Bifurcation Instability of sheet metal during spring-back

In automotive and home appliance industries, there are many complex-shaped sheet metal components which need to be fabricated in multiple stamping operations. For example, the manufacturing of an outer case of washing machine consists of stamping followed by a bending operation. After the first stage of the stamping process, a large amount of spring-back takes place, and therefore, it is difficult to proceed to the next stage of the bending process. In the stamping process of that kind of sheet component with low geometric constraint, the forming area is large compared to the forming depth. Therefore, the formed part is in an unstable state and is less geometrically constrained, which causes a large amount of spring-back. To investigate this phenomenon, finite element analyses are carried out. During a spring-back analysis after forming, bifurcation takes place and the finite element solution procedure using the Newton–Raphson scheme becomes unstable. To get a stable post-bifurcation solution, a bifurcation algorithm is introduced at the bifurcation point. The deformed shapes obtained from finite element analyses are in good agreement with the experimental data. From this study, it is shown that the bifurcation behaviour enlarges the spring-back and the degree of dimensional error. To obtain additional possible post-bifurcation solutions, non-bifurcation analyses using initial guesses obtained in a modal analysis are carried. For the initial guesses, lowed four eigenmodes are utilized. Finally, the post-bifurcation behaviour and spring-back amount are investigated for various process parameters including the forming depth, punch width and corner radius.     

GESFIDE-PROPELLER Approach for Simultaneous R2 and R2* Measurements in the Abdomen

Purpose

To investigate the feasibility of combining GESFIDE with PROPELLER sampling approaches for simultaneous abdominal R2 and R2* mapping.

Materials and Methods

R2 and R2* measurements were performed in 9 healthy volunteers and phantoms using the GESFIDE-PROPELLER and the conventional Cartesian-sampling GESFIDE approaches.

Results

Images acquired with the GESFIDE-PROPELLER sequence effectively mitigated the respiratory motion artifacts, which were clearly evident in the images acquired using the conventional GESFIDE approach. There was no significant difference between GESFIDE-PROPELLER and reference MGRE R2* measurements (p = 0.162) whereas the Cartesian-sampling based GESFIDE methods significantly overestimated R2* values compared to MGRE measurements (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

The GESFIDE-PROPELLER sequence provided high quality images and accurate abdominal R2 and R2* maps while avoiding the motion artifacts common to the conventional Cartesian-sampling GESFIDE approaches.     

Single-SOA-Based Ultrahigh-Speed All-Optical Half Subtracter with PolSK Modulated Signals

A novel ultrahigh-speed all-optical half subtracter based on four-wave mixing (FWM) in a single semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is proposed. This scheme only requires a single SOA and two input signals without additional light source, so it is quite simple and compact. Due to the polarization-shift-keying (PolSK) modulated signals being used in this scheme, pattern-dependent degradation can be avoided. By numerical simulation, dependence of the critical factors of the logic gate performance, e.g., the output power of logic 1 and extinction ratio (ER), on two input signals power is investigated. In addition, the effect of the gain polarization dependence of SOA is analysed.     

Negative slope of resistivity–temperature curve and positive magnetoresistance in antiperovskite ZnCNi3−x Mn x (1.15≤x≤1.5)

In antiperovskite intermetallics ZnCNi_3?x Mn _x , the negative slope coefficient (NSC) dρ/dT of resistivity–temperature curves is observed when x=1.15,1.25,1.4,1.5. The sample with x=1.25 shows a semiconductor-like behavior in the whole temperature range of 15–290 K. By study of the magnetization, magnetoresistance, and low-temperature X-ray diffraction, it is found that Mn dopant significantly affects the physical properties of ZnCNi_3?x Mn _x by changing both the carrier density and the magnetism. The origin of the NSC dρ/dT can be ascribed to the change of hole-like carrier density, which is adjusted by Mn content. The existence of hole-like carriers can be understood rationally by the two-band model. The change of sign of magnetoresistance from positive to negative has been observed in ZnCNi_3?x Mn _x with the change of Mn content, which could be ascribed to the competition between the contribution from field-induced suppression of the thermally excited ferromagnetic spin fluctuations and the Lorentz contribution. When Mn content is low, the Lorentz contribution dominates the sign of magnetoresistance. On the other hand, when Mn content is high, the contribution from field-induced suppression of the thermally excited ferromagnetic spin fluctuations dominates the sign of magnetoresistance.     

An Error Analysis for the Finite Element Approximation to the Steady-State Poisson-Nernst-Planck Equations

Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations are a coupled system of nonlinear partial differential equations consisting of the Nernst-Planck equation and the electrostatic Poisson equation with delta distribution sources, which describe the electrodiffusion of ions in a solvated biomolecular system. In this paper, some error bounds for a piecewise finite element approximation to this problem are derived. Several numerical examples including biomolecular problems are shown to support our analysis.     

Transmission phase of a quantum dot with Kondo correlation near the unitary limit

The complex transmission amplitude of a quantum dot (QD) with Kondo correlation was measured near the unitary limit. The transmission phase was observed to evolve almost linearly over a range of about 1.5 pi when the Fermi energy was scanned through a spin degenerate energy level of the QD. Surprisingly, the phase in the Coulomb Blockade regime, with one more electron entering the dot, was strongly affected by a preexistence of Kondo correlation. These results suggest that a full explanation of the Kondo effect may go beyond the framework of the Anderson model.     

聚丙烯/抗老化剂复合体系的γ-射线辐照降解研究

研究了聚丙烯(PP)及含有受阻酚类抗氧剂和受阻胺类光稳定剂复合体系的PP复合物经过γ-射线辐照后发生的结构变化及抗老化剂所起作用。实验利用红外光谱(FTIR)和示差扫描量热法(DSC)对PP的结构变化进行了系统表征。研究结果表明,当辐照剂量较小(50 kGy)时,纯PP及其复合物体系均未发生明显降解;当辐照剂量较大(≥50 kGy)时,PP及其复合物的羰基指数迅速提高,二者的结晶温度和熔融温度大幅度降低,说明PP发生了严重降解。在相同γ-射线辐照剂量条件下(≥50 kGy),PP复合物的羰基指数高于纯PP,而结晶温度以及熔融温度低于纯PP,表明高辐照剂量下抗老化剂复合物的存在不但没有阻止聚丙烯的降解,反而加快了降解的速率。     

Grand Canonical Ensemble Interpretation for Charged Particle Quantum Tunneling Radiation

In this paper, we present a grand canonical ensemble interpretation for the massive charged particles tunneling from a charged black hole. The probability distribution function corresponding the emission shell system is derived in details, and the expression is same as the tunneling rate in Parikh-Wilzeck framework. With this result, the statistical significance of the quantum tunneling radiation is discussed.