Carbon steel recontamination by Co-60 incorporation into iron (II) oxalate dihydrate formed during chemical decontamination

ABSTRACT

Hitachi has developed the chemical decontamination method to remove radioactive oxides on structural materials by alternately using a mixed solution of oxalic acid and hydrazine for a reductive process and potassium permanganate or permanganic acid solution for an oxidative process. In the decontamination of carbon steel (CS) by applying oxalic acid, a film of iron(II) oxalate dihydrate that has low solubility is formed on the CS surface. During the formation of iron(II) oxalate dihydrate, Co-60 in the reductive decontamination solution may be incorporated into the formed film. This phenomenon may cause a decrease in the decontamination efficiency of the CS. A corrosion test of CS in a reductive decontamination solution containing Co-60 as tracer was carried out in order to evaluate this recontamination. It was confirmed that Co-60 was incorporated into the iron(II) oxalate dihydrate film, and the amount of Co-60 increased with increasing formation of this film. About 50% of the Co-60 added to the reductive decontamination solution was incorporated into iron(II) oxalate dihydrate formed on the CS and the Co-60 incorporation ratio was proportional to the iron(II) oxalate dihydrate formation. This result means that the recontamination during chemical decontamination of CS can be predicted.     

An Air Bearing Slider for Small Diameter Disk Storage Devices

The authors propose a novel slider design. The tri-pad slider has three separate air bearing surfaces, one in the front of the slider and the other two in the back of the slider. This design permits the optimization of the air bearing stiffness and flying attitude without changing the minimum flying height. It can minimize the effect of skew angle on the flying height, and offers ample room for a larger size thin film head element. Samples were fabricated and flying characteristics at several velocities, as well as the dynamic flying stability, were investigated.     

Ultrasonic welding of heat-treatable aluminium alloy A6061 sheet

In this study, the authors applied the ultrasonic welding method to weld A6061 heat treatable aluminium alloy and investigated the effects of clamping load and welding time on the properties of the weld. In addition, in order to improve the strength of the joint, the effectiveness of the ethanol droplet on the faying surface was examined. The following results were obtained.

The joint strength increased with clamping load and welding time. The fracture of the joint produced under the welding conditions of 1176 N clamping load and 1.5 s welding time occurred in the base metal. The ethanol droplet on the faying surface successfully produced the joint with a strength equivalent to that of the base metal under the welding conditions of smaller clamping load and shorter welding time than the case without ethanol droplet. The softening around the welded area that was performed with the ethanol droplet was smaller than that in the welded area produced by other methods such as TIG and friction stir welding. The fracture surface of the joint welded with the ethanol droplet was remarkably irregular and rough. A dimple pattern was observed over a wide area, indicating that the welded area was significantly expanded. The ethanol droplet made the temperature of the weld area higher than that without ethanol, resulting in improved joint strength with an increase of the plastic deformation at the interface.     

Reduction in polarization dependent loss of a planar lightwave circuit by ion-implantation-induced birefringence

Reduction in polarization dependent loss of a planar lightwave circuit was achieved by asymmetric birefringence formed by ion implantation, in which oxygen ions were implanted along a diagonal of a cross-section of the planar lightwave circuit. The induced birefringence has a slow axis along the line perpendicular to the diagonal. In the present research, a decrease in polarization dependent loss of up to 3.7 dB was obtained, indicating that the method is effective for reducing polarization dependent loss.     

Effect of Dehydration and Urea on Stability of Homosulfamine in Solid States

In the presence of urea in solid states, the stability of unpulverized homosulfamine hydrate (phase I; UHH) is significantly decreased whereas that of unpulverized homosulfamine anhydrate (UHA) is not. The stability of UHH is decreased slightly more by pulverization (PHH). The major objective of this study was to investigate the effects of urea, dehydration, and pulverization on the stability of homosulfamine in solid states. Binary mixtures of UHH and urea, PHH and urea, and UHA and urea in a ratio of 1:1 (wt/wt) were prepared as physical mixtures and were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to study their appearance and structural changes before and after storage. PXRD analysis revealed that physical mixtures comprising UHH and urea and PHH and urea have the same diffraction pattern as that of the mixture of UHA and urea after preparation. The dehydration rate of the crystal water of UHH was accelerated by the presence of urea in addition to pulverization. Moreover, the PXRD patterns of the physical mixtures of UHH/urea and PHH/urea were significantly altered during storage, whereas that of UHA/urea was not, which was consistent with the SEM and FTIR results. The particle shape and appearance of UHH varied significantly as a result of pulverization. The stability of homosulfamine was influenced not only by the presence of urea and dehydration but also by the surface state and particle size of the crystalline form.     

Initial value compensation with additional input considering optimization of control input

This paper presents a novel method of initial value compensation (IVC) with additional input by considering the optimization of control input. IVC has been used to improve the control performance of various control systems with different initial values. Essential subjects, however, have still remained: in the conventional IVC approaches, the increases in the amplitude and number of high‐frequency components of the control input that accompany an increase in the control bandwidth could not be avoided. In this research, therefore, an optimization approach for control input is applied under the constraints of the conventional IVC approach. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been verified by numerical simulations and experiments using a prototype. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 175(2): 63‐73, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21026     

Polymerization of vinyl chloride with butyllithiums and metallocene catalysts

Polymerizations of vinyl chloride (VC) with butyllithium (BuLi) and metallocene catalysts were investigated. In the polymerization of VC with BuLi, the activity for polymerization decreased in the following order; t‐BuLi > n‐BuLi > s‐BuLi. A polymer controlled structurally in the main chain was found to be synthesized from the polymerization of VC with BuLi. The molecular weights of polymers obtained in bulk polymerization were higher than those of polymers obtained in solution. A linear relationship of the M_n of the polymer and the polymer yields was observed. The M_w/M_n of the polymer did not change significantly during polymerization, although the M_w/M_n was around 2. Thermal stability of the polymer obtained with BuLi was higher than that of polymer obtained with radical initiators, as determined by TGA measurements. In the polymerization of VC with Cp*TiX₃/MAO (X: Cl and OCH₃) catalysts, polymers were obtained with both catalysts, although the rate of polymerization was slow. The Cp*Ti(OCH₃)₃//MAO catalyst in CH₂Cl₂ gave higher‐molecular‐weight polymers in a better yield than in toluene. From elemental analysis and the NMR spectra of the polymers, the Cp*Ti(OCH₃)₃/MAO catalyst gave polymers consisting of repeating regular head‐to‐tail units, in contrast to the Cp*TiCl₃/MAO catalyst, which gave polymers having anomalous units.     

Microscopically-viewed relationship between the chain conformation and ultimate Young's modulus of a series of arylate polyesters with long methylene segments

Relationship between the chain conformation in the crystal lattice and the ultimate Young's modulus has been discussed on the basis of the crystal structural information revealed by the X-ray diffraction analysis for a series of arylate polyesters with long methylene segments (–[–COC₆H₄CO–O(CH₂)_mO–]_n–). The X-ray structural analysis revealed that the molecular chains take the all-trans-zigzag conformations for all of the even-numbered polyesters and their model compounds as well as the odd-numbered polyesters with the methylene segmental length longer than (CH₂)₁₄. These chain conformations have been correlated well to the ultimate Young's modulus along the chain axis or the crystallite modulus E_c, which has been estimated experimentally by the X-ray diffraction method under a constant stress and also predicted theoretically using the X-ray-analyzed crystal structures on the basis of the molecular mechanics method. The E_c was found to show the minimum at around m = 4–6 and increased gradually with an increment of m and approached the crystallite modulus of polyethylene, 235 GPa (X-ray value) ∼ 316 GPa (calculate) at an infinite m value. This behavior of E_c as a function of the number of methylene segmental units m was reasonably interpreted by developing the theoretical equation of E_c for a simplified zigzag chain model composed of a repetition of two linear rods representing the benzene–ester and methylene segmental parts respectively. These findings may promise that the mechanical property of arylate polyester can be controlled by adjusting the methylene segmental length m.