Effects of different aging treatments on microstructures and mechanical properties of Al-Cu-Li alloy joints welded by electron beam welding

Post-weld single aging treatment(solution treatment at 510 ℃ for 1 h, water quenching,and aging at 155 ℃ for 16 h) and post-weld double aging treatment(solution treatment at 510 ℃ for 1 h, water quenching, aging at 155 ℃ for 16 h, and aging at 130 ℃ for 12 h) are carried out on Al-Cu-Li alloy joints by electron beam welding(EBW) respectively. The effects of aging treatments on microstructures and mechanical properties of welded joints are investigated. Results show that the mechanical properties of welded joints are obviously improved after both aging treatments. The strength coefficient of joints is increased from 0.64 in an as-welded condition(AW) to 0.90 after post-weld double aging treatment. Microstructure analysis shows that the precipitates of the fusion zone within grains and grain boundaries are less in the AW condition. After post-weld heat treatment(PWHT), a lot of fine needle-like phases T_1(Al_2 Cu Li) precipitate in grain boundaries of the fusion zone, and more horseshoe-shaped β' (Al_3 Zr) particles precipitate within grains. In addition,grains of the fusion zone are refined after post-weld double aging treatment, which leads to an effect of grain refinement strengthening. Consequently, the mechanical properties of welded joints are greatly improved.     

Experimental study of rotor blades vibration and noise in multistage high pressure compressor and their relevance

Rotor blades fault of aeroengine compressor is mostly caused by mechanical and aerodynamic excitation. And the excitation factor of high intensity sound wave to rotor blades should not be ignored. Experimental researches are conducted on a multistage high pressure compressor. When high level vibration occurs on the first stage of rotor blades, the noise spectrum presents typical characteristic for discrete multi-tone in the compressor. The amplitude of blade vibration displacement and the sound pressure level of characteristic frequency noise increases and decreases simultaneously and reaches the maximum value at the same time. This frequency merely occur on a certain speed range and is locked in a specific range which presents no variation with the rotating speed. When high level vibration occurs on the first stage of rotor blades, the noise spectrum presents a sharp peak and the propagation state of the characteristic frequency is a helix structure in the compressor. It can be confirmed that acoustic resonance occurs in the multistage compressor. The acoustic resonance frequency and its side band frequencies are generated by modulation of a rotating noise source at the rotor speed which is the excitation source of the rotor blades vibration.     

Resolving electrons from protons in ATIC

The Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) experiment is designed for high energy cosmic ray ion detection. The possibility to identify high energy primary cosmic ray electrons in the presence of the ‘background’ of cosmic ray protons has been studied by simulating nuclear-electromagnetic cascade showers using the FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation code. The ATIC design, consisting of a graphite target and an energy detection device, a totally active calorimeter built up of 2.5 cm × 2.5 cm × 25.0 cm BGO scintillator bars, gives sufficient information to distinguish electrons from protons. While identifying about 80% of electrons as such, only about 2 in 10,000 protons (@ 150 GeV) will mimic electrons. In September of 1999 ATIC was exposed to high-energy electron and proton beams at the CERN H2 beam line, and this data confirmed the electron detection capabilities of ATIC. From 2000-12-28 to 2001-01-13 ATIC was flown as a long duration balloon test flight from McMurdo, Antarctica, recording over 360 h of data and allowing electron separation to be confirmed in the flight data. In addition, ATIC electron detection capabilities can be checked by atmospheric gamma-ray observations.     

振动车削刀杆的计算机辅助设计与实验研究

由Timoshenko理论推导出对称三阶梯超声频弯曲振动刀杆的振幅分布解和谐振频率方程,并通过编制的计算机程序绘制了表示阶梯刀杆尺寸对谐振频率和节点间距影响的三维曲面.从这些三维曲面的等高线图可以看出,两端梁的长度对谐振频率和节点间距的影响比中间梁长度对两者的影响大,所以提出一种通过缩短中间梁长度来保持重磨后刀杆节点间距不变的新方法.实验表明,理论计算与实际差距很小,谐振频率和节点间距的计算误差分别为3％和5％.从而为振动车削刀杆设计提供了方便、准确的手段.      

Comparison of Ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) over Sonmiani (Pakistan) with NeQuick-2 and IRI-2012 during July 2014 – June 2015

In this study, Total Electron Content (TEC) observations acquired by a GNSS receiver installed at Sonmiani (Geog. Coord. 25.19°N, 66.74°E, Geomag. Coord. 17.62°N, 141.5°E) are being reported for the first time. The data utilized is hourly instantaneous TEC values during 10 International Quiet Days (IQDs) per month from Jul-14 to Jun-15, totaling 120 observation days for monitoring nominal TEC. The findings confirm the semi-annual trend of TEC over Sonmiani, which lies at the northern crest of Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) region. The TEC measurements are then compared with NeQuick-2 and International Reference Ionosphere (IRI-2012) models. It was found that the TEC values derived from NeQuick-2 are in better agreement with GNSS measurements than those from IRI-2012. The TEC measurements also show seasonal variation which is largest during Equinox months. The TEC value in Dec solstice is higher than the Jun solstice, which confirms that the seasonal anomaly is playing a major role in this region during the course of study.     

Investigation on surface integrity of electron beam melted Ti-6Al-4 V by precision grinding and electropolishing

Electron beam melting (EBM), as an excellent Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology, enables the printing of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy for a wide range of applications such as aerospace and biomechanical industries. It improves functionality and integrity of components and negates complexities in assembly processes. However, due to the poor surface and sub-surface integrity represented by the rough surface finish and low dimensional accuracy, achieving a favorable surface condition is quite challenging. Therefore, post processing becomes essential for these electron beam melted (EBM-ed) Ti-6Al-4 V alloys. Being the most common technique to improve such parts, milling of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy is very challenging and resulting tool wear issues, due to its unique material properties. Thus, this paper presents a comprehensive study on the surface integrity of EBM-ed Ti-6Al-4 V parts processed by precision grinding and electropolishing, aiming to qualitatively and quantitatively clarify the interrelation between process parameters and processed surface quality. The surface and subsurface characteristics such as profile accuracy, surface roughness, microstructure, defective layer and residual stress before and after post processing were compared and evaluated. The results show that by precision grinding, the profile accuracy was improved from over 300 µm PV to 7 µm PV, while surface roughness (R_a) was reduced from 30 µm to about 2 µm. The layer with partially melt particles was removed, but introduced a deformed subsurface layer with more residual stress. Then by applying electropolishing, the residual stress was released and the deformed layer was removed. In addition, R_a was further reduced to 0.65 µm. The research can serve as a reference for the integration of post machining processes with AM.     

The quiet nighttime low-latitude ionosphere as observed by TIMED/GUVI

In this paper, we examine the nighttime ionosphere climatology structure in the low latitude region and discrepancies between Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) observations and the IRI model predictions using (1) the magnetic zonal mean of electron number density as a function of altitude and magnetic latitude, (2) vertical electron density profiles at various levels of F10.7 index, (3) nighttime descent and magnitude decrease of the ionosphere, (4) point-to-point comparisons of F-peak height (hmF2) and density (NmF2), and (5) the magnetic longitudinal variations of hmF2 and NmF2. The data collected from the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics, and Dynamics (TIMED) mission since its launch in December 2001 have provided great opportunities for many scientific investigations of the ionosphere. In this analysis, we investigate the climatology of the nighttime low-latitude ionosphere under low geomagnetic activity (kp ? 4) using the electron density profiles inferred from the airglow measurements obtained by the GUVI aboard the TIMED spacecraft and compared with the results obtained from IRI (International Reference Ionosphere) model-2001. The observed climatology is an essential tool for further understanding the electrodynamics in the low-latitude region and improving the model’s prediction capability. The time range of the GUVI data used in this study is from 2002 (day 053) to 2006 (day 304), and the IRI model predictions were produced at every GUVI location. The ionosphere observed is generally of greater density than what IRI predicts throughout the night for all four seasons for low and moderate solar activity while the model over-predicts the electron density near the F-region peak at high solar activity before midnight. Observations show that the height of the F-region peak has a steep descent from dusk to midnight and near midnight the height of layer is insensitive to solar conditions, significantly different than what is predicted by IRI. Longitudinal features shown in GUVI data are present in the low-latitude ionosphere after sunset and continue through to midnight after which the low-latitude ionosphere is largely zonally symmetric.     

Improvements in bottomside electron density definition in the Autoscala program

Some improvements introduced in the Autoscala program are presented. They include improvements in E valley modeling of the electron density profile N_e(h), and in the link between the E valley and bottom-side F regions. An abrupt variation in N_e(h) generated by the previous version of Autoscala under night conditions has been eliminated.A series of ionograms recorded by the Millstone Hill digisonde (42.6°, 288.5°) were automatically interpreted by the previous version of Autoscala and by the new one. Data from Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) were used to comparatively assess the performance of the two versions. For this purpose, the root mean square errors (RMSEs) of the N_e(h) provided by Autoscala were calculated relative to the corresponding values provided by ISR.A more accurate overall modeling of N_e(h) was achieved by the new Autoscala version (RMSE = 0.51 MHz for the new version against RMSE = 0.67 MHz for the previous one).     

负载对超声加工声学系统特性的影响

以一维超声振动系统为研究对象,以点、线、面三种不同的加载方式对工件进行加载,研究了负载对超声加工声学系统特性的影响。实验表明,当以点、线的加载方式对工件进行加载时,载荷的变化对声学系统特性各参数的影响不大;而当加载方式为面接触时,机械品质因数Qm、谐振频率fs和动态电阻R随着载荷F的增大有明显的增大趋势,动态电容C和最大电导Gmax却随着载荷F的增大而减小。