A survey of surface tension,molar volume and density for Sn–Ag–Cu–Bi–Sb quinary alloys as lead-free solders

ABSTRACT

By applying the geometric models and the theoretical equation, the surface tension, the molar volume and the density were studied. The empirical calculations were carried out in temperature range 623?K?≤?T?≤?1123?K. Only few thermophysical properties were estimated for eight quinary alloys: Sn3.55Ag0.5Cu3Bi3Sb, Sn3.48Ag0.5Cu3Bi5Sb, Sn3.48 Ag0.5Cu5Bi3Sb, Sn3.40 Ag0.5Cu5Bi5Sb, Sn3.53Ag1Cu3Bi3Sb, Sn3.46Ag1Cu3Bi5Sb, Sn3.46Ag1Cu5Bi3Sb, Sn3.38Ag1Cu5Bi5Sb. The results show that surface tension and density have a linear appearance for all temperatures. We have also studied the influence of the composition and temperature in the studied alloys. The obtained theoretical results are compared with the experimental ones and with the conventional Pb–Sn welds.     

Heuristics and lower bounds for minimizing fuel consumption in hybrid-electrical vehicles

In hybrid electric vehicles, the electrical powertrain system has multiple energy sources that it can gather power from to satisfy the propulsion power requested by the vehicle at each instant. This paper focusses on the minimization of the fuel consumption of such a vehicle, taking advantage of the different energy sources. Based on global optimization approaches, the proposed heuristics find solutions that best split the power requested between the multi-electrical sources available. A lower bounding procedure is introduced to validate the quality of the solutions. Computational results show a significant improvement over previous results from the literature in both the computing time and the quality of the solutions.     

Density functional study of the structures and electronic properties of nitrogen-doped Ni(n) clusters, n = 1-10

We present a first-principles study of the equilibrium geometries, electronic structure, and related properties (binding energies, ionization potentials, electron affinities, and magnetic moments) of free-standing Ni(n) (n = 1-10) clusters doped with one impurity of N. Calculations have been performed in the framework of the density functional theory, as implemented in the SIESTA code within the generalized gradient approximation to exchange and correlation. We show that, in contrast to the molecular adsorption of N(2), the adsorption of a single N atom can dramatically change the structure of the host Ni(n) cluster, examples of which are Ni(5)N, Ni(7)N, and Ni(10)N, and that noticeable structure relaxations take place otherwise. Doping with a nitrogen impurity increases the binding energy as well as the ionization potential (except for Ni(6)N), which proves that N-doping works in favor of stabilizing the Ni clusters. We also find that the magnetic moments decrease in most cases upon N-doping despite the fact that the average Ni-Ni distance increases. The HUMO-LUMO gap for one spin channel strongly changes as a function of size upon N-doping, in contrast with the HUMO-LUMO gap for the other spin channel. This might have important implication in electronic transport properties through these molecular contacts anchored to source and drain electrodes.     

The collisions of two ion acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized nonextensive plasma

Using the extended Poincaré-Lighthill-Kuo (EPLK) method, the interaction between two ion acoustic solitary waves (IASWs) in a multicomponent magnetized plasma (including Tsallis nonextensive electrons) has been theoretically investigated. The analytical phase shifts of the two solitary waves after interaction are estimated. The proposed model leads to rarefactive solitons only. The effects of colliding angle, ratio of number densities of (positive/negative) ions species to the density of nonextensive electrons, ion-to-electron temperature ratio, mass ratio of the negative-to-positive ions and the electron nonextensive parameter on the phase shifts are investigated numerically. The present results show that these parameters have strong effects on the phase shifts and trajectories of the two IASWs after collision. Evidently, this model is helpful for interpreting the propagation and the oblique collision of IASWs in magnetized multicomponent plasma experiments and space observations.     

Fixed-bed column studies of pentachlorophenol removal by use of alginate-encapsulated pillared clay microbeads

The high rate of electron/hole pair recombination reduces the quantum yield of the processes with TiO(2) and represents its major drawback. Adding a co-adsorbent increases the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO(2). In order to hybridize the photocatalytic activity of TiO(2) with the adsorptivity of carbon nanotube, a composite of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and titanium dioxide (MWCNT/TiO(2)) has been synthesized. The composite was characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy (FTIR), and diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy. The catalytic activity of this composite material was investigated by application of the composite for the degradation of methyl orange. It was observed that the composite exhibits enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with TiO(2). The enhancement in photocatalytic performance of the MWCNT/TiO(2) composite is explained in terms of recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. In addition, MWCNT acts as a dispersing agent preventing TiO(2) from agglomerating activity during the catalytic process, providing a high catalytically active surface area. This work adds to the global discussion of how CNTs can enhance the efficiency of catalysts.     

Sensitivity of the Stability Bound for Ruin Probabilities to Claim Distributions

Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability - We are interested in the approximation of the ruin probability of a classical risk model using the strong stability method. Particularly, we study...     

Self-consistent determination of surface and interface magnetism via the recursion method

We report our recent study of magnetic moments in metallic multilayer systems with the recursion method. We discuss the onset of live magnetic layers in vanadium and palladium slabs with different thicknesses and also for Pd layers epitaxially grown on Ag. Antiparall coupling at the interface between iron and chromium is always obtained.     

Charging of a dust particle in a plasma with a nonextensive ion distribution function

The dust charge neutralization in a plasma with nonextensive ions is considered. The condition that the total current to a grain be zero is expressed in terms of the Lambert function. The fall-off of the net negative dust charge is then considered and a parameter study conducted, assuming hydrogen as well as argon plasma. Owing to ion nonextensivity, the dust charge reduction becomes much faster. Moreover, stronger is the ions correlation, more important is the involved electron depletion for a complete dust “decharging”.     

Solitary ion-acoustic wave propagation in the presence of electron trapping and background nonextensivity

Solitary ion-acoustic wave propagation in the presence of electron trapping is investigated within the theoretical framework of the Tsallis statistical mechanics. A physically meaningful Schamel-like distribution is outlined. In the small amplitude limit, the nonlinear dispersion relation is derived to analyze the global dependency of the main solitary wave quantities. It is found that for a given amplitude and trapping state, the solitary potential structure speeds up and broadens as the electron nonextensivity strengthens. Our results may be of basic interest for experiments that involve particle trapping. The flexibility provided by the nonextensive q-parameter enables one to obtain a good agreement between theory and experiment.