Modern Physics Letters B

This work investigates the hydrogen precipitation effects on the electrochemical behavior of Zircaloy-4 in acidic saline media. The specimens of Zircaloy-4 were hydrogen charged at 200, 400 and 600 ppm concentrations for 30 min at 400${}^{\circ }$C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies confirmed the formation of delta hydrides in the material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results also indicated the presence of elongated hydrides whose density and thickness increased with the increase of hydrogen concentration in the alloy. The corrosion kinetics of the specimens were explored before and after hydrogen precipitation using potentiodynamic anodic polarization (PAP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The results showed that hydrogen precipitation shifts the corrosion potential towards more positive and thus improves the corrosion resistance of the alloy. The charge transfer resistance $(R_{\mathrm{\text{ct}}})$ of the alloy was found to increase with increasing hydrogen concentration. This indicates an increased polarization tendency of the Zircaloy-4 surface with a limited dissolution tendency in the presence of delta hydrides.

In this paper, the structural, elastic, electronic and thermodynamic properties of $\mathrm{\text{Sc}}{X}_3(X=\mathrm{\text{Ir}},\mathrm{\text{Pd}},\mathrm{\text{Pt}}$ and $\mathrm{\text{Rh}})$ intermetallic compound are investigated using pseudopotential method based on density functional theory (DFT) under pressure. In this work, the calculated lattice constant and bulk modulus are in accordance with experimental values at zero temperature and zero pressure. The bulk modulus $(B)$, shear modulus $(G)$ and Young’s modulus $(E)$ for $\mathrm{\text{Sc}}{X}_3(X=\mathrm{\text{Ir}},\mathrm{\text{Pd}},\mathrm{\text{Pt}}$ and $\mathrm{\text{Rh}})$ increase with the increasing external pressure. It is noted that ${\mathrm{\text{Ir}}}_3\mathrm{\text{Sc}}$ of investigated compound has the largest $B$, $G$ and $E$. The results of $B/G$ and $\nu$ have the same change trend, but $A^u$ presents an irregular change for $\mathrm{\text{Sc}}{X}_3(X=\mathrm{\text{Ir}},\mathrm{\text{Pd}},\mathrm{\text{Pt}}$ and $\mathrm{\text{Rh}})$. The density of states for $\mathrm{\text{Sc}}{X}_3(X=\mathrm{\text{Ir}},\mathrm{\text{Pd}},\mathrm{\text{Pt}}$ and $\mathrm{\text{Rh}})$ are investigated at 0, 30 and 50 GPa. In addition, the thermodynamic properties as a function of temperature at different pressure are also studied.

In this paper, we study the interaction between charged macroions (surfaces) immersed in a solution of oppositely charged, rod-like counterions and point-like co-ions. The system is modeled by a field theoretic approach, which was extended to treat mixtures of rod- and point-like ions. The theory is applicable from the weak to the intermediate through to the strong coupling regimes. In the weak coupling limit, the force between the charged surfaces are only repulsive. In the intermediate coupling regime, the rod-like ions can induce attractive force between the charged surfaces. In the strong coupling limit, the inter-ionic charge correlations dominate the attractive forces at short separations between the charged surfaces.

In this paper we review a recently suggested generalization of the Feynman path integral to an integral over random surfaces. The proposed action is proportional to the linear size of the random surfaces and is called gonihedric. The convergence and the properties of the partition function are analyzed. The model can also be formulated as a spin system with identical partition functions. The spin system represents a generalization of the Ising model with ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and quartic interactions. Higher symmetry of the model allows to construct dual spin systems in three and four dimensions. In three dimensions the transfer matrix describes the propagation of closed loops and we found its exact spectrum. It is a unique exact solution of the three-dimensional statistical spin system. In three and four dimensions, the system exhibits the second-order phase transitions. The gonihedric spin systems have exponentially degenerated vacuum states separated by the potential barriers and can be used as a storage of binary information.

The wing rock phenomenon reduces the maneuverability and affects the flight safety of modern advanced fighters, such as the F-35, which have chined forebodies. Understanding the flow mechanism is critical to suppressing this phenomenon. In this study, experiments were conducted to reveal the motion and flow behavior over a chined forebody configuration. The tests were performed in a wind tunnel at an angle of attack of $50^{\circ }$ with a Reynolds number of $1.87\times 10^5$. Reversed limit-cycle oscillation was discovered in the free-to-roll tests. The unstable rolling moment around zero roll angle in the static case suggests that the model tends to be driven away from zero roll angle. Thus, the model cannot maintain its equilibrium at zero roll angle during free-to-roll motion. The unstable rolling moment is generated by the wing vortex structure above the upward wing, which is induced by the forebody asymmetric vortices. During wing rock, the wing vortex structure appears above the upward wing at a large roll angle after crossing zero roll angle owing to a time lag in the forebody vortex position, which is conducive to the motion. The forebody asymmetric vortices are thus the key to induce and maintain the motion.

The analytical formulations on the premixed flame acceleration induced by wall friction in two-dimensional (2D) channels [Bychkov et al., Phys. Rev. E 72 (2005) 046307] and cylindrical tubes [Akkerman et al., Combust. Flame 145 (2006) 206] are revisited. Specifically, pipes with one end closed are considered, with a flame front propagating from the closed pipe end to the open one. The original studies provide the analytical formulas for the basic flame and fluid characteristics such as the flame acceleration rate, the flame shape and its propagation speed, as well as the flame-generated flow velocity profile. In the present work, the accuracy of these approaches is verified, computationally, and the intrinsic limitations and validity domains of the formulations are identified. Specifically, the error diagrams are presented to demonstrate how the accuracy of the formulations depends on the thermal expansion in the combustion process and the Reynolds number associated with the flame propagation. It is shown that the 2D theory is accurate enough for a wide range of parameters. In contrast, the zeroth-order approximation for the cylindrical configuration appeared to be quite inaccurate and had to be revisited. It is subsequently demonstrated that the first-order approximation for the cylindrical geometry is very accurate for realistically large thermal expansions and Reynolds numbers. Consequently, unlike the zeroth-order approach, the first-order formulation can constitute a backbone for the comprehensive theory of the flame acceleration and detonation initiation in cylindrical tubes. Cumulatively, the accuracy of the formulations deteriorates with the reduction of the Reynolds number and thermal expansion.

The partial pressure of oxygen during the deposition process of cadmium oxide is a crucial quantity whose influence on the electrical and optical properties of this material is really very significant (consider, for example, the experimental technique known as activated reactive evaporation). In fact, this paper is a theoretical formulation to evaluate the sensitivity changes of the aforementioned pressure of the electron drift-mobility and velocity in CdO. Indeed, as we will see later, given that the electron relaxation time depends upon the oxygen partial pressure, then the electron drift-mobility, mean free path and velocity also depend on this pressure. Relevant calculations involving the above physical quantities are carried out.

In this paper, taking into account the effect of the induced interaction, we calculate the energy of ultracold Fermi gases at unitarity in the framework of non-self-consistent T-matrix approximation (nTMA) above the critical temperature and compare the result with the experimental data and other theoretical calculation without induced interaction. Our calculated chemical potential is higher than the experimental data, but our calculated energy obtains a good agreement with Tokyo experiment for temperature range between $0.6T_F$ and $0.8T_F$.

The charge structure factor of the half-filled Hubbard superlattices with one on-site repulsive site and $L_0$ free sites per unit cell is investigated numerically. The behaviors of charge structure reveal a kind of even–odd $L_0$ disparity. For even $L_0$, we always observe a commensurate charge density wave (CDW). For odd $L_0$, we observe a commensurate–incommensurate CDW transition at a critical on-site repulsion around the particle–hole symmetric point. This transition results from the competition between the local charge correlations with odd distance and even distance.

With load-based model, considering the loss of capacity on nodes, we investigate how the coupling strength (many-to-many coupled pattern) and link patterns (one-to-one coupled pattern) can affect the robustness of interdependent networks. In one-to-one coupled pattern, we take into account the properties of degree and betweenness, and adopt four kinds of inter-similarity link patterns and random link pattern. In many-to-many coupled pattern, we propose a novel method to build new networks via adding inter-links (coupled links) on the existing one-to-one coupled networks. For a full investigation on the effects, we conduct two types of attack strategies, i.e. RO-attack (randomly remove only one node) and RF-attack (randomly remove a fraction of nodes). We numerically find that inter-similarity link patterns and bigger coupling strength can effectively improve the robustness under RO-attacks and RF-attacks in some cases. Therefore, the inter-similarity link patterns can be applied during the initial period of network construction. Once the networks are completed, the robustness level can be improved via adding inter-links appropriately without changing the existing inter-links and topologies of networks. We also find that BA–BA topology is a better choice and that it is not useful to infinitely increase the capacity which is defined as the cost of networks.