Accurate quantitative CF-LIBS analysis of both major and minor elements in alloys via iterative correction of plasma temperature and spectral intensity

The chemical composition of alloys directly determines their mechanical behaviors and application fields. Accurate and rapid analysis of both major and minor elements in alloys plays a key role in metallurgy quality control and material classification processes. A quantitative calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy（CF-LIBS） analysis method, which carries out combined correction of plasma temperature and spectral intensity by using a secondorder iterative algorithm and two boundary standard samples, is proposed to realize accurate composition measurements. Experimental results show that, compared to conventional CF-LIBS analysis, the relative errors for major elements Cu and Zn and minor element Pb in the copperlead alloys has been reduced from 12%, 26% and 32% to 1.8%, 2.7% and 13.4%, respectively.The measurement accuracy for all elements has been improved substantially.

The effect of different intensity measures and earthquake directions on the seismic assessment of skewed highway bridges

In this study the probable seismic behavior of skewed bridges with continuous decks under earthquake excitations from different directions is investigated. A 45° skewed bridge is studied. A suite of 20 records is used to perform an Incremental Dynamic Analysis （IDA） for fragility curves. Four different earthquake directions have been considered： -45°, 0°, 22.5, 45°. A sensitivity analysis on different spectral intensity measures is presented; efficiency and practicality of different intensity measures have been studied. The fragility curves obtained indicate that the critical direction for skewed bridges is the skew direction as well as the longitudinal direction. The study shows the importance of finding the most critical earthquake in understanding and predicting the behavior of skewed bridges.

Field survey around strong motion stations and its implications on the seismic intensity in the Lushan earthquake on April 20,2013

The Ms7.0 Lushan earthquake on April 20, 2013 is another destructive event in China since the Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and Ms7.1 Yushu earth- quake in 2010. A large number of strong motion recordings were accumulated by the National Strong Motion Obser- vation Network System of China. The maximum peak ground acceleration （PGA） at Station 51BXD in Baoxing Country is recorded as -1,005.3 cm/s2, which is even larger than the maximum one in the Wenchuan earthquake. A field survey around three typical strong motion stations confirms that the earthquake damage is consistent with the issued map of macroseismic intensity. For the oscillation period 0.3-1.0 s which is the common natural period range of the Chinese civil building, a comparison shows that the observed response spectrums are considerably smaller than the designed values in the Chinese code and this could be one of the reasons that the macroseismic intensity is lower than what we expected despite the high amplitude of PGAs. The Housner spectral intensities from 16 stations are also basically correlated with their macroseismic intensities, and the empirical distribution of spectral intensities from Lushan and Wenchuan Earthquakes under the Chinese scale is almost identical with those under the European scale.

Balmer H_α,H_β and H_γ Spectral Lines Intensities in High-Power RF Hydrogen Plasmas

Hα（Balmer-alpha）, Hβ （Balmer-beta） and Hγ （Balmer-gamma） spectral line inten- sities in atomic hydrogen plasma are investigated by using a high-power RF source. The intensities of the Hα, Hβ and Hγ spectral lines are detected by increasing the input power （0-6 kW） of ICPs （inductively coupled plasmas）. With the increase of net input power, the intensity of Hα im- proves rapidly （0-2 kW）, and then reaches its dynamic equilibrium; the intensities of Hβ can be divided into three processes： obvious increase （0-2 kW）, rapid increase （2-4 kW）, almost constant （4-6 kW）; while the intensities of Hγ increase very slowly. The energy levels of the excited hydro- gen atoms and the splitting energy levels produced by an obvious Stark effect play an important role in the results.

Influence of Pressure and Discharge Voltage on Spectral Intensities in a Pulsed Nitrogen Discharge Supersonic Free-Jet

The effects of the pressure and discharge voltage on the spectral intensities of the second positive and first negative systems were studied in a pulsed nitrogen discharge supersonic flee-jet. The results show that a stabilized discharge condition was reached when the vacuum chamber pressure increased to 100 Pa. Both N2（C^3∏u） and N＋（B^2∑u^＋） states were highly populated at a pressure of 100 Pa to 130 Pa. The active state N2（C^3∏u）could be selectively populated at a low pressure of 10 Pa and a discharge voltage of 4500 V. Different populating mechanisms under the experimental conditions for N2（C^3∏u） and N＋（B^2∑u^＋） states were proposed to account for the experimental results.

Spectral Analysis of the Light Flash Produced by a Natural Dolomite Plate Under Strong Shock

In order to obtain the elemental compositions of the projectile and target materials during 2A12 aluminum projectile shot on a natural dolomite plate, three kinds of experiments have been conducted using a spectral acquirement system established on a two-stage light gas gun for impact velocities ranging from 2.20 km/s to 4.20 km/s, at the same projectile incidence angle of 30°. Experimental results show that the elemental compositions of the projectile and target materials in the strong shock experiments have a good agreement with the original elemental compositions of the projectile and target. In addition, the relations between spectral radiant intensity and elemental compositions of the projectile and target materials have been obtained for different impact velocities, in which the spectral radiant intensity of the main elements in the material increases with increasing impact velocity, and more elements appear with increasing impact velocity since more energy would result from a higher velocity impact.

Ultrafast plasmon dynamics in asymmetric gold nanodimers

We theoretically investigate the effect of symmetry breaking on the ultrafast plasmon responses of Au nanodisk(ND)dimers by varying the diameter of one of the constituent nanodisks.In the case of a single ultrafast laser pulse,we demonstrate that the ultrafast responses of Au ND homodimer can be significantly modified due to the effect of symmetry breaking.The symmetric dimer shows a single broad spectral peak,whereas the size-asymmetric dimer shows three spectral peaks.The first system displays at most one temporal maximum and no beats in ultrafast temporal,whereas the second system may have three temporal maxima and two beats due to a combination of broken symmetry and the coherent superposition between various plasmon modes induced by the ultra-short laser pulse.Moreover,the shape of temporal dynamics of the size-asymmetric dimer is significantly deformed due to the excitation of local plasmon modes with different wavelength components.Furthermore,the decay time of the amplitude of the local field is longer and oscillates with a high frequency due to the narrower linewidth and red-shifted spectral peaks.We show that the ultrafast plasmon responses of both dimers can be controlled by varying the relative phase and time delays between a pair of two pulses.Our results will open new paths to understanding ultrafast plasmon responses in asymmetric heterodimers with suitable properties for different applications.

Optical Emission Spectroscopic Studies of ICP Ar Plasma

The ion line of 434.8 nm and atom line of 419.8 nm of Ar plasma produced by an inductively coupled plasma （ICP） were measured by optical emission spectroscopy and the influences from the working gas pressure, radio-frequency （RF） power and different positions in the discharge chamber on the line intensities were investigated in this study. It was found that the intensity of Ar atom line increased firstly and then saturated with the increase of the pressure. The line intensity of Ar^＋, on the other hand, reached a maximum value and then decreased along with the pressure. The intensity of the line in an RF discharge also demonstrated a jumping mode and a hysteresis phenomenon with the RF power. When the RF power increased to 400 W, the discharge jumped from the E-mode to the H-mode where the line intensity of Ar atom demonstrated a sudden increase, while the intensity of Ar^＋ ion only changed slightly. If the RF power decreased from a high value, e.g., 1000 W, the discharge would jump from the H-mode back to the E-mode at a power of 300 W. At this time the intensities of Ar and Ar^＋ lines would also decrease sharply. It was also noticed in this paper that the intensity of the ion line depended on the detective location in the chamber, namely at the bottom of the chamber the line was more intense than that in the middle of the chamber, but less intense than at the top, which is considered to be related to the capacitance coupling ability of the ICP plasma in different discharge areas.

Seismic running safety of trains and a new type of seismic-isolation railway structure

Until now,seismic-isolation structures have not yet been applied in the railway field.The reason is that though a seismic-isolation structure can reduce the inertial force to the structure,the energy absorption causes big response displacement on the structure,which adversely effects the running safety of the trains supported by the structure.In this paper,a methodology for seismic running safety assessment is introduced,and a new type of seismic-isolation foundation is proposed,which can convert the seismic response displacement in the lateral direction of track to the longitudinal direction that has a less adverse effect on the running safety of the train.The isolation foundation is composed of FPS(Friction Pendulum System)slider,concave plate and guide ditch.Moreover,through model experiments and 3D numerical simulation,it is verified that the proposed foundation can keep both the effects of the seismic isolation and the running safety of the train during an earthquake.