The oxidation properties of fourth generation single-crystal nickel-based superalloys

The fourth-generation nickel-based single-crystal superalloys, which contain large amounts of refractory metals for strengthening and platinum group metals for topologically close-packed phase prevention, show excellent high-temperature strength. However, these alloying elements seem to decrease high-temperature oxidation resistance. In this study, nickel-based superalloys with various amounts of tantalum, rhenium, and ruthenium were examined in isothermal and cyclic exposures at 1,100°C to investigate the effect on the oxide growth rate and resistance to scale spallation. Ruthenium and rhenium were found to degrade the oxidation resistance by the vaporization of their oxide. Tantalum-rich oxide in the spinel layer acts to stabilize ruthenium and rhenium oxide in the scale. The addition of hafnium and yttrium is effective in improving the oxidation resistance of ruthenium-containing nickel-based superalloys.     

Analysis of lightning surge propagation in wind farm

Wind power generation is expected to become more important in future distribution systems. Although several prospective reports such as IEC 61400‐24 and NREL SR‐500‐31115 indicate an insulation scheme and grounding design for lighting protection, there still seems to be too few investigations on the problems. This paper therefore discusses lightning surge analysis using a wind farm model with 2 or 10 ideal wind turbines. Changing parameters such as grounding resistance and lightning strike points, several cases were studied. As a result of the analysis using digital simulator ARENE, it is clear that the surge tends to propagate toward the end of a distribution line in a wind farm and there is the possibility of insulation accidents at the other wind turbines when lightning attacks a wind turbine. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 162(2): 30– 38, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20364     

Influence of third monomer on the crystal phase transition behavior of ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer

Crystal phase transition between the low- and high-temperature phases has been investigated for ethylene (E)-tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) alternating copolymer (ETFE) containing the third monomeric species by the temperature dependent measurements of wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and differential scanning calorimetry. Nonafluoro-1-hexene (NFH) and hexafluoropropylene (HFP) were chosen as the third monomers, where they are different in the side-branch length, -(CF₂)₃CF₃ and -CF₃, respectively. In the case of E/TFE/NFH copolymer (ET-C4F9), the crystal phase transition temperature of the original ETFE two-components copolymer was not very much affected by the existence of NFH in the range of NFH content from 0.7 to 3 mol%. Contrarily, the crystal phase transition temperature of E/TFE/HFP copolymer (ET-CF3) was found to decrease drastically with increasing HFP content. The melting temperature and the higher-order structure were also affected sensitively depending on the HFP content. This difference in phase transition behavior between ET-C4F9 and ET-CF3 copolymers is reasonably interpreted as follows: the short side groups (-CF₃) of HFP monomeric unit are included in the crystal lattice of E/TFE chains and the unit cell is expanded gradually with an increment of the HFP content, resulting in the decrease in phase transition point because of easier thermal motion of the chains. On the other hand, the long side groups [-(CF₂)₃CF₃] of NFH monomeric units are excluded out of the crystal lattice and located on the lamellar surfaces or in the amorphous region and do not affect very much the phase transition temperature even when the NFH content is increased. In association with such a change in crystal structure, the long period of stacked lamellar structure was found to decrease remarkably in the case of NFH, whereas it does not change very much for HFP, consistent with the interpretation of the above-mentioned WAXD data.     

Using a GPU to Accelerate Die and Mold Fabrication

The authors present a GPU-based method for generating and verifying cutter paths for numerically controlled milling. A CAM system based on this technology is now employed in production at Mazda Motor Corporation for manufacturing stamping dies. This system can compute cutter paths more than 20 times faster than previous methods     

FDTD analysis of switching characteristics in magnetooptic functional devices using magnetostatic surface waves

Collinear magnetooptic interaction with magnetostatic surface waves (MSSW) can be used for wavelength‐selective switches, wavelength filters, and frequency shifters in wavelength‐division‐multiplexed (WDM) photonic networks and optical processing systems. The switching efficiency can be improved with a multilayer waveguide structure. To investigate the dynamic switching characteristics, the FDTD method was employed. The mode conversion between TE and TM mode was successfully demonstrated with FDTD simulation. The filtering characteristics were also evaluated. The FDTD results were compared with the result from the coupled mode theory, and good agreement was obtained. Switching of an optical pulse was also demonstrated by the FDTD method. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 162(1): 40–47, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20501     

Ideal crosslinked-polymers and their characterization in free-radical monovinyl-divinyl copolymerizations

The critical conditions in which the classical Flory-Stockmayer gelation theory (F-S theory) is applicable to monovinyl-divinyl copolymerizations were pursued in detail. The resulting prepolymers or precursors of ideal crosslinked-polymers were characterized as standard polymers for the discussion of network formation in free-radical monovinyl-divinyl copolymerizations. Methyl methacrylate was copolymerized with a small amount of ethylene dimethacrylate, butylene dimethacrylate or nonapropyleneglycol dimethacrylate in the presence of lauryl mercaptan, a chain transfer agent to reduce the occurrence of a thermodynamic excluded volume effect and intramolecular crosslinking as the primary and secondary factors, respectively, for the greatly delayed gelation in the free-radical monovinyl-divinyl copolymerizations and, moreover, to keep the primary chain length constant by inhibiting a gel effect. The ratio of the actual gel point to the theoretical one reached 1.1, supporting the validity of F-S theory. The resulting prepolymers were subjected to SEC-MALLS analysis to determine the molecular weights, the molecular-weight distributions and the radii of gyration; the correlations of molecular weight vs. elution volume and radius of gyration vs. molecular weight were useful for the characterization of the precursors of ideal network-polymers.     

Basic concept and decentralized autonomous control of super‐distributed energy systems

New small‐scale dispersed generation systems, such as fuel cells and micro gas turbines, have made remarkable advances lately and they will be applied practically in the near future. Although a large number of researches on the introduction of small‐scale dispersed generation systems have been carried out, only a small number of small‐scale dispersed generation systems are considered in these researches. Therefore, little is known about problems to be solved when a large number of small‐scale dispersed generation systems are introduced into electric power systems. This paper deals with a super‐distributed energy system that consists of a great number of dispersed generation systems such as fuel cells, micro gas turbines, and so on. The behavior of a customer with a dispersed generation system is simulated as the Ising model in statistical mechanics. The necessity of a distribution network in super‐distributed energy systems is discussed based on the Ising model. The feasibility of decentralized autonomous control using vicinity information is also investigated on the basis of stability analysis of the Hopfield neural network model. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 151(1): 43–55, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10368     

Effects of electrode arrangement and pressure on synthesis of diamond films by arc discharge plasma jet chemical vapor deposition

The setup and deposition conditions of electrode arrangement and pressure have been studied to synthesize diamond films at high growth rate on wide area efficiently by arc discharge plasma jet chemical vapor deposition. An apparatus has been used in which four plasma torches, one is used for cathode and the others for divided anodes, are arranged and the positions of these torches are changeable. Growth rate, deposition area and thickness of diamond films have increased with changing the electrode arrangements without improvement of thickness variation. Maximum growth rate of our apparatus has occurred at the pressure of 6.7 kPa and diamond films that have less variations of quality and surface roughness have been synthesized at lower pressure during deposition. Moreover, a high conversion rate, which is the ratio of carbon atoms that form diamond in supplied methane gas, of 16% has been obtained at the pressure of 6.7 kPa and methane concentration of 2%.     

Twin-Related Tetragonal Variants in Yttria Partially Stabilized Zirconia

Crystals of yttria partially stabilized zirconia were grown by the arc-image floating-zone technique and studied by transmission electron microscopy. Crystals annealed at 1700°C consist of tetragonal precipitates and a cubic matrix. The platelike domains in a precipitate are twin-related tetragonal variants stacked alternately parallel to the (011) twin plane. The axial relations between the tetragonal precipitate and the cubic matrix are [100]_tetragonal|[100]_cubic, [011]_tetragonal|[011]_cubic.