Thick β-SiC CVD-Coated SiC Die System for Dry Cold Forging of Metals

A thick β-SiC CVD (chemical vapor deposition)-coated SiC device was developed as a new punch and die system for dry, cold forging of pure titanium and austenitic stainless-steel works. This β-SiC coating thickness was 4 mm, enough to make mechanical machining of a cavity into β-SiC coating core die. These β-SiC-coated punch and core dies were fixed into the cassette die for dry, cold forging experiments. The stainless steel and titanium wires with diameters of 1.0 mm were employed as the work material. Different from the conventional metallic and ceramic die systems suffering from work material transfer, this system sustained the galling-free cold, dry forging behavior up to a higher reduction of thickness than 30%. The power to stroke the relationship was in situ monitored to describe this forging behavior up to the specified reduction of the wires together with observations on the geometric change from a circular wire to a pentagonal prism bar. Precise scanning electron microscopy-electron-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) analyses were performed to describe the material compatibility on the contact interface between β-SiC coating and elastoplastically deforming works.

Constitutive Model of Stress-Dependent Seepage in Columnar Jointed Rock Mass

Columnar jointed rock mass (CJRM) is a highly symmetrical natural fractured structure. As the rock mass of the dam foundation of the Baihetan Hydropower Station, the study of its permeability anisotropy is of great significance to engineering safety. Based on the theory of composite mechanics and Goodman’s joint superposition principle, the constitutive model of joints of CJRM is derived according to the Quadrangular prism, the Pentagonal prism and the Hexagonal prism model; combined with Singh’s research results on intermittent joint stress concentration, considering column deflection angles, the joint constitutive model of CJRM in three-dimensional space is established. For the CJRM in the Baihetan dam site area, the Quadrangular prism, the Pentagonal prism and the Hexagonal prism constitutive models were used to calculate the permeability coefficients of CJRM under different deflection angles. The permeability anisotropy characteristics of the three models were compared and verified by numerical simulation results. The results show that the calculation results of the Pentagonal prism model are in good agreement with the numerical simulation results. The variation of permeability coefficient under different confining pressures is compared, and the relationship between permeability coefficient and confining pressure is obtained, which accords with the negative exponential function and conforms to the general rule of joint seepage.

Untethered soft robotic matter with passive control of shape morphing and propulsion

There is growing interest in creating untethered soft robotic matter that can repeatedly shape-morph and self-propel in response to external stimuli. Toward this goal, we printed soft robotic matter composed of liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) bilayers with orthogonal director alignment and different nematic-to-isotropic transition temperatures (TNI) to form active hinges that interconnect polymeric tiles. When heated above their respective actuation temperatures, the printed LCE hinges exhibit a large, reversible bending response. Their actuation response is programmed by varying their chemistry and printed architecture. Through an integrated design and additive manufacturing approach, we created passively controlled, untethered soft robotic matter that adopts task-specific configurations on demand, including a self-twisting origami polyhedron that exhibits three stable configurations and a “rollbot” that assembles into a pentagonal prism and self-rolls in programmed responses to thermal stimuli.

Microscopy and development of a remarkable pitted quill from the thin-spined porcupine, Chaetomys subspinosus

Scanning electron microscopy shows that the quill surface from the thin-spined porcupine (Chaetomys subspinosus (Olfers, 1818)) has several regional cuticular patterns of which the most expansive is highly pitted with 4 μm wide pores leading to pits, which in turn communicate circumferentially via tunnels to neighboring pits. The cell unit of the pitted layer is a hexagonal or pentagonal prism, the “pitted fibrillous cuticular cell” (PFCC), which has a superficial pitted cuticular scale derived part with an underlying part packed with fine fibrils and the nucleus. The scaled part has about six scales, which swell and fuse except where raised cuticular scales from the inner root sheath intervene. This unique and complicated cell soon dies even while below the skin’s surface during its development. The raised scale-bearing cells of the inner root sheath leave their imprints on the PFCC’s surface, thus indicating that the quill’s pitted layer is at one time soft. Histochemistry, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry show that the PFCC is keratinous.

Transition from exohedral to endohedral geometries of anionic and neutral B4Sin (n = 4–15) clusters: quantum chemical calculations

B4Si14− and B4Si15 sizes are critical for forming B4-endohedral structures for anionic and neutral clusters, respectively. B4Si14− adopts a tetracapped B4-endohedral pentagonal prism and B4Si15 neutral is a pentacapped B4-endohedral pentagonal prism.