Morphological and mechanical studies of surface treated mica reinforced high density polyethylene

Morphological studies of high density polyethylene (HDPE) reinforced by mica flakes has been investigated. The mica flakes were surface treated by silane and titanate coupling agents. Effects of these treatments on the polymer-mica interface is discussed. It is found that surface treatment, particularly silane treated composites, have better adhesion between the reinforcing agent and the polymer matrix. This effect can only be detected when the mica concentration is higher than 20 weight percent. This interfacial adhesion could not be seen across the surface of the sample but only when the measurements were made parallel to the surface.     

Corrosion and mechanical behavior of fusion bonded epoxy (FBE) in aqueous media

In recent years there have been many reported cases of corrosion failure in cement concrete pipelines. In the majority of cases, the failures have been attributed to rebar corrosion which is caused by the permeability of chloride from low resistivity soil and subsequent attack on a passive layer on an iron bar in the structure. As a possible alternative to cementitious materials, some organic coatings based on olefin, vinyl or epoxy-based polymers have been considered. However, due to a paucity of data on the behavior of these coatings in aqueous media— particularly product water—the possibility of their application in water transmission systems in the Kingdom has not been fully exploited. This paper deals with the studies carried out on the corrosion and mechanical behavior of fusion bonded epoxy (FBE) coating on steel in aqueous media which include product water, distilled water and saline water. The mechanical testings on coating include adhesion, bending and cathodic disbondment testings. The corrosion studies include immersion testing under static and dynamic conditions, autoclave tests and accelerated (salt-fog) tests. The analysis of results indicates chemical inertness of FBE coating in either of the aforementioned water used during testing, good adhesion and no damage to the coating during bending. Cathodic disbondment tests indicate that FBE coating sustains under cathodic protection (CP) conditions. In general, the results of mechanical and corrosion tests indicate that FBE is a promising material for internal coating on steel in water transmission systems.     

Progressive events in supervisory control and compositional verification

This paper investigates some limitations of the nonblocking property when used for supervisor synthesis in discrete event systems. It is shown that there are cases where synthesis with the nonblocking property gives undesired results. To address such cases, the paper introduces progressive events as a means to specify more precisely how a synthesised supervisor should complete its tasks. The nonblocking property is modified to take progressive events into account, and appropriate methods for verification and synthesis are proposed. Experiments show that progressive events can be used in the analysis of industrial-scale systems, and can expose issues that remain undetected by standard nonblocking verification.     

Studies on chemical resistance of polyesters

Chlorendic anhydride based polyester ( I ,) tetrachlorophthalic anhydride based polyester ( II ), dibromoneopentyl glycol based polyester ( III ,) general purpose polyester ( IV ,) blend of dibromoneopentyl glycol based polyester with general purpose polyester ( V ,) chlorendic anhydride and dibromoneopentyl glycol based polyester ( VI ), and a blend of chlorendic anhydride based polyester and dibromoneopentyl glycol based polyester ( VII ) were prepared and their chemical resistance and moisture absorption studied in various reagents, acid, alkali, and water, at 25 and 65°C. It is found that the polyester ( III ) is the least affected in the presence of the acids. In 20% NaOH, there was a decrease in weight for all polyesters at both the temperatures compared to the control except the polyester ( VII ). Increase in weight of all the polyesters was observed during the absorption of moisture both at 25 and 65°C. The increase was higher at higher temperature. Polyester ( III ) thus shows the least absorption of moisture.     

A secure and improved multi server authentication protocol using fuzzy commitment

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The advancement in communication and computation technologies has paved a way for connecting large number of heterogeneous devices to offer specified services....     

新疆1949—2019年洪水灾害调查与特征分析

洪水灾害是新疆最严重的自然灾害,调查并研究洪水灾害的特征与规律对防洪减灾有重要意义。本文通过调查新疆洪水灾害相关的年鉴、公报、简报及文献资料等,统计分析了新疆1949-2019年近71年主要洪水灾害,给出了洪水灾害的时间及地域分布规律、灾害类型特征。对洪水灾害造成的直接经济损失及占国民生产总值的比例进行了统计分析,并重点对2006年以后的受灾人口与死亡人口、直接经济损失进行了分析。结果表明,虽然洪水频次与洪灾直接经济损失有增加趋势,但因灾死亡人口及直接经济损失所占GDP比重不断减少,并趋于平稳,防洪减灾效益明显。本文研究为新疆洪水灾害风险评估、防御应对与决策支持提供了借鉴参考。     

Interactive Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithm Using Cone Dominance

As the number of objectives increases, the performance of the Pareto dominance-based Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO) algorithms such as NSGA-II, SPEA2 severely deteriorates due to the drastic increase in the Pareto-incomparable solutions. We propose a sorting method which classifies these incomparable solutions into several ordered classes by using the decision maker's (DM) preference information. This is accomplished by designing an interactive evolutionary algorithm and constructing convex cones. This method allows the DMs to drive the search process toward a preferred region of the Pareto optimal front. The performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed for two, three, and four-objective knapsack problems. The results demonstrate the algorithm's ability to converge to the most preferred point. The evaluation and comparison of the results indicate that the proposed approach gives better solutions than that of NSGA-II. In addition, the approach is more efficient compared to NSGA-II in terms of the number of generations required to reach the preferred point.     

Heat exchanger network synthesis with detailed exchanger designs: Part 1. A discretized differential algebraic equation model for shell and tube heat exchanger design

A new method for the detailed design of shell and tube heat exchangers is presented through the formulation of coupled differential heat equations, along with algebraic equations for design variables. Heat exchanger design components (tube passes, baffles, and shells) are used to discretize the differential equations and are solved simultaneously with the algebraic design equations. The coupled differential algebraic equation (DAE) system is suitable for numerical optimization as it replaces the nonsmooth log mean temperature difference (LMTD) term. Discrete decisions regarding the number of shells, fluid allocation, tube sizes, and number of baffles are determined by solving an LMTD-based method iteratively. The resulting heat exchanger topology is then used to discretize the detailed DAE model, which is solved as a nonlinear programming model to obtain the detailed exchanger design by minimizing an economic objective function through varying the tube length. The DAE model also provides the stream temperature profiles inside the exchanger simultaneously with the detailed design. It is observed that the DAE model results are almost equal to the LMTD-based design model for one-shell heat exchangers with constant stream properties but shows significant differences when streams properties are allowed to vary with temperature or the number of shells are increased. The accuracy of the solutions and the required computational costs show that the model is well suited for solving heat exchanger network synthesis problems combined with detailed exchanger designs, which is demonstrated in Part 2 of the paper.     

Effect of AlN addition on the electrical resistivity of pressureless sintered SiC ceramics with B4C and C

The effect of 0–12 wt% AlN addition on the electrical resistivity of SiC ceramics pressureless sintered with 0.7 wt% B₄C and 2.5 wt% C additives was investigated. The elemental analysis of SiC grains revealed a codoping of Al and N in the SiC lattice with a higher N concentration with 1 wt% AlN addition and a higher Al concentration with 12 wt% AlN addition. The electrical resistivity decreased by four orders of magnitude (1.7 × 10⁵ → 8.3 × 10¹ Ω cm) with 1 wt% AlN addition due to the increased carrier density (1.7 × 10¹⁰ → 2.3 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻³) caused by excess N-derived donors. However, subsequent AlN addition (4 → 12 wt%) led to an increase (2.9 × 10³ → 1.2 × 10⁴ Ω‧cm) in electrical resistivity due to (1) increased Al dopants which act as deep acceptors for trapping N-derived carriers causing a decrease in carrier density (2.3 × 10¹⁵ → 5.9 × 10¹³ cm⁻³), (2) the formation of electrically insulating SiC-AlN solid solution, and (3) the presence of electrically insulating AlN grains at the grain boundaries.     

Thermoelectric properties of mechanically alloyed iron disilicides consolidated by various processes

Mn doped p-type iron disilicide powders have been produced by a mechanical alloying process. As-milled powders were of metastable state and mostly transformed to β-FeSi₂ phase by subsequent isothermal annealing. As-milled powders were consolidated by various processes such as sintering of the cold compact in vacuum, vacuum hot pressing (VHP), and spray drying/atmospheric plasma thermal spraying. Phase transitions during the processes were investigated using XRD, EDS, and SEM. As-consolidated specimens consisted of a mixture of α-Fe₂Si₅ and ε-FeSi phases, which were gradually transformed into a thermoelectric semiconducting α-FeSi₂ phase by subsequent isothermal annealing in the vicinity of 845°C in vacuum. However, some residual α and ε phases remained even after prolonged annealing. Thermoelectric properties were measured as a function of temperature and correlated with phase transformation. They showed optimum values in the vacuum hot pressed specimen due to a higher fraction of β phase and/or higher density.