First-Principles Methods in the Investigation of the Chemical and Transport Properties of Materials under Extreme Conditions

Earth is a dynamic system. The thermodynamics conditions of Earth vary drastically depending on the depth, ranging from ambient temperature and pressure at the surface to 360 GPa and 6600 K at the core. Consequently, the physical and chemical properties of Earth’s constituents (e.g., silicate and carbonate minerals) are strongly affected by their immediate environment. In the past 30 years, there has been a tremendous amount of progress in both experimental techniques and theoretical modeling methods for material characterization under extreme conditions. These advancements have elevated our understanding of the properties of minerals, which is essential in order to achieve full comprehension of the formation of this planet and the origin of life on it. This article reviews recent computational techniques for predicting the behavior of materials under extreme conditions. This survey is limited to the application of the first-principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) method to the investigation of chemical and thermodynamic transport processes relevant to Earth Science.

Latent Heat of TB18 Titanium Alloy during β to α Phase Transition by DSC and First-Principles Methods

The phase transition of titanium alloys is sensitive to the heat-treatment procedure,accompanied with the latent heat induced by phase transition.However,the latent heat during phase transition of titanium alloy has not been systematically studied,which may result in the gap between designed and actual temperature of the sample and affect the final mechanical properties.In this work,DSC(differential scanning calorimetry)and first-principles simulate methods were used to study theβ→αphase transition process of TB18(Ti–Al-Mo-V-Cr-Nb-Fe system)metastableβtitanium alloy,especially to reveal the influence of the heating rate on latent heat.The ratio of latent heat to endothermic heat of the sample during temperature rising was introduced to interpret the effect of latent heat to actual temperature.The ratio of latent heat to endothermic heat at 1℃/min is about 15 to 20 times higher than that at 10℃/min.The higher ratio indicates that the latent heat of phase transition has a more significant effect on the temperature,which is related to the temperature range of phase transition and theαvolume fraction.Compared with the heating rate of 1℃/min,theβ→αphase transition takes place at higher temperature and the volume fraction ofαis smaller at 10℃/min.Meanwhile,there is a precipitation free zone between grain boundaryαand intragranularαand the distribution ofαlamellae is heterogeneous when the heating rate is 10℃/min.Both of the experimental and theoretical results suggest that the latent heat of phase transition is the main cause of the temperature fluctuation during heat-treatment process.This work has guiding significance for microstructure optimization affected by temperature,to achieve the desired mechanical properties.

A Review on Sources,Extractions and Analysis Methods of a Sustainable Biomaterial:Tannins

Condensed and hydrolysable tannins are non-toxic natural polyphenols that are a commercial commodity industrialized for tanning hides to obtain leather and for a growing number of other industrial applications mainly to substitute petroleum-based products.They are a definite class of sustainable materials of the forestry industry.They have been in operation for hundreds of years to manufacture leather and now for a growing number of applications in a variety of other industries,such as wood adhesives,metal coating,pharmaceutical/medical applications and several others.This review presents the main sources,either already or potentially commercial of this forestry by-materials,their industrial and laboratory extraction systems,their systems of analysis with their advantages and drawbacks,be these methods so simple to even appear primitive but nonetheless of proven effectiveness,or very modern and instrumental.It constitutes a basic but essential summary of what is necessary to know of these sustainable materials.In doing so,the review highlights some of the main challenges that remain to be addressed to deliver the quality and economics of tannin supply necessary to fulfill the industrial production requirements for some materials-based uses.

Transformation of long-period stacking ordered structures in Mg-Gd-Y-Zn alloys upon synergistic characterization of first-principles calculation and experiment and its effects on mechanical properties

Based on experiments and first-principles calculations,the microstructures and mechanical properties of as-cast and solution treated Mg-10Gd-4Y-xZn-0.6Zr(x=0,1,2,wt.%)alloys are investigated.The transformation process of long-period stacking ordered(LPSO)structure during solidification and heat treatment and its effect on the mechanical properties of experimental alloys are discussed.Results reveal that the stacking faults and 18R LPSO phases appear in the as-cast Mg-10Gd-4Y-1Zn-0.6Zr and Mg-10Gd-4Y-2Zn-0.6Zr alloys,respectively.After solution treatment,the stacking faults and 18R LPSO phase transform into 14H LPSO phase.The Enthalpies of formation and reaction energy of 14H and 18R LPSO are calculated based on first-principles.Results show that the alloying ability of 18R is stronger than that of 14H.The reaction energies show that the 14H LPSO phase is more stable than the 18R LPSO.The elastic properties of the 14H and 18R LPSO phases are also evaluated by first-principles calculations,and the results are in good agreement with the experimental results.The precipitation of LPSO phase improves the tensile strength,yield strength and elongation of the alloy.After solution treatment,the Mg-10Gd-4Y-2Zn-0.6Zr alloy has the best mechanical properties,and its ultimate tensile strength and yield strength are 278.7 MPa and 196.4 MPa,respectively.The elongation of Mg-10Gd-4Y-2Zn-0.6Zr reaches 15.1,which is higher than that of Mg-10Gd-4Y0.6Zr alloy.The improving mechanism of elastic modulus by the LPSO phases and the influence on the alloy mechanical properties are also analyzed.

A comparison study on structure-function relationship of polysaccharides obtained from sea buckthorn berries using different methods:antioxidant and bile acid-binding capacity

In this study,the structural characters,antioxidant activities and bile acid-binding ability of sea buckthorn polysaccharides(HRPs)obtained by the commonly used hot water(HRP-W),pressurized hot water(HRP-H),ultrasonic(HRP-U),acid(HRP-C)and alkali(HRP-A)assisted extraction methods were investigated.The results demonstrated that extraction methods had significant effects on extraction yield,monosaccharide composition,molecular weight,particle size,triple-helical structure,and surface morphology of HRPs except for the major linkage bands.Thermogravimetric analysis showed that HRP-U with filamentous reticular microstructure exhibited better thermal stability.The HRP-A with the lowest molecular weight and highest arabinose content possessed the best antioxidant activities.Moreover,the rheological analysis indicated that HRPs with higher galacturonic acid content and molecular weight showed higher viscosity and stronger crosslinking network(HRP-C,HRP-W and HRP-U),which exhibited stronger bile acid binding capacity.The present findings provide scientific evidence in the preparation technology of sea buckthorn polysaccharides with good antioxidant and bile acid binding capacity which are related to the structure affected by the extraction methods.

First-principles study on stability and superconductivity of ternary hydride LaYH_(x)(x=2,3,6 and 8)

Recent studies have shown that the La-and Y-hydrides can exhibit significant superconducting properties under high pressures.In this paper,we investigate the stability,electronic and superconducting properties of LaYH_(x)(x=2,3,6 and 8)under 0-200 GPa.It is found that LaYH_(2) stabilizes in the C2/m phase at ambient pressure,and transforms to the Pmmn phase at 67 GPa.LaYH_(3) stabilizes in the C2/m phase at ambient pressure,and undergoes phase transitions of C2/m→P2_(1)/m→R3m at 12 GPa and 87 GPa,respectively.LaYH_(6) stabilizes in the P4_32_12 phase at ambient pressure,and undergoes phase transitions of P4_(3)2_(1)2→P4/mmm→Cmcm at 28 GPa and 79 GPa,respectively.LaYH_(8) stabilizes in the Imma phase at 60 GPa and transforms to the P4/mmm phase at 117 GPa.Calculations of the electronic band structures show that the P4/mmm-LaYH_(8) and all phases of LaYH_(2) and LaYH_(3) exhibit metallic character.For the metallic phases,we then study their superconducting properties.The calculated superconducting transition temperatures(T_c)are 0.47 K for C2/m-LaYH_(2) at 0 GPa,0 K for C2/m-LaYH_(3) at 0 GPa,and 55.51 K for P4/mmm-LaYH_(8) at 50 GPa.

The growth ofβphase in Mg-Gd-Y-Ni alloy by experimental and first-principles study

The paper reports on the atomic investigation aboutβphase in Mg_(96)Gd_(2)Y_(1)Ni_(1) alloy by using the first-principles study and the high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscope(HAADF-STEM)corrected by atomic Cs.By using HAADF-STEM,the rectangularβphases were observed in the underage and peak aging stages in Mg_(96)Gd_(2)Y_(1)Ni_(1) alloy.Theβphase could be precipitated from the previously precipitatedβphase,and theβphase grew in steps when it was precipitated.A special transition structure of three atomic layer thicknesses was first observed at the edge of theβphase and the structure of this interface is probably as theβ/Mg_(1) interface for the analysis of thermodynamic characterization and electronic characterization.Theβ'phase and theβ_(H) structure were precipitated only at the edge of the length directions of theβphase.Theβ'phase continues to grow into aβphase directly without the formation ofβ_(1) phase,resulting in an increase in the length of theβphase,which is discovered for the first time.

Hybrid Strategy of Partitioned and Monolithic Methods for Solving Strongly Coupled Analysis of Inverse and Direct Piezoelectric and Circuit Coupling

The inverse and direct piezoelectric and circuit coupling are widely observed in advanced electro-mechanical systems such as piezoelectric energy harvesters.Existing strongly coupled analysis methods based on direct numerical modeling for this phenomenon can be classified into partitioned or monolithic formulations.Each formulation has its advantages and disadvantages,and the choice depends on the characteristics of each coupled problem.This study proposes a new option:a coupled analysis strategy that combines the best features of the existing formulations,namely,the hybrid partitioned-monolithic method.The analysis of inverse piezoelectricity and the monolithic analysis of direct piezoelectric and circuit interaction are strongly coupled using a partitioned iterative hierarchical algorithm.In a typical benchmark problem of a piezoelectric energy harvester,this research compares the results from the proposed method to those from the conventional strongly coupled partitioned iterative method,discussing the accuracy,stability,and computational cost.The proposed hybrid concept is effective for coupled multi-physics problems,including various coupling conditions.

Stability Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Additive Mixed-Precision Runge-Kutta Methods

Additive Runge-Kutta methods designed for preserving highly accurate solutions in mixed-precision computation were previously proposed and analyzed.These specially designed methods use reduced precision for the implicit computations and full precision for the explicit computations.In this work,we analyze the stability properties of these methods and their sensitivity to the low-precision rounding errors,and demonstrate their performance in terms of accuracy and efficiency.We develop codes in FORTRAN and Julia to solve nonlinear systems of ODEs and PDEs using the mixed-precision additive Runge-Kutta(MP-ARK)methods.The convergence,accuracy,and runtime of these methods are explored.We show that for a given level of accuracy,suitably chosen MP-ARK methods may provide significant reductions in runtime.

First-principles study on the diffusion behavior of Cs and I in Cr coating

Cs and I can migrate through fuel-cladding interfaces and accelerate the cladding corrosion process induced by the fuel-cladding chemical interaction.Cr coating has emerged as an important candidate for mitigating this chemical interaction.In this study,first-principles calculations were employed to investigate the diffusion behavior of Cs and I in the Cr bulk and grain boundaries to reveal the microscopic interaction mitigation mechanisms at the fuel-cladding interface.The interaction between these two fission products and the Cr coating were studied systematically,and the Cs and I temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients in Cr were obtained using Bocquet’s oversized solute-atom model and Le Claire’s nine-frequency model,respectively.The results showed that the Cs and I migration barriers were significantly lower than that of Cr,and the Cs and I diffusion coefficients were more than three orders of magnitude larger than the Cr self-diffusion coefficient within the temperature range of Generation-IV fast reactors(below 1000 K),demonstrating the strong penetration ability of Cs and I.Furthermore,Cs and I are more likely to diffuse along the grain boundary because of the generally low migration barriers,indicating that the grain boundary serves as a fast diffusion channel for Cs and I.

High-Order Decoupled and Bound Preserving Local Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for a Class of Chemotaxis Models

In this paper,we explore bound preserving and high-order accurate local discontinuous Galerkin(LDG)schemes to solve a class of chemotaxis models,including the classical Keller-Segel(KS)model and two other density-dependent problems.We use the convex splitting method,the variant energy quadratization method,and the scalar auxiliary variable method coupled with the LDG method to construct first-order temporal accurate schemes based on the gradient flow structure of the models.These semi-implicit schemes are decoupled,energy stable,and can be extended to high accuracy schemes using the semi-implicit spectral deferred correction method.Many bound preserving DG discretizations are only worked on explicit time integration methods and are difficult to get high-order accuracy.To overcome these difficulties,we use the Lagrange multipliers to enforce the implicit or semi-implicit LDG schemes to satisfy the bound constraints at each time step.This bound preserving limiter results in the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition,which can be solved by an efficient active set semi-smooth Newton method.Various numerical experiments illustrate the high-order accuracy and the effect of bound preserving.

Review of Collocation Methods and Applications in Solving Science and Engineering Problems

The collocation method is a widely used numerical method for science and engineering problems governed by partial differential equations.This paper provides a comprehensive review of collocation methods and their applications,focused on elasticity,heat conduction,electromagnetic field analysis,and fluid dynamics.The merits of the collocation method can be attributed to the need for element mesh,simple implementation,high computational efficiency,and ease in handling irregular domain problems since the collocation method is a type of node-based numerical method.Beginning with the fundamental principles of the collocation method,the discretization process in the continuous domain is elucidated,and how the collocation method approximation solutions for solving differential equations are explained.Delving into the historical development of the collocation methods,their earliest applications and key milestones are traced,thereby demonstrating their evolution within the realm of numerical computation.The mathematical foundations of collocation methods,encompassing the selection of interpolation functions,definition of weighting functions,and derivation of integration rules,are examined in detail,emphasizing their significance in comprehending the method’s effectiveness and stability.At last,the practical application of the collocation methods in engineering contexts is emphasized,including heat conduction simulations,electromagnetic coupled field analysis,and fluid dynamics simulations.These specific case studies can underscore collocation method’s broad applicability and effectiveness in addressing complex engineering challenges.In conclusion,this paper puts forward the future development trend of the collocation method through rigorous analysis and discussion,thereby facilitating further advancements in research and practical applications within these fields.

Numerical Methods for a Class of Quadratic Matrix Equations

Quadratic matrix equations arise in many elds of scienti c computing and engineering applications.In this paper,we consider a class of quadratic matrix equations.Under a certain condition,we rst prove the existence of minimal nonnegative solution for this quadratic matrix equation,and then propose some numerical methods for solving it.Convergence analysis and numerical examples are given to verify the theories and the numerical methods of this paper.

First-Principles Studies of Structural Evolutions in Cathode Materials LiMO_(2)(M=Co,Mn,Ni)

We explore the structural evolutions of stoichiometric LiMO_(2)using the first-principles calculations combined with the cluster expansion method.We automatically obtain the ground state structures of the stoichiometric LiMO_(2)by just considering the cation orderings in the quasi rock-salt structures and the following structural relaxations due to both the atomic size mismatches and the Jahn–Teller distortions.We point out that,on the one hand,the cation orderings are mainly determined by the nearest,the second nearest,and the third nearest cation interactions and can be obtained from the‘phase diagram’we have built using the relative strengths of effective cluster interaction(ECI).On the other hand,the structural relaxations are dominated by the crystal field splitting(CFS)energies,i.e.,structures with larger CFS energies are more stable.By calculating the ECIs and CFS energies for various structures of LiMO_(2),we clearly show how ECI and CFS play roles in determining the structural evolution mechanism of these systems.

Advances in Research of Collection and Detection Methods of Microplastics in Environment

As a new type of environmental pollutants,microplastics have gradually attracted people s attention.A large number of plastics discharged into the environment by human beings are constantly aging and breaking,and finally become microplastics.Microplastics can adsorb pollutants in the environment,and their components have certain toxicity,which can cause different degrees of harm to organisms.Due to the structural characteristics of microplastic particles,such as small particle size,large specific surface area,and their distribution in different environmental media,it is very difficult to accurately detect microplastics.Reliable collection and detection methods are the key to the study of environmental behavior of microplastics.In this study,the collection and detection methods of microplastics in the environment were reviewed,and the development direction of microplastics detection technology in the future was prospected.This study has a certain reference value for the related research and the prevention and treatment of micro-plastic pollution.

An Evidence-Based CoCoSo Framework with Double Hierarchy Linguistic Data for Viable Selection of Hydrogen Storage Methods

Hydrogen is the new age alternative energy source to combat energy demand and climate change.Storage of hydrogen is vital for a nation’s growth.Works of literature provide different methods for storing the produced hydrogen,and the rational selection of a viable method is crucial for promoting sustainability and green practices.Typically,hydrogen storage is associated with diverse sustainable and circular economy(SCE)criteria.As a result,the authors consider the situation a multi-criteria decision-making(MCDM)problem.Studies infer that previous models for hydrogen storage method(HSM)selection(i)do not consider preferences in the natural language form;(ii)weights of experts are not methodically determined;(iii)hesitation of experts during criteria weight assessment is not effectively explored;and(iv)three-stage solution of a suitable selection of HSM is unexplored.Driven by these gaps,in this paper,authors put forward a new integrated framework,which considers double hierarchy linguistic information for rating,criteria importance through inter-criteria correlation(CRITIC)for expert weight calculation,evidence-based Bayesian method for criteria weight estimation,and combined compromise solution(CoCoSo)for ranking HSMs.The applicability of the developed framework is testified by using a case example of HSM selection in India.Sensitivity and comparative analysis reveal the merits and limitations of the developed framework.

Bound-Preserving Discontinuous Galerkin Methods with Modified Patankar Time Integrations for Chemical Reacting Flows

In this paper,we develop bound-preserving discontinuous Galerkin(DG)methods for chemical reactive flows.There are several difficulties in constructing suitable numerical schemes.First of all,the density and internal energy are positive,and the mass fraction of each species is between 0 and 1.Second,due to the rapid reaction rate,the system may contain stiff sources,and the strong-stability-preserving explicit Runge-Kutta method may result in limited time-step sizes.To obtain physically relevant numerical approximations,we apply the bound-preserving technique to the DG methods.Though traditional positivity-preserving techniques can successfully yield positive density,internal energy,and mass fractions,they may not enforce the upper bound 1 of the mass fractions.To solve this problem,we need to(i)make sure the numerical fluxes in the equations of the mass fractions are consistent with that in the equation of the density;(ii)choose conservative time integrations,such that the summation of the mass fractions is preserved.With the above two conditions,the positive mass fractions have summation 1,and then,they are all between 0 and 1.For time discretization,we apply the modified Runge-Kutta/multi-step Patankar methods,which are explicit for the flux while implicit for the source.Such methods can handle stiff sources with relatively large time steps,preserve the positivity of the target variables,and keep the summation of the mass fractions to be 1.Finally,it is not straightforward to combine the bound-preserving DG methods and the Patankar time integrations.The positivity-preserving technique for DG methods requires positive numerical approximations at the cell interfaces,while Patankar methods can keep the positivity of the pre-selected point values of the target variables.To match the degree of freedom,we use polynomials on rectangular meshes for problems in two space dimensions.To evolve in time,we first read the polynomials at the Gaussian points.Then,suitable slope limiters can be applied to enforce the positivity of the solutions at those points,which can be preserved by the Patankar methods,leading to positive updated numerical cell averages.In addition,we use another slope limiter to get positive solutions used for the bound-preserving technique for the flux.Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the good performance of the proposed schemes.

Numerical Investigations on the Resonance Errors of Multiscale Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for One-Dimensional Stationary Schrödinger Equation

In this paper,numerical experiments are carried out to investigate the impact of penalty parameters in the numerical traces on the resonance errors of high-order multiscale discontinuous Galerkin(DG)methods(Dong et al.in J Sci Comput 66:321–345,2016;Dong and Wang in J Comput Appl Math 380:1–11,2020)for a one-dimensional stationary Schrödinger equation.Previous work showed that penalty parameters were required to be positive in error analysis,but the methods with zero penalty parameters worked fine in numerical simulations on coarse meshes.In this work,by performing extensive numerical experiments,we discover that zero penalty parameters lead to resonance errors in the multiscale DG methods,and taking positive penalty parameters can effectively reduce resonance errors and make the matrix in the global linear system have better condition numbers.

Synthesis of Reviews on Auscultation, Approaches, and Methods for Engineering Structures

Topometric auscultation is used to monitor the durability of structures, measure deformations linked to the structure of a structure or to the movement of the ground over a part of the globe, set up warning systems, etc. It first appeared as a visual method and rapidly evolved through the various techniques used. Some of these techniques using topography are used in several fields (civil engineering, geodesy, topography, mechanics, nuclear engineering, hydraulics, physics, etc.). These topometric techniques have undergone major changes as a result of technological advances, growing needs in the monitoring of movements or deformations, increased requirements and new challenges. The methodology adopted depends on the measuring instrument used, the parameters to be estimated and access to the area to be measured. There are two types of methods: destructive and non-destructive. In addition to the visual method, they can also be classified as mechanical, physico-chemical, dynamometric, electrophysical and geometric. The estimated parameter varies according to the methodology adopted. It can be defined by coordinates, distances, potential, electrical resistance, etc.

Superconvergence of Direct Discontinuous Galerkin Methods:Eigen-structure Analysis Based on Fourier Approach

This paper investigates superconvergence properties of the direct discontinuous Galerkin(DDG)method with interface corrections and the symmetric DDG method for diffusion equations.We apply the Fourier analysis technique to symbolically compute eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the amplification matrices for both DDG methods with different coefficient settings in the numerical fluxes.Based on the eigen-structure analysis,we carry out error estimates of the DDG solutions,which can be decomposed into three parts:(i)dissipation errors of the physically relevant eigenvalue,which grow linearly with the time and are of order 2k for P^(k)(k=2,3)approximations;(ii)projection error from a special projection of the exact solution,which is decreasing over the time and is related to the eigenvector corresponding to the physically relevant eigenvalue;(iii)dissipative errors of non-physically relevant eigenvalues,which decay exponentially with respect to the spatial mesh sizeΔx.We observe that the errors are sensitive to the choice of the numerical flux coefficient for even degree P^(2)approximations,but are not for odd degree P^(3)approximations.Numerical experiments are provided to verify the theoretical results.