Polishing Characteristics and Mechanism of Polishing Glass Substrate Using Suede Pad with Fine Micrometer-Sized Pores

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) using a suede polishing pad is an essential fabrication process for glass substrates that require ultra-high planarization. However, the effect of surface asperities of the suede pad on its polishing characteristics is not completely understood because the structure of the suede pad in the thickness direction is not constant, and its surface asperities can easily change during the pad conditioning or marathon polishing processes. In addition, many previous studies have discussed the polishing mechanism using a suede pad; however, these studies used suede pads with a pore size of approximately 100 μm. This paper discusses the polishing characteristics of a suede pad with fine micrometer-sized pores by clarifying the relationships between the removal rate, friction coefficient, pore parameters, and roughness as the pad surface asperities. In this study, a series of marathon polishing tests were performed with and without conditioning. It was discovered that the removal rate was affected not only by the pore parameters but also by the surface roughness of the suede pad with fine pores. The relationship between the removal rate and the friction coefficient changed owing to the influence of pad conditioning, and this change is significant when the break-in conditioning time is short.

Study on the Effect of Heat-Input on the Thickness of the Heat-Affected Zone of the SUS316L Steel Welded Joint by Numerical Simulation

The thickness of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) has a great influence on the strength of the welded joint, so one of the important tasks is to control the HAZ to a small enough level, through using the suitable heat-input (qd). In this study, the authors use SYSWELD software to compute and build a relationship between the heat-input and the thickness of the heat-affected zone in the plate thickness direction to find the right heat-input for researched welding joint. The simulation results show that when welding the root pass with qd > 552 J/mm and the cap pass with 754 J/mm < qd < 1066 J/mm, the thickness of HAZ were increased with a function almost linearly.

Perovskite superlattices with efficient carrier dynamics

Compared with their three-dimensional counterparts, low-dimensional metal halide perovskites with periodic inorganic/organic structures have shown promising stability and hysteresis-free electrical performance, which paves the way for next-generation optoelectronic devices. However, when integrated in devices, they have relatively limited efficiencies because devices usually require carrier transport through the film thickness direction. In conventionally grown single crystals, the carrier transport in the thickness direction is hindered by the insulating organic spacers. In addition, the strong quantum confinement from the organic spacers limits the generation and transport of free carriers. The carrier dynamics is further compromised by the presence of grain boundaries in polycrystals. Here, we report a low-dimensional metal halide perovskite superlattice with efficient carrier transport in three dimensions by epitaxial growth. Epitaxy on a slightly lattice-mismatched substrate compresses the organic spacers in the superlattice, which weakens the quantum confinement and further improves carrier dynamics. The performance of a low-dimensional perovskite superlattice solar cell has been certified under the quasi-steady state for the first time. Moreover, the device shows an unusually high open-circuit voltage, due to a unique intra-band exciton relaxation mechanism.

FSI and non-FSI studies on a functionally graded temperature-responsive hydrogel bilayer in a micro-channel

Taking into account both fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and non-FSI simulations, the deformation of a bilayer is investigated in this paper. The bilayer, which is utilized in a micro-channel, consists of a Functionally-graded (FG) temperature-responsive hydrogel layer and an incompressible elastomeric one. Allocating two different positions to the elastomeric layer, we make two different bilayers where in one of them, the elastomer layer is located on the left (LSE) and on the right (RSE) in another one. Also, to see the effect of grading, two bilayers with homogenous hydrogel layers with different amounts of cross-linking density are considered. For FG cases in which the hydrogel layer's properties vary through thickness direction, both ascending and descending arrangements are analyzed. Each simulation, whether it is FSI or non-FSI, is conducted utilizing three software. FLUENT for fluid domain examinations, ABAQUS for FEM analysis, and MpCCI to couple two aforementioned simulation domains. By extracting and comparing both simulations results, it is observed that the influence of the fluid flow is very significant and should not be ignored. Moreover, it is discovered that the fluid flow affects more the RSE configuration and also the bilayers with lower amounts of cross-linking density. Finally, we investigate how some parameters, such as inlet pressure, can affect the behavior of the bilayer.

Rapid digital light 3D printing enabled by a soft and deformable hydrogel separation interface

The low productivity of typical 3D printing is a major hurdle for its utilization in large-scale manufacturing. Innovative techniques have been developed to break the limitation of printing speed, however, sophisticated facilities or costly consumables are required, which still substantially restricts the economic efficiency. Here we report that a common stereolithographic 3D printing facility can achieve a very high printing speed (400 mm/h) using a green and inexpensive hydrogel as a separation interface against the cured part. In sharp contrast to other techniques, the unique separation mechanism relies on the large recoverable deformation along the thickness direction of the hydrogel interface during the layer-wise printing. The hydrogel needs to be extraordinarily soft and unusually thick to remarkably reduce the adhesion force which is a key factor for achieving rapid 3D printing. This technique shows excellent printing stability even for fabricating large continuous solid structures, which is extremely challenging for other rapid 3D printing techniques. The printing process is highly robust for fabricating diversified materials with various functions. With the advantages mentioned above, the presented technique is believed to make a large impact on large-scale manufacturing.

Microscale Thermal Modelling of Multifunctional Composite Materials Made from Polymer Electrolyte Coated Carbon Fibres Including Homogenization and Model Reduction Strategies

Polymer electrolyte coated carbon fibres embedded in polymeric matrix materials represent a multifunctional material with several application scenarios. Structural batteries, thermal management materials as well as stiffness adaptive composites, made from this material, are exposed to significant joule heat, when electrical energy is transferred via the carbon fibres. This leads to a temperature increase of up to 100 K. The thermal behaviour of this composite material is characterized in this numerical study based on a RVE representation for the first time. Compared to classical fibre reinforced plastics, this material comprises a third material phase, the polymer electrolyte coating, covering each individual fibre. This material has not been evaluated for effective thermal conductivity, specific heat and thermal behaviour on the microscale before. Therefore, boundary conditions, motivated from applications, are applied and joule heating by the carbon fibres is included as heat source by an electro-thermal coupling. The resulting temperature field is discussed towards its effect on the mechanical behaviour of the material. Especially the temperature gradient is pronounced in thickness direction, leading to a temperature drop of 1∘Cmm, which needs to be included in thermal stress analysis in future thermo-mechanically coupled models. Another important emphasis is the identification of suitable homogenization and model reduction strategies in order to reduce the numerical effort spent on the thermal problem. Therefore, traditional analytical homogenization methods as well as a newly proposed “Two-Level Lewis-Nielsen” approach are discussed in comparison to virtually measured effective quantities. This extensive comparison of analytical and numerical methods is original compared to earlier works dealing with PeCCF composites. In addition, the accuracy of the new Two-Level Lewis-Nielsen method is found to fit best compared to classical methods. Finally, a first efficient and accurate 2D representation of the thermal behaviour of the PeCCF composite is shown, which reduces computational cost by up to 97%. This benefit comes with a different Temperature drop prediction in thickness direction of 1.5∘Cmm. In the context of future modelling of multifunctional PeCCF composite materials with multiphysical couplings, this deviation is acceptable with respect to the huge benefit for computational cost.

Highly efficient evaporative cooling by all-day water evaporation using hierarchically porous biomass

We developed a 3D solar steam generator with the highest evaporation rate reported so far using a carbonized luffa sponge (CLS). The luffa sponge consisted of entangled fibers with a hierarchically porous structure; macropores between fibers, micro-sized pores in the fiber-thickness direction, and microchannels in the fiber-length direction. This structure remained after carbonization and played an important role in water transport. When the CLS was placed in the water, the microchannels in the fiber-length direction transported water to the top surface of the CLS by capillary action, and the micro-sized pores in the fiber-thickness direction delivered water to the entire fiber surface. The water evaporation rate under 1-sun illumination was 3.7 kg/m2/h, which increased to 14.5 kg/m2/h under 2 m/s wind that corresponded to the highest evaporation rate ever reported under the same condition. The high evaporation performance of the CLS was attributed to its hierarchically porous structure. In addition, it was found that the air temperature dropped by 3.6 °C when the wind passed through the CLS because of the absorption of the latent heat of vaporization. The heat absorbed by the CLS during water evaporation was calculated to be 9.7 kW/m2 under 1-sun illumination and 2 m/s wind, which was 10 times higher than the solar energy irradiated on the same area (1 kW/m2).

Electromagnetic Shielding Effectiveness of Glass Fiber/Epoxy Laminated Composites with Multi-Scale Reinforcements

In this study, an experimental investigation has been performed to understand the electromagnetic interference-shielding effectiveness (EMI-SE) of glass fiber/epoxy laminated composites embedded with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and Fe3O4 nanoparticles, reinforced with micro carbon fibers along the thickness direction. Micro carbon fibers were reinforced along the thickness direction between the laminates using an electro-flocking process and a vacuum infusion process used to fabricate the composites. The EMI-SE of the composites was measured in the X-band frequency range (8–12 GHz). The effect of carbon fibers of three different lengths (80 µm, 150 µm, and 350 µm) with two different fiber densities (1000 and 2000 fibers/mm2) and two different amounts of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (0.5 and 1 wt.%) on total SE, absorption, and reflection was investigated. Due to the synergetic effect of Fe3O4 nanoparticles, CNTs, and carbon fibers, the final EMI shielding of the composites was mainly dominated by the absorption process. The absorption was more pronounced in the composites of longer carbon fibers with improved electrical conductivity. The presence of Fe3O4 nanoparticles also enhanced total SE values with improved magnetic permeability. The composite with micro carbon fibers of 350 µm length and 2000 fibers/mm2 density with 1 wt.% of Fe3O4 nanoparticles showed the maximum value of total SE.