Desorption processes of low-molecular-weight compounds from the surface of smectites into the gas phase determine a number of processes, e.g. those involved in drug delivery and the release of herbicides. The desorption has not been investigated thoroughly and is not well understood. The present study was undertaken in order to understand better the factors influencing these desorption mechanisms. Starting with a very pure standard (Na+-rich) montmorillonite (Kunipia-F), which was exchanged against cations with different hydration properties (Ca2+, Li+, phenyltrimethylammonium, hexyltrimethyl-ammonium), the experiments explored the rate of desorption of volatiles with different chemical functionalities (water, ethanol, ethyl acetate, and toluene). The desorption was monitored by thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry under isothermal conditions, and by ramping the temperature at a constant rate. The experiments were compared with numerical calculations based on finite-element methods and with analytical models. These data point to a two-step mechanism where the desorption follows the curve of the equilibrium desorption isotherms of those molecules on the montmorillonite. The bulk-like volatiles (i.e. volatiles with release kinetics close to that of the bulk liquids) were desorbed in a first step. With a decrease in the degree of coverage of the volatile on the montmorillonite, the desorption was increasingly dominated by the strength of interaction between the volatile and the interlayer cations of the montmorillonite.

A simple numerical model has been proposed for laser cladding. The model does not involve complex techniques such as cell addition, moving mesh, or prescribing a clad profile with a certain polynomial function. Instead, a mass function has been introduced to register the clad mass deposition on substrate, and from which the clad-track height can be estimated. The model takes several operational parameters, laser power, laser-head speed, and clad powder feeding rate, into consideration and predicts clad-track geometry, dilution, and substrate temperature. Experiments using two different combinations of substrate and clad powder materials to lay single and multiple clad tracks were conducted to provide data for model validation. The results show that the present model returns good agreement with experimental clad profiles for single and multiple tracks.

This paper presents a novel one-degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) single-loop reconfigurable 7R mechanism with multiple operation modes (SLR7RMMOM), composed of seven revolute (R) joints, via adding a revolute joint to the overconstrained Sarrus linkage. The SLR7RMMOM can switch from one operation mode to another without disconnection and reassembly, and is a non-overconstrained mechanism. The algorithm for the inverse kinematics of the serial 6R mechanism using kinematic mapping is adopted to deal with the kinematic analysis of the SLR7RMMOM. First, a numerical method is applied and an example is given to show that there are 13 sets of solutions for the SLR7RMMOM, corresponding to each input angle. Among these solutions, nine sets are real solutions, which are verified using both a computer-aided design (CAD) model and a prototype of the mechanism. Then an algebraic approach is also used to analyse the mechanism and same results are obtained as the numerical one. It is shown from both numerical and algebraic approaches that the SLR7RMMOM has three operation modes: a translational mode and two 1-DOF planar modes. The transitional configurations among the three modes are also identified.

This research takes the resistance formula of spherical cavity expansion theory as its foundation. It establishes a predictive model of the residual velocity, ballistic limit velocity, and penetration depth of ogival nose projectiles striking metal target plates at high speed. They are aimed at 6061-T651 aluminum plates of different thicknesses using the iterative algorithm of the numerical method, thereby investigating the theoretical calculation of the residual velocity, penetration depth, ballistic limit velocity, and changes in resistance of ogival nose projectiles when making a normal impact target. In addition to analyzing the resistance undergone by the projectile nose section, this predictive model also considers the effects of friction resistance of the projectile shank section. In this research, we also used the finite element software LS-DYNA to perform a simulated analysis on the penetration depth of the aluminum plate after normal perforation by ogival nose projectiles. Ballistic test experiments were then performed using 0.30” AP (armor piercing) bullets. Finally, a comparative analysis was performed based on the theoretical model, experiments, and numerical simulation results.

We present a numerical method to compute the survival function and the moments of the exit time for a piecewise-deterministic Markov process (PDMP). Our approach is based on the quantization of an underlying discrete-time Markov chain related to the PDMP. The approximation we propose is easily computable and is even flexible with respect to the exit time we consider. We prove the convergence of the algorithm and obtain bounds for the rate of convergence in the case of the moments. We give an academic example and a model from the reliability field to illustrate the results of the paper.

In this paper, the mechanical properties of plasma-sprayed coatings are evaluated usingthe technology of nanoindentation. According to the indentation curve (load versusindenter’s displacement), which is recorded in an indentation experiment, the mechanicalbehaviour of the plasma-sprayed coating is investigated via inverse analysis usingnumerical optimization algorithms. The tip rounding of imperfect indenter is investigatedin parameter identification. Subsequently, the hardness on the top surface and on thevertical cross section of the plasma-sprayed coating are investigated. The results showthat the hardness on the top surface of the coating depends on the indentation depth.Moreover, the results show that the hardness on the cross section of the coating issignificantly affected by the substrate if the indentation impression is too close to thecoating-substrate interface.

We introduce and analyze a numerical strategy to approximate effective coefficients in stochastic homogenization of discrete ellipticequations. In particular, we consider the simplest case possible: An elliptic equation on the d-dimensional lattice $\mathbb{Z}^d$with independent and identically distributed conductivities on the associated edges.Recent results by Otto and the author quantify the error made by approximatingthe homogenized coefficient by the averaged energy of a regularizedcorrector (with parameter T) on some box of finite size L. In this article, we replace the regularizedcorrector (which is the solution of a problem posed on $\mathbb{Z}^d$) by some practically computable proxy on some box of size R ≥ L, and quantify the associated additional error.In order to improve the convergence, one may also consider N independentrealizations of the computable proxy, and take the empirical average of the associated approximate homogenized coefficients.A natural optimization problem consists in properly choosing T, R, L and N in order toreduce the error at given computational complexity.Our analysis is sharp and sheds some light on this question.In particular, we propose and analyze a numerical algorithm to approximate the homogenized coefficients, taking advantage of the (nearly) optimal scalings of the errorswe derive. The efficiency of the approach is illustrated by a numerical study in dimension 2.

The model of a young star with a low-mass secondary component (q = M2/M1 ≤ 0.1) accreting matter from a circumbinary (CB) disc is considered. It is assumed that the orbit and the CB disc can be coplanar and non-coplanar. The model parameters were varied within the following ranges: the component mass ratio q ranged from 0.1 to 0.003, the eccentricity e varied from 0 to 0.7, the inclination of the orbit plane to the CB disc ranged from 0 to 10 degrees, and the parameter that defines the viscosity of the system was also varied. A number of hydrodynamics models of such a system have been calculated by the SPH method and then the variations of the circumstellar extinction and phase brightness curves were determined. The calculated brightness curves differ in shape and amplitude and it depends on the model parameters and the orientation of the system relative to the observer. The results were used to analyze the cyclic activity of UX Ori type stars.

A discrete ordinate method is developed for solving the equation of coherent line formation, for arbitrary given variations with depth in an atmosphere of the temperature (or Planck function, assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium) and the line absorption and scattering coefficients. The direct solution thus obtained can then be used as the starting point of an iterative procedure. Results obtained for an exactly soluble case indicate the utility of the method.