GaPO4 high temperature crystal microbalance demonstration up to 720°C

Quartz-homeotypic gallium (ortho-) phosphate, GaPO₄, is of special interest for resonator applications asking for temperature compensated cuts with higher electro-mechanical coupling than quartz and operational temperatures up to 970°C. The crystal microbalance technique, well known for quartz (QCM) which can be used only at moderate temperatures, can now be extended to much higher temperatures using GaPO₄ crystals, benefiting from all three advantages mentioned above. Two different experiments were done to demonstrate the advantages of a crystal microbalance based on GaPO₄. First, the GaPO₄ resonator was used for film thickness determination and compared with a commercial QCM. This experiment demonstrated that the measuring range can be extended by using GaPO₄ resonators instead of quartz. The second experiment demonstrates the possibility for thermogravimetric analysis up to 720°C by using a new concept for resonator mounting.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Experimental determination of strain-induced anisotropy during nonproportional straining of an A1/Mg alloy at room temperature

A servohydraulic, computer controlled MTSn axial-torsion testing machine with a bi-axial clip-on extensometer is used to test thin-walled tubes of an A1/Mg alloy under strain control. A plastic offset strain of 10⁻⁴ determines the yield surfaces. Straining and yield surface probing is governed by a computer program which also controls digital data acquisition. Yield surfaces in stress and in strain space as well as the axial and shear stress-strain diagrams can be reconstructed from the digitally recorded data. The specimens were subjected to a strain path in the form of a regular 16-sided polygon which was followed on some specimens by a square path. The total inelastic strain path length can exceed 15% while the equivalent strain excursion is less than 2%. It is shown that yield surfaces measured on specimens withclose initial stress-strain diagrams are very consistent and that yield surface probing has an insignificant effect on subsequent yield surfaces. Yield surfaces are shown to translate, changein shape and size and to exhibit a cross effect. A post processor which includes a least square smoothing routine calculates the area and the centroid of each yield surface. The size increase is initially rapid but the rate of increase decreases as a saturation is approached. After strining for less than 1% in a fixed direction a characteristic yield surface shape is established. Yield surfaces obtained at the same point in strain space with identical prestrain direction of at least 1% but with increased amounts of accumulated plastic strain have the same shape but show an increase in size. The yield surfaces differ in shape and size when the same strain point is reached from different directions. The centroid of the yield surface in stress space moves almost in a circular path for a polygonal strain path. All stress space yield surfaces contain the origin but this is not the case for the surfaces in strain space.     

The temperature dependence of piezoelectric constants eiμ of μ-quartz

Measurements of the temperature dependence of e₁₁ and e₁₄ of α-quartz relative to room temperature based on thichkness mode resonances and antiresonances show that e₁₄ changes its sign at ≈360°C. Fair agreement of e₁₁ with values reported in earlier work was found.     

Elektronendruck und Temperatur in Mischplasmen

In a thermal plasma, consisting of one component only, it is possible to calculate an accurate relation between electron pressure and temperature. In the present paper it is tried to give an approximate solution for plasmas composed of several elements under condition that the electron pressure is less than 10% of the atmospheric pressure and that only one element is singly ionized. The results are controlled by measuring the temperature in a copper arc with addition of alcali or earth-alcali elements. Theory and experiment show that the ionization potential divided by the temperature is a constant term in the plasma for certain groups of elements.     

Über das thermodynamische Gleichgewicht in Funkenplasmen

A simple method has been established to calculate the composition and the line emission of a thermal plasma. The influence of a second component e.g. the vapour of electrodes in a spark discharge can thus be accounted for. Thermal equilibrium was given experimental proof through the cooling curve of a short-time high current condensed discharge. To achieve this, a new spectroscopic method for high temperature measurement has been developed. This even works where oscillator strength is unknown. Moreover, the temperature value measured represents that of the plasma core. Temperature measurement involving different lines of different elements, i.e. of different atomic masses, will furnish similar results. This means evidence for thermal equilibrium existing in spark discharges.     

Kinetische Diagnose des Helium-Niederdruckfunkens

In a short spark discharge (energy release time < 0,5 μs) at pressures between 10 and 100 Torr a pure helium plasma was created and investigated by spectroscopic techniques. The following time dependent plasma parameters could be determined (0,5 ≦ t ≦ 5 μs): pressure p from hydrodynamic considerations, electron density n_e from the line profiles and gas temperature T_g from the Boltzmann population of the higher levels, i ≧. The population densities of the levels 3 and 4 deviated from the Boltzmann-T_g-straight line and thus indicated a strong disturbance of thermal equilibrium. For the determination of the electron temperature T_e an ionization rate equation was formulated, which took into consideration electron impact ionization, three body recombination and radiation recombination. The deviation from thermal equilibrium of the spark plasma was nearly constant in the investigated pressure-time region: the ratio T_g/T_e gave ≈ 0,06; the ration n_e/n_o was about 7 orders of magnitude below the corresponding Saha ratio.     

Viscoplasticity theory based on overstress. The prediction of monotonic and cyclic proportional and nonproportional loading paths of an aluminum alloy

An isotropic formulation of the viscoplasticity theory for small strain and based on overstress with a differential growth law for the equilibrium stress is introduced. The four material constants and the two material functions of the theory are determined from uniaxial tensile tests involving strain-rate changes at room temperature and performed on a 6061 T6 Aluminum Alloy. Subsequently the theory is used to predict the biaxial behavior under axialtorsion loading. All tests are under strain control and involve proportional loading and axial followed by torsional straining (and vice versa). Cyclic histories include in-phase and out-of-phase cycling. The predictions of the theory are very reasonable for this cyclically neutral alloy. For cyclic hardening or softening materials a modification of the theory is necessary and is under development.