Elastic mechanical grain interactions in polycrystalline materials; analysis by diffraction-line broadening

Abstract

Experimental investigations have revealed that the Neerfeld–Hill and Eshelby–Kröner models, for grain interactions in massive, bulk (in particular, macroscopically isotropic) polycrystals, and a recently proposed effective grain-interaction model for macroscopically anisotropic polycrystals, as thin films, provide good estimates for the macroscopic (mechanical and) X-ray elastic constants and stress factors of such polycrystalline aggregates. These models can also be used to calculate the strain variation among the diffracting crystallites, i.e. the diffraction-line broadening induced by elastic grain interactions can thus be predicted. This work provides an assessment of diffraction-line broadening induced by elastic loading of polycrystalline specimens according to the various grain-interaction models. It is shown that the variety of environment, and thus the heterogeneity of the stress–strain states experienced by each of the individual grains exhibiting the same crystallographic orientation in a real polycrystal, cannot be accounted for by traditional grain-interaction models, where all grains of the same crystallographic orientation in the specimen frame of reference are considered to experience the same stress–strain state. A significant degree of broadening which is induced by the heterogeneity of the environments of the individual crystallites is calculated on the basis of a finite element algorithm. The obtained results have vast implication for diffraction-line broadening analysis and modelling of the elastic behaviour of massive polycrystals.     

The single-longitudinal-mode operation of a ridge waveguide laser based on two-dimensional photonic crystals

An electrically driven, single-longitudinal-mode GaAs based photonic crystal (PC) ridge waveguide (RWG) laser emitting at around 850 nm is demonstrated. The single-longitudinal-mode lasing characteristic is achieved by introducing the PC to the RWG laser. The triangle PC is etched on both sides of the ridge by photolithography and inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etching. The lasing spectra of the RWG lasers with and without the PC are studied, and the result shows that the PC purifies the longitudinal mode. The power per facet versus current and current-voltage characteristics have also been studied and compared.     

Molecular dynamics study of thermal stress and heat propagation in tungsten under thermal shock

Using molecular dynamics （MD） simulation, we study the thermal shock behavior of tungsten （W）, which has been used for the plasma facing material （PFM） of tokamaks. The thermo-elastic stress wave, corresponding to the collective displacement of atoms, is analyzed with the Lagrangian atomic stress method, of which the reliability is also analyzed. The stress wave velocity corresponds to the speed of sound in the material, which is not dependent on the thermal shock energy. The peak pressure of a normal stress wave increases with the increase of thermal shock energy. We analyze the temperature evolution of the thermal shock region according to the Fourier transformation. It can be seen that the “obvious” velocity of heat propagation is less than the velocity of the stress wave; further, that the thermo-elastic stress wave may contribute little to the transport of kinetic energy. The heat propagation can be described properly by the heat conduction equation. These results may be useful for understanding the process of the thermal shock of tungsten.     

Antioxidising activity of cinnamic acid derivatives against oxidative stress induced by oxidising radicals

Cinnamic acid and its derivatives react with hydroxyl radical (HO^?), in neutral medium, to give hydroxylation products, whether on the benzene ring or on the exocyclic chain, and decarboxylation products. The latter compounds are also obtained after oxidation of the same substrates by the SO₄^?? radical anion. Evidence was provided for the protecting effects afforded by cinnamic acid and hydroxylated derivatives against oxidative reaction mediated by HO^?. By using adenine as a model compound, the results obtained suggest that the high protective effect is due to an antioxidising cascade process. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the hydroperoxyl radical scavenging activity of two Edaravone derivatives: mechanism and kinetics

The free radical scavenging activity of two Edaravone (EDA) derivatives (C1 and D1) has been studied in aqueous and lipid solutions using the Density Functional Theory. Different mechanisms of reaction have been considered, as well as the acid/base equilibrium in aqueous solution. The studied compounds were found to be rather poor ^?OOH scavengers in non‐polar environments, but better than the parent molecule, EDA, which suggests that the peroxyl scavenging activity of this kind of compounds in lipid media could be increased via structural modifications. In aqueous solution, at physiological pH, D1 is predicted to be a better peroxyl scavenger than C1, and slightly better than its parent molecule, EDA. Their excellent activity, under such conditions, is attributed to the electron transfer from their anionic forms. D1 was found to be among the best peroxyl scavengers known so far, with a rate constant for its reaction with ^?OOH near the diffusion limit regime (2.3 × 10⁸ M^?1s^?1). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of flat-tip micro-indentation of glassy polymers: Influence of loading speed and thermodynamic state

Flat-tip micro-indentation tests were performed on quenched and annealed polymer glasses at various loading speeds. The results were analyzed using an elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model that captures the intrinsic deformation characteristics of a polymer glass: a strain-rate dependent yield stress, strain softening and strain hardening. The advantage of this model is that changes in yield stress due to physical aging are captured in a single parameter. The two materials studied (polycarbonate (PC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)) were both selected for the specific rate-dependence of the yield stress that they display at room temperature. Within the range of strain rates experimentally covered, the yield stress of PC increases linearly with the logarithm of strain rate, whereas, for PMMA, a characteristic change in slope can be observed at higher strain rates. We demonstrate that, given the proper definition of the viscosity function, the flat-tip indentation response at different indentation speeds can be described accurately for both materials. Moreover, it is shown that the model captures the mechanical response on the microscopic scale (indentation) as well as on the macroscopic scale with the same parameter set. This offers promising possibilities of extracting mechanical properties of polymer glasses directly from indentation experiments.     

Bounds on the reflectivity of two-component composite

Bounds on the effective permittivity circumscribe 2D area in the complex plane representing possible values of permittivity. It is shown that the corresponding possible values of reflectivity occur within the interval determined by the lowest and the highest reflectivity value, which represent minimum and maximum values of reflectivity found at the permittivity bounds.     

Residual stress delaying phase transformation in Y-TZP bio-restorations

Engineering favorable residual stress for the complex geometry of bi-layer porcelain-zirconia crowns potentially prevents crack initiation and improves the mechanical performance and lifetime of the dental restoration. In addition to external load, the stress field depends on initial residual stress before loading. Residual stress is the result of factors such as the thermal expansion mismatch of layers and compliance anisotropy of zirconia grains in the process of sintering and cooling. Stress induced phase transformation in zirconia extensively relaxes the residual stress and changes the stress state. The objective of this study is to investigate the coupling between tetragonal to monoclinic phase transformations and residual stress. Residual stress, on the surface of the sectioned single load to failure crown, at 23 points starting from the pure tetragonal and ending at a fully monoclinic region were measured using the micro X-ray diffraction sin² ψ method. An important observation is the significant range in measured residual stress from a compressive stress of ?400?MPa up to tensile stress of 400?MPa and up to 100% tetragonal to monoclinic phase transformation.     

On the noise limit of stress and temperature measurements with micro‐Raman spectroscopy

We report for the first time on the thorough experimental and theoretical assessment of the noise limit of mechanical stress and temperature measurements with micro‐Raman spectroscopy. A comprehensive study has been performed in which, for different incident laser light intensities and acquisition times, 1000 Raman spectra of mono‐crystalline silicon were acquired per setting. Curve fitting was employed to obtain the peak positions of all the spectra, from which the standard deviations of the measured peak positions were obtained versus the total accumulated amount of laser light incident on the sample during one measurement. It has been found that the noise in the obtained peak position decreases as 1/sqrt(n) over more than three decades of the incident amount of laser light. At very low light conditions, the noise decreases as 1/n. By comparing the experimental results obtained to recent theoretical work, we show that the acquisition is limited by photon shot noise over most of the range and is limited by electronic detector noise at very low light conditions only. Pixelation errors do not play a role. It is concluded that the low electronic noise of typical Raman spectroscope detectors is overkill for the investigation of mechanical stress and temperature in silicon and other materials with comparable peaks, as it has absolutely no influence on the noise level of such an experiment. Maximum Raman signal intensity on the detector and high quantum efficiency detection are more important. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.