Non-Equilibrium Crystallization of Monotectic Zn-25%Bi Alloy under 600 g

This study investigated the influence of supergravity on the segregation of components in the Zn–Bi monotectic system and consequently, the creation of an interface of the separation zone of both phases. The observation showed that near the separation boundary, in a very narrow area of the order of several hundred microns, all types of structures characteristic for the concentration range from 0 to 100% bismuth occurred. An additional effect of crystallization in high gravity is a high degree of structural order and an almost perfectly flat separation boundary. This is the case for both the zinc-rich zone and the bismuth-rich zone. Texture analysis revealed the existence of two privileged orientations in the zinc zone. Gravitational segregation also resulted in a strong rearrangement of the heavier bismuth to the outer end of the sample, leaving only very fine precipitates in the zinc region. For comparison, the results obtained for the crystallization under normal gravity are given. The effect of high orderliness of the structure was then absent. Despite segregation, a significant part of bismuth remained in the form of precipitates in the zinc matrix, and the separation border was shaped like a lens. The described method can be used for the production of massive bimaterials with a directed orientation of both components and a flat interface between them, such as thermo-generator elements or bimetallic electric cell parts, where the parameters (thickness) of the junction can be precisely defined at the manufacturing stage.

Approximation of the Separation Boundary in the Water-Hydrotrope-Oil Ternary Systems

In this work, we studied the ternary systems water – 2-butoxyethanol – toluene, water – methanol – chloroform and water – methanol – dichloromethane. The separation boundary was experimentally located and approximated by various functions. The main reasons are revealed that prevent a satisfactory approximation of the separation boundaries by empirical functions with a small number of optimized parameters. It is found that the approximation of the separation boundaries in ternary systems can be carried out by polynomial and piecewise smooth functions with an error comparable to the uncertainty of the measurement.

An Improved Pheromone-Based Kohonen Self- Organising Map in Clustering and Visualising Balanced and Imbalanced Datasets

The data distribution issue remains an unsolved clustering problem in data mining, especially in dealing with imbalanced datasets. The Kohonen Self-Organising Map (KSOM) is one of the well-known clustering algorithms that can solve various problems without a pre-defined number of clusters. However, similar to other clustering algorithms, this algorithm requires sufficient data for its unsupervised learning process. The inadequate amount of class label data in a dataset significantly affects the clustering learning process, leading to inefficient and unreliable results. Numerous research have been conducted by hybridising and optimising the KSOM algorithm with various optimisation techniques. Unfortunately, the problems are still unsolved, especially separation boundary and overlapping clusters. Therefore, this research proposed an improved pheromone- based PKSOM algorithm known as iPKSOM to solve the mentioned problem. Six different datasets, i.e. Iris, Seed, Glass, Titanic, WDBC, and Tropical Wood datasets were chosen to investigate the effectiveness of the iPKSOM algorithm. All datasets were observed and compared with the original KSOM results. This modification significantly impacted the clustering process by improving and refining the scatteredness of clustering data and reducing overlapping clusters. Therefore, this proposed algorithm can be implemented in clustering other complex datasets, such as high dimensional and streaming data.

INFLUENCE OF TIME MODES OF THERMAL TREATMENT ON Pt-Si SYSTEM MICROSTRUCTURE

The paper is purposed to establish the principles of the micro-structural changes of Pt-Si system during the rapid thermal treatment. The Pt films 43.7 nm thick were applied on the substrates of mono-crystal silicon KEF 0.5 with orientation (111) by means of the magnetron platinum target sputtering (purity of 99.95 %) on the unit MPC 603 with the cryogen pumping to the pressure of no less than 5∙10-5 Pa. Argon was used as a working medium, whose purity constituted 99.933 %. Rapid thermal treatment was performed in the mode of the thermal balance with irradiation of the reverse side of the wafer by means of the non-coherent light flow in the nitrogen medium within the temperature range from 200 to 550 °C with a step of 50 °С during 7 s. In parallel, the solid phase synthesis was performed of platinum silicide by means of the standard method with application of the continuous single stage thermal treatment in the analogue medium (T = 550 °C, t = 30 min). Temperature monitoring was performed by means of the thermal couple method with accuracy of ±0.5 °C. The grain size was determined by the translucent electron microscopy method. Thickness of platinum silicide under formation, its surface micro-relief and the separation boundaries with silicon were determined by means of the raster electron microscopy. It is demonstrated, that with the rise of the rapid thermal treatment one can observe growth of the platinum film on silicon. A comparative analysis was conducted of the average size of grains, micro-relief of the PtSi surface and its separation boundary with silicon for two methods of its formation with application of the rapid thermal treatment and with application of the traditional continuous thermal treatment at the temperature of 550 °C during 30 min in the nitrogen atmosphere. By means of the raster electron microscopy method it is demonstrated, that size of the micro-relief on the separation boundary of PtSi-Si does not exceed 15.9 nm and the size of grains is 37.7 nm. This is in 2.5 and 3.1 times smaller, then in the case of the traditional single stage continuous thermal treatment.

Mode-Decomposed Equation Diagnosis for Atmospheric Blocking Development

<p>This paper proposes a new method to identify atmospheric blocking development without the time filtering used in previous studies. A mode-decomposed vorticity equation is formulated from the principal components (PCs) of 500-hPa geopotential height by applying a new idea; the orthonormality of PCs allows any variable to be decomposed into a projection corresponding to the PCs. To test this, sectorial blocking episodes in Northern Hemisphere winter were identified by Barriopedro’s method. A blocking index was defined for each longitudinal range as the linear combination of the 10 largest PCs by means of the composite for the blocking episodes. Blocking development was diagnosed, in terms of the low modes of PC1–PC10 and the high modes of PC11–PC50. The results suggest that the intensification of blocking over the North Pacific and Eurasia is associated with nonlinear interaction among high modes, whereas the intensification (decay) of North Atlantic blocks is related mainly to enhanced nonlinear interaction among low-frequency (high-frequency) eddies. This main result is insensitive to the choice of definition for blocks and the choice of the mode separation boundary.</p>

Mode-Decomposed Equation Diagnosis for Atmospheric Blocking Development

This paper proposes a new method to identify atmospheric blocking development without the time filtering used in previous studies. A mode-decomposed vorticity equation is formulated from the principal components (PCs) of 500-hPa geopotential height by applying a new idea; the orthonormality of PCs allows any variable to be decomposed into a projection corresponding to the PCs. To test this, sectorial blocking episodes in Northern Hemisphere winter were identified by Barriopedro’s method. A blocking index was defined for each longitudinal range as the linear combination of the 10 largest PCs by means of the composite for the blocking episodes. Blocking development was diagnosed, in terms of the low modes of PC1–PC10 and the high modes of PC11–PC50. The results suggest that the intensification of blocking over the North Pacific and Eurasia is associated with nonlinear interaction among high modes, whereas the intensification (decay) of North Atlantic blocks is related mainly to enhanced nonlinear interaction among low-frequency (high-frequency) eddies. This main result is insensitive to the choice of definition for blocks and the choice of the mode separation boundary.

Automation of sedimentation test

This paper reports on the development of an automated method to perform sedimentation tests on a suspension, to study the settling and sedimentation behaviour of particle suspension. The standard method for measuring sedimentation rate is the jar test, but this is burdened with some errors: the possibility of misinterpretation of the interface or subjective readings by technicians. In order to overcome these problems, there are many different methods that exclude subjective mistakes. The proposed solution automatically detects the phase separation boundary and, by use of a moving camera, plots the real-time sedimentation curve. The good agreement of settling curves between the manual method, another CCD image processing method and the current technique demonstrates the reliability of the system. This system can be used for testing different types of suspensions. The article presents a comparison of the commonly used method of image analysis and the proposed solution with a tracking camera, based on the example of a coal suspension.

Analysis of Discontinuous Dynamical Behaviors of a Friction-Induced Oscillator with an Elliptic Control Law

This paper develops the passability conditions of flow to the discontinuous boundary and the sticking or sliding and grazing conditions to the separation boundary in the discontinuous dynamical system of a friction-induced oscillator with an elliptic control law and the friction force acting on the mass M through the analysis of the corresponding vector fields and G-functions. The periodic motions of such a discontinuous system are predicted analytically through the mapping structure. Finally, the numerical simulations are given to illustrate the analytical results of motion for a better understanding of physics of motion in the mass-spring-damper oscillator.