Essential and Non-Essential Work of Fracture of PI/SiO2 Hybrid Thin Films

Essential work of fracture (EWF) analysis is used to study the effect of the silica doping level on fracture toughness of polyimide/silica (PI/SiO2) hybrid films. By using double-edge-notched-tension (DENT) specimens with different ligament lengths, it seems that the introduction of silica additive can improve the specific essential work of fracture (w (e) ) of PI thin films, but the specific non-essential work of fracture (beta w (p) ) will decease significantly as the silica doping level increasing from 1 to 5 wt.%, and even lower than that of neat PI. The failure process of the fracture is investigated with online scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation and the parameters of non-essential work of fracture, beta and w (p) , are calculated based on finite element (FE) method.

Template-free electrochemical nanofabrication of polyaniline nanobrush and hybrid polyaniline with carbon nanohorns for supercapacitors.

Polyaniline (PANI) nanobrushes were synthesized by template-free electrochemical galvanostatic methods. When the same method was applied to the carbon nanohorn (CNH) solution containing aniline monomers, a hybrid nanostructure containing PANI and CNHs was enabled after electropolymerization. This is the first report on the template-free method to make PANI nanobrushes and homogeneous hybrid soft matter (PANI) with carbon nanoparticles. Raman spectroscopy was used to analyze the interaction between CNH and PANI. Electrochemical nanofabrication offers simplicity and good control when used to make electronic devices. Both of these materials were applied in supercapacitors and an improvement capacitive current by using the hybrid material was observed.

Hybrid Finite Compact-WENO Schemes for Shock Calculation

Hybrid finite compact (FC)-WENO schemes are proposed for shock calculations. The two sub-schemes (finite compact difference scheme and WENO scheme) are hybridized by means of the similar treatment as in ENO schemes. The hybrid schemes have the advantages of FC and WENO schemes. One is that they possess the merit of the finite compact difference scheme, which requires only bi-diagonal matrix inversion and can apply the known high-resolution flux to obtain high-performance numerical flux function; another is that they have the high-resolution property of WENO scheme for shock capturing. The numerical results show that FC-WENO schemes have better resolution properties than both FC-ENO schemes and WENO schemes. In addition, some comparisons of FC-ENO and artificial compression method (ACM) filter scheme of Yee et al. are also given.

High temperature direct double side cooled inverter module for hybrid electric vehicle application

In this paper a novel approach to the design and fabrication of a high temperature inverter module for hybrid electrical vehicles is presented. Firstly, SiC power electronic devices are considered in place of the conventional Si devices. Use of SiC raises the maximum practical operating junction temperature to well over 200°C, giving much greater thermal headroom between the chips and the coolant. In the first fabrication, a SiC Schottky barrier diode (SBD) replaces the Si pin diode and is paired with a Si-IGBT. Secondly, double-sided cooling is employed, in which the semiconductor chips are sandwiched between two substrate tiles. The tiles provide electrical connections to the top and the bottom of the chips, thus replacing the conventional wire bonded interconnect. Each tile assembly supports two IGBTs and two SBDs in a half-bridge configuration. Both sides of the assembly are cooled directly using a high-performance liquid impingement system. Specific features of the design ensure that thermo-mechanical stresses are controlled so as to achieve long thermal cycling life. A prototype 10 kW inverter module is described incorporating three half-bridge sandwich assemblies, gate drives, dc-link capacitance and two heat-exchangers. This achieves a volumetric power density of 30W/cm3.

A Constrained Particle Dynamics for Continuum-Particle Hybrid Method in Micro- and Nano-Fluidics

A hybrid method of continuum and particle dynamics is developed for micro- and nano-fluidics, where fluids are described by a molecular dynamics (MD) in one domain and by the Navier-Stokes (NS) equations in another domain. In order to ensure the continuity of momentum flux, the continuum and molecular dynamics in the overlap domain are coupled through a constrained particle dynamics. The constrained particle dynamics is constructed with a virtual damping force and a virtual added mass force. The sudden-start Couette flows with either non-slip or slip boundary condition are used to test the hybrid method. It is shown that the results obtained are quantitatively in agreement with the analytical solutions under the non-slip boundary conditions and the full MD simulations under the slip boundary conditions.

A dynamic coupling model for hybrid atomistic-continuum computations

A dynamic coupling model is developed for a hybrid atomistic-continuum computation in micro- and nano-fluidics. In the hybrid atomistic-continuum computation, a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is utilized in one region where the continuum assumption breaks down and the Navier-Stokes (NS) equations are used in another region where the continuum assumption holds. In the overlapping part of these two regions, a constrained particle dynamics is needed to couple the MD simulation and the NS equations. The currently existing coupling models for the constrained particle dynamics have a coupling parameter, which has to be empirically determined. In the present work, a novel dynamic coupling model is introduced where the coupling parameter can be calculated as the computation progresses rather than inputing a priori. The dynamic coupling model is based on the momentum constraint and exhibits a correct relaxation rate. The results from the hybrid simulation on the Couette flow and the Stokes flow are in good agreement with the data from the full MD simulation and the solutions of the NS equations, respectively. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.