On the Fundamental Polymer Chemistry of Inverse Vulcanization for Statistical and Segmented Copolymers from Elemental Sulfur

In this concept review, the fundamental and polymerization chemistry of inverse vulcanization for the preparation of statistical and segmented sulfur copolymers, which have been actively developed and advanced in various applications over the past decade is discussed. This concept review delves into a discussion of step-growth polymerization constructs to describe the inverse vulcanization process and discuss prepolymer approaches for the synthesis of segmented sulfur polyurethanes. Furthermore, this concept review discusses the advantages of inverse vulcanization in conjunction with dynamic covalent polymerization and post-polymerization modifications to prepare segmented block copolymers with enhanced thermomechanical and flame retardant properties of these materials.     

Combustion properties of H2/N2/O2/steam mixtures

The present work reports new experimental and numerical results of the combustion properties of hydrogen based mixtures diluted by nitrogen and steam. Spherical expanding flames have been studied in a spherical bomb over a large domain of equivalence ratios, initial temperatures and dilutions at an initial pressure of 100 kPa (T_ini = 296, 363, 413 K; N₂/O₂ = 3.76, 5.67, 9; %Steam = 0, 20, 30). From these experiments, the laminar flame speed $S_L^0$, the Markstein length L’, the activation energy Ea and the Zel'dovich β number have been determined. These parameters were also simulated using COSILAB^® in order to verify the validity of the Mével et al. [1] detailed kinetic mechanism. Other parameters as the laminar flame thickness δ and the effective Lewis number Le_eff were also simulated. These new results aim at providing an extended database that will be very useful in the hydrogen combustion hazard assessment for nuclear reactor power plant new design.     

A model for crack formation during active solid pyrolysis of a char-forming solid: crack patterns; surface area generation; volatile mass efflux

A model is developed for the formation and propagation of cracks in a material sample that is heated at its top surface, pyrolyses, and then thermally degrades to form char. In this work the sample is heated uniformly over its entire top surface by a hypothetical flame (a heat source). The pyrolysis mechanism is described by a one-step overall reaction that is dependent nonlinearly on the temperature (Arrhenius form). Stresses develop in response to the thermal degradation of the material by means of a shrinkage strain caused by local mass loss during pyrolysis. When the principal stress exceeds a prescribed threshold value, the material forms a local crack. Cracks are found to generally originate at the surface in response to heating, but occasionally they form in the bulk, away from ever-changing material boundaries. The resulting cracks evolve and form patterns whose characteristics are described. Quantities examined in detail are: the crack spacing in the pyrolysis zone; the crack length evolution; the formation and nature of crack loops which are defined as individual cracks that have joined to form loops that are disconnected from the remaining material; the formation of enhanced pyrolysis area; and the impact of all of the former quantities on mass flux. It is determined that the mass flux from the sample can be greatly enhanced over its nominal (non-cracking) counterpart. The mass efflux profile qualitatively resembles those observed in Cone Calorimeter tests.     

Equivalences of comodule categories for coalgebras over rings

In this article we defined and studied quasi-finite comodules, the cohom functors for coalgebras over rings. Linear functors between categories of comodules are also investigated and it is proved that good enough linear functors are nothing but a cotensor functor. Our main result of this work characterizes equivalences between comodule categories generalizing the Morita-Takeuchi theory to coalgebras over rings. Morita-Takeuchi contexts in our setting is defined and investigated, a correspondence between strict Morita-Takeuchi contexts and equivalences of comodule categories over the involved coalgebras is obtained. Finally, we proved that for coalgebras over QF-rings Takeuchi's representation of the cohom functor is also valid.     

Higher Order Peak Algebras

Using the theory of noncommutative symmetric functions, we introduce the higher order peak algebras (Sym(N))_N≥1, a sequence of graded Hopf algebras which contain the descent algebra and the usual peak algebra as initial cases (N=1 and N=2). We compute their Hilbert series, introduce and study several combinatorial bases, and establish various algebraic identities related to the multisection of formal power series with noncommutative coefficients. Received November 19, 2004     

Bounds to optimal burn‐in and optimal work size

Burn‐in is a widely used method to improve the quality of products or systems after they have been produced. In this paper, we consider the problem of determining the optimal burn‐in time and optimal work size maximizing the long‐run average amount of work saved per time unit in the computer applications. Assuming that the underlying lifetime distribution of the computer has an initially decreasing or/and eventually increasing failure rate function, an upper bound for the optimal burn‐in time is derived for each fixed work size and a uniform (with respect to the burn‐in time) upper bound for the optimal work size is also obtained. Furthermore, it is shown that a non‐trivial lower bound for the optimal burn‐in time can be derived if the underlying lifetime distribution has a large initial failure rate. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A time‐accurate pseudo‐compressibility approach based on an unstructured hybrid finite volume technique applied to unsteady turbulent premixed flame propagation

A preconditioning approach based on the artificial compressibility formulation is extended to solve the governing equations for unsteady turbulent reactive flows with heat release, at low Mach numbers, on an unstructured hybrid grid context. Premixed reactants are considered and a flamelet approach for combustion modelling is adopted using a continuous quenched mean reaction rate. An overlapped cell‐vertex finite volume method is adopted as a discretisation scheme. Artificial dissipation terms for hybrid grids are explicitly added to ensure a stable, discretised set of equations. A second‐order, explicit, hybrid Runge–Kutta scheme is applied for the time marching in pseudo‐time. A time derivative of the dependent variable is added to recover the time accuracy of the preconditioned set of equations. This derivative is discretised by an implicit, second‐order scheme. The resulting scheme is applied to the calculation of an infinite planar (one‐dimensional) turbulent premixed flame propagating freely in reactants whose turbulence is supposed to be frozen, homogeneous and isotropic. The accuracy of the results obtained with the proposed method proves to be excellent when compared to the data available in the literature. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

N identical particles under quantum confinement: a many-body dimensional perturbation theory approach

Systems that involve N identical interacting particles under quantum confinement appear throughout many areas of physics, including chemical, condensed matter, and atomic physics. In this paper, we present the methods of dimensional perturbation theory, a powerful set of tools that uses symmetry to yield simple results for studying such many-body systems. We present a detailed discussion of the dimensional continuation of the N-particle Schrödinger equation, the spatial dimension D→∞ equilibrium (D⁰) structure, and the normal-mode (D⁻¹) structure. We use the FG matrix method to derive general, analytical expressions for the many-body normal-mode vibrational frequencies, and we give specific analytical results for three confined N-body quantum systems: the N-electron atom, N-electron quantum dot, and N-atom inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate with a repulsive hard-core potential.     

聚能射流的断裂时间

从描述聚能射流失稳的一维近似方程出发，导出了聚能射流断裂时间的近似公式。这个近似公式定量显示了屈服应力、本构关系、粘度和径向收缩效应等对射流断裂时间的影响，在４个不同的特殊近似下，可以自然演化为近１０年来所发表的几个半经验解析公式，并且在合理的参数范围内，公式给出的断裂时间曲线覆盖了射流断裂时间的全部实验点。