Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are a simple and proven method to protect hot section components. Suspension Plasma Spray (SPS), an emerging process technology to generate TBCs, compared with traditional Atmospheric Plasma Spray APS, can deposit thinner coat-ings with finer microstructure. Operating parameters play an important role in developing certain properties of coating. In this thesis work, power level, gas flow rate, number of spray-ing strokes, spray gun's nozzle size i.e. internal diameter and suspension rate were controlled to produce coatings with different microstructures and porosity levels. According to the ex-perimental results, the power level of plasma gun play an essential role on coating micro-structure, for instance, the density of vertical cracks increased with growing the power level. The number of spraying strokes showed also an impact on coating porosity. However, due to different nozzle sizes i.e. diameter, the same coating property were controlled by different operating parameters. For coatings deposited by small and large nozzles, their coating thick-ness and roughness mainly relied on power level and gas flow rate. In contrary, it seems that the coating roughness was not influenced by the same parameters when it was deposited by medium nozzle. Also, gas flow rate do not have as big as influence on coating thickness

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate properties of functions which are limits of functions with prescribed properties. Chapter II asks the question "Does a function which is the limit of a sequence of functions each of which is endowed with a certain property necessarily have that property?"

The purpose of this investigation is to alleviate this confusion by first testing means of separating the antigenic components of the aerobic actinomycetes--obtaining, if possible, a monospecific antigen. Antisera produced from these monospecific antigens will then be tested for their possible use in the serological grouping of the aerobic actinomycetes.

The study described in this thesis examines how modification with different thermoplastics affects the structure and properties of a tetrafunctional epoxy re5ín_ Polyetherimide (PEI) is found to give the best improvement in fracture properties without loss in Youngs Modulus and the PEI/epoxy system is used as the basis for further study. The influences of PEI concentration, initial cure temperature, test temperature and the presence of a second thermoplastic additive, are investigated. The information provided gives insight into the likely mechanisms of toughening in tetrafunctional epoxy/thermoplastic blends. Flory-Huggins Lattice Theory is used to describe miscibility behaviour for a number of curing thermoplastic/epoxy blends and the predictions compared with the actual morphologies observed. Further, the sensitivity of the expected miscibility behaviour to fluctuations in Flory Huggins interaction parameter X12 and number-average molecular weight Mn of the thermoplastic, is considered. Dynamic mechanical analysis is used to monitor the changing viscoelastic properties of curing thermoplastic/epoxy blends, allowing investigation of the way different thermoplastics influence the state transformation profile of a curing epoxy resin.

A study was made of the physical properties of a number of structurally sensitive soils some of which exhibited behaviour characteristic of hard-setting soils (soils which when wet slump and set hard, on drying presenting problems in terms of ease of cultivations and root growth). Work concentrated on an examination of soils of the Wick series at two sites at the Institute of Horticultural Research, Wellesbourne, where there is a documented history of consistent differences in crop yields between sites. The worse site (Big Ground) had been intensively managed for considerably longer than the better one (Plum Orchard). Dry bulk density measurements over the growing season suggest that slumping occurred on both sites. Big Ground had the greatest bulk density (typically over 1.65 g/cm3). Field and laboratory penetrometer measurements have shown that under relatively dry (an 8% moisture content) conditions roots would experience severe mechanical impedence on both sites. Root counts at final harvest showed that conditions for rooting were considerably worse in Big Ground where all roots were confined to the top 30 cm. Root growth was better in Plum Orchard and was concentrated in between peds, which did not exist at Big Ground. Laboratory strength (unconfined compressive and indirect tensile) and friability measurements on equilibrated samples also showed up differences between the two sites; the greates differences existing between 1 and 10 bar tension with Big Ground samples exhibiting the greatest strengths and least friabilities. On both sites strengths were observed to increase sharply for a comparatively small decrease in moisture content. Implications of these results are discussed with reference to ease of cultivation and rootability. Another light texured soil from Elgin, known for its tendency to erode, was chosen as a contrast to the Wellesbourne sites. Soil at this site was shown to have much less of a tendency to slump and to create problems for root growth, compared to the Wellesbourne sites. The Elgin soil was also considerably weaker, and the sharp increase in strength observed at Wellesbourne was not observed in Elgin. A new test for water suspendable solids, performed on the Wellesbourne and Elgin soils as well as on 5 other soils known for their structural instability showed that, with the exception of the Elgin soil, a large amount of silt sized material could be brought into suspension with little soild disturbance. An explanation for hard-setting behaviour which is based on those results is suggested.

No description available.

The nature of chalcogenides as electrets is virtually an unexplored arena. Electrets now exist in a variety of forms such as the electroelectret, thermal electret, photoelectret, radioelectret and magnetelectrets. An investigation of selenium as a dielectric is employed using the method necessary for the preparation of thermal electrets. The effect of the various parameters such as charging time, charging temperature and sample dimensions are investigated and observed. From these observations a conclusion can be made to the type of preferred orientation taking place in the material; be it dipole orientation, ion transfer or carrier displacement.

Ph.D. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Ing. (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) / A theory was developed for the investigation of the optical properties of inhomogeneous layered media. Reflectivity and transmissivity analysis of multi-layered structures was realized by utilizing flow graph representations and by employing Mason's rule. This study served as a base for the development of analytical expressions in integral form for reflectivity, transmissivity, reflectance, bilinear transformed reflectance and transmittance of materials possessing inhomogeneous refractive index profiles. These proposed formulas were derived for both normal and oblique incidence and contemplate nonabsorbing, as well as, absorbing materials. An ellipsometric expression for inhomogeneous layers was also derived by employing the developed theory. Several hypothetical examples that emulate refractive index profiles in ionimplanted semiconductors were investigated, including a buried layer with a gaussian refractive index profile, and two homogeneous layers with a half-gaussian transition region between them. Curves of reflectance versus wave number were simulated using the derived formulations in two different ways: (i) employing numerical methods (ii) applying analytical solutions. The performance of these simulations was compared to standard techniques such as the matrix method and the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation. Very good agreement between the proposed theory and the matrix technique was found. The developed formulations were appropriate even at wave numbers where the WKB approximation was not valid. It must be stressed that the analysis of the reflectance at these wave numbers is important in the study of processed semiconductors. In comparison to the matrix technique, the integral formulation led to substantial time saving, which, depending on the particular application, was between one and two orders of magnitude faster. This fact indicated that the developed expressions for reflectance and transmittance can be used to great advantage in least-square curve-fit ...