Flexible,Highly Thermally Conductive and Electrically Insulating Phase Change Materials for Advanced Thermal Management of 5G Base Stations and Thermoelectric Generators

Thermal management has become a crucial problem for high-power-density equipment and devices.Phase change materials(PCMs)have great prospects in thermal management applications because of their large capacity of heat storage and isothermal behavior during phase transition.However,low intrinsic thermal conductivity,ease of leakage,and lack of flexibility severely limit their applications.Solving one of these problems often comes at the expense of other performance of the PCMs.In this work,we report core–sheath structured phase change nanocomposites(PCNs)with an aligned and interconnected boron nitride nanosheet network by combining coaxial electrospinning,electrostatic spraying,and hot-pressing.The advanced PCN films exhibit an ultrahigh thermal conductivity of 28.3 W m^(-1)K^(-1)at a low BNNS loading(i.e.,32 wt%),which thereby endows the PCNs with high enthalpy(>101 J g^(-1)),outstanding ductility(>40%)and improved fire retardancy.Therefore,our core–sheath strategies successfully balance the trade-off between thermal conductivity,flexibility,and phase change enthalpy of PCMs.Further,the PCNs provide powerful cooling solutions on 5G base station chips and thermoelectric generators,displaying promising thermal management applications on high-power-density equipment and thermoelectric conversion devices.

ENHANCED MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYPROPYLENE/SILICA NANOCOMPOSITES WITH SURFACE MODIFICATION OF NANO-SILICA VIA IN SITU COPOLYMERIZATION OF METHYL METHACRYLATE AND BUTYL ACRYLATE

Nano-sized silica particles were modified with methacryloxy-propyltrimethoxysilane(MPS) followed by in situ copolymerization of methyl methacrylate(MMA) and butyl acrylate(BA).These modified nanoparticles were compounded with polypropylene(PP) to prepare PP/silica nanocomposites.PMMA grafted on nano-silica enhances the dispersion of the nanoparticles and interfacial adhesion,decreases the size of PP spherulites in nanocomposites and leads to increasing the Young's modulus and toughness of PP/silica nanocomp...

SCATTERING OF LOVE WAVES BY AN INTERFACE CRACK BETWEEN A PIEZOELECTRIC LAYER AND AN ELASTIC SUBSTRATE

The scattering of Love waves by an interface crack between apiezoelectric layers and an elas- tic substrate is investigated byusing the integral transform and singular integral equationtechniques. The dy- namic stress intensity factors of the left andthe right crack tips are determined. It is found from numericalcalculation that the dynamic response of the system dependssignificantly on the crack configuration, the ma- terial combinationand the propagating direction of the incident wave. It is expectedthat specifying an appro- priate material combination may retard thegrowth of the crack for a certain crack configuration.

Role of Mechanical Stimuli in Oral Implantation

Prosthetic implantation has been a prevalent surgical procedure in dentistry. Insertion of dental implant significantly changes local oral conditions and leads to the surrounding bone to remodel to a new morphology. To predict how the bone responds such a biomechanical change, finite element analysis (FEA) based remodeling simulation has proven effective. For a range of mechanical stimuli, which should be used remains controversial arguable? This paper aims to compare how the different mechanical stimuli, including mechostat model (effective strain), daily stress and strain energy density (SED) affect the predictions of bone remodeling.

A New Hybrid Hierarchical Parallel Algorithm to Enhance the Performance of Large-Scale Structural Analysis Based on Heterogeneous Multicore Clusters

Heterogeneous multicore clusters are becoming more popular for high-performance computing due to their great computing power and cost-to-performance effectiveness nowadays.Nevertheless,parallel efficiency degradation is still a problem in large-scale structural analysis based on heterogeneousmulticore clusters.To solve it,a hybrid hierarchical parallel algorithm(HHPA)is proposed on the basis of the conventional domain decomposition algorithm(CDDA)and the parallel sparse solver.In this new algorithm,a three-layer parallelization of the computational procedure is introduced to enable the separation of the communication of inter-nodes,heterogeneous-core-groups(HCGs)and inside-heterogeneous-core-groups through mapping computing tasks to various hardware layers.This approach can not only achieve load balancing at different layers efficiently but can also improve the communication rate significantly through hierarchical communication.Additionally,the proposed hybrid parallel approach in this article can reduce the interface equation size and further reduce the solution time,which can make up for the shortcoming of growing communication overheads with the increase of interface equation size when employing CDDA.Moreover,the distributed sparse storage of a large amount of data is introduced to improve memory access.By solving benchmark instances on the Shenwei-Taihuzhiguang supercomputer,the results show that the proposed method can obtain higher speedup and parallel efficiency compared with CDDA and more superior extensibility of parallel partition compared with the two-level parallel computing algorithm(TPCA).

High-entropy catalysts for electrochemical water-electrolysis of hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions

High entropy materials (HEMs) have developed rapidly in the field of electrocatalytic water-electrolysis for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to their unique properties. In particular, HEM catalysts are composed of many elements. Therefore, they have rich active sites and enhanced entropy stability relative to single atoms. In this paper, the preparation strategies and applications of HEM catalysts in electrochemical water-electrolysis are reviewed to explore the stabilization of HEMs and their catalytic mechanisms as well as their application in support green hydrogen production. First, the concept and four characteristics of HEMs are introduced based on entropy and composition. Then, synthetic strategies of HEM catalysts are systematically reviewed in terms of the categories of bottom-up and top-down. The application of HEMs as catalysts for electrochemical water-electrolysis in recent years is emphatically discussed, and the mechanisms of improving the performance of electrocatalysis is expounded by combining theoretical calculation technology and ex-situ/in situ characterization experiments. Finally, the application prospect of HEMs is proposed to conquer the challenges in HEM catalyst fabrications and applications.

Design of multi-layered porous fibrous metals for optimal sound absorption in the low frequency range

We present a design method for calculating and optimizing sound absorption coefficient of multi-layered porous fibrous metals （PFM） in the low frequency range. PFM is simplified as an equivalent idealized sheet with all metallic fibers aligned in one direction and distributed in periodic hexagonal patterns. We use a phenomenological model in the literature to investigate the effects of pore geometrical parameters （fiber diameter and gap） on sound absorption performance. The sound absorption coefficient of multi- layered PFMs is calculated using impedance translation theorem, To demonstrate the validity of the present model, we compare the predicted results with the experimental data. With the average sound absorption （low frequency range） as the objective function and the fiber gaps as the design variables, an optimization method for multi-layered fibrous metals is proposed. A new fibrous layout with given porosity of multi-layered fibrous metals is suggested to achieve optimal low frequency sound absorption. The sound absorption coefficient of the optimal multi-layered fibrous metal is higher than the single- layered fibrous metal, and a significant effect of the fibrous material on sound absorption is found due to the surface Dorosity of the multi-layered fibrous.

Characterization of cuttlebone for a biomimetic design of cellular structures

Cuttlebone is a natural material possessing the multifunctional properties of high porosity, high flexural stiffness and compressive strength, making it a fine example of design optimization of cellular structures created by nature. Examination of cuttlebone using scanning electron micros- copy （SEM） reveals an approximately periodic microstruc- ture, appropriate for computational characterization using direct homogenization techniques. In this paper, volume fractions and stiffness tensors were determined based on two different unit cell models that were extracted from two different cuttlefish samples. These characterized results were then used as the target values in an inverse homogenization procedure aiming to re-generate microstructures with the same properties as cuttlebone. Unit cells with similar topologies to the original cuttlebone unit cells were achieved, attaining the same volume fraction （i.e. bulk density） and the same （or very close） stiffness tensor. In addition, a range of alternate unit cell topologies were achieved also attaining the target properties, revealing the non-unique nature of this inverse homogenization problem.

TOPOLOGY SYNTHESIS OF GEOMETRICALLY NONLINEAR COMPLIANT MECHANISMS USING MESHLESS METHODS

This paper presents a new method for topology optimization of geometrical nonlinear compliant mechanisms using the element-free Galerkin method （EFGM）. The EFGM is employed as an alternative scheme to numerically solve the state equations by fully taking advantage of its capability in dealing with large displacement problems. In the meshless method, the imposition of essential boundary conditions is also addressed. The popularly studied solid isotropic material with the penalization （SIMP） scheme is used to represent the nonlinear dependence between material properties and regularized discrete densities. The output displacement is regarded as the objective function and the adjoint method is applied to finding the sensitivity of the design functions. As a result, the optimization of compliant mechanisms is mathematically established as a nonlinear programming problem, to which the method of moving asymptotes （MMA） belonging to the sequential convex programming can be applied. The availability of the present method is finally demonstrated with several widely investigated numerical examples.

Dynamic Simulation of Shear-induced Particle Migration in a Two-dimensional Circular Couette Device

The shear-induced migration of neutrally-buoyant non-colloidal circular particles in a two-dimensional circular Couette flow is investigated numerically with a distributed Lagrange multiplier based fictitious domain method.The effects of inertia and volume fraction on the particle migration are examined.The results indicate that inertia has a negative effect on the particle migration.In consistence with the experimental observations,the rapid migration of particles near the inner cylinder at the early stage is observed in the simulation,which is believed to be related to the chain-like clustering of particles.The migration of circular particles in a plane Poiseuille flow is also examined in order to further confirm the effect of such clustering on the particle migration at early stage.There is tendency for the particles in the vicinity of outer cylinder in the Couette device to pack into concentric rings at late stage in case of high particle concentration.

Unusual thermal properties of graphene origami crease:A molecular dynamics study

Graphene is a two-dimensional material that can be folded into diverse and yet interesting nanostructures like macro-scale paper origami.Folding of graphene not only makes different morphological configurations but also modifies their mechanical and thermal properties.Inspired by paper origami,herein we studied systemically the effects of creases,where sp^(2)to sp^(3)bond transformation occurs,on the thermal properties of graphene origami using molecular dynamics(MD)simulations.Our MD simulation results show that tensile strain reduces(not increases)the interfacial thermal resistance owing to the presence of the crease.This unusual phenomenon is explained by the micro-heat flux migration and stress distribution.Our findings on the graphene origami enable the design of the next-generation thermal management devices and flexible electronics with tuneable properties.

REDUCTION APPROACHES FOR VIBRATION CONTROL OF REPETITIVE STRUCTURES

The reduction approaches are presented for vibration control of symmetric, cyclic periodic and linking structures. The condensation of generalized coordinates, the locations of sensors and actuators, and the relation between system inputs and control forces are assumed to be set in a symmetric way so that the control system posses the same repetition as the structure considered. By employing proper transformations of condensed generalized coordinates and the system inputs, the vibration control of an entire system can be implemented by carrying out the control of a number of sub-structures, and thus the dimension of the control problem can be significantly reduced.

Dual-Porosity Apparent Permeability Models of Unconventional Gas Migration Based on Biot’s Porous Media

Stress-dependent permeability models are developed for the organic pores and inorganic cleats/fractures in unconventional gas reservoirs,which are modeled as Biot’s porous media of dual-porosity.Further considering multiple flow mechanisms such as dynamic effects of gas flow and surface diffusion,apparent permeability models are obtained to investigate the characteristics of unconventional gas migration.Compared to the gas transfer in single-porosity reservoirs,the gas migration ability of cleats in dual-porosity stratums rarely changes while that of organic pores is greatly improved because cleats sustain major geomechanical shrinkage deformation when the pore pressure drops.Further,the mass flux of reservoirs is dominated by the mass flux of cleats,which has a lower peak value,but a much longer production term than those in single-porosity reservoirs due to the interaction between organic pores and cleats.Parametric analysis is conducted to identify key factors significantly impacting mass flux in unconventional reservoirs.Reasons for the mass flux variation are also explored in terms of gas migration ability and pore pressure distribution.

Correlation between precipitates evolution and mechanical properties of Al-Sc-Zr alloy with Er additions

Correlation between precipitates evolution and mechanical properties of Al-Sc-Zr alloy with Er additions during isothermal ageing were investigated by microhardness measurements,transmission electron microscopy,atom probe tomography and density functional theory-based simulations.The results demonstrate that the Er additions significantly improve the hardness during elevated temperature ageing,especially at 400℃.This is mainly because Er additions increase the nucleation rate of the Al_(3)(Er,Sc,Zr)precipitates,resulting in a higher density of fine and uniform dispersion of L1_(2)structured nanoparticles.First-principles calculations demonstrate that the second nearest neighboring solute-solute interactions for the species Sc,Zr and Er are energetically favored–a key feature to rationalize the observed precipitate structure and the underlying formation mechanism.The sequential formation of the core/shell precipitates in the Er-free alloy and core/double-shell precipitates in the Er-containing alloy arises due to the different solute-solute and solute-vacancy interaction energies,and the relative diffusivities of the Er,Sc and Zr species in Al.These results shed light on the beneficial effects of Er additions on the agehardening behavior of Al-Sc-Zr alloy and provide guidance for designing the ageing treatments for the Al-Sc-Zr(-Er)alloys.

A Multilevel Hierarchical Parallel Algorithm for Large-Scale Finite Element Modal Analysis

The strict and high-standard requirements for the safety and stability ofmajor engineering systems make it a tough challenge for large-scale finite element modal analysis.At the same time,realizing the systematic analysis of the entire large structure of these engineering systems is extremely meaningful in practice.This article proposes a multilevel hierarchical parallel algorithm for large-scale finite element modal analysis to reduce the parallel computational efficiency loss when using heterogeneous multicore distributed storage computers in solving large-scale finite element modal analysis.Based on two-level partitioning and four-transformation strategies,the proposed algorithm not only improves the memory access rate through the sparsely distributed storage of a large amount of data but also reduces the solution time by reducing the scale of the generalized characteristic equation(GCEs).Moreover,a multilevel hierarchical parallelization approach is introduced during the computational procedure to enable the separation of the communication of inter-nodes,intra-nodes,heterogeneous core groups(HCGs),and inside HCGs through mapping computing tasks to various hardware layers.This method can efficiently achieve load balancing at different layers and significantly improve the communication rate through hierarchical communication.Therefore,it can enhance the efficiency of parallel computing of large-scale finite element modal analysis by fully exploiting the architecture characteristics of heterogeneous multicore clusters.Finally,typical numerical experiments were used to validate the correctness and efficiency of the proposedmethod.Then a parallel modal analysis example of the cross-river tunnel with over ten million degrees of freedom(DOFs)was performed,and ten-thousand core processors were applied to verify the feasibility of the algorithm.

环氧树脂在干摩擦过程中的表面化学效应研究

研究了环氧树脂在干摩擦下载荷为49 N和98 N时的摩擦磨损性能及其表面化学效应,利用扫描电子显微镜、X射线光电子能谱仪和傅立叶变换红外光谱仪对环氧树脂磨损表面的形貌和官能团进行观察与分析.结果表明:在载荷49 N下环氧树脂表现出良好的耐磨性能;在载荷98 N下,环氧树脂表面磨损较严重且呈脆性剥落;环氧树脂在干摩擦过程中发生的表面化学效应主要是其分子链的断裂和氧化降解,其磨损形式主要为疲劳磨损.

铜单晶循环变形饱和阶段疲劳裂纹萌生及表面区域内应力分布的模拟

利用扫描电镜电子通道衬度(SEM-ECC)技术观察了循环变形饱和阶段Cu单晶样品中近表面区域的位错微结构.在样品边缘一些条带状或斑点状呈黑色的位错组织区,利用离散位错动力学方法模拟了该区的位错微观结构,并计算了与此位错微结构相对应的内应力分布.模拟和计算结果表明,黑色区是内应力出现最大值区,即应力集中区,它与驻留滑移带(PSB)中的不均匀变形有关,是疲劳裂纹萌生最可能的位置.模拟和计算结果很好地解释了这一现象.

未折叠蛋白质的普遍初始热力学亚稳态

探索和理解蛋白质折叠问题一直是分子生物学、结构生物学和生物物理学的终极挑战.未折叠的蛋白质应该存在一种普遍初始热力学亚稳态,否则无法解释蛋白质是如何在剧烈的热振动干扰下完成快速精确折叠的.本文通过分析水溶液环境和蛋白质折叠的相关性,揭示了一种由水分子屏蔽效应引起的未折叠蛋白质的普遍初始热力学亚稳态,该亚稳态的存在是水溶液环境中水分子的物理性质决定,并赋予未折叠蛋白质抵抗热扰动和避免错误折叠的能力.我们通过研究已发表的实验数据和建立分子模型,找到了该初始热力学亚稳态存在的相关证据,并推测了该亚稳态导致蛋白质精确折叠的相关物理学机制.

血管支架不定形碳膜脱层现象实验及有限元分析

目的研究不定形碳涂层的血管支架在握压-扩张过程中发生涂层脱层的现象,从材料选择和尺寸设计方面避免脱层的发生。方法通过化学气相沉积法在金属血管支架上沉积生成不定形碳膜,实验模拟该涂层血管支架的握压-扩张过程,并通过电子扫描显微镜观察涂层发生脱层的情况。采用有限元方法分析不定形碳膜在血管支架握压-扩张过程中发生脱层的受力机制及影响因素。结果有限元结果能够较好吻合实验现象。不定形碳膜厚度决定了支架各处脱层的难易程度,以及脱层的发生形式。不定形碳膜弹性模量越大,支架越容易发生脱层。此外,支架的弹性模量也会对支架脱层产生影响,且在不同位置处影响规律不同。结论在血管支架涂层时,需要仔细设计不定形碳膜厚度以及合理匹配不定形碳膜和支架的弹性模量以避免脱层的发生。

Spider Web‑Inspired Graphene Skeleton‑Based High Thermal Conductivity Phase Change Nanocomposites for Battery Thermal Management

Phase change materials(PCMs)can be used for efficient thermal energy harvesting,which has great potential for cost-effective thermal management and energy storage.However,the low intrinsic thermal conductivity of polymeric PCMs is a bottleneck for fast and efficient heat harvesting.Simultaneously,it is also a challenge to achieve a high thermal conductivity for phase change nanocomposites at low filler loading.Although constructing a three-dimensional(3D)thermally conductive network within PCMs can address these problems,the anisotropy of the 3D framework usually leads to poor thermal conductivity in the direction perpendicular to the alignment of fillers.Inspired by the interlaced structure of spider webs in nature,this study reports a new strategy for fabricating highly thermally conductive phase change composites(sw-GS/PW)with a 3D spider web(sw)-like structured graphene skeleton(GS)by hydrothermal reaction,radial freeze-casting and vacuum impregnation in paraffin wax(PW).The results show that the sw-GS hardly affected the phase transformation behavior of PW at low loading.Especially,sw-GS/PW exhibits both high cross-plane and in-plane thermal conductivity enhancements of~1260%and~840%,respectively,at an ultra-low filler loading of 2.25 vol.%.The thermal infrared results also demonstrate that sw-GS/PW possessed promising applications in battery thermal management.