Identification of thermal effects involved in DSC experiment on Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloys with high Cu:Mg ratio

Precipitation reactions in the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) of an Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloy were identified by analyzing the results from hardness test, electrical conductivity test, and transmission electron microscope (TEM) examination. It is discovered that thermal effects can be identified through selected area electron diffraction and bright-field images. The reaction peaks around 171, 231, and 276℃ can be attributed to a structural rearrangement of coherent zones, to the precipitation of Ω phases, and to the precipitation of Ω and θ' and possible combination with the transition of θ'→θ, respectively. In addition, the hardness and electrical conductivity of the alloy change proportionately with the progression of reactions during the heating process. This phenomenon can be attributed to the evolution of the microstructure.     

A time-saving method to assess the efficiency of corrosion inhibitors by electro osmosis

The corrosion inhibitor is one of the most important technologies to enhance the durability of steel-reinforced concrete. A kind of time-saving method was developed to assess the inhibitor efficiency by using a 32 V electric field to accelerate chloride ion migration in concrete. Potentiodynamic polarization scanning test was used to evaluate the corrosion states. The comprehensive efficiency of an inhibitor should be assessed in two aspects: resistance to chloride ion permeability and inhibiting efficiency. The specimens with different mixing amount of sodium nitrite and migration corrosion inhibitors were used to verify the accuracy and reliability of this method. The results show the differences in inhibiting efficiency of the inhibitors clearly, indicating the reliability of this time-saving method.     

Effects of cold rolling on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Fe-Ni-Mn-Mo-Ti-Cr maraging steels

Effects of cold rolling on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Fe-Ni-Mn-Mo-Ti-Cr maraging steels were studied. To investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, tensile test, and hardness test were used. The results show that the solution-annealing treatment in the cold-rolled steel redounds to the formation of submicrocrystalline Fe₂(Mo, Ti) Laves phase particles, which are stable at high temperatures. These secondary Laves phase particles prevent from recrystallization at high temperatures and correspond to semi-brittle fracture in the subsequent aging treatment.     

Precipitation behaviors of X80 acicular ferrite pipeline steel

The precipitation behaviors of X80 acicular ferrite pipeline steel were investigated by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The results show that dendritic precipitates in the as-cast steel slabs precipitate mainly in grain boundaries, and these dendritic precipitates dissolve and re-precipitate to two kinds of carbonitrides: Ti- and Nb-rich (Ti, Nb)(C, N) carbonitrides during reheating. Four types of precipitates mainly exist in the hot rolled plate: Ti-rich carbonitrides resulted from the dendritic carbonitrides undissolved during the reheating process; Ti-rich carbonitrides re-precipitated along austenite grain boundaries during the reheating process; NbC carbides mainly heterogeneously nucleated on the small pre-existing Nb-rich carbonitrides in the hot rolling process; and NbC carbides precipitated on dislocations during hot rolling.     

Simulation of the continuous casting process in a mold of free-cutting steel 38MnVS based on a MiLE method

A new method called mixed Lagrangian and Eulerian (MiLE) method was used to simulate the continuous casting process in a mold of free-cutting steel 38MnVS. The simulation results are basically in agreement with experimental data in the literature, achieving the three-dimensional visualization of temperature distribution, melt flow, shell thickness, and stress distribution of blooms in a mold. It is shown that the flow velocity of steel melt becomes smaller gradually as the casting proceeds. When the flow reaches a certain depth, two types of flow patterns can be observed in the upper zone of the mold. The first flow pattern is to flow downwards, and the second one is to flow upwards to the meniscus. The corner temperature is higher, and the thickness is thinner than those in the mid-face. The effective stress in the corner area is much bigger than that in the mid-face, indicating that the corner area is the dangerous zone of cracking.     

Crystallization characteristics of iron-rich glass ceramics prepared from nickel slag and blast furnace slag

The crystallization process of iron-rich glass-ceramics prepared from the mixture of nickel slag (NS) and blast furnace slag (BFS) with a small amount of quartz sand was investigated. A modified melting method which was more energy-saving than the traditional methods was used to control the crystallization process. The results show that the iron-rich system has much lower melting temperature, glass transition temperature (T_g), and glass crystallization temperature (T_c), which can result in a further energy-saving process. The results also show that the system has a quick but controllable crystallization process with its peak crystallization temperature at 918℃. The crystallization of augite crystals begins from the edge of the sample and invades into the whole sample. The crystallization process can be completed in a few minutes. A distinct boundary between the crystallized part and the non-crystallized part exists during the process. In the non-crystallized part showing a black colour, some sphere-shaped augite crystals already exist in the glass matrix before samples are heated to T_c. In the crystallized part showing a khaki colour, a compact structure is formed by augite crystals.     

Comparative stability analyses of traditional and selective room-and-pillar mining techniques for sub-horizontal tungsten veins

The stability and productivity concerning a modification on the traditional room and pillar for a new selective technique at the Portuguese Panasqueira Mine have been described. The traditional room-and-pillar stoping uses 5.0-m wide rooms with 3.0 m×3.0 m pillars, while the selective room-and-pillar mining technique consists in stoping with rooms of 4.0 m wide and pillars of 4 m×4 m with a subsequent selective cutting of the quartz veins at the mid pillar of approximately 0.5 m high, to obtain a pillar section with an area of 3.0 m×3.0 m. The stability and productivity analyses indicate that the selective technique obtains smaller average pillar safety factor, more rock mass displacement, more extraction and selectivity ratios, and ore grade improvement, compared with the traditional technique. These results show that the selective technique is also more convenient. This proposed selective room-and-pillar mining technique is applicable to any sub-horizontal narrow quartz veins with wolfram, gold, etc. such as the famous La Rinconada gold mine in the Peruvian Andes.     

Existence of multiple solutions for the laminar flow in a porous channel with suction at both slowly expanding and contracting walls

The asymptotic behavior of solutions of a similarity equation for the laminar flow in a porous channel with suction at both expanding and contracting walls has been obtained by using a singular perturbation method. However, in the matching process, this solution neglects exponentially small terms. To take into account these exponentially small terms, a method involving the inclusion of exponentially small terms in a perturbation series was used to find two of the solutions analytically. The series involving the exponentially small terms and expansion ratio predicts dual solutions. Furthermore, the result indicates that the expansion ratio has much important influence on the solutions.     

The large sample properties of the solutions of general estimating equations

This paper develops the large sample properties of the solutions of the general estimating equations which are unbiased or asymptotically unbiased or with nuisance parameters for correlated data.The authors do not make the assumption that the estimating equations come from some objective function when we establish the large sample properties of the solutions.So these results extend the work of Newey and McFadden(1994) and are more widely applicable.Furthermore,we provide some examples to justify the importance of our work.     

Finding the topology of implicitly defined two algebraic plane curves

An algorithm is given for computing in a very efficient way the topology of two real algebraic plane curves defined implicitly.The authors preform a symbolic pre-processing that allows us later to execute all numerical computations in an accurate way.