Rheological properties of polyacrylates used as synthetic road binders

Most adhesives and binders, including bitumen for asphalt mixture production, are presently produced from petrochemicals after the refining of crude oil. The fact that crude oil reserves are a finite resource means that in the future, it may become necessary to produce these materials from alternative and probably renewable sources. Suitable resources of this kind may include polysaccharides, plant oils and proteins. This paper deals with the synthesis of polymer binders from monomers that could, in future, be derived from renewable resources. These binders consist of polyethyl acrylate (PEA) of different molecular weight, polymethyl acrylate (PMA) and polybutyl acrylate (PBA), which were synthesised from ethyl acrylate, methyl acrylate and butyl acrylate, respectively, by atom transfer radical polymerisation. The rheological properties of these binders were determined by means of oscillatory testing using a dynamic shear rheometer and combinations of stress/strain, temperature and frequency sweeps. The results indicate that PEA can be produced to have rheological properties similar to that of ‘soft’ 100/150 penetration grade bitumen, PMA with similar rheological properties to that of ‘hard’ 10/20 penetration grade bitumen, while PBA, due to its highly viscous nature and low dynamic moduli, cannot be used on its own as a binder. The synthetic polymers were found to be thermo-rheologically simple, and the shift factors, used to produce the dynamic moduli master curves, were found to fit an Arrhenius function.     

Axisymmetric frictionless contact of functionally graded materials

The main interest of this study is a new method to solve the axisymmetric frictionless contact problem of functionally graded materials (FGMs). Based on the fact that an arbitrary curve can be approached by a series of continuous but piecewise linear curves, the FGM is divided into a series of sub-layers with shear modulus varying linearly in each sub-layer and continuous at the sub-interfaces. With this model, the axisymmetric frictionless contact problem of a functionally graded coated half-space is investigated. By using the transfer matrix method and Hankel integral transform technique, the problem is reduced to a Cauchy singular integral equation. The contact pressure, contact region and indentation are calculated for various indenters by solving the equations numerically. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Rigorous results in selection of steady needle crystals

This paper concerns the existence of solutions to a steady needle crystal growth problem in a one-sided model. We rigorously prove that for small nonzero anisotropy γ, analytic symmetric needle crystal solutions exist in the limit of surface tension ε² if only if the stokes constant S for a relatively simple nonlinear differential equation is zero. This Stokes constant S depends on the parameter β=2^9/7γε^−8/7 and earlier numerical calculations by a number of investigators have shown this to be zero for a discrete set of values of β. It is also proven that for γ=0, there can be no symmetric needle crystal solution in the considered space.The methodology consists of two steps. First, the original problem is reduced to a weak half-strip problem for any γ in a compact set of [0,1) by relaxation of the symmetry condition. The weak problem is shown to have a unique solution in the function space considered for any γ∈[0,γ_m] for some γ_m>0. When a symmetry is invoked, the weak problem is shown equivalent to the original needle crystal problem. Next, by considering the behavior of the solution in neighborhood of an appropriate complex turning point for γ∈(0,γ_m], we extract an exponentially small term in ε as ε→0⁺ that generally violates the symmetric condition. We prove that the symmetry condition is satisfied for small ε when the parameter β is constrained appropriately.     

A Law of Large Numbers for the Zeroes of Heine–Stieltjes Polynomials

We determine the limiting density of the zeroes of Heine–Stieltjes polynomials (or of any set of points satisfying the conclusion of Heine–Stieltjes Theorem) in the thermodynamic limit and use this to prove a strong law of large numbers for the zeroes.     

On Set-Theoretical Solutions to Quantum Yang-Baxter Equation

The problem on the set-theoretical solutions to the quantum Yang-Baxter equation was presented byDrinfel'd as a main unsolved problem in quantum group theory. The set-theoretical solutions are a natural extensionof the usual (linear) solutions. In this paper, we not only give a further study on some known set-theoretical solutions(the Venkov's solutions), but also find a new kind of set-theoretical solutions which have a geometric interpretation.Moreover, the new solutions lead to the metahomomorphisms in group theory.     

The solution of the neutron transport equation in a slab with anisotropic scattering

The neutron transport equation for a slab geometry with the extremely anisotropic scattering kernel is considered. The albedo and transmission factors are calculated using the variation method. The effect of the extremely anisotropic parameter on the variation of the slab albedo and transmission factor is calculated. The obtained results are compared with the published data.     

带调和势的超临界非线性Schrdinger方程的最佳门槛

考虑带调和势的超临界非线性Schroedinger方程，解决了该方程整体解和爆破解存在所依赖的初始条件的最佳分界门槛．通过构造两类强制变分问题和建立局部不变半流，运用势井方法和凹方法，获得了该方程在两个不同的空间中的整体解和爆破解的最佳门槛条件．     

高阶非线性波动方程的有限差分方法

本文研究一类广泛的高阶非线性波动方程组初边值问题的有限差分格式，用离散泛函分析方法和先验估计的技巧得到了有限差分格式的收敛性。     

转动系统的相对论性分析力学理论

本文讨论了转动相对论力学理论，主要是建立转动系统的相对论性分析力学理论·构造转动系统的相对论性广义动能函数Ｔｒ＝∑ｎｉ＝１Ｉ０ｉΓｉ２（１－１－θ·２ｉ／Γｉ２）和广义加速度能量函数Ｓｒ＝１２∑ｎｉ＝１Ｉｉ（θ·ｉ·θ¨ｉ）２Γｉ２－θ·２ｉ＋θ¨２ｉ，给出其Ｈａｍｉｌｔｏｎ原理和三种不同形式的Ｄ′Ａｌｅｍｂｅｒｔ原理；对于完整约束系统，建立了转动系统的相对论性Ｌａｇｒａｎｇｅ方程、Ｎｉｅｌｓｅｎ方程、Ａｐｐｅｌ方程和Ｈａｍｉｌｔｏｎ正则方程；对于非完整约束系统，建立了转动系统的相对论性Ｒｏｕｔｈ方程、Чаплыгин方程、Ｎｉｅｌｓｅｎ方程和Ａｐｐｅｌ方程；并给出转动系统的相对论性Ｎｏｅｔｈｅｒ守恒律     

一类非线性积分,微分方程的逼近解

在不主紧型条件和耗散型条件的情形下，得到了Ｂａｎａｃｈ空间中一类非线性积分，微分方程的逼近解。