1,722,414 research outputs found
Solidification behaviour of magnesium alloys
Full text linkThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Magnesium alloys have been extensively used for structural and functional applications due to their low densities. In order to improve the mechanical properties, grain refinement of the microstructures of magnesium alloys has been studied for many years. However, an effective and efficient grain refiner or refinement technique hasn’t been achieved yet, especially for those with aluminium contained. In this study, solution for this problem has been discovered through further understanding of the solidification process, including the potency and the efficiency of nucleation particles, the role of solute, and the role of casting conditions. First of all, the study suggested that MgO particles can act as nuclei in magnesium alloys by measuring and analyzing the differences in cooling curves with various amount of endogenous MgO particles. The differences indicated that the number density of MgO particles has a huge influence on the microstructure. This idea has been fatherly proved by the inoculation of MgO particles in magnesium alloys because the microstructures have been significantly refined after the inoculation. A new kind of refiner (AZ91D-5wt%MgO) has been developed based on such understandings. Secondly, the study discovered that the role of solute has much smaller effect on the grain size than it was suggested in traditional understandings. The inverse-proportional relationship between the grain size and the solute is highly suspected and the major role of solute is to cause columnar- equiaxed transition. The role of casting conditions has also been studied in order to provide experimental evidence for the existence of melt quenching effect in magnesium alloys. It is shown that various casting conditions, such as pouring temperatures and mould temperatures, have large influence on the critical heat balance temperature after rapid pouring. In this study, a theoretical model based on the analysis of cooling curves is presented for grain size prediction. An analytical model of the advance of equiaxed solidification front is developed based on the understanding of the role of casting conditions. Eventually, all these understandings have been applied to magnesium direct-chill (DC) casting. The refined microstructure of DC cast ingots can further assist in understanding the mechanism of advanced shearing achieved by MCAST unit. The comparison of the ingots with and without melt shearing indicated that the advance shearing device can disperse MgO film into individual particles
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Enhanced heterogeneous nucleation on oxides in Al alloys by intensive melt shearing
Full text linkThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Aluminium alloys, including both foundry and wrought alloys, have been extensively used for light-weight structural and functional applications. A grain refined as-cast microstructure is generally highly desirable for either subsequent processing ability or mechanical properties of the finished components. In this thesis, the grain refined microstructures in Al alloys have been achieved by intensive melt shearing using the melt conditioning by advanced shearing technology (MCAST) without deliberate grain refiner additions. Such grain refinement has been attributed to the enhanced heterogeneous nucleation on the dispersed oxide particles. It has been established that the naturally occurring oxides in molten Al alloys normally have a good crystallographic match with the a-Al phase, indicating the high potency of oxide particles as the nucleation sites of the a-Al phase. The governing factors for these oxide particles to be effective grain refiners in Al alloys have been proposed, including the achievement of good wetting between oxide particles and liquid aluminium, a sufficient number density and uniform spatial distribution of the dispersed oxide particles, and near equilibrium kinetic conditions in liquid alloys. In the present study, near equilibrium kinetic conditions can be achieved by intensive melt shearing using a twin screw mechanism, which has been confirmed by the observed equilibrium a-AlFeSi phase in a cast Al alloy and the transformation from g- to a-Al2O3 at 740±20oC under intensive shearing. For different alloy systems, depending on the alloy system, and melting conditions, due to the particular types of oxide formed and its crystallographic and chemical characteristics, the nucleation site of the nucleated phase is different. Specifically, MgAl2O4 relative to MgO, and a-Al2O3 relative to g-Al2O3, have higher potency as heterogeneous nucleation sites of a-Al phase in Al alloys. In future, the modification of the crystallographic match, and of the other surface characteristics related to the interfacial energy between the specific oxides and nucleated phase by trace alloying addition through segregation to the interface between oxides and nucleated phases combined with physical melt processing (such as intensive shearing in the present study) should be investigated in more detail.This study was funded by the EPSRC and Norton Aluminium Limited, UK
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
New approaches to casting hypereutectic Al-Si alloys to achieve simultaneous refinement of primary silicon and modification of eutectic silicon
Full text linkThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityHypereutectic Al-Si alloys are of increasing interest for applications that require a combination of light weight and high wear resistance, such as pistons, liner-less engine blocks and pumps. The wear resistance of this class of alloys is due to the presence of hard primary Si particles formed during casting. The objective of this work was to develop one or more methods of refining primary silicon in cast hypereutectic Al-Si alloys to compete with the conventional process of adding phosphorous and to achieve the simultaneous modification of silicon in the Al-Si eutectic. A robust sampling/casting technique was developed to minimise macro-segregation of primary silicon during solidification of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys by using water cooled steel mould with cooling rate in excess of 15 K/s. The morphology of silicon phases was found to change with increasing melt temperature and cooling rate. The high cooling rate and superheat temperature produces a good distribution of polyhedral primary silicon particles in a refined lamellar eutectic matrix in solidification of commercial purity Al-Si alloys. Removing Ca by fluxing with K2SiF6 prior to casting can improve the refinement and modification effect of Mg and Sb respectively. Effects of various inoculants were studied. Microstructural analysis showed that Mg and ZnS refined primary Si whereas MgO, CaO and Na2S coarsened the primary Si together with a modification effect on the eutectic Si. Adding Zn had no effect on morphology of Si phases. Refinement of both primary and eutectic silicon phases was observed for the Al-15Si alloy with Mg content ≤ 0.3 wt%.
P-doped γ-Al2O3 was found to be a potent substrate to nucleate primary silicon whilst good modification of the eutectic matrix is retained during solidification of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys. On using P-doped γ-Al2O3 could be a perfect and clean source of P without additional impurities.
A new solid-liquid duplex casting process was devised to achieve simultaneous refinement and modification of Si phases in hypereutectic Al-Si alloys with improvement in mechanical properties. The static mechanical properties of Al-Si produced by the solid-liquid duplex casting process are significantly better than conventionally cast untreated Al-Si and slightly better than conventionally cast Al-Si treated with P and/or Sr. A novel Al-ZnS master alloy was developed by in situ reaction of Zn and Na2S in the Al melt. The results from this study leave little doubt that this novel Al-ZnS master alloy is a promising refiner in solidification of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys. It refines primary silicon to the same extent as that achieved by adding P via Cu-P following the same refinement mechanism.EPSRC,U
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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