Critical serrated flow features during nanoindentation in La-based bulk metallic glasses

La57.6Al17.5(Cu,Ni)(24.9) and La64Al14(Cu,Ni)(22) bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) were prepared by copper-mould casting method. Plastic deformation behavior of the two BMGs at various loading rates was studied by nanoindentation. The results showed that the La57.6Al17.5(Cu,Ni)(24.9) BMG with a glass transition temperature of 423 K exhibited prominent serrated flow at low loading rates, whereas less pronounced serrated flow at high rates during nanoindentation. In contrast, the La64Al14(Cu,Ni)(22) BMG with a glass transition temperature of 401 K exhibited prominent serrated flow at high loading rates. The different rate dependency of serrated flow in the two La-based BMGs is related to the different glass transition temperature, and consequently the degree of viscous flow during indentation at room temperature. A smoother flow occurs in the alloy with relatively lower glass transition temperature, due to the relaxation of stress concentration.

Degradation failure features of chromium-plated gun barrels with a laser-discrete-quenched substrate

The effect of substrate laser-discrete quenching on the degradation failure of chromium-plated gun barrels was metallurgically investigated. The results show that substrate laser-discrete quenching changes the failure patterns of chromium coatings during firing, and some periodic through-thickness cracks in the fired chromium coatings are justly located at original substrate zones between two adjacent laser-quenched tracks. Moreover, chromium coatings and the laser-quenched zones on the substrate are simultaneously degraded in microstructure and property during firing. Furthermore, the periodic structure of the laser-discrete-quenched steel (LDQS) substrate near the breech remains after firing, and the hardness of the fired laser-quenched zones is still higher than that of original substrates. The specific failure features were utilized to illustrate the mechanism of the extended service life of chromium-plated gun barrels with the LDQS substrate. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Fractal features of oscillatory convection in the half-floating zone

Unsteady and two-dimensional numerical simulation is applied to study the transition process from steady convection to turbulence via subharmonic bifurcation in thermocapillary convection of a liquid bridge in the half-floating zone. The results of numerical tests show clearly the fractal structure of period-doubling bifurcations, and frequency-locking at f/4, f/8, f/16 with basic frequency f is observed with increasing temperature difference. The Feigenbaum universal constant is given by the present paper as delta(4) = 4.853, which can be compared with the theoretical value 4.6642016.

Some features of the turbulence produced by rising air bubbles in water

Presented in this paper is an experimental study on the characteristics of the turbulence produced by rising air bubbles in water. The measurements of turbulent velocities were made by using visualization technique of particle streak and computer image processing of the flow field. The turbulence features have been examined, showing that the rising bubble-produced turbulence can be approximately modeled by homogeneous turbulence as in the case of grid turbulence in air.

New Keynesian Model Features that Can Reproduce Lead, Lag and Persistence Patterns

This paper uses a new method for describing dynamic comovement and persistence in economic time series which builds on the contemporaneous forecast error method developed in den Haan (2000). This data description method is then used to address issues in New Keynesian model performance in two ways. First, well known data patterns, such as output and inflation leads and lags and inflation persistence, are decomposed into forecast horizon components to give a more complete description of the data patterns. These results show that the well known lead and lag patterns between output and inflation arise mostly in the medium term forecasts horizons. Second, the data summary method is used to investigate a rich New Keynesian model with many modeling features to see which of these features can reproduce lead, lag and persistence patterns seen in the data. Many studies have suggested that a backward looking component in the Phillips curve is needed to match the data, but our simulations show this is not necessary. We show that a simple general equilibrium model with persistent IS curve shocks and persistent supply shocks can reproduce the lead, lag and persistence patterns seen in the data.