Ionic relaxation in nematic liquid crystal cells

We investigate the dependence of the relaxation time of the current flowing in a nematic cell submitted to an external dc voltage on the physical properties of the substrate. We show that previously presented analyses of the same problem are not very useful for practical applications. We compare our theoretical predictions with experimental data, and show that the agreement is rather good. The influence of the adsorption-desorption phenomenon on the relaxation time is also discussed.     

Effect of crack tip sharpness on the strength of vulcanized rubbers

The effect of crack tip sharpness on crack propagation in vulcanized rubbers has been studied. For very sharp cracks, tearing is found to occur on a small scale at very low energies not far above the threshold required for the onset of mechanical crack growth. The “small-scale” tearing energies show relatively little variation for rubbers that differ widely in tear strength as normally measured. Thus the latter property appears to be strongly influenced by variations in the ability of rubbers to promote tip blunting. The small-scale tear behavior is of relevance to other fracture phenomena, including cutting by sharp objects and tensile failure. Natural variations in tip sharpness occur during cyclic or time-dependent mechanical crack growth and influence the form of the crack growth characteristics.     

Observation of hydrogen induced intermediate borides in PrFeB based alloys by Mössbauer effect spectroscopy

In the present work, a quantitative analysis of the phase compositions by Mössbauer effect spectroscopy of solid and conventional hydrogen disproportionated Pr_13.7Fe_80.3B_6.0 and Pr_13.7Fe_63.5Co_16.7Zr_0.1B_6.0 alloys was carried out. Significant amounts of intermediate borides t-Fe₃B and Pr(Fe, Co)₁₂B₆ were detected after solid hydrogen disproportionation treatment in Pr_13.7Fe_80.3B_6.0 and Pr_13.7Fe_63.5Co_16.7Zr_0.1B_6.0 alloys, respectively. After conventional hydrogenation–disproportionation–desorption–recombination treatment these phases were not detected and in no case residual Pr₂Fe₁₄B-phase was found. It was observed that the amount of intermediate borides after disproportionation can be correlated with the degree of texture after recombination at various temperatures.     

The analysis of thermal stresses in thermopiezoelastic semi-infinite body with an edge crack

Summary  Thermopiezoelastic materials have recently attracted considerable attention because of their potential use in intelligent or smart structural systems. The governing equations of a thermopiezoelastic medium are more complex due to the intrinsic coupling effects that take place among mechanical, electrical and thermal fields. In this analysis, we deal with the problem of a crack in a semi-infinite, transversely isotropic, thermopiezoelastic material by means of potential functions and Fourier transforms under steady heat-flux loading conditions. The problem is reduced to a singular integral equation that is solved. The thermal stress intensity factor for a crack situated in a cadmium selenide material is calculated. Received 20 March 2001; accepted for publication 18 October 2001     

Similarity and the structure of unital matrix quadratic trinomials with pairwise different characteristic roots

The normal form of certain polynomial matrices is found.Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov Leningradskogo Otdeleniya Matematicheskogo Instituta im. V. A. Steklova Akademii Nauk SSSR, Vol. 175, pp. 63–68, 1989.     

Account of Thermal Flow Through Metal-Semimetal BiSb Contact Boundary for Determination of EHF Detector Volt-Watt Sensitivity

Bismuth, antimony and its alloys are the typical representatives of a class of semimetals, which electric conductance is lower in 10²-10³ times, than of usual well conducting an electrical current metals. The alloys bismuth with antimony have semi-conductor properties in wide area of compositions at temperatures below 77 °K. The semimetals are rather perspective materials from the point of view of their probable application in various devices [1,2,3].In present time the semimetal alloys BiSb have wide application in thermoelectric generators and refrigerators. In work [3] the opportunity of use of semimetals BiSb with percentage content of Bi and Sb from 8 % up to 25 % was shown as high-sensitivity and of small inertion indicators of the mm range radiation where thermoelectric effect is used. The principle of action of such indicators is based on occurrence of temperature gradient in a semimetal crystal BiSb that has two contacts of the various area with flowing electrical current. Basic element of such device is the dot contact metal - semimetal. One of the main characteristics is volt-watt sensitivity of metal-semimetal BiSb contact which calculating is shown in present work.     

An approach to numerical solution of multipoint boundary-value problems

An approach is proposed to solving multipoint boundary-value problems for linear differential equation of w-th order, based on reduction to two-point boundary-value problems. The two-point problems are solved by the stable discrete orthogonalization method. Some numerical examples are considered.Translated from Vychislitel'naya i Prikladnaya Matematika, No. 58, pp. 36–45, 1986.     

A Parabolic Spline on a Nonuniform Grid

We obtain estimates for errors of interpolation on a nonuniform grid for a parabolic nonperiodic spline of defect 1.