Peritectic phase growth in directionally solidified Cu-70% Sn alloy

The growth mechanism of the peritectic η phase involving the peritectic reaction and peritectic transformation in Cu-70%Sn alloy was investigated under directional solidification. The results show that a major growth mechanism in thickening of the peritectic η-layer is not the peritectic reaction but the peritectic transformation. The transformation temperature and isothermal time play crucial roles in determining the volume fraction and the thickness of the peritectic η phase. With the increase of the temperature and isothermal time, the volume fraction of the peritectic η phase increases. The regressed data show that the relationship between the thickness of η phase (Δx) and the transformation temperature (T) meets the following equation In Δx=6.5−1673 1 / T. Additionally, there exists a relationship between the thickness of the η phase (Δx) and the isothermal time (t) at the 9 mm solidification distance below the peritectic reaction interface, Δx=0.72t ^1/2, which is consistent with the theoretical model. Supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50395102)     

Amine‐blocked polyisocyanates. I. Synthesis of novel N‐methylaniline‐blocked polyisocyanates and deblocking studies using hot‐stage fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

A series of substituted N‐methylaniline‐blocked polyisocyanates based on 4,4′‐methylenebis(phenyl isocyanate) and poly(tetrahydrofuran) were prepared and characterized thoroughly with FTIR, ¹H NMR, and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy methods. Compared with unsubstituted N‐methylaniline, a blocking agent with an electron‐releasing substituent at the para position took a shorter time, whereas those with an electron‐releasing substituent at the ortho position or an electron‐withdrawing substituent at the ortho and para positions took longer times for the blocking reaction. The thermal dissociation reactions of blocked polyisocyanates were carried out with an FTIR spectrophotometer attached to hot‐stage accessories under dynamic and isothermal conditions. The dynamic method was used to determine the deblocking temperature, and the isothermal method was used to calculate the deblocking kinetics and activation parameters. The cure times of blocked polyisocyanates with hydroxyl‐terminated polybutadiene were also determined. The deblocking temperatures, the results of cure‐time studies, and the kinetic parameters revealed that the thermal dissociation of the N‐methylaniline‐blocked polyisocyanates was retarded by electron‐donating substituents and facilitated by electron‐withdrawing substituents. The action of N‐methylanilines as blocking agents for isocyanate was explained by the formation of a four‐center, intramolecularly hydrogen‐bonded ring structure during the thermal dissociation of the blocked polyisocyanates. The formation of such a hydrogen‐bonded ring structure was confirmed and supported by variable‐temperature ¹H NMR studies and entropy parameters, respectively. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 1557–1570, 2007     

Domain decomposition for an asymptotic geological fault modeling

We present in this paper a domain decomposition method to treat faults in geological basin modeling. The particularity of this model is that the faults whose widths are very small in comparison with the basin size, are not characterized as subdomains any more but as interfaces between sedimentary blocks. The originality of this work lies in the formulation of this new fault model and in the definition and the computation of the interface conditions between the subdomains. To cite this article: E. Flauraud et al., C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).     

A Nonlinear Drift - Diffusion System with Electric Convection Arising in Electrophoretic and Semiconductor Modeling

A multi-dimensional transient drift-diffusion model for (at most) three charged particles, consisting of the continuity equations for the concentrations of the species and the Poisson equation for the electric potential, is considered. The diffusion terms depend on the concentrations. Such a system arises in electrophoretic modeling of three species (neutrally, positively and negatively charged) and in semiconductor theory for two species (positively charged holes and negatively charged electrons). Diffusion terms of degenerate type are also possible in semiconductor modeling. For the initial boundary value problem with mixed Dirichlet - Neumann boundary conditions and general reaction rates, a global existence result is proved. Uniqueness of solutions follows in the Dirichlet boundary case if the diffusion terms are uniformly parabolic or if the initial and boundary densities are strictly positive. Finally, we prove that solutions exist which are positive uniformly in time and globally bounded if the reaction rates satisfy appropriate growth conditions.     

Looking at Fokker-Planck dynamics with a noisy instrument

We consider the class of experiments which can be characterized by a Fokker-PIanck dynamics corresponding to the overdamped motion of a state point in a suitable stochastic potential. We assume that the general form of the potential is known (or can be guessed with reasonable accuracy), but that its parameters are to be determined experimentally by measurements made with a noisy instrument. This possible method for determining the potential parameters, which exploits the system's own internal stochastic motion in order to explore rapidly its available parameter space, is substantially more efficient than traditional methods involving time averages of single point measurements, and yet does not appear to have been previously considered. The method could be important when, for example, the experiment must be completed in a limited time owing either to the expense of the experimental materials or to the temporary stationarity of the preparation, situations which are commonly encountered in experimental biochemistry and biology.     

Cyclic reduction and FACR methods for piecewise hermite bicubic orthogonal spline collocation

Cyclic reduction and Fourier analysis-cyclic reduction (FACR) methods are presented for the solution of the linear systems which arise when orthogonal spline collocation with piecewise Hermite bicubics is applied to boundary value problems for certain separable partial differential equations on a rectangle. On anN×N uniform partition, the cyclic reduction and Fourier analysis-cyclic reduction methods requireO(N ²log₂ N) andO(N ²log₂log₂ N) arithmetic operations, respectively.     

Influence of preparation methods on structure and properties of PA6/PA66 blends: A comparison of melt‐mixing and in situ blending

The blends composed of polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyamide 66 (PA66) were obtained using two different preparation methods, one of which was the melt‐mixing through a twin‐screw extruder and the subsequent injection molding; and the other, the in situ blending through anionic polymerization of ε‐caprolactam in the presence of PA66. For the former, there existed a remarkable improvement in toughness but a drastic drop in strength and modulus; however, for the latter, a reverse but less significant trend of mechanical properties change appeared. Various characterizations were conducted, including the analyses of crystalline morphology, crystallographic form, and crystallization and melting behaviors using polarized optical microscopy (POM), wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), respectively; observation of morphology of fractured surface with scanning electron microscope (SEM); measurement of glass transition through dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA); and the intermolecular interaction as well as the interchange reaction between the two components by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT‐IR) and ¹³C solution NMR. The presence and absence of interchange reaction was verified for the in situ and melt‐mixed blends, respectively. It is believed that the transreaction resulted in a drop in glass transition temperature (T_g) for the in situ blends, contrary to an increase of T_g with increasing PA66 content for the melt‐mixed ones. And the two kinds of fabrication methods led to significant differences in the crystallographic form, spherulite size and crystalline content and perfection as well. Accordingly, it is attempted to explain the reasons for the opposite trends of changes in the mechanical properties for these two blends. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1176–1186, 2007     

A convection/reaction/switching system

We consider a spatially distributed hybrid system consisting of a convection/reaction system in which the reaction switches discontinuously in time between modes, independently at each spatial point on reaching “switching thresholds”. The model involves a novel formulation for evolution of the free boundary between the modal regions.