Non-destructive inspection of drilled holes in reinforced honeycomb sandwich panels using active thermography

The aerospace industry is in constant need of ever-more efficient inspection methods for quality control. Product inspection is also essential to maintain the safe operation of aircraft components designed to perform for decades. This paper proposes a method for non-destructive inspection of drilled holes in reinforced honeycomb sandwich panels. Honeycomb sandwich panels are extensively employed in the aerospace industry due to their high strength and stiffness to weight ratios. In order to attach additional structures to them, panels are reinforced by filling honeycomb cells and drilling holes into the reinforced areas. The proposed procedure is designed to detect the position of the holes within the reinforced area and to provide a robust measurement of the distance between each hole and the boundary of the reinforced area. The result is a fast, safe and clean inspection method for drilled holes in reinforced honeycomb sandwich panels that can be used to robustly assess a possible displacement of the hole from the center of the reinforced area, which could have serious consequences. The proposed method is based on active infrared thermography, and uses state of the art methods for infrared image processing, including signal-to-nose ratio enhancement, hole detection and segmentation. Tests and comparison with X-ray inspections indicate that the proposed system meets production needs.     

Solubility of NaCl in water by molecular simulation revisited

In this paper, the solubility of NaCl in water is evaluated by using computer simulations for three different force fields. The condition of chemical equilibrium (i.e., equal chemical potential of the salt in the solid and in the solution) is obtained at room temperature and pressure to determine the solubility of the salt. We used the same methodology that was described in our previous work [E. Sanz and C. Vega, J. Chem. Phys. 126, 014507 (2007)] although several modifications were introduced to improve the accuracy of the calculations. It is found that the predictions of the solubility are quite sensitive to the details of the force field used. Certain force fields underestimate the experimental solubility of NaCl in water by a factor of four, whereas the predictions of other force fields are within 20% of the experimental value. Direct coexistence molecular dynamic simulations were also performed to determine the solubility of the salt. Reasonable agreement was found between the solubility obtained from free energy calculations and that obtained from direct coexistence simulations. This work shows that the evaluation of the solubility of salts in water can now be performed in computer simulations. The solubility depends on the ion-ion, ion-water, and water-water interactions. For this reason, the prediction of the solubility can be quite useful in future work to develop force fields for ions in water.     

C library for topological study of the electronic charge density

The topological study of the electronic charge density is useful to obtain information about the kinds of bonds (ionic or covalent) and the atom charges on a molecule or crystal. For this study, it is necessary to calculate, at every space point, the electronic density and its electronic density derivatives values up to second order. In this work, a grid‐based method for these calculations is described. The library, implemented for three dimensions, is based on a multidimensional Lagrange interpolation in a regular grid; by differentiating the resulting polynomial, the gradient vector, the Hessian matrix and the Laplacian formulas were obtained for every space point. More complex functions such as the Newton–Raphson method (to find the critical points, where the gradient is null) and the Cash–Karp Runge–Kutta method (used to make the gradient paths) were programmed. As in some crystals, the unit cell has angles different from 90°, the described library includes linear transformations to correct the gradient and Hessian when the grid is distorted (inclined). Functions were also developed to handle grid containing files (grd from DMol® program, CUBE from Gaussian® program and CHGCAR from VASP® program). Each one of these files contains the data for a molecular or crystal electronic property (such as charge density, spin density, electrostatic potential, and others) in a three‐dimensional (3D) grid. The library can be adapted to make the topological study in any regular 3D grid by modifying the code of these functions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Angular distribution of photoelectrons in small molecules: a molecular quantum defect calculation

The molecular quantum defect orbital (MQDO) method, previously used in the determination of molecular photoionization cross sections, is applied here to calculate the angular distribution of photoelectrons arising from the molecular photoionization. Calculations are performed for the ionization from outer valence orbitals of HF, H(2)O, NH(3), N(2)O, and H(2)CO molecules. The results are compared with previous measurements and with theoretical curves found in the literature. Profiles of the angular distribution parameter as a function of photoelectron energy covering a range from the photoionization threshold to 120 eV are presented for the above molecules. The energy dependence of the angular distributions predicted by the MQDO calculations agrees fairly well with predictions from more sophisticated theories and with observed results.     

Global wellposedness for 1D non-linear Schrödinger equation for data with an infinite L norm

We prove global wellposedness for the one-dimensional cubic non-linear Schrödinger equation in a space of distributions which is invariant under Galilean transformations and includes L². This space arises naturally in the study of the restriction properties of the Fourier transform to curved surfaces. The L^p bounds, p≠2, for the extension operator, dual to the restricition one, plays a fundamental role in our approach.     

Phase behavior and viscoelastic properties of entangled block copolymer gels

Triblock copolymers in midblock‐selective solvents can form physical gels. However, at low triblock contents (near the percolation threshold), the bridging of chains between micelles can lead to macrophase separation. Adding a styrene–isoprene diblock to a styrene–isoprene–styrene triblock copolymer in squalane can eliminate macrophase separation, yielding a wide range of stable, single‐phase gels with a disordered arrangement of micelles. The plateau modulus of these triblock gels scales with the 2.2 power of polymer content, indicating the importance of entanglements in dictating the modulus. Comparing gels made from the midblock‐saturated derivative of the same polymer [styrene‐(ethylene‐alt‐propylene)‐styrene] in squalane reveals that the modulus differences in the gels are a direct consequence of the difference in the entanglement molecular weight of the midblock homopolymer in bulk. Finally, the broad relaxation spectrum of these triblocks is well‐described by a recent theory for the dynamics of entangled star polymers, with the breadth of the relaxation spectrum dictated by the number of entanglements per midblock in the gel. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 39: 2183–2197, 2001     

Linear oscillations of axisymmetric viscous liquid bridges

Small amplitude free oscillations of axisymmetric capillary bridges are considered for varying values of the capillary Reynolds number C^-1 and the slenderness of the bridge L\Lambda. A semi-analytical method is presented that provides cheap and accurate results for arbitrary values of C^-1 and L\Lambda; several asymptotic limits (namely, C << 1, C >> 1, L << 1  and  |p-L| << 1C\ll 1, C\gg1, \Lambda\ll 1 \ \rm{and} \ |\pi-\Lambda|\ll 1 ) are considered in some detail, and the associated approximate results are checked. A fairly complete picture of the (fairly complex) spectrum of the linear problem is obtained for varying values of C and L\Lambda. Two kinds of normal modes, called capillary and hydrodynamic respectively, are almost always clearly identified, the former being associated with free surface deformation and the latter, only with the internal flow field; when C is small the damping rate associated with both kind of modes is comparable, and the hydrodynamic ones explain the appearance of secondary (steady or slowly-varying) streaming flows.     

Charge Transport and Magnetotransport Properties of Polyimide Irradiated by 80keV Co Ions

Charge transport properties of polyimide films implanted with 80 keV Co ions at two different fluences （series I： 1.25 × 10^17 ions/cm^2, series Ⅱ： 1.75 × 10^17 ions/cm^2） are studied in detail. For series I, the temperature dependence of surface resistivity fits Mott＇s equation very well. It is on the insulating side of the insulator-metal transition （IMT）. However, for series Ⅱ, the temperature dependence of surface resistivity is not in agreement with Mott＇s equation. It is on the metallic side of lMT. The magnetotransport properties of these two series are also studied. No significant magnetoresistive effect is observed for series I at both 5 K and 300 K. For series Ⅱ, an obvious magnetoresistive effect is observed at 5 K, while there is no magnetoresistive effect at 300 K. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry （RBS） is applied to confirm the actual fluence for these two series.     

Diffusion and Velocity Correlations of the Phase Transitions in a System of Macroscopic Rolling Spheres

We study an air-fluidized granular monolayer composed of plastic spheres which roll on a metallic grid. The air current is adjusted so that the spheres never lose contact with the grid and so that the dynamics may be regarded as pseudo two dimensional (or two dimensional, if the effects of the sphere rolling are not taken into account). We find two surprising continuous transitions, both of them displaying two coexisting phases. Moreover, in all the cases, we found the coexisting phases display a strong energy non-equipartition. In the first transition, at a weak fluidization, a glass phase coexists with a disordered fluid-like phase. In the second transition, a hexagonal crystal coexists with the fluid phase. We analyze, for these two-phase systems, the specific diffusive properties of each phase, as well as the velocity correlations. Surprisingly, we find a glass phase at a very low packing fraction and for a wide range of granular temperatures. Both phases are also characterized by strong anticorrelated velocities upon a collision. Thus, the dynamics observed for this quasi two-dimensional system unveil phase transitions with peculiar properties, very different from the predicted behavior in well-know theories for their equilibrium counterparts.     

Dwarf Kiwi (Actinidia arguta Miq.), a Source of Antioxidants for a Healthy and Sustainable Diet

The feasibility of using dwarf kiwi fruits (Actinia arguta Miq.) as a healthy and sustainable food, compared to other types of commercial kiwi fruits, was evaluated in the present study. The overall antioxidant capacity of these fruits was assessed by either extraction-dependent methods (ABTS, ORAC) or the direct method called Quick, Easy, New, CHEap, Reproducible (QUENCHER) (DPPH, FRAP, Folin–Ciocalteu), applied for the first time to analyze kiwi fruits. With this methodology, all the molecules with antioxidant capacity are measured together in a single step, even those with high molecular weight or poor solubility in aqueous extraction systems, such as antioxidant dietary fiber. The effect of kiwi extracts on physiological and induced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production on IEC-6 cells was also analyzed, as well as total phenolic content (TPC) by Fast Blue BB, flavonols, hydroxycinnamic acids, and hydroxybenzoic acids. A. arguta fruits showed the highest values in all the antioxidant assays, being remarkably higher than the other kiwi species for Q-FRAP and Q-DPPH. Dwarf kiwi showed the highest potential in reducing physiological ROS and the highest values of TPC (54.57 mgGAE/g), being hydroxybenzoic acids the main phenolic family found (2.40 mgGAE/g). Therefore, dwarf kiwi fruits are a natural source of antioxidants compared to conventional kiwi fruits, being a sustainable and healthy alternative to diversify fruits in the diet.