In order to determine the type and size of the residual stress in the initial and deformed state we applied X-ray diffraction. Stress and texture measurement were done on the lateral surface of the pipe, but due to geometrical conditions, the most reliable result of the stress values were obtained for the position of the tube axis in the plane of diffraction. The difficulty in the analysis of deformation by sin Ψ ² proved to be varied by texture in both samples. Diffraction elastic constants for both samples were calculated on the basis of the orientation distribution functions. Residual stresses were calculated based on the assumptions of the Reuss model.
We derived the full form of the tensor of plastic and stiffness and elastic constants has been developed based on these models in order to enable the transformation tensor by rotation in accordance with the Einstein summation convention. In order to confirm the validity of these operations Young's surface was calculated , which is a spatial graph of the inverse element of S3333 stiffness tensor in orientation of the unit cell of the crystal.

In February I’ve started the XRD analysis of chosen Zn-Mo Alloy layers.
XRD analysis does not show the presence of molybdenum oxides, neither metallic molybdenum nor other molybdenum compounds (ZnMo7 and ZnMo22). It was found that only the hexagonal system of the Zn phase is present in the deposits The lack of any peak connected with molybdenum, regardless of the amount in the deposit, suggests that it has a nanometric or amorphous structure. The XRD studies have to be continued.

MEAM potential modelling for Al-Li alloys. Physical, dynamical et structural properties simulation in view of a new formulated MEAM potential. Imposing ternary interaction on MEAM potential and DFT study for binary alloys.

In my research I found a gleam of hope. It is possible to use EBSD technique to determine the crystallographic orientation of individual grains in the polycrystalline silicon wafer despite the fact that surface is not smooth. This means that I will be able to examine what is the actual effect of acid etching on the grains orientation and whether this method is really isotropic.

In addition, I found a nice link to the e-learning platform in photovoltaics:
http://pveducation.org/pvcdrom

Enjoy :)

This month I continued research on diffusion process in the polyelectrolyte multilayer films using CLSM imaging techniques. The experiment was performed at a temperature range of+25oC to +50oC. I also prepared a few variants of cross-linked and non-cross-linked samples for ATR-FTIR analysis which should gives me information about PEM coatings internal structure. The issue of chemical cross-linking was investigated in more details by a micro-hardness and AFM measurements.