The liquid-crystalline behaviour of amphiphilic ethane-1,2-diol derivatives incorporating a six membered ring in their principal structure

Novel 3-phenyloxy substituted propane-1,2-diol derivatives, 4-(4-n-hexyloxyphenyl)-butane-1,2-diol and 4-(trans-4-n-pyropylcyclohexyl)-butane-1,2-diol have been synthesized and their thermal behaviour has been studied. These compounds exhibit thermotropic and, after addition of water, also lyotropic liquid-crystalline behaviour. The clearing temperatures of the smectic mesophases were found to be strongly dependent on the alkyl chain length and on the structural units that link the aromatic ring to the alkyl chain and to the diol unit. The behaviour of the aromatic compounds is compared with that of the cyclohexane derivative. Thereby it has been realized that the mesophase stability of the amphiphilic diols incorporating a rigid unit is largely determined by both, the molecular geometry (molecular shape and intramolecular flexibility) and the amphiphilic structural pattern.     

Development of the Bogolyubov-Mitropol'skii method of integral manifolds

A survey is presented of some results relating to the development of the Bogolyubov-Mitropol'skii method of integral manifolds.Translated from Ukrainskii Matematicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 33–46, January, 1992.     

Adsorption of nonionic surfactant triton X-100 on solids from aqueous and nonaqueous solutions

The adsorption of nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 on quartz sand and methylated quartz sand from water and toluene was investigated by means of spectrophotometry, the radiotracer technique, and wetting angle measurements.     

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