The effect of matrix microstructure on cyclic response and fatigue behavior of particle- reinforced 2219 aluminum: Part I. room temperature behavior

The low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue behavior and cyclic response of naturally aged and overaged 2219/TiC/15p and unreinforced 2219 Al were investigated using plastic strain-controlled and stress-controlled testing. In addition, the influence of grain size on the particle-reinforced materials was examined. In both reinforced and unreinforced materials, the naturally aged conditions were cyclically unstable, exhibiting an initial hardening behavior followed by an extended region of cyclic stability and ultimately a softening region. The overaged reinforced material was cyclically stable for the plastic strains examined, while the overaged unreinforced material exhibited cyclic hardening at plastic strains greater than 2.5 × 10⁻⁴. Decreasing grain size of particle-reinforced materials modestly increased the cyclic flow stress of both naturally aged and overaged materials. Reinforced and unreinforced materials exhibited similar fatigue life behaviors; however, the reinforced and unreinforced naturally aged materials had superior fatigue lives in comparison to the overaged materials. Grain size had no effect on the fatigue life behavior of the particle-reinforced materials. The fatigue lives were strongly influenced by the presence of clusters of TiC particles and exogenous Al₃Ti intermetallics. formerly Research Assistant with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled “Creep and Fatigue in Metal Matrix Composites” at the 1994 TMS/ASM Spring meeting, held February 28–March 3, 1994 in San Francisco, California, under the auspices of the Joint TMS-SMD/ASM-MSD Composite Materials Committee.     

A European community source of reference materials for neutron metrology requirements

Recognizing the importance of an assured supply of reference materials of high purity for use as neutron dosimeters, the Monitor Materials subgroup of the European Working Group on Reactor Dosimetry collaborated with the Central Bureau for Nuclear Measurements, Geel, Belgium to establish a list of requirements.CBNM is organizing the availability and characterization of these materials in collaboration with specialist laboratories within the European Community. At present 12 activation and 6 fission dosimetry materials are being examined prior to certification and issue.This source of materials is expected to be of great use for reactor surveillance, interlaboratory comparisons, and other neutron metrology requirements.     

Very high-order microring resonator filters for WDM applications

High-order microring resonators having from 1 to 11 coupled cavities are demonstrated. These filters exhibit low loss, flat tops, and out-of-band rejection ratios that can exceed 80 dB. They achieve performance that is suitable for commercial applications.     

Structure of metal site in Cd-substituted His117Gly mutant of azurin with and without addition of imidazole derivatives

The present work uses 111mCd-perturbed angular correlations of gamma-rays (PAC) to investigate the structure of the metal site of the His117Gly mutant of Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin in aqueous solution and the effect on the structure upon addition of the following exogenous ligands: imidazole, 4-methyl imidazole, 1-methyl imidazole, 2-methyl imidazole and histidine. The nuclear quadrupole interaction of cadmium bound to the mutant without addition of exogenous ligands shows a strong pH dependence with three different nuclear quadrupole interactions consistent with two pKa values at about 7.2 and 8.6 at 2 degrees C. Addition of the imidazole derivatives resulted in a significant change in the PAC spectrum showing that they coordinate. This is in accordance with observations by EPR for the same mutant with copper at the metal site [den Blaauwen, T. & Canters, G. W. (1993) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115, 1121-1129]. However, whereas EPR and ultraviolet/visual absorption show that the characteristics of the wild-type copper protein are regained by addition of the imidazole derivatives with the exception of the possible bidentates (histidine and histamine), the comparison of the PAC results to model calculations shows that the cadmium ion must be fourfold coordinated in most cases, probably binding an additional water or hydroxide ligand. A fourfold coordination is in contrast to cadmium-substituted wild-type azurin where PAC data inferred a threefold coordination by a Cys and two His residues [Danielsen, E. Bauer, R., Hemmingsen, L., Andersen. M., Bjerrum, M. J., Butz, T., Tr?ger, W., Canters, G. W., Hoitink, C. W. G., Karlsson, G., Hansson, O. & Messerschmidt, A. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 573-580]     

To Do or to Have? That Is the Question.

Do experiences make people happier than material possessions? In two surveys, respondents from various demographic groups indicated that experiential purchases-those made with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience--made them happier than material purchases. In a follow-up laboratory experiment, participants experienced more positive feelings after pondering an experiential purchase than after pondering a material purchase. In another experiment, participants were more likely to anticipate that experiences would make them happier than material possessions after adopting a temporally distant, versus a temporally proximate, perspective. The discussion focuses on evidence that experiences make people happier because they are more open to positive reinterpretations, are a more meaningful part of one's identity, and contribute more to successful social relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hardware control of an active magnetic shield

The presented hardware controller controls the current in an active shield consisting of a number of compensation coils at well-chosen positions. In combination with a converter and the active shield, the controller reduces the fundamental component of the magnetic stray field of an induction heater by generating a magnetic counter field in a defined target area. The controller uses two input signals (from two magnetic field sensors) and generates amplitude and phase information for the converter. Based on this information, the latter produces the compensation current wave that is sent to the compensation coils to minimise the magnetic field. The frequency range of the controller is 1-100 kHz. Its dynamic behaviour is explained in theory and validated by experiments     

Reduced forward operator for electromagnetic wave scattering problems

The paper describes a reduced forward operator for solving electromagnetic scattering problems using a volume integral equation in conjunction with a conjugate gradient fast Fourier transform scheme. The reduction is obtained by decoupling of the interaction between the locations in the spatial computational domain at which there is non-zero contrast and those positions at which there is zero contrast. The decoupling is achieved by multiplication of the kernel by a diagonal matrix whose entries reflect the presence or absence of contrast at the associated point. Analysis supported by numerical experiments shows that the conjugate gradient algorithm applied to the reduced system converges more rapidly than when it is applied to the original system