Feasibility of Laminar Plasma-Jet Hardening of Cast Iron Surface

Nontransferred DC laminar plasma jets of stable flow and low impinging pressure acting on the substrate were used to heat W–Mo–Cu cast iron for phase transfer hardening of the surface layer. Substrates were heated in multipass with or without overlapping or heated with only single-pass. Surface morphologies of the molten trace and microstructure of the cross-section were observed, and the hardness distribution of the treated surface layer was examined. The surface layer of single-pass-heated specimen has an average hardness of about 900 HV0.1, while the specimen treated with multipass shows an average hardness of about 700 HV0.1, because of the heat effect from the neighboring pass treating, compared with the substrate hardness of about 300 HV0.1. The results demonstrate the stable and favorably controlled heating of the laminar plasma jet on the substrate surface and feasibility of using it as a tool for surface hardening of cast iron.

Numerical and Analytical Study on the Pull-in Instability of Micro-Structure under Electrostatic Loading

The one-mode analysis method on the pull-in instability of micro-structure under electrostatic loading is presented. Taylor series are used to expand the electrostatic loading term in the one-mode analysis method, which makes analytical solution available. The one-mode analysis is the combination of Galerkin method and Cardan solution of cubic equation. The one-mode analysis offers a direct computation method on the pull-in voltage and displacement. In low axial loading range, it shows little difference with the established multi-mode analysis on predicting the pull-in voltages for three different structures (cantilever, clamped-clamped beams and the plate with four edges simply-supported) studied here. For numerical multi-mode analysis, we also show that using the structural symmetry to select the symmetric mode can greatly reduce both the computation effort and the numerical fluctuation.

Low-temperature growth of carbon nanotubes by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were grown at temperatures as low as 120degreesC by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. A systematic study of the temperature dependence of the growth rate and the structure of the as-grown nanotubes is presented using a C2H2/NH3 system and nickel as the catalyst. The activation energy for the growth rate was found to be 0.23 eV, much less than for thermal chemical vapor deposition (1.2-1.5 eV). This suggests growth occurs by surface diffusion of carbon on nickel. The result could allow direct growth of nanotubes onto low-temperature substrates like plastics, and facilitate the integration in sensitive nanoelectronic devices. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Effects of pre-treatment and plasma enhancement on chemical vapor deposition of carbon nanotubes from ultra-thin catalyst films

We report a detailed study of surface-bound chemical vapor deposition of carbon nanotubes and nanofibers from evaporated transition metal catalysts exposed to ammonia diluted acetylene. We show that a reduction of the Fe/Co catalyst film thickness below 3 nm results into a transition from large diameter (> 40 nm), bamboo-like nanofibers to small diameter (similar to 5 nm) multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The nanostructuring of ultrathin catalyst films critically depends on the gas atmosphere, with the resulting island distribution initiating the carbon nucleation. Compared to purely thermal chemical vapor deposition, we find that, for small diameter nanotube growth, DC plasma assistance is detrimental to graphitization and sample homogeneity and cannot prevent an early catalyst poisoning. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Research on Dynamic Micro-Deformation under Laser Point Source

The dynamic micro-deformation of the specimen under laser point source is measured using a laser beam reflex amplifier system and numerically simulated by Msc.Marc software. Compared with experimental result and calculated result, the final deformation direction of the specimen depends on the result of the thermal strain and the phase transformation strain cooperation, away from the laser beam or towards the laser beam, the final deformation angle depends on temperature gradient in the thickness direction and the geometry constraint of the specimen. The conclusion lays the foundation for further research on the mechanism of laser bending. At the same time, it is proposed that the model of calculation based on classical Fourier heat transfer theory cannot be enough to simulate the dynamic micro-deformation of the specimen under laser point source, the model of calculation should be modified in the future.

Study of Gliding Arc Discharge Plasma

本文研究了滑动弧放电过程中电参数的变化，并对滑动弧等离子体中的非平衡度和各参数之间关系进行了讨论。应用了双通道电弧模型 ，对电弧在气流作用下的运动规律进行了数值模拟。模拟的结果有助于分析滑动弧非平衡等离子体的产生机理。 The elelctric parameters change during discharge is studied and the relationship between non-equilibrium degree and parameters is discussed for gliding arc discharge.Using two-channel model, the rules of arc moving due to effect of the airflow is simulated.The numerical simulation results can help analyzing the generation mechanism of gliding arc non-equilibrium plasma.

Three-Dimensional Modeling of Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Laminar-Plasma Material Re-Melting Processing

Modeling study is performed concerning the heat transfer and fluid flow for a laminar argon plasma jet impinging normally upon a flat workpiece exposed to the ambient air. The diffusion of the air into the plasma jet is handled by using the combined-diffusion-coefficient approach. The heat flux density and jet shear stress distributions at the workpiece surface obtained from the plasma jet modeling are then used to study the re-melting process of a carbon steel workpiece. Besides the heat conduction within the workpiece, the effects of the plasma-jet inlet parameters (temperature and velocity), workpiece moving speed, Marangoni convection, natural convection etc. on the re-melting process are considered. The modeling results demonstrate that the shapes and sizes of the molten pool in the workpiece are influenced appreciably by the plasma-jet inlet parameters, workpiece moving speed and Marangoni convection. The jet shear stress manifests its effect at higher plasma-jet inlet velocities, while the natural convection effect can be ignored. The modeling results of the molten pool sizes agree reasonably with available experimental data.

Optical and micro-structural properties of high photoluminescence efficiency InGaN/AlInGaN quantum well structures

We have studied the optical properties of a series of InGaN/AlInGaN 10-period multiple quantum wells (MQW) with differing well thickness grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy that emit at around 380 nm. The aim of this investigation was to optimise the room temperature internal quantum efficiency, thus the quantum well (QW) thicknesses were accordingly chosen so that the overlap of the electron/hole wave function was maximised. At low temperature, we observed a reduction of the photo luminescence decay time with decreasing well width in line with the theoretical predictions. For a structure with well thicknesses of 1.5 nm, we measured a photoluminescence internal quantum efficiency of 67% at room temperature with a peak emission wavelength of 382 nm. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of the catalytic particle in the growth of carbon nanotubes by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were synthesized by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using nickel as a metal catalyst. High resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis of the particle found at the tip of the tubes reveals the presence of a metastable carbide Ni3C. Since the carbide is found to decompose upon annealing at 600 degreesC, we suggest that Ni3C is formed after the growth is stopped due to the rapid cooling of the Ni-C interstitial solid solution. A detailed description of the tip growth mechanism is given, that accounts for the composite structure of the tube walls. The shape and size of the catalytic particle determine the concentration gradient that drives the diffusion of C atoms across and though the metal. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.