Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Thorpe, Arthur N..
The Center for the Study of Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Atmospheres (CSTEA) was established in 1992. The center began with 14 active Principal Investigators (PI's). The research of the Center's PIs has, for the most part, continued in the same four areas as presented in the original proposal: Remote Sensing, Atmospheric Chemistry, Sensors and Detectors, and Spacecraft Dynamics.
Experiments carried out during the progress period are summarized. Experiments carried out involving glass samples exposed to solutions of Tris have shown the appearance of 'spikes' upon monitoring glass dissolution as a function of time. The periodic 'spikes' observed in Tris-based media were interpreted in terms of cracking due to excessive stress in the surface region of the glass. Studies of the interactions of silicate glasses with metal ions in buffered media were extended to systems containing Al. Caps buffer was used to establish the pH. The procedures used are described and the results are given. Preliminary studies were initiated as to the feasibility of adding a slowly dissolving solid compound of the additive to the glass-water system to maintain a supply of dissolved additive. It appears that several magnesium compounds have a suitable combination of solubility and affinity towards silicate glass surfaces to have a pronounced retarding effect on the extraction of uranium from the glass. These preliminary findings raise the possibility that introducing a magnesium source into geologic repositories for nuclear waste glass in the form of a sparingly soluble Mg-based backfill material may cause a substantial reduction in the extent of long-term glass corrosion. The studies described also provide mechanistic understanding of the roles of various metal solutes in the leachant. Such understanding forms the basis for developing long-term predictions of nuclear waste glass durability under repository conditions. From what is known about natural highly reduced glasses such as tektites, it is clear that iron is dissolved as ferrous iron with little or no ferric iron. The reducing conditions were high enough to cause metallic iron to exsolve out of the glass in the form of submicroscopic spherules. As the nuclear waste glass is much less reduced, a study was initiated on other natural glasses in addition to the nuclear waste glass. Extensive measurements were carried out on these glasses in order to characterize their magnetic properties. Results of these studies are described.
The preparation of high-temperature superconducting ceramics in bulk form is a major challenge in materials science. The current status of both partial melting and melt quenching techniques, with or without an intermediate powder processing stage, is described in detail, and the problems associated with each of the methods are discussed. Results of studies performed on melt-processed materials are reported and discussed. The discussion places emphasis on magnetization and on other physical properties associated with it, such as critical current density, levitation force, and flux creep. The nature of structural features which give rise to flux pinning, including both small and large defects, is discussed with reference to theoretical considerations. The rates of flux creep and the factors involved in attempting to retard the decay of the magnetization are surveyed.
Melt-process bulk superconducting materials based on variations on the base YBa2Cu3O(x) were produced in a variety of shapes and forms. Very high values of both zero-field and high-field magnetization were observed. These are useful for levitation and power applications. Magnetic measurements show that the effects of field direction and intensity, temperature and time are consistent with an aligned grain structure with multiple pinning sites and with models of thermally activated flux motion.
Y-Ba-Cu-O samples prepared by means of a variety of melt-based techniques exhibit high values for their magnetic properties compared with those of samples prepared by solid state sintering. These techniques include single-stage partial melting as well as melt quenching followed by a second heat treatment stage, and they have been applied to the stoichiometric 123 composition as well as to formulations containing excess yttrium or other dopants. The structure of these melt-based samples is highly aligned, and the magnetization readings exhibit large anisotropy. At 77 K and magnetic field intensities of about 2 kOe, diamagnetic susceptibilities as high as -14 x 10(exp -3) emu/g were obtained in the cases of melt-quenched samples and remanent magnetization values as high as 10 emu/g for samples prepared by partial melting.
The anisotropic electromagnetic features of a grain-aligned YBa2Cu3O(x) bulk sample derived from a process of long-time partial melt growth were investigated by the measurements of direct current magnetization (at 77 K) and alternating current susceptibility as a function of temperature, with the fields applied parallel and perpendicular to the c axis, respectively. The extended Bean model was further studied and applied to explain the experimental results. Upon comparison of the grain-aligned sample with pure single crystal materials, it is concluded that because of the existence of more effective pinning sites in the grain-aligned sample, not only its critical current density perpendicular to the c axis is improved, but the one parallel to the c axis is improved even more significantly. The anisotropy in the critical current densities in the grain-aligned sample at 77 K is at least one to two orders of magnitude smaller than in the pure single crystal. The measurement of anisotropy of alternating current susceptibility as a function of temperature, especially its imaginary part, shows that there are still some residues of interlayer weak links in the grain-aligned samples, but they are quite different from and far less serious than the weak links in the sintered sample.
Scanning electron microscopy of certain partially melted Y-Ba-Cu-O materials containing minority metal oxide species (Y:Tb:Ba:Cu = 1:0.1:2:3 or Y:Ba:Cu with Pt impurities), accompanied by both EDX and EMP analysis, indicates that the minority species (Tb or Pt) is quantitatively concentrated in a relatively small number of 123-type grains. High magnetic susceptibility and magnetization observed for these materials indicate that such elemental distribution is not detrimental to superconducting behavior.
A series of studies of the effects of solutes which appear in natural aqueous environments, specifically Mg and Al, under controlled conditions, permit characterization of the retardation of silicate glass leaching in water containing such solutes. In the case of Mg the interaction with the glass appears to consist of exchange with alkali ions present in the glass to a depth of several microns. The effect of Al can be observed at much lower levels, indicating that the mechanism in the case of Al involves irreversible formation of aluminosilicate species at the glass surface.
This paper compares the properties of yttrium barium cuprate bulk specimens prepared by means of solid-state sintering on one hand and of growth from a largely molten state on the other. The current paper focuses on magnetization measurements at 77 K which show specimens made by the latter method to have high remanence magnetization values.