Effective thermal conductivity of water-saturated sintered powder-metal plates

An experimental apparatus and related procedures for the determination of the effective thermal conductivity of sintered powder-metal plates saturated with distilled water at temperatures in the range 20–150°C are discussed. The apparatus and procedures are applied to two samples of sintered powder-metal plates, one made of nickel 200 and the other of stainless steel 316, with porosities of 28.10 and 46.45%, respectively, and each of nominal dimensions 127 mm × 127 mm × 6.35 mm. The experimental results are compared with corresponding predictions yielded by several correlations available in the literature. The correlations based on experimental data for packed beds of spherical particles and also porous plates made of cold-pressed (but not sintered) particles of angular shapes do not apply well to sintered powder-metal plates. A new correlation, which is based on extensions of ideas contained in earlier works and provides improved predictions, is proposed.     

Inverse problems for a mathematical model of redox sorption

We consider a mathematical model of sorption that allows for external diffusion kinetics and a redox reaction. Two inverse problems are considered for this model, uniqueness is proved, and numerical solution methods are proposed. The efficiency of the numerical methods is investigated by computer experiments. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Matematika i Informatika, No. 23, pp. 15–23, 2006.     

X-ray induced fluorescence spectrometry at grazing incidence for quantitative surface and layer analysis

Summary Single layers and layer systems on diverse substrates were measured by Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry. The angular dependence of the fluorescence intensities at grazing incidence allows the elemental composition, density and thickness of the layers to be evaluated using model calculations.     

Unoccupied electronic states of epitaxial iron layers on Cu(100)

Inverse photoemission spectra were taken for thin epitaxial iron films on Cu(100). For a film thickness of eight monolayers the observed electronic states are characteristic for a fcc(100) surface. Thed-bands of iron show a ferromagnetic exchange splitting of 1.1 eV, considerably smaller than the bulk value of 1.8 eV, which we observe for film thicknesses above 18 monolayers.     

Thermoplastic polymers quality control

A technique is proposed for improving the accuracy of the heat of fusion of semicrystalline polymers by DSC. The results of three commercially available instruments are compared.     

Dense Monolayers of Monodisperse Opaque Spheres: Transmission and diffraction in the fraunhofer domain

The transmission and diffraction of radiation through dense monolayers of monodisperse opaque spheres were studied for the Fraunhofer domain. Theoretical considerations, numerical calculations and experiments on ultrasonic transmission and on laser light transmission and diffraction yielded corresponding results. Complementary studies included the cases of sterically non-interacting particles (by numerical simulation) and of small particle size parameters (by ultrasonic extinction). Transmission was found to be, in general, a non-linear function of the monolayer density. Secondary effects on the transmission can be attributed to the effect of the monolayer structure (characterized by the pair correlation function) on the angular distribution of diffracted intensity. The results were found to be in accordance with experimental results on extinction in three-dimensional systems.     

Structure of thin block copolymer films studied by X-ray reflectivity

Summary X-ray reflectivity may be used to determine the internal structure of thin polymer films. An electron density difference of 10% for polystyrene and polyisoprene is sufficient to distinguish between a random distribution of lamellae, complete orientation parallel to the substrate surface and a surface induced formation of lamellae. The disappearance of the lamellar Bragg-peaks, with heating of the film, shows the transition into the disordered state.