Thermodynamics and characterization of shape memory Cu-Al-Zn alloys

The thermodynamic properties and the microstructure, hardness and electrical conductivity of shape memory alloys （SMAs） belonging to ternary Cu？Al？Zn system were studied by Muggianu model and experiment, respectively. The isothermal section of phase diagram at 293 K was calculated using Thermo-Calc software. Experiments were conducted by X-ray diffraction, light optic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, hardness and electrical conductivity measurements. The calculated values of thermodynamic properties indicate that Cu shows good miscibility with Al and Zn in all investigated alloys. The microstructural analysis of samples reveals that the structure consists of large and polygonal grains.

Theoretical and experimental assessment of a novel method to establish the complete measurement range of the calorimeter and its limit of detection and quantification

For determining the accuracy of a calorimeter over the instrument’s entire measuring range,a novel method has been established.For this new approach,(a)benzoic acid(C_(6)H_(5)CO_(2)H) as a certified reference material(CRM),(b)SiO_(2) and(c)a mixture of CRM benzoic acid and SiO_(2) have been used.To illustrate the essential difference between 1)the novel analytical method for control of the entire measurement range and 2)the calorimeter calibration,both applications of benzoic acid(BA)have been demonstrated.An experimental result showed that BA was successfully used to check the whole calorimeter measurement range.The results also showed that the same new method was successfully applied to determine the limit of detection and quantification.A new instrument testing process and a new measurement technique have thus been established.In this way,the cost of using CRM to control the accuracy of measuring the entire measuring range of the calorimeter,as shown in this paper,is minimized.The requirements of the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard are satisfied.ISO/IEC 17025:2017,together with ISO 9001:2015(quality management systems),ISO 14001:2015(relate to environmental protection)and ISO45001:2018(occupational safety),constitute an integrated quality system by which a testing laboratory may also accredit.