Strength and elastic modulus enhancement in Mg-Li-Al matrix composites reinforced by ex situ TiB2 particles via stir casting

A novel Mg^(-1)0Li-3Al(wt.%,LA103)matrix composite reinforced by ex situ micron TiB_(2) particles was developed in the present study.The ball milling and cold pressing pretreatment of the reinforcements made it feasible to prepare this material under stir casting conditions with good dispersion.The microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites prepared by different pretreatment methods were analyzed in detail.The TiB_(2) particles in the Al-TiB_(2)/LA103 composite using the pretreatment process were uniformly distributed in the microstructure due to the formation of highly wettable core-shell units in the melt.Compared with the matrix alloys,the Al-TiB_(2)/LA103 composite exhibited effective strength and elastic modulus improvements while maintaining acceptable elongation.The strengthening effect in the composites was mainly attributed to the strong grain refining effect of TiB2.This work shows a balance of high specific modulus(36.1 GPa·cm^(3)·g^(-1))and elongation(8.4%)with the conventional stir casting path,which is of considerable application value.

Microstructure evolution and enhanced fatigue behavior in the Mg-10Li-5Zn-0.5Er alloys micro-alloyed with Yb

In this paper,(0.2-1 wt%)Yb was added to improve the tensile properties and high-cycle fatigue behavior of the as-cast and as-extruded Mg-10Li-5Zn-0.5Er alloys.It is found that Yb mainly affects the mechanical properties of the alloy by changing the grain size,type and morphology of the second phases.Yb mainly exists in the formation of Mg_(2)Yb and Mg-Zn-Yb phases in the metallographic structure.With the addition of Yb,the grains are refined and these Yb-containing phases replace the large-sized MgLiZn phase to be enriched at the grain boundaries.While the addition of excess Yb reduces the number of small-sized MgLiZn phases in the grain,thus reducing the alloys’mechanical performance.After extrusion,the small-sized MgLiZn phase is refined and the number increases,which effectively improves the tensile and fatigue strength of the alloy.The fatigue strength is mainly affected by the number and morphology of the second phase,positively correlated with the strength.Balanced in grain size and number and size of second phases,the extruded alloy with 0.2Yb added exhibits excellent mechanical properties with the yield strength,ultimate tensile strength and elongation of 292 MPa,303 MPa and 11.7%,and an fatigue strength of 130 MPa.

Preparation of Regenerated Silk Fibroin Hybrid Fibers with Hydrogen Peroxide Sensing Properties by Wet Spinning

Silk is widely used in the production of high-quality textiles.At the same time,the amount of silk textiles no longer in use and discarded is increasing,resulting in significant waste and pollution.This issue is of great concern in many countries where silk is used.Hydrogen peroxide as a naturally occurring compound is an important indicator of detection in both biology and the environment.This study aims to develop a composite fiber with hydrogen peroxide-sensing properties using discarded silk materials.To achieve this goal,firstly,polydopamine(PDA)was used to encapsulate the ZnFe_(2)O_(4) NPs to achieve the improvement of dispersion,and then regenerated silk fibroin(RSF)and PDA@ZnFe_(2)O_(4)/RSF hybrid fibers are prepared by wet spinning.Research has shown that PDA@ZnFe_(2)O_(4)/RSF demonstrates exceptional sensitivity,selectivity,and stability in detecting hydrogen peroxide,while maintaining high mechanical strength.Furthermore,the complete hybridization of PDA@ZnFe_(2)O_(4) with silk fibroin not only results in the combination of the durability of silk fibroin and PDA@ZnFe_(2)O_(4)’s rigidity,ensuring a reliable service life,but also makes PDA@ZnFe_(2)O_(4)/RSF exhibit excellent catalytic activity and biocompatibility.Therefore,the composite fiber exhibits exceptional mechanical properties and reliable hydrogen peroxide sensing capabilities,making it a promising material for biological and medical applications.

Recent advances on grain refinement of magnesium rare-earth alloys during the whole casting processes:A review

High-performance cast magnesium rare-earth(Mg-RE) alloys are one of the most important materials among all developed Mg alloy families, and have shown great potential in military and weapons, aerospace and aviation, orthopedic implants, etc. Controlling grain size and distribution of it is key to the promising mechanical performance of Mg-RE alloy casting components. During the casting of a real component, nearly every procedure in the fabrication process will influence the grain refinement effect. The procedure may include and may not be limited to the chemical inoculations, possibly applied physical fields, the interfere between grain refiner and purifications, and the casting techniques with different processing parameters. This paper reviews the recent advances and proposed future developments in these categories on grain refinement of cast Mg-RE alloys. The review will provide insights for the future design of grain refinement techniques,the choosing of processing parameters, and coping strategies for the failure of coarsening for cast Mg-RE components with high quality and good performance.

Recent developments and applications on high-performance cast magnesium rare-earth alloys

During the past decades,with the increasing demands in lightweight structural materials,Mg alloys with low density and high performance have been extensively investigated and partly applied in some industries.Especially when rare earth(RE)elements are added as major alloying elements to Mg alloys,the alloy strength and creep resistance are greatly improved,which have promoted several series of Mg-RE alloys.This paper reviews the progress and developments of high-performance Mg-RE alloys in recent years with emphasis on cast alloys.The main contents include the alloy design,melt purification,grain refinement,castability,novel liquid casting and semisolid forming approaches,and the industrial applications or trials made of Mg-RE alloys.The review will provide insights for future developments of new alloys,techniques and applications of Mg alloys.

Multi-satellite observation integrated scheduling method oriented to emergency tasks and common tasks

Satellite observation scheduling plays a significant role in improving the efficiency of satellite observation systems.Although many scheduling algorithms have been proposed,emergency tasks,characterized as importance and urgency（e.g.,observation tasks orienting to the earthquake area and military conflict area）,have not been taken into account yet.Therefore,it is crucial to investigate the satellite integrated scheduling methods,which focus on meeting the requirements of emergency tasks while maximizing the profit of common tasks.Firstly,a pretreatment approach is proposed,which eliminates conflicts among emergency tasks and allocates all tasks with a potential time-window to related orbits of satellites.Secondly,a mathematical model and an acyclic directed graph model are constructed.Thirdly,a hybrid ant colony optimization method mixed with iteration local search（ACO-ILS） is established to solve the problem.Moreover,to guarantee all solutions satisfying the emergency task requirement constraints,a constraint repair method is presented.Extensive experimental simulations show that the proposed integrated scheduling method is superior to two-phased scheduling methods,the performance of ACO-ILS is greatly improved in both evolution speed and solution quality by iteration local search,and ACO-ILS outperforms both genetic algorithm and simulated annealing algorithm.

Effect of Y and Gd content on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Y-RE alloys

In the application of WE43,it is found that Y_(2)O_(3)inclusion formed in the process of casting seriously reduced the mechanical properties of the products.The reduction of the mechanical properties is even more distinct when it comes to the application in the thin walled complex-precision castings.In order to decrease the Y_(2)O_(3)inclusions,Gd element was used to replace part of the Y element in Mg-Y-RE series alloys.The effect of Y content(Mg-x Y-1Gd-2Nd-0.5Zn-0.5Zr)and Y/Gd ratio(Mg-x Y-(5-x)Gd-2Nd-0.5Zn-0.5Zr)on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Y-RE alloys were investigated in this paper.With decreasing Y content,the grain size of the alloys increased,both ultimate tensile strength(UTS)and yield strength(YS)of alloys decreased monotonically.Replacing part of Y content with Gd and keeping the total rare earth content unchanged,the low Y content Mg-2Y-3Gd-2Nd-0.5Zn-0.5Zr alloy showed the same mechanical properties as the high Y content Mg-4Y-1Gd-2Nd-0.5Zn-0.5Zr alloy at both room and elevated temperatures.After solution treatment at 525°C for 8 h and aging treatment at 225°C for 10 h,the UTS,YS and elongation(ε)of Mg-2Y-3Gd-2Nd-0.5Zn-0.5Zr alloy reached 281.7 MPa,198 MPa and 11.1%at room temperature,and 216.7 MPa,171.6 MPa and 16.1%at 250°C.The new low Y content Mg-2Y-2Nd-3Gd-0.5Zn-0.5Zr alloy is expected to replace the high Y content WE43 alloys,which can be used in the complex thin-walled parts of aviation products.

High temperature mechanical behavior of low-pressure sand-cast Mg-Gd-Y-Zr magnesium alloy

The aim of this work is firstly to optimize T6 heat-treatment of low-pressure sand-cast Mg-10Gd-3Y-0.5Zr alloy,and then systematically investigate the mechanical behavior of the T6-treated alloy from room temperature to 300℃.It turned out that the optimum T6 heat-treatments for the tested alloy are 525℃×12 h+225℃×14 h and 525℃×12 h+250℃×12 h which integrated age-hardening and tensile properties into account,respectively.The strength of the T6-treated alloy indicates obvious anomalous temperature dependence from room temperature to 300℃,namely both ultimate tensile strength and yield strength of the tested alloy firstly increase with tensile temperature,and then decrease as temperature increases further.Elongation increased with temperature monotonously.The tensile fracture mode of the tested alloy changes from transgranular fracture to intergranular fracture with the increasing of test temperature.

Microstructure evolution of semi-solid Mg-10Gd-3Y-0.5Zr alloy during isothermal heat treatment

In this study,the microstructure evolution of semi-solid Mg-10Gd-3Y-0.5Zr alloy during isothermal heat treatment has been investigated.The results show that primary particles coarsen continuously during the holding.Coarsening rate decreases with the increase of isothermal temperature.When isothermal temperature increases from 600℃ to 620℃,the dominant mechanism for coarsening changes from particle coalescence to Ostwald ripening.Equiaxed as-cast microstructure is beneficial to the semi-solid microstructure after isothermal heat treatment,which brings about the refinement and spheroidization of primary particles,and shortening of holding time.Significant modification of second phases can also be achieved after isothermal heat treatment,due to its unique solidification process.The optimum processing parameters for Mg-10Gd-3Y-0.5Zr alloy in isothermal heat treatment are isothermal temperature of 610℃-620℃ and holding time of 20-40 min.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of repair welds of low-pressure sand-cast Mg?Y?RE?Zr alloy by tungsten inert gas welding

The sand castings of Mg-Y-RE-Zr series alloys are widely utilized in the large scales and complex shapes in the aerospace industry,as a result of which there are always some cast defects in the products. In this study, the feasibility of repair welding of sand-cast Mg-4 Y-3 RE-0.5 Zr alloy by tungsten inert gas(TIG) welding was scrutinized with different welding currents from 150 to 210 A. The results indicated that defect-free repaired joints with good appearance could be acquired at 170 and 190 A. Interestingly, the grain size of the fusion zone(FZ) was refined initially and then increased with the linear increment of welding current. Because at the higher heat inputs, although the cooling rate of the molten pool was reduced, substantial constitutional supercooling for the grain refinement was attained after the Zr particles were transformed into Zr solutes. The tensile strength of the repaired joint at 170 A was 195 MPa with the maximum joint efficiency of 87.8%, and the elongation reached to 124.4% of the sand-cast base material(BM). However, serious grain coarsening and continuous eutectic structures generated in heat-affected zone(HAZ) above 190 A resulted in the weakening of the joint due to the brittle intergranular fracture.

An Overview and Experimental Study of Learning-Based Optimization Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem

The vehicle routing problem(VRP)is a typical discrete combinatorial optimization problem,and many models and algorithms have been proposed to solve the VRP and its variants.Although existing approaches have contributed significantly to the development of this field,these approaches either are limited in problem size or need manual intervention in choosing parameters.To solve these difficulties,many studies have considered learning-based optimization(LBO)algorithms to solve the VRP.This paper reviews recent advances in this field and divides relevant approaches into end-to-end approaches and step-by-step approaches.We performed a statistical analysis of the reviewed articles from various aspects and designed three experiments to evaluate the performance of four representative LBO algorithms.Finally,we conclude the applicable types of problems for different LBO algorithms and suggest directions in which researchers can improve LBO algorithms.

Influence of trace As content on the microstructure and corrosion behavior of the AZ91 alloy in different metallurgical conditions

The influence of trace As content(0.04,0.05,0.06 wt%)on the microstructure and corrosion behavior of AZ91 alloy in different metallurgical conditions(as-cast,as-quenched,peak-aged)was firstly investigated.It is found that the corrosion resistance of AZ91 alloy in all conditions is significantly enhanced by As addition,mainly due to cathodic toxication,melt purification and incidence reduction of local corrosion.As alloying leads to the formation of Mg 3 As 2 and makes the β-Mg 17 Al 12 phase less continuous in the as-cast alloys.The alloy containing 0.06 wt%As obtains a higher corrosion rate than those of the alloy containing 0.05 wt%As owing to a more discontinuity of β phase.The β phase is dissolved into the matrix in the as-quenched alloys and reprecipitates along the grain boundaries after aging.The more continuous β phase distribution in the peak-aged alloys contributes to corrosion resistance.The corrosion rates are in the order of as-quenched>as-cast>peak-aged.The lowest corrosion rate(0.67 mm/y)in 3.5 wt%NaCl solution is obtained in the peak-aged AZ91-0.05As alloy,which is over 70%lower than that of as-cast AZ91 alloy(2.22 mm/y).

Average Capacity of OAM-Multiplexed FSO System with Vortex Beam Propagating Through Non-Kolmogorov Turbulence

The propagation of vortex beam in atmospheric turbulence is of significant importance in theoretical study and practical applications. Based on extended Huygens-Fresnel integral and the Rytov approximation, the average capacity of orbital angular momentum(OAM)-multiplexed Laguerre-Gaussian(LG) beam propagating through non-Kolmogorov turbulence is presented, and the analytical expression of spiral spectrum of LG beam has been deduced. The average capacity of FSO system is numerically calculated and the influence of exponent parameter, transmission height, structure constant, wavelength, outer scale and inner scale on average capacity are also analyzed in detail. Outcomes show that smaller structure constant, outer scale, higher transmission height and larger wavelength, inner scale are conducive to improve average capacity in different extent. Results acquires in this paper have potential application value in optical communication within non-Kolmogorov turbulence.

High-cycle fatigue behavior of Mg-8Li-3Al-2Zn-0.5Y alloy under different states

In this study,the tensile and high-cycle fatigue properties of as-cast,solid solution treated and as-extruded Mg-8Li-3Al-2Zn-0.5Y alloy are investigated.The results show that the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of as-cast alloy is 198.1 MPa and 222.5 MPa,which are improved to 274.7 MPa and 321.7 MPa,282.4 MPa and 319.3 MPa after solid solution and extrusion treatment,respectively.The high-cycle fatigue strength(at 10^(7)cycles,R=-1)of as-cast studied alloy is 65 MPa,which is improved to 90 MPa and 105 MPa after solid solution and extrusion treatment,respectively.The improvement of fatigue property of the solid solution treated alloy is mainly due to the lattice distortion caused by solid solution hindering the crack propagation.However,the improvement of fatigue property of the as-extruded alloy is mainly due to that the refined grains,stacked dislocations and dispersed secondary particles impede the crack propagation.

Surface-Modified Graphene Oxide/Lead Sulfide Hybrid Film-Forming Ink for High-Efficiency Bulk Nano-Heterojunction Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells

Solution-processed colloidal quantum dot solar cells(CQDSCs) is a promising candidate for new generation solar cells.To obtain stable and high performance lead sulfide(PbS)-based CQDSCs,high carrier mobility and low non-radiative recombination center density in the PbS CQDs active layer are required.In order to effectively improve the carrier mobility in PbS CQDs layer of CQDSCs,butylamine(BTA)-modified graphene oxide(BTA@GO) is first utilized in PbS-PbX2(X=I-,Br-) CQDs ink to deposit the active layer of CQDSCs through one-step spin-coating method.Such surface treatment of GO dramatically upholds the intrinsic superior hole transfer peculiarity of GO and attenuates the hydrophilicity of GO in order to allow for its good dispersibility in ink solvent.The introduction of B TA@GO in CQDs layer can build up a bulk nano-heterojunction architecture,which provides a smooth charge carrier transport channel in turn improves the carrier mobility and conductivity,extends the carriers lifetime and reduces the trap density of PbS-PbX2 CQDs film.Finally,the BTA@GO/PbS-PbX2 hybrid CQDs film-based relatively large-area(0.35 cm2) CQDSCs shows a champion power conversion efficiency of 11.7% which is increased by 23.1% compared with the control device.

Development of digital organ-on-a-chip to assess hepatotoxicity and extracellular vesicle-based anti-liver cancer immunotherapy

Organ-on-a-chip systems have been increasingly recognized as attractive platforms to assess toxicity and to develop new therapeutic agents.However,current organ-on-a-chip platforms are limited by a“single pot”design,which inevitably requires holistic analysis and limits parallel processing.Here,we developed a digital organ-on-a-chip by combining a microwell array with cellular microspheres,which significantly increased the parallelism over traditional organ-on-a-chip for drug development.Up to 127 uniform liver cancer microspheres in this digital organ-on-a-chip format served as individual analytical units,allowing for analysis with high consistency and quick response.Our platform displayed evident anti-cancer efficacy at a concentration of 10μM for sorafenib,and had greater alignment than the“single pot”organ-on-a-chip with a previous in vivo study.In addition,this digital organ-on-a-chip demonstrated the treatment efficacy of natural killer cell-derived extracellular vesicles for liver cancer at 50μg/mL.The successful development of this digital organ-on-a-chip platform provides high-parallelism and a low-variability analytical tool for toxicity assessment and the exploration of new anticancer modalities,thereby accelerating the joint endeavor to combat cancer.

Integrating Variable Reduction Strategy With Evolutionary Algorithms for Solving Nonlinear Equations Systems

Nonlinear equations systems(NESs)are widely used in real-world problems and they are difficult to solve due to their nonlinearity and multiple roots.Evolutionary algorithms(EAs)are one of the methods for solving NESs,given their global search capabilities and ability to locate multiple roots of a NES simultaneously within one run.Currently,the majority of research on using EAs to solve NESs focuses on transformation techniques and improving the performance of the used EAs.By contrast,problem domain knowledge of NESs is investigated in this study,where we propose the incorporation of a variable reduction strategy(VRS)into EAs to solve NESs.The VRS makes full use of the systems of expressing a NES and uses some variables(i.e.,core variable)to represent other variables(i.e.,reduced variables)through variable relationships that exist in the equation systems.It enables the reduction of partial variables and equations and shrinks the decision space,thereby reducing the complexity of the problem and improving the search efficiency of the EAs.To test the effectiveness of VRS in dealing with NESs,this paper mainly integrates the VRS into two existing state-of-the-art EA methods(i.e.,MONES and DR-JADE)according to the integration framework of the VRS and EA,respectively.Experimental results show that,with the assistance of the VRS,the EA methods can produce better results than the original methods and other compared methods.Furthermore,extensive experiments regarding the influence of different reduction schemes and EAs substantiate that a better EA for solving a NES with more reduced variables tends to provide better performance.

Absorption,quenching,and enhancement by tracer in acetone/toluene laser-induced fluorescence

To measure the equivalent ratio distribution of the two-stage lean premixed(DLP)flame,we propose using acetone/toluene planar laser-induced fluorescence(PLIF)technology to simultaneously measure the concentrations of the two components.Appropriate excitation laser wavelength and filters are used to assess the influence of acetone and toluene on each other’s fluorescence signal at room temperature.Experimental results show that acetone has a strong absorption effect on toluene’s fluorescence signal,the effective absorption cross-section is 5.77×10-20 cm-2.Acetone has an obvious quenching effect on the toluene fluorescence signal,and the Stern–Volmer coefficient is 0.50 kPa-1.The collisions between the molecules of toluene and acetone will lead to the enhancement of the fluorescence signal of acetone,and the enhancement coefficient is exponential with the acetone’s concentration.The quantitative relationship between the fluorescence intensity and the concentrations of the two tracers is obtained by establishing the photophysical model of toluene and acetone’s fluorescence signals.

Lensless two-color ghost imaging from the perspective of coherent-mode representation

The coherent-mode representation theory is firstly used to analyze lensless two-color ghost imaging. A quite complicated expression about the point-spread function（PSF） needs to be given to analyze which wavelength has a stronger affect on imaging quality when the usual integral representation theory is used to ghost imaging. Unlike this theory, the coherent-mode representation theory shows that imaging quality depends crucially on the distribution of the decomposition coefficients of the object imaged in a two-color ghost imaging. The analytical expression of the decomposition coefficients of the object is unconcerned with the wavelength of the light used in the reference arm, but has relevance with the wavelength in the object arm. In other words, imaging quality of two-color ghost imaging depends primarily on the wavelength of the light illuminating the object. Our simulation results also demonstrate this conclusion.