location is taken according to the magnitude of wavelet coefficients, which are indicators of local smoothness of the numerical solution. Numerical solutions of the nonlinear Euler equations illustrate the efficiency of the method.     

Magnetic and martensitic transitions in Ni-Fe-Ga alloy

The ferromagnetic shape memory alloy with nominal composition Ni₅₄Fe₁₉Ga₂₇ is investigated by Ac susceptibility and resistivity measurements. The alloy shows long-range ferromagnetic order below 290 K. The anomaly due to the martensitic transition is observed in the susceptibility and resistivity data in the temperature range around 220 K, which is associated with clear thermal hysteresis. Minor hysteresis loop technique was used to investigate the phase coexistence across the martensitic transition, and our analysis indicate that both martensite and austenite phases mutually coexist in the region of hysteresis.     

Validation of a computer-program for the interpretation of infrared spectra

The capability of a modern interpretation system for IR spectra has been tested, in which the process of structural assignment is modelled by methods of fuzzy logic. Figures of merit were generated for different interpretation algorithms. These figures of merit permit the validation as well as a comparison of independent interpretation systems. The influence of the sample preparation practice onto the information content of the resulting spectrum has been evaluated as well. Automatically generated band tables show only restricted reliability. Received: 13 February 1997 / Revised: 1 April 1997 / Accepted: 3 April 1997     

Ionization potentials and geometrical structure of pure and oxygenated barium clusters

In this article, we present results obtained on structures of small bare and oxygenated barium clusters produced by the laser vaporization technique. Contrary to the very weak Ba—Ba binding (0.202 eV), the Ba—O binding is rather strong (5.8 eV). As a consequence, extremely small amounts of oxygen in the cluster source are sufficient to induce the nucleation of oxygenated barium clusters. Surprisingly, at least for substoechiometric systems, Ba_nO_m clusters exhibit the same icosahedral structure as bare clusters do. Mass spectra seem to indicate that replacing a barium atom with a strongly polar BaO molecule does not affect the geometrical structure of the cluster. This aspect is more easily understandable if we assume that the oxygen atom takes place inside the structure of the Ba_n cluster without significant distortions. Ab-initio calculations have been undertaken in order to give a satisfactory account of this hypothesis.     

Prediction of critical temperature of n-alkanes and n-alkenes from surface tension vs. temperature data

 The surface tension versus temperature data of homologous series of n-alkanes and n-alkenes is analyzed. Critical temperatures are shown to be predicted from these data, with a very high precision, after some corrections are made. The corrections are shown to arise from the effect of the critical pressure on the extrapolated data to surface tension approaching zero. Received: 29 October 1996 Accepted: 13 December 1996     

Colossal magnetoresistance of the Sm1−x SrxMnO3 system

The results of investigating the temperature dependence of the resistivity, the differential magnetic susceptibility, and the magnetoresistance of a partially substituted perovskite Sm_1−x Sr_xMnO₃ (x=0.16–0.4) are presented. Colossal intrinsic magnetoresistance, reaching 90% in an external magnetic field of 30 kOe, is discovered in the compound with x=0.30 at 77 K. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 1831–1832 (October 1997)     

Almost-Sure Central Limit Theorem for Directed Polymers and Random Corrections

We consider a general model of directed polymers on the lattice , weakly coupled to a random environment. We prove that the central limit theorem holds almost surely for the discrete time random walk X _T associated to the polymer. Moreover we show that the random corrections to the cumulants of X _T are finite, starting from some dimension depending on the index of the cumulants, and that there are corresponding random corrections of order , , in the asymptotic expansion of the expectations of smooth functions of X _T . Full proofs are carried out for the first two cumulants. We finally prove a kind of local theorem showing that the ratio of the probabilities of the events to the corresponding probabilities with no randomness, in the region of “moderate” deviations from the average drift bT, are, for almost all choices of the environment, uniformly close, as , to a functional of the environment “as seen from (T,y)$”. Received: 14 October 1996 / Accepted: 28 March 1997