Numerical investigation of hypersonic step-flows

Hypersonic aerospace vehicles are exposed to extreme flight conditions with heavy contour loads during their mission. Especially at ridges and sharp corners, the wall heat flux and pressure may cause serious damage to the body. Sometimes, the surface material cannot resist the high loading and fails completely. In this work the laminar hypersonic flow over forward and backward facing steps is investigated by CFD techniques and the results are compared with experimental data. The selected flow conditions correspond to cold hypersonic flow according to the availability of experimental data. The Navier-Stokes equations in the high temperature gas approximation of a thermally perfect gas in local equilibrium serve as the model for the physical problem. A multiblock finite-volume method is used to discretize consistently all spatial derivatives appearing in the balance equations. A second order in space Godunov-type method is utilized for the non-diffusive part of the governing equations whereas centered differences are used for the diffusive part. Time integration is performed by a second order implicit scheme. In each time step, the resulting nonlinear system of equations is solved by Newton's method employing a relaxation scheme based on conjugate gradients for the linear equation system. The results obtained permit a close insight into the physics of the flow problems under consideration and by this provide valuable information for construction concepts of hypersonic vehicles. Besides a careful comparison of the numerical results with experimental data, numerical aspects like the grid influence are addressed. Received 9 November 1998 / Accepted 2 December 1999     

Trace elements in bovine muscle: an ongoing project for a new certified reference material

In the framework of the activities of the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) for residues at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) of Rome, a number of proficiency tests were performed in order to assess and improve, wherever necessary, the quality of regulatory residue analysis within the EU. In this context, a pilot study was undertaken with the purpose of ascertaining the feasibility of a project for the certification of a new reference material for trace elements in bovine muscle. On behalf of the ISS, approximately 70 kg of bovine muscle, collected at a slaughterhouse in Geel (Belgium), were freeze-dried, homogenized, stabilized and bottled under argon atmosphere by the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Joint Research Centre, European Commission (IRMM-JRC-EC). Preliminary analyses were carried out with Quadrupole (Q) and High Resolution (HR) Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to evaluate the content of As, Cd, Cu and Pb, whereas the Flow Injection Mercury System (FIMS) was used to quantify Hg. Digestion of the matrix was achieved by acid-assisted microwave irradiation. The mean values of experimentally obtained data were the following (in nanograms per gram): As, 24.2±1.2; Cd, 5.48±0.29; Cu, 4765±95; Hg, 3.37±0.73; and Pb, 184±7. Subsequently, 16 National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) for residues in the Member States plus the Norwegian one and eight Italian public laboratories were accepted to participate in the project and received one bottle of the freeze-dried bovine muscle. The laboratories were requested to perform three different analytical runs (in three different days), each consisting of three individual measurements. Preliminary results showed good agreement and fair evidence for homogeneity of the entire mass, thus setting the stage for the future certification of this candidate CRM.     

High-temperature oxidation studies of cold-sprayed Ni-20Cr and Ni-50Cr coatings on SAE 213-T22 boiler steel

The high-temperature oxidation behavior of cold-sprayed Ni-20Cr and Ni-50Cr coatings on SAE 213-T22 boiler steel has been investigated at 900 °C in air under cyclic heating and cooling conditions for 50 cycles. The kinetics of oxidation of coated and bare boiler steel has been established with the help of weight change measurements. It was observed that all the coated and bare steels obeyed parabolic rate law of oxidation. X-ray diffraction, FE-SEM/EDAX and X-ray mapping techniques were used to analyse the oxidation products of the coated and uncoated boiler steel. The uncoated steel suffered corrosion in the form of intense spalling and peeling of its oxide scale, which was perhaps due to the formation of unprotective Fe₂O₃ oxide scale. Both the coatings showed better resistance to the air oxidation as compared to the uncoated steel. The Ni-50Cr coating was found to be more protective than the Ni-20Cr-coated steel. The formation of oxides and spinels of nickel and chromium may be contributing to the development of air oxidation resistance in the coatings.     

Analysis of dual melting behavior in cold-crystallized poly(ether diphenyl ether metaketone)

By focusing on cold-crystallized poly(ether diphenyl ether metaketone) (PEKm), a more in-depth understanding of the nature of the crystalline morphology has been gained, which may lead to thorough mechanisms for interpreting the observed thermal behavior in PEKm. Apparently, cold-crystallized PEKm containing initially only a single P1 crystal can exhibit dual melting peaks (300 and 320 °C), with the second high-melting peak corresponding to the P2 crystal that was subsequently formed via P1 melting/repacking during the scan. However, dual morphism (preexisting P1 and P2 crystals) could be intentionally introduced into PEKm if it was cold-crystallized at temperature schemes of decreasing order. The P1 and P2 crystals possess the same unit cells (orthorhombic) and thus they differ only in the lamellae populations. The dual lamellar morphism in this PEKm sample also exhibited similar dual melting peaks during scanning, which correspond to melting of the individual P1 and P2 in a sequential order. This study has thus provided important clues in and shed new light on the interpretation of multiple melting with respect to polymorphism in polymers. Relationships between the low-melting and high-melting lamellae in cold-crystallized polyketone polymer have been thoroughly explored. Received: 9 January 2001/Accepted: 3 February 2001     

Direct mercury determination in aqueous slurries of environmental and biological samples by cold vapour generation-electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Direct cold vapour generation from aqueous slurries of environmental (marine sediment, soil, coal) and biological (human hair, seafood) samples have been developed using a batch mode generation system coupled with electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy. The effects of several variables affecting the cold vapour generation efficiency from solid particles (hydrochloric acid and sodium tetrahydroborate concentrations, argon flow rate, acid solution volume and mean particle size) have been evaluated using a Plackett-Burman experimental design. In addition, variables affecting cold vapour trapping and atomisation efficiency on Ir-treated graphite tubes (trapping and atomisation temperatures and trapping time) have been also investigated. Atomisation and trapping temperatures, trapping time and hydrochloric acid concentration were the significant variables. The 2²+star and 2³+star central composite designs have been used to obtain optimum values of the variables selected. The accuracy of methods have been verified by using several certified reference materials (PACS-1, GBW-07410, NIST-1632c, CRM-397 and DORM-2). A characteristic mass of 390 pg were achieved. The detection limits of methods were in the range of 40-600 ng g⁻¹. A particle size less than 50 μm is adequate to obtain total cold vapour generation of Hg content in the aqueous slurry particles.     

动态冷原子吸收法快速测定地球化学样品中微量汞

本文介绍了动态冷原子吸收法快速测定地球化学样品中微量汞的方法。本文研究采用了新型的汞蒸气发生器，并对气泡的干扰进行了研究。线性范围为0.2-12ng/mL，标准回收率为97％－106％，相对标准偏差为3.6%，相关系数为0.9997，试验结果表明此方法简便、快速、准确。     

冷发射电子束掺杂磷

一种新的冷发射电子束掺杂方法已研究成功。这种方法可实现高浓度(C_(max)=2.8×10~(20)/cm~3),超浅结[(x_j)_(min)≤0.1μm],而且损伤比离子注入的小得多。用这种方法制备的太阳能电池控制器件性能很好。     

Rate independent hysteresis in a bi-stable chain

The nontrivial behavior of an elastic chain with identical bi-stable elements may be considered prototypical for a large number of nonlinear processes in solids ranging from phase transitions to fracture. The energy landscape of such a chain is extremely wiggly which gives rise to multiple equilibrium configurations and results in a hysteretic evolution and a possibility of trapping. In the present paper, which extends our previous study of the static equilibria in this system (Puglisi and Truskinovsky, J. Mech. Phys. Solids (2000) 1), we analyze the behavior of a bi-stable chain in a soft device under quasi-static loading. We assume that the system is over-damped and explore the variety of available nonequilibrium transformation paths. In particular, we show that the “minimal barrier” strategy leads to the localization of the transformation in a single spring. Loaded periodically, our bi-stable chain exhibits finite hysteresis which depends on the height of the admissible barrier; the cold work/heat ratio in this model is a fixed constant, proportional to the Maxwell stress. Comparison of the computed inner and outer hysteresis loops with recent experiments on shape memory wires demonstrates good qualitative agreement. Finally we discuss a relation between the present model and the Preisach model which is a formal interpolation scheme for hysteresis, also founded on the idea of bi-stability.     

Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from ambient air particulate matter using a cold fiber solid phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from ambient air particulate matter (PM) were analyzed by a new method that utilized direct immersion (DI) and cold fiber (CF) SPME-GC/MS. Experimental design was used to optimize the conditions of extraction by DI-CF-SPME with a 100μm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber. The optimal conditions included a 5min equilibration at 70°C time in an ultrasonic bath with an extraction time of 60min. The optimized method was validated by the analysis of a NIST standard reference material (SRM), 1649b urban dust. The results obtained were in good agreement with certified values. PAH recoveries for reference materials were between 88 and 98%, with a relative standard deviation ranging from 5 to 17%. Detection limits (LOD) varied from 0.02 to 1.16ng and the quantification limits (LOQ) varied from 0.05 to 3.86ng. The optimized and validated method was applied to the determination of PAH from real particulate matter (PM10) and total suspended particulate (TPS) samples collected on quartz fiber filters with high volume samplers.