Toughening of epoxies via craze-like damage

The fracture behavior of a core-shell rubber (CSR) modified epoxy is investigated using both fracture mechanics and microscopy tools. The CSR-modified epoxy is found to be toughened via numerous line-array cavitations of the CSR particles, followed by plastic flow of the epoxy matrix. The toughening effect via the above craze-like damage process is found to be as effective as that of the well-known widespread rubber cavitation/matrix shear yielding mechanisms. The conditions for triggering the craze-like damage appear to be both stress state and rubber concentration dependent. The type of rubber tougheners utilized also plays a critical role in triggering this rather unusual craze-like damage in epoxy systems. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Orbifolds, Sheaves and Groupoids

We characterize orbifolds in terms of their sheaves, and show that orbifolds correspond exactly to a specific class of smooth groupoids. As an application, we construct fibered products of orbifolds and prove a change-of-base formula for sheaf cohomology.     

Chemical composition and reaction analysis of single aerosol particles

In situ measurements of gas-liquid surface reactions of single aerosol microdroplets are presented. By means of optical levitation in combination with elastic (Mie) and inelastic (Raman) light scattering it is possible to get information on the chemistry of e.g. acid/base reactions as well as the physical behavior of single microparticles.     

Essential self-adjointness of operators associated with the Cauchy problem for the wave equation

A sufficient Hartman-Ismagilov type condition for the essential self-adjointness of a one-parameter family of unbounded operators that arise in the solution of a Cauchy problem for the wave equation is established. An analog of this result is stated for unbounded integral operators.Translated from Ukrainskii Matematicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 44, No. 7, pp. 940–948, July, 1992.     

Gibbs random fields invariant under infinite-particle Hamiltonian dinamics

The Liouville operator for an infinite-particle Hamiltonian dynamics corresponding to interaction potentialU is used to introduce the concept of a locally weakly invariant measure on the phase space and to show that if a Gibbs measure with potential of general form is locally weakly invariant then its Hamiltonian is asymptotically an additive integral of the motion of the particles with the interactionU.Moscow State University. Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 90, No. 3, pp. 424–459, March, 1992.     

Solar probe: a rendezvous with the Sun

Summary A study has been promoted by NASA to evaluate the scientific return and the technological problems of a close-to-the-Sun mission (Solar Probe). It has come out that using current technology it is possible to deliver at 4 solar radii from the Sun's centre a scientific payload with such performances to allow a great improvement of our understanding of the coronal phenomena. The mission concept currently under study uses planetary encounters to reach the required orbit. The final orbit period is 2.5 years, the estimated mission duration about 9 years. The orbit inclination is such as to give the maximum coverage in terms of heliographic latitude. During the perihelion phases a conical structure shields the spacecraft from the intense solar radiation. Paper presented at the V Cosmic Physics National Conference, S. Miniato, November 27–30, 1990.     

The star chromatic number of a graph

We study a generalization of the notion of the chromatic number of a graph in which the colors assigned to adjacent vertices are required to be, in a certain sense, far apart. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.