Effect of strain path change on the evolution of texture and microstructure during rolling of copper and nickel

The effect of strain path change during rolling has been investigated for copper and nickel using X-ray diffraction and electron back scatter diffraction as well as crystal plasticity simulations. Four different strain paths namely: (i) unidirectional rolling; (ii) reverse rolling; (iii) two-step cross rolling and (iv) multi-step cross rolling were employed to decipher the effect of strain path change on the evolution of deformation texture and microstructure. The cross rolled samples showed weaker texture with a prominent Bs {1 1 0}< 1 1 2 > and P(B(ND)) {1 1 0}< 1 1 1 > component in contrast to the unidirectional and reverse rolled samples where strong S {1 2 3}< 6 3 4 > and Cu {1 1 2}< 1 1 1 > components were formed. This was more pronounced for copper samples compared to nickel. The cross rolled samples were characterized by lower anisotropy and Taylor factor as well as less variation in Lankford parameter. Viscoplastic self-consistent simulations indicated that slip activity on higher number of octahedral slip systems can explain the weaker texture as well as reduced anisotropy in the cross rolled samples. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimizing Delay in Sequential Change Detection on Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Networks

We consider the classical problem of sequential detection of change in a distribution (from hypothesis 0 to hypothesis 1), where the fusion centre receives vectors of periodic measurements, with the measurements being i.i.d. over time and across the vector components, under each of the two hypotheses. In our problem, the sensor devices ("motes") that generate the measurements constitute an ad hoc wireless network. The motes contend using a random access protocol (such as CSMA/CA) to transmit their measurement packets to the fusion centre. The fusion centre waits for vectors of measurements to accumulate before taking decisions. We formulate the optimal detection problem, taking into account the network delay experienced by the vectors of measurements, and find that, under periodic sampling, the detection delay decouples into network delay and decision delay. We obtain a lower bound on the network delay, and propose a censoring scheme, where lagging sensors drop their delayed observations in order to mitigate network delay. We show that this scheme can achieve the lower bound. This approach is explored via simulation. We also use numerical evaluation and simulation to study issues such as: the optimal sampling rate for a given number of sensors, and the optimal number of sensors for a given measurement rate

River water quality response under hypothetical climate change scenarios in Tunga-Bhadra river, India

Analysis of climate change impacts on streamflow by perturbing the climate inputs has been a concern for many authors in the past few years, but there are few analyses for the impacts on water quality. To examine the impact of change in climate variables on the water quality parameters, the water quality input variables have to be perturbed. The primary input variables that can be considered for such an analysis are streamflow and water temperature, which are affected by changes in precipitation and air temperature, respectively. Using hypothetical scenarios to represent both greenhouse warming and streamflow changes, the sensitivity of the water quality parameters has been evaluated under conditions of altered river flow and river temperature in this article. Historical data analysis of hydroclimatic variables is carried out, which includes flow duration exceedance percentage (e.g. Q90), single low- flow indices (e.g. 7Q10, 30Q10) and relationships between climatic variables and surface variables. For the study region of Tunga-Bhadra river in India, low flows are found to be decreasing and water temperatures are found to be increasing. As a result, there is a reduction in dissolved oxygen (DO) levels found in recent years. Water quality responses of six hypothetical climate change scenarios were simulated by the water quality model, QUAL2K. A simple linear regression relation between air and water temperature is used to generate the scenarios for river water temperature. The results suggest that all the hypothetical climate change scenarios would cause impairment in water quality. It was found that there is a significant decrease in DO levels due to the impact of climate change on temperature and flows, even when the discharges were at safe permissible levels set by pollution control agencies (PCAs). The necessity to improve the standards of PCA and develop adaptation policies for the dischargers to account for climate change is examined through a fuzzy waste load allocation model developed earlier. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Support Vector Machine Approach to Downscale Precipitation in Climate Change Scenarios

Concern over changes in global climate has increased in recent years with improvement in understanding of atmospheric dynamics and growth in evidence of climate link to long‐term variability in hydrologic records. Climate impact studies rely on climate change information at fine spatial resolution. Towards this, the past decade has witnessed significant progress in development of downscaling models to cascade the climate information provided by General Circulation Models (GCMs) at coarse spatial resolution to the scale relevant for hydrologic studies. While a plethora of downscaling models have been applied successfully to mid‐latitude regions, a few studies are available on tropical regions where the atmosphere is known to have more complex behavior. In this paper, a support vector machine (SVM) approach is proposed for statistical downscaling to interpret climate change signals provided by GCMs over tropical regions of India. Climate variables affecting spatio‐temporal variation of precipitation at each meteorological sub‐division of India are identified. Following this, cluster analysis is applied on climate data to identify the wet and dry seasons in each year. The data pertaining to climate variables and precipitation of each meteorological sub‐division is then used to develop SVM based downscaling model for each season. Subsequently, the SVM based downscaling model is applied to future climate predictions from the second generation Coupled Global Climate Model (CGCM2) to assess the impact of climate change on hydrological inputs to the meteorological sub‐divisions. The results obtained from the SVM downscaling model are then analyzed to assess the impact of climate change on precipitation over India.

Effect of rolling temperature and reduction in thickness on microstructure and mechanical properties of ZM21 magnesium alloy and its subsequent annealing treatment

In this present paper, the effects of non-isothermal rolling temperature and reduction in thickness followed by annealing on microstructure and mechanical properties of ZM21 magnesium alloy were investigated. The alloy rolled at four different temperatures 250 degrees C, 300 degrees C, 350 degrees C and 400 degrees C with reductions of 25%, 50% and 75%. Non-isothermal rolling resulted in grain refinement, introduction of shear bands and twins in the matrix alloy. Partial to full recrystallization was observed when the rolling temperature was above recrystallization temperature. Rolling and subsequent annealing resulted in strain-free equiaxed grains and complete disappearance of shear bands and twins. Maximum ultimate strength (345 MPa) with good ductility (14%) observed in the sample rolled at 250 degrees C with 75% reduction in thickness followed by short annealing. Recrystallization during warm/hot rolling was sluggish, but post-roll treatment gives distinct views about dynamic and static recrystallization. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhancement of photoluminescence intensity by photoinduced interdiffusion in nanolayered a-Se/As2S3 films

Optical parameters of chalcogenide glass multilayers with 12–15 nm modulation lengths prepared by thermal evaporation can be changed by laser irradiation. Photoluminescence (PL) studies were carried out on such nonirradiated and irradiated multilayered samples of a-Se/As2S3 (sublayer thickness of a-Se is 4–5 nm for one set of samples and 1–2 nm for the other set. However As2S3 sublayer thickness is 11–12 nm for both sets of samples.) PL intensity can be increased by several orders of magnitude by reducing the Se well layer (lower band gap) thickness and can be further increased by irradiating the samples with appropriate wavelengths in the range of the absorption edge. The broadening of luminescence bands takes place either with a decrease in Se layer thickness or with irradiation. The former is due to the change in interface roughness and defects because of the enhanced structural disorder while the latter is due to photoinduced interdiffusion. The photoinduced interdiffusion creates defects at the interface between Se and As2S3 by forming an As–Se–S solid solution. From the deconvoluted PL spectrum, it is shown that the peak PL intensity, full width half maximum, and the PL quantum efficiency of particular defects giving rise to PL, can be tuned by changing the sublayer thickness or by interdiffusion.

The influence of Zr layer thickness on contact deformation and fracture in a ZrN-Zr multilayer coating

In order to understand the influence of ductile metal interlayer on the overall deformation behavior of metal/nitride multilayer, different configurations of metal and nitride layers were deposited and tested under indentation loading. To provide insight into the trends in deformation with multilayer spacings, an FEM model with elastic-perfect plastic metal layers alternate with an elastic nitride on top of an elastic-plastic substrate. The strong strain mismatch between the metal and nitride layers significantly alters the stress field under contact loading leading to micro-cracking in the nitride, large tensile stresses immediately below the contact, and a transition from columnar sliding in thin metal films to a more uniform bending and microcracking in thicker coatings.

Climate change and crop yields in the Indian Cardamom Hills, 1978-2007 CE

In this study we analyzed climate and crop yields data from Indian cardamom hills for the period 1978-2007 to investigate whether there were significant changes in weather elements, and if such changes have had significant impact on the production of spices and plantation crops. Spatial and temporal variations in air temperatures (maximum and minimum), rainfall and relative humidity are evident across stations. The mean air temperature increased significantly during the last 30 years; the greatest increase and the largest significant upward trend was observed in the daily temperature. The highest increase in minimum temperature was registered for June (0.37A degrees C/18 years) at the Myladumpara station. December and January showed greater warming across the stations. Rainfall during the main monsoon months (June-September) showed a downward trend. Relative humidity showed increasing and decreasing trends, respectively, at the cardamom and tea growing tracts. The warming trend coupled with frequent wet and dry spells during the summer is likely to have a favorable effect on insect pests and disease causing organisms thereby pesticide consumption can go up both during excess rainfall and drought years. The incidence of many minor pest insects and disease pathogens has increased in the recent years of our study along with warming. Significant and slight increases in the yield of small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum M.) and coffee (Coffea arabica), respectively, were noticed in the recent years.; however the improvement of yield in tea (Thea sinensis) and black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) has not been seen in our analysis.

Volume change behaviour of expansive soils

Understanding the volume change behaviour of expansive soils/clays becomes a dire necessity to obtain engineering solutions to structures founded on these soils. Behaviour of expansive soils does not conform to the natural behaviour of fine grained soils. Most of the cases, the permissible heave/settlement forms the design criteria. The paper discusses the basic properties, the role of effective stress concept, basic mechanism in controlling the volume change behaviour, the role of double layer repulsion and its validity and certain basic considerations of footing resting on an expansive soil with respect to heave or settlement and the soil reinforcement as a possible engineering solution.

Interdiffusion and Growth of the Phases in CoNi/Mo and CoNi/W Systems

Deleterious topological-closed-packed (tcp) phases grow in the interdiffusion zone in turbine blades mainly because of the addition of refractory elements such as Mo and W in the Ni- and Co-based superalloys. CoNi/Mo and CoNi/W diffusion couples are prepared to understand the growth mechanism of the phases in the interdiffusion zone. Instead of determining the main and cross-interdiffusion coefficients following the conventional method, we preferred to determine the average effective interdiffusion coefficients of two elements after fixing the composition of one element more or less the same in the interdiffusion zone. These parameters can be directly related to the growth kinetics of the phases and shed light on the atomic mechanism of diffusion. In both systems, the diffusion rate of elements and the phase layer thickness increased because of the addition of Ni in the solid solution phase, probably because of an increase in driving force. On the other hand, the growth rate of the mu phase and the diffusion coefficient of the species decreased because of the addition of Ni. This indicates the change in defect concentration, which assists diffusion. Further, we revisited the previously published Co-Ni-Mo and Co-Ni-W ternary phase diagrams and compared them with the composition range of the phases developed in the interdiffusion zone. Different composition ranges of the tcp phases are found, and corrected phase diagrams are shown. The outcome of this study will help to optimize the concentration of elements in superalloys to control the growth of the tcp phases.