Strain induced strengthening of soft thermoplastic polyurethanes under cyclic deformation

We investigate the cyclic mechanical behavior in uniaxial tension of three different commercial thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPU) often considered as a sustainable replacement for common filled elastomers. All TPU have similar hard segment contents and linear moduli but sensibly different large strain properties as shown by X-ray analysis. Despite these differences, we found a stiffening effect after conditioning in step cyclic loading which greatly differs from the common softening (also referred as Mullins effect) observed in chemically crosslinked filled rubbers. We propose that this self-reinforcement is related to the fragmentation of hard domains, naturally present in TPU, in smaller but more numerous sub-units that may act as new physical crosslinking points. The proposed stiffening mechanism is not dissimilar to the strain-induced crystallization observed in stretched natural rubber, but it presents a persistent nature. In particular, it may cause a local reinforcement where an inhomogeneous strain field is present, as is the case of a crack propagating in cyclic fatigue, providing a potential explanation for the well-known toughness and wear resistance of TPU.     

Linear Quadratic Gaussian Homing for Markov Processes with Regime Switching and Applications to Controlled Population Growth/Decay

Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability - The problem of optimally controlling one-dimensional diffusion processes until they enter a given stopping set is extended to include Markov...     

Effect of absorbed pump power on the quality of output beam from monolithic microchip lasers

The dependence of the beam propagation factor (M ² parameter) with the absorbed pump power in the case of monolithic microchip laser under face-cooled configuration is extensively studied. Our investigations show that the M ₂ parameter is related to the absorbed pump power through two parameters (α and β) whose values depend on the laser material properties and laser configuration. We have shown that one parameter arises due to the oscillation of higher order modes in the microchip cavity and the other parameter accounts for the spherical aberration associated with the thermal lens induced by the pump beam. Such dependency of M ² parameter with the absorbed pump power is experimentally verified for a face-cooled monolithic microchip laser based on Nd³⁺ -doped GdVO₄ crystal and the values of α and β parameters were estimated from the experimentally measured data points.     

Absolutely indecomposable symmetric matrices

Let A be a symmetric matrix of size n×n with entries in some (commutative) field K. We study the possibility of decomposing A into two blocks by conjugation by an orthogonal matrix T∈Mat_n(K). We say that A is absolutely indecomposable if it is indecomposable over every extension of the base field. If K is formally real then every symmetric matrix A diagonalizes orthogonally over the real closure of K. Assume that K is a not formally real and of level s. We prove that in Mat_n(K) there exist symmetric, absolutely indecomposable matrices iff n is congruent to 0, 1 or −1 modulo 2s.     

The Moore Bound for Irregular Graphs

 What is the largest number of edges in a graph of order n and girth g? For d-regular graphs, essentially the best known answer is provided by the Moore bound. This result is extended here to cover irregular graphs as well, yielding an affirmative answer to an old open problem ([4] p. 163, problem 10). Received: June 27, 2000 Final version received: July 3, 2001     

Spinors and multivectors as a unified tool for spacetime geometry and for elementary particle physics

From the definition of spinors as the minimal left (right) modules of multivectors (that is, of vectors and their outer products), we can construct a unified mathematical approach for the study of matter and its interaction fields, which are either defined as fields in the geometrical spacetime or considered as generators of the physical spacetime. It is also shown how matter and interaction fields can be represented either by spinor fields or by multivector fields, both types of fields carrying the same information as the traditional corresponding spinors, vectors, or tensors. Geometry is more transparent in one representation (multivector form), and physics is more obvious in the spinor representation. Our theory provides a unified and totally self-consistent representation of quarks (barions), leptons, and all their known interactions.     

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The Development of the Asymptotic Viscous Dissipation Profile in a Vertical Free Convective Boundary Layer Flow in a Porous Medium

The effect of viscous dissipation on the development of the boundary layer flow from a cold vertical surface embedded in a Darcian porous medium is investigated. It is found that the flow evolves gradually from the classical Cheng–Minkowycz form to the recently discovered asymptotic dissipation profile which is a parallel flow.     

Metric Embeddings—Beyond One-Dimensional Distortion

The extensive study of metric spaces and their embeddings has so far focused on embeddings that preserve pairwise distances. A very intriguing concept introduced by Feige allows us to quantify the extent to which larger structures are preserved by a given embedding. We investigate this concept, focusing on several major graph families such as paths, trees, cubes, and expanders. We find some similarities to the regular (pairwise) distortion, as well as some striking differences.