Oxidation dependency of critical velocity for aluminum feedstock deposition in kinetic spraying process

In kinetic spraying process, critical velocity is an important criterion which determines the deposition of feedstock onto the substrate. It has been proven experimentally and numerically that the critical velocity is determined by physical and mechanical properties and the state of materials such as initial temperature and size. In this study, the oxidation effect on critical velocity was investigated using experimental methods. As oxygen content of feedstock increased, critical velocity significantly decreased. In order to find out reasons for difference in critical velocity with oxygen content, individual impact behavior was analyzed and interface microstructure was observed. Due to high brittleness and hardness of oxide, oxide layer on particle influences the particle deformation behavior during impact. And oxide accumulated at interface obstructs the adhesion between activated particle and substrate surface during impact.     

Influence of Ti on non-metallic inclusion formation and acicular ferrite nucleation in high-strength low-alloy steel weld metals

The phase transition behaviors of non-metallic inclusions as a function of Ti content were investigated by monitoring changes in the microstructure and mechanical properties of high-strength low-alloy steel multipass weld metals. Weld metals with Ti contents ranging from 0.007 to 0.17 wt% were prepared using a gas metal arc welding process. The inclusion analysis was performed based on thermodynamic calculations and transmission electron microscopy, accompanied by energy-dispersive spectrometry and selected area electron diffraction. With increase in the Ti content of weld metals, the chaotic arrangement of ferrite laths in the columnar zone was transited to a well aligned arrangement and the impact toughness of the weld metals drastically deteriorated in response to the decrease in the Mn content of the inclusion. The effective inclusion phase for intragranular nucleation contained considerable amounts of Mn and a Mn depleted zone was observed around the effective nucleant.     

Correlation of particle impact conditions with bonding,nanocrystal formation and mechanical properties in kinetic sprayed nickel

Owing to the specific high-strain-rate thermomechanical characteristics of Ni particle impact in kinetic spraying, the rebound phenomenon of the impacting particles hinders the formation of the first layer and impedes successful build-up of the coating. Even at higher impact velocities, the deposition efficiency of the coating is quite low because of excessive kinetic energy, which induces the rebound and/or erosion of the highly flattened particles. This paper reports noticeably improved bonding and deposition characteristics of Ni particles resulting from suppressed equivalent (von Mises) flow stress and enhanced interface heat-up as a result of powder preheating. Experimental observations coupled with finite-element modeling (FEM) corroborate the fact that the thermally softened Ni particle is very effective for enhanced adhesive and cohesive bonding. Based on the FEM results, the thermal boost-up zone, increased by thermally accelerated adiabatic shear instability, is proposed as a crucial factor for enhancing bonding between the particles, which is essential in producing better coating properties. Moreover, nanocrystal formation (<100 nm) in the coating was more pronounced than cases previously reported in the literature, mainly because of the enhanced thermal activation and straining of the severely deformed particles, which was verified by transmission electron microscopy investigations and nanoindentation tests.     

Prefetching with Helper Threads for Loosely Coupled Multiprocessor Systems

This paper presents a helper thread prefetching scheme that is designed to work on loosely coupled processors, such as in a standard chip multiprocessor (CMP) system or an intelligent memory system. Loosely coupled processors have an advantage in that resources such as processor and L1 cache resources are not contended by the application and helper threads, hence preserving the speed of the application. However, interprocessor communication is expensive in such a system. We present techniques to alleviate this. Our approach exploits large loop-based code regions and is based on a new synchronization mechanism between the application and helper threads. This mechanism precisely controls how far ahead the execution of the helper thread can be with respect to the application thread. We found that this is important in ensuring prefetching timeliness and avoiding cache pollution. To demonstrate that prefetching in a loosely coupled system can be done effectively, we evaluate our prefetching by simulating a standard unmodified CMP system and an intelligent memory system where a simple processor in memory executes the helper thread. Evaluating our scheme with nine memory-intensive applications with the memory processor in DRAM achieves an average speedup of 1.25. Moreover, our scheme works well in combination with a conventional processor-side sequential L1 prefetcher, resulting in an average speedup of 1.31. In a standard CMP, the scheme achieves an average speedup of 1.33. Using a real CMP system with a shared L2 cache between two cores, our helper thread prefetching plus hardware L2 prefetching achieves an average speedup of 1.15 over the hardware L2 prefetching for the subset of applications with high L2 cache misses per cycle.     

Development and microstructure optimization of atmospheric plasma-sprayed NiO/YSZ anode coatings for SOFCs

In this paper, preparation and characterization of porous anode layers with uniform phase distribution are discussed for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) application. The Ni/8YSZ cermet coatings were fabricated by atmospheric plasma spray (APS) process using oxidized nickel coated graphite (Ni-graphite) and 8 mol% yittria — stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) blend as feedstock. To control the microstructure of the coating, the nickel coated graphite with low density was used as a starting feedstock instead of conventional pure nickel (Ni) powder. To balance the conductivity, uniform porosity, and structural stability of the coatings, the effects of process parameters such as hydrogen gas flow rate, stand off distance and pore formation precursor (graphite) addition on the microstructures of the resulting coatings are investigated. The results show that the anode coatings with high conductivity, structural stability and porosity could be deposited with moderate hydrogen gas flow rate and short stand off distance.     

Roles of Particle Size Distribution in Bimodal Feedstocks on the Deposition Behavior and Film Properties in Vacuum Kinetic Spraying

Vacuum kinetic spray (VKS), also called aerosol deposition method, is a spray process that makes it possible to fabricate dense ceramic films at room temperature. Although the deposition rate of VKS is better than conventional ceramic coating processes, the deposition properties are still poor for industrial use. In this respect, this work investigates the role of particle size on the deposition behavior by blending two alumina powders having different sizes. It results in suggestions for increasing the deposition efficiency and rate. The microstructure and mechanical properties of films revealed that nanosized particles directly took part in deposition and participated in increasing the deposition rate despite the low adhesion between crystallites. In contrast, relatively large submicron-sized particles mainly contributed to the coating consolidation via severe friction, which strengthened the fragment bonding. Submicron-sized particles also were indirectly deposited as crystallites after sufficient fragmentation. Therefore, it is suggested that the deposition behavior and film properties in VKS can be controlled by adjusting the mixing ratio of two alumina powders with different particle size ranges.     

Variation of microstructures and mechanical properties in the post-weld heat-treated HAZ of Cu containing HSLA steel welds

The present study focuses on the effect of Cu and post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) on the microstructure and mechanical properties in the coarse grained heat affected zone (CGHAZ) of Cu containing high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel welds. For this study, HSLA steels with and without Cu were prepared in laboratory. Mechanical properties were estimated by Vickers hardness and Charpy impact tests. As a result, despite PWHT, the Vickers hardness did not change noticeably; however, the impact toughness deteriorated significantly with increasing PWHT time. In case of Cu added steel, intergranular brittle fractures occurred after PWHT, due to the strengthening of the grain interior by precipitation of Cu particles. Additionally, the formation of a soft denuded grain boundary zone also played a significant role in lowering the fracture toughness during PWHT.     

Effect of nanoscale SubPc interfacial layer on the performance of inverted polymer solar cells based on P3HT/PC71BM

The effect of a nanoscale boron subphthalocyanine chloride (SubPc) interfacial layer on the performance of inverted polymer solar cells based on poly (3-hexyl thiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C(71)-butyric acid methyl ester (PC(71)BM) was studied. When a 1 nm SubPc layer was introduced between the active layer (P3HT:PC(71)BM) and MoO(x) in the device with ITO/ZnO/P3HT:PC(71)BM/SubPc/MoO(x)/Al configuration, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) was increased from 3.42 (without SubPc) to 3.59%. This improvement is mainly attributed to the enhanced open-circuit voltage from 0.62 to 0.64 V. When the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters were estimated from the solubility parameters through the contact angle measurement, it revealed that the interaction between SubPc and PC(71)BM is more attractive than that between SubPc and P3HT at the interface of P3HT:PC(71)BM/SubPc, through which charges are well transported from the active layer to the anode. This is supported by a decrease of the contact resistance from 5.49 (SubPc 0 nm) to 0.94 MΩ cm (SubPc 1 nm). The photoelectron spectra provide another evidence for the enhanced PCE, exhibiting that the 1 nm thick SubPc layer extracts more photoelectrons from the active layer than other thicknesses.     

Effects of pollutant concentration ratio on the simultaneous removal of NH3, H2S and toluene gases using rock wool-compost biofilter

The biological treatment of a tri-component mixed waste gas system in BRC1 and BRC2 biofilters packed with rock wool-compost media was studied. The model gases were NH(3), H(2)S and toluene. The gases were fed initially at about 50-55 ppm each. H(2)S was found to have the shortest start-up while toluene had the longest. Under two different NH(3):H(2)S:toluene concentration ratios of 250:120:55 and 120:220:55 (in ppm) for BRC1 and BRC2, the removal efficiencies of NH(3), H(2)S and toluene were found to be affected by their respective loading rate. On the other hand, toluene removal was observed to be inhibited at H(2)S concentration of 220 ppm as well. Almost complete removal of NH(3) and H(2)S was achieved when loading rate was applied up to 16.14 g-NH(3)/(m(3) bed h) and 36.09 g-H(2)S/(m(3) bed h), respectively. The maximum elimination capacity for NH(3) was determined to be 23.67 g-NH(3)/(m(3) bed h) at 78.6% removal efficiency and for H(2)S, 38.50 g-H(2)S/(m(3) bed h) at 68.1% removal efficiency. The maximum toluene elimination capacity was 30.75 g-toluene/(m(3) bed h) at 87.9% removal efficiency when the concentration of NH(3):H(2)S:toluene was 250:120:55 in BRC1, and was 16.60 g-toluene/(m(3) bed h) at 45.5% removal efficiency when the concentration of NH(3):H(2)S:toluene was 120:220:55 in BRC2. The pressure drops along both columns were low and the ratio of bed compactions over biofilter height was observed to be less than 0.02.