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The characterization of the mechanical behavior of elastocaloric materials is essential to identify their viability in heating/cooling devices. Natural rubber (NR) is a promising elastocaloric (eC) polymer as it requires low external stress to induce a wide temperature span, ΔT. Nonetheless, solutions are needed to further improve DT, especially when targeting cooling applications. To this aim, we designed NR-based materials and optimized the specimen thickness, the density of their chemical crosslinks, and the quantity of ground tire rubber (GTR) used as reinforcing fillers. The eC properties under a single and cyclic loading conditions of the resulting vulcanized rubber composites were investigated via the measure of the heat exchange at the specimen surface using infrared thermography. The highest eC performance was found with the specimen geometry with the lowest thickness (0.6 mm) and a GTR content of 30 wt.%. The maximum temperature span under single interrupted cycle and multiple continuous cycles were equal to 12 °C and 4 °C, respectively. These results were assumed to be related to more homogeneous curing in these materials and to a higher crosslink density and GTR content which both act as nucleating elements for the strain-induced crystallization at the origin of the eC effect. This investigation would be of interest for the design of eC rubber-based composites in eco-friendly heating/cooling devices.

High-sensitivity detection of acoustic emission from granite under uniaxial stress, together with advanced statistical analysis, shows changing collapse mechanisms when a sample is pre-heated. Massive microstructural changes occur at temperatures >500 °C while low-temperature (<

A new genus from the Philippines, Philippistenia, is proposed to gather three species previously allocated in Distenia (Distenia) Lepeletier & Audinet-Serville, 1828: Philippistenia heterotarsalis (Heller, 1923) comb. nov.; P. levitemporalis (Heller, 1924) comb. nov.; and P. halconensis (Vives, 2012) comb. nov. Distenia samarensis Villiers, 1959 is proposed as a junior synonym of P. heterotarsalis. Photographs of Philippistenia species are provided. A key to species of the new genus is proposed and the male terminalia are illustrated. Notes on the localization of the type material of Distenia heterotarsalis and Distenia levitemporalis are provided and lectotypes are designated for both species. Additionally, the geographical distribution of the species is expanded.

The partially overlapped ferroelastic/martensitic and para-ferromagnetic phase transitions of a Ni$_{50.53}$Mn${33.65}$In$_{15.82}$ metamagnetic shape memory alloy have been studied from calorimetric, magnetic and acoustic emission measurement. We have taken advantage of the existence of thermal hysteresis of the first order ferroelastic/martensitic phase transition ($\sim2.5$K) to discriminate the latent heat contribution $\Delta$Ht = 7.21(15) kJ/kg and the specific heat contribution $\Delta$Hc = 216(1) J/kg to the total excess enthalpy of the phase transition. The specific heat was found to follow a step-like behavior at this phase transition. The intermittent dynamics of the ferroelastic/martensitic transition has been characterized as a series of avalanches detected both from acoustic emission and calorimetric measurements. The energy distribution of these avalanche events was found to follow a power law with a characteristic energy exponent $\epsilon\sim2$ which is in agreement with the expected value for a system undergoing a symmetry change from cubic to monoclinic. Finally, the critical behavior of the para-ferromagnetic austenite phase transition that takes place at $\sim 311$K has been studied from the behavior of the specific heat. A critical exponent $\alpha\sim0.09$ has been obtained, which has been shown to be in agreement with previous values reported for Ni-Mn-Ga alloys but different from the critical divergence reported for pure Ni., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures

The replacement name Somatidia (Nanosoma) nom. nov. is introduced for the Cerambycidae subgenus Somatidia (Microsoma) Breuning, 1951 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Parmenini), which is preoccupied by the genus name Microsoma Macquart, 1855 (Diptera, Tachinidae).

Two new species with a new subspecies of the genus Laoechinophorus Gouverneur, 2016 are described: L. thailandicus thailandicus ssp. nov. and L. thailandicus tsuyukii ssp. nov. from Thailand, and L. yunnanus sp. nov. from China. A description of male genitalia of the type species, L. unifasciatus Gouverneur, 2016, from Laos, and a key to the species of the genus are provided.

Vulcanized natural/wastes rubber blends were prepared and their elastocaloric properties were analysed. A thermodynamic frame was used to discriminate the contributions of thermoelastic effects and strain induced crystallization/melting. The substitution of 20 wt% of the natural rubber matrix by waste rubber particles resulted in a maintain and even a slight improvement of heat exchanges (+10%), that we ascribed to a (i) high thermoelastic effect and a (ii) a high ability of the natural rubber matrix to crystallize due to a nucleation ability of the waste particles, both resulting from a strain amplification in the rubber phase due to undeformable carbon black aggregates in the waste particles. The materials coefficient of performance, COPmat, was estimated equal to 4.4 for the neat natural rubber and 3.8 for the blend containing 20 wt% of wastes due to larger mechanical energy originated from reinforcing effect of waste particles. Nonetheless, the elastocaloric (eC) abilities of these materials, especially their wide temperature spans (similar to those in films or polycrystals using rare earth elements) make these natural/waste rubber blends good candidates for application such as heating/cooling machines. Moreover, the partial replacement of natural rubber, a bio-source material showing risks of shortage, by industrial wastes rubber, place these blends as promising eco-friendly materials with high added value.

Power-law-type distributions are extensively found when studying the behavior of many complex systems. However, due to limitations in data acquisition, empirical datasets often only cover a narrow range of observations, making it difficult to establish power-law behavior unambiguously. In this work, we present a statistical procedure to merge different datasets, with two different aims. First, we obtain a broader fitting range for the statistics of different experiments or observations of the same system. Second, we establish whether two or more different systems may belong to the same universality class. By means of maximum likelihood estimation, this methodology provides rigorous statistical information to discern whether power-law exponents characterizing different datasets can be considered equal to each other or not. This procedure is applied to the Gutenberg–Richter law for earthquakes and for synthetic earthquakes (acoustic emission events) generated in the laboratory: labquakes (Navas-Portella et al. Phys Rev E 100:062106, 2019).

Many technological applications are based on functional materials that exhibit reversible first-order ferroelastic transitions, including elastocaloric refrigeration, energy harvesting, and sensing and actuation. During these phase changes inhomogeneous microstructures are formed which fit together different crystalline phases, and evolve abruptly through strain bursts related to domain nucleation and the propagation of phase fronts, accompanied by acoustic emission. Mechanical performance is strongly affected by such microstructure formation and evolution, yet visualisation of these processes remains challenging. Here we report a detailed study of the bursty dynamics during a reversible stress-induced martensitic transformation in a CuZnAl shape-memory alloy. We combine full-field strain-burst detection, performed by means of an optical grid method, with the acoustic tracking of martensitic strain avalanches using two transducers, which allows for the location of the acoustic-emission events to be determined and the measurement of their energies. The matching of these two techniques reveals interface formation, advancement, jamming and arrest at pinning points within the transforming crystal. Ferroelastic materials undergo first-order structural transitions. Here, acoustic and strain measurements are simultaneously combined during a reversible martensitic transformation in a shape memory alloy, allowing the key microstructure processes to be tracked.

We investigate acoustic emission (AE) that arises during the martensitic transition in a polycrystalline specimen of the prototypical superelastic/elastocaloric alloy ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{50.4}{\mathrm{Ti}}_{49.6}$ (at. %) driven using tensile strain. We use two independent AE sensors in order to locate AE events, and focus on contributions to the AE that arise away from the grips of the mechanical testing machine. Significant AE activity is present during the first mechanical loading primarily due to nucleation and growth of wide L\"uders-like bands during the forward martensitic transition (imaged using visible light and infrared radiation) that lead to persistent changes in intergranular interactions. AE activity is suppressed during the subsequent reverse martensitic transition on unloading, and in successive loading/unloading cycles, for which the L\"uders-like bands narrow and modify intergranular interactions to a much smaller extent. After the first loading, we find that the AE activity associated with the martensitic transition is weak, and we suggest that this is because the elastic anisotropy and strain incompatibility in Ni-Ti are low. We also find that the AE activity becomes weaker on mechanical cycling due to increased retained martensite.

A new genus and species of the subtribe Oemina of the tribe Oemini (Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae) is described from the Sundaic region, Southeastern Asia. Relationships with other oemine genera are discussed.

We have tracked the dynamics of the martensitic transformation in a Cu–Al–Ni single crystal by means of acoustic emission and infrared imaging techniques. A Fourier equation-based post-processing of temperature maps has enabled us to reveal the inhomogeneous and discontinuous character of heat power sources and sinks during the transition. A good correlation between the dynamics of thermal and mechanical energy release has been evidenced. It has also been shown that the merging of martensitic interfaces results in an enhanced heat absorption.

Power-law type distributions are extensively found when studying the behaviour of many complex systems. However, due to limitations in data acquisition, empirical datasets often only cover a narrow range of observation, making it difficult to establish power-law behaviour unambiguously. In this work we present a statistical procedure to merge different datasets with the aim of obtaining a broader fitting range for the statistics of different experiments or observations of the same system or the same universality class. This procedure is applied to the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes and for synthetic earthquakes (acoustic emission events) generated in the laboratory: labquakes. Different earthquake catalogs have been merged finding a Gutenberg-Ricther law holding for more than eight orders of magnitude in seismic moment. The value of the exponent of the energy distribution of labquakes depends on the material used in the compression experiments. By means of the procedure exposed in this manuscript, it has been found that the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes and charcoal labquakes can be characterized by the same power-law exponent., 14 pages, 4 figures

Avalanche events occur during mechanical loading of many material systems and are characterized by stress drops and acoustic emission (AE). Stress drops are directly related to the macroscopic response of the investigated material, but their detection capability is restricted to relatively large and slow events. AE measurements can detect events with smaller amplitude and shorter duration, but their energy and duration are not directly related to the change of the system. In this paper, we present simultaneous measurements of stress drops and AE during mechanically induced twin boundary motion in Ni-Mn-Ga. We found that the probability of finding an AE event during a stress drop is $\ensuremath{\sim}100$ times higher than between stress drops. Analysis of the relations between mechanical energy drops $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{U}_{m}$ and acoustic emitted energy ${E}_{\mathrm{AE}}$, on the level of individual events, reveals the existence of a lower bound for ${E}_{\mathrm{AE}}$, which is approximately proportional to $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{U}_{m}$. These results imply that the macroscopic stress changes generate acoustic waves, which contribute a well-defined amount of energy that is equal to the lower bound function. Furthermore, smaller scale events that are related to microscopic subprocesses by which the twin boundary moves generate additional AE energy. The latter contribution displays a power-law distribution, which implies that these processes are close to criticality.

Taxonomic notes on the lepturine genus Leptostrangalia Nakane & Ohbayashi, 1959 are provided and a new species from China, Leptostrangalia rufithorax nov. sp., is described. A key to the world species of the genus is provided.

We have combined high sensitivity, extra-low differential temperature scanning rate calorimetry, and acoustic emission (AE) measurements to study avalanches during the cubic \ensuremath{\leftrightarrow} 18R martensitic transition of a Cu-Al-Be single crystalline shape memory alloy. Both AE and calorimetry corroborate a good power-law behavior for cooling with an exponent $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}\ensuremath{\simeq}1.6$. For heating, a slope is observed in the maximum likelihood curves, which confirms that our data are affected by an exponential cutoff. An effective energy exponent, $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}\ensuremath{\sim}1.85$, and a cutoff, ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}=0.115(38)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{aJ}$, were determined by fits of power-laws with exponential damping. The long tail observed in the low-temperature region by calorimetric measurements suggests the existence of significant elastic effects that constrain the progress of the transformation at low temperatures. While thermodynamic features such as transformation enthalpy and entropy are those expected for Cu-based shape-memory alloys undergoing a cubic \ensuremath{\leftrightarrow} 18R transition, the critical behavior deviates from the corresponding behavior expected from this symmetry change. These deviations are a consequence of the elastic hardening induced by the interplay of the transformation with dislocation jamming, which has the effect of effectively reducing the number of pathways connecting the parent and martensitic phase.

A systematic study of acoustic emission avalanches in coal and charcoal samples under slow uniaxial compression is presented. The samples exhibit a range of organic composition in terms of chemical elements as well as different degrees of heterogeneity in the microstructure. The experimental analysis focuses on the energies E of the individual acoustic emission events as well as on the time correlations between successive events. The studied samples can be classified into three groups. The more homogeneous samples (group I) with pores in the micro and nanoscales, with signatures of hardening effects in the stress-strain curves, exhibit the cleanest critical power-law behavior for the energy distributions g(E)dE∼E-ϵdE with a critical exponent ϵ=1.4. The more heterogeneous samples with voids, macropores, and granular microstructures (group III), show signatures of weakening effects and a larger effective exponent close to the value ϵ=1.66, but in some cases truncated by exponential damping factors. The rest of the samples (group II) exhibit a mixed crossover behavior still compatible with an effective exponent ϵ=1.4 but clearly truncated by exponential factors. These results suggest the existence of two possible universality classes in the failure of porous materials under compression: one for homogeneous samples and another for highly heterogeneous samples. Concerning time correlations between avalanches, all samples exhibit very similar waiting time distributions although some differences for the Omori aftershock distributions cannot be discarded., Y.X. and X.D. acknowledge financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 51571156, No. 51671157, No. 51621063, and No. 51320105014). E.V. and A.P. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MAT2016-75823-R).

Food-chain length, or the trophic level of an apex predator, is among the most important properties of food-webs with implications for community structure, ecosystem processes and pollutant accumulation in forests. Three main hypotheses (ecosystem-size, productivity, and disturbance) have been erected to explain variation in food-chain length in freshwater ecosystems, yet the support for these hypotheses in less spatially restricted terrestrial ecosystems has not been extensively studied. Here, we used nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) stable isotopes to explore variation in the realized trophic positions (δ15N) of a beetle Carabus lineatus lateralis and a wasp Vespula vulgaris in 32 chestnut woodland patches in northwestern Spain, while accounting for the insects’ relative mobility by using inferences based on δ13C. We used five potential predictors of ecosystem-size productivity, seven of disturbance and six covariates in anticipation that biological assemblages in woodlands might be influenced by ecosystem-size productivity, and from a change from the human management to a much-increased activity of ecosystem engineers, especially wild boar. Our results provided support for the disturbance hypothesis and suggested that the beetle FCL seems to be more affected by wild boar disturbance than by human-forest management, possibly due to increased forest cover and to rural abandonment in recent decades. Moreover, we found a negative association between the wasp FCL and the ecosystem-size productivity hypothesis, as indicated by the plant Ellengberg’s indicator value for nitrogen, which contrasts to the hypothesis that ecosystem-size productivity should increase FCL. Our findings are discussed in relation to: (1) differences in intensity and frequency between human- and wild boar-induced disturbances; (2) the diets and mobilities of the two predators; and (3) the near lack of hard ecological boundaries in terrestrial ecosystems, such as chestnut woodlands.

Local fracture events (or labquakes) during compression of shale rocks have been studied by acoustic emission. They are assumed to simulate quakes induced by hydraulic fracturing (fracking)...

Avalanches in coal and sandstone samples under common uniaxial stress serve as a model for mixing of avalanche exponents in ceramics, multiferroics, and alloys. The two media are sandwiched together and subjected to common uniaxial stress using high- and low-stress compression. Each medium collapses individually through avalanches that often coincide with secondary avalanches into the other medium. The total avalanche time sequence allows a detailed investigation of the mixing by superposition and delayed coincidence. Correlations can be described by an inter-media Bath's law.

The total energy of acoustic emission (AE) events in externally stressed materials diverges when approaching macroscopic failure. Numerical and conceptual models explain this accelerated seismic release (ASR) as the approach to a critical point that coincides with ultimate failure. Here, we report ASR during soft uniaxial compression of three silica-based (SiO$_2$) nanoporous materials. Instead of a singular critical point, the distribution of AE energies is stationary and variations in the activity rate are sufficient to explain the presence of multiple periods of ASR leading to distinct brittle failure events. We propose that critical failure is suppressed in the AE statistics by dissipation and transient hardening. Some of the critical exponents estimated from the experiments are compatible with mean field models, while others are still open to interpretation in terms of the solution of frictional and fracture avalanche models., preprint, Main article: 7 pages, 3 figures. Supplementary material included in \anc folder: 6 pages, 3 figures

It is generally claimed that physical processes which display scale-invariant power-law distributions are subjected to a dynamic criticality that prohibits a well-defined kinetic law. In this paper, we demonstrate the coexistence of these two apparently contradicting behaviors during the same physical process---the motion of type-II twin boundaries in martensite Ni-Mn-Ga. The process is investigated by combined measurements of the temporal twin-boundary velocity and the acoustic emitted energy. Velocity values are extracted from high-resolution force measurements taken during displacement-driven mechanical tests, as well as from force-driven magnetic tests, and cover an overall range of six orders of magnitude. Acoustic emission (AE) is measured during mechanical tests. Velocity values follow a normal distribution whose characteristic value is determined by the material's kinetic relation, and its width scales with the average velocity. In addition, it is observed that velocity distributions are characterized by a heavy tail at the right (i.e., faster) end that exhibits a power law over more than one and a half orders of magnitude. At the same time, the AE signals follow a scale-invariant power-law distribution, which is not sensitive to the average twin-boundary velocity. The coexistence of these two different statistical behaviors reflects the complex nature of twin-boundary motion and suggests the possibility that the transformation proceeds through physical subprocesses that are close to criticality alongside other processes that are not.

Power-law type probability density functions spanning several orders of magnitude are found for different avalanche properties. We propose a methodology to overcome empirical constrains that limit the power-law range for the distributions of different avalanche observables like amplitude, energy, duration or size. By considering catalogs of events that cover different observation windows, maximum likelihood estimation of a global power-law exponent is computed. This methodology is applied to amplitude and energy distributions of acoustic emission avalanches in failure-under- compression experiments of a nanoporous silica glass, finding in some cases global exponents in an unprecedented broad range: 4.5 decades for amplitudes and 9.5 decades for energies. In the later case, however, strict statistical analysis suggests experimental limitations might alter the power-law behavior., 23 pages, 7 figures

We present extensive numerical studies of the crossover from three-dimensional to two-dimensional systems in the nonequilibrium zero-temperature random-field Ising model with metastable dynamics. Bivariate finite-size scaling hypotheses are presented for systems with sizes $L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}l$ which explain the size-driven critical crossover from two dimensions ($l=\text{const}$, $L\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$) to three dimensions ($l\ensuremath{\propto}L\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$). A model of effective critical disorder ${R}_{c}^{\mathrm{eff}}(l,L)$ with a unique fitting parameter and no free parameters in the ${R}_{c}^{\mathrm{eff}}(l,L\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty})$ limit is proposed, together with expressions for the scaling of avalanche distributions bringing important implications for related experimental data analysis, especially in the case of thin three-dimensional systems.

Caloric properties rely on the reversible thermal response of a given material to changes induced by an applied field. In magnetic shape-memory materials, thanks to a strong interplay between magnetism and structure, caloric effects can be induced by application of both magnetic and mechanical (stress) fields. The study of such effects is an expanding field of research opening novel opportunities in solid state refrigeration and energy harvesting applications. In this paper we present an overview of the present state of the art of the subject. After a brief discussion of the thermodynamics of systems with magneto-structural interplay, we survey the caloric and multicaloric properties of NiMn-based Heusler materials. The conditions required for optimal caloric efficiency in cycling processes are considered. Finally, we outline some present challenges and future perspectives in this topic.

Crackling noise can be initiated by competing or coexisting mechanisms. These mechanisms can combine to generate an approximate scale invariant distribution that contains two or more contributions. The overall distribution function can be analyzed, to a good approximation, using maximum-likelihood methods and assuming that it follows a power law although with nonuniversal exponents depending on a varying lower cutoff. We propose that such distributions are rather common and originate from a simple superposition of crackling noise distributions or exponential damping.

Martensitic transitions take place intermittently as a sequence of avalanches which are accompanied by the emission of acoustic waves. The study of this acoustic emission (AE) reveals the scale-free nature of the avalanches. In a number of shape memory materials undergoing a martensitic transition it has been found that, in spite of relatively low hysteresis, the dynamics of forward and reverse transitions are different, which may explain the fact that the AE activity is different in both forward and reverse transitions. The asymmetry could be a consequence of the fact that, while nucleation is required for the transition from the parent to martensitic phase to take place, reverse transition occurs by fast shrinkage of martensitic domains. We have analysed in detail the distribution of avalanches in cooling and heating runs in Fe-Pd and Cu-Zn-Al shape-memory alloys. In the former, the martensitic transition is weakly first order while it shows a significant first order character in the latter. We have found that in Fe-Pd the distributions are power law for the forward and reverse transitions characterized by the same critical exponents. For Cu-Zn-Al the distribution of avalanches is critical in forward transitions but exponentially damped in the reverse transition. It is suggested that this different behaviour could originate from the different dynamic mechanisms in forward and reverse transitions.

The avalanche statistics in porous materials and ferroelastic domain wall systems has been studied for slowly increasing compressive uniaxial stress with stress rates between 0.2 and 17 kPa s-1. Velocity peaks [Formula: see text] are calculated from the measured strain drops and used to determine the corresponding Energy distributions [Formula: see text]. Power law distributions [Formula: see text] have been obtained over 4-6 decades. For most of the porous materials and domain wall systems an exponent [Formula: see text] was obtained in good agreement with mean-field theory of the interface pinning transition. For charcoal, shale and calcareous schist we found significant deviations of the exponents from mean-field values in agreement with recent acoustic emission experiments.

We introduce a novel random field Ising model, grounded on experimental observations, to assess the importance of metric correlations in cortical circuits in vitro. Metric correlations arise from both the finite axonal length and the heterogeneity in the spatial arrangement of neurons. The experiments consider the response of neuronal cultures to an external electric stimulation for a gradually weaker connectivity strength between neurons, and in cultures with different spatial configurations. The model can be analytically solved in the metric-free, mean-field scenario. The presence of metric correlations precipitates a strong deviation from the mean field. Null models of the same networks that preserve the distribution of connections recover the mean field. Our results show that metric-inherited correlations in spatial networks dominate the connectivity blueprint, mask the actual distribution of connections, and may emerge as the asset that shapes network dynamics.

This paper presents direct and indirect methods for studying the elastocaloric effect (eCE) in shape memory materials and its comparison. The eCE can be characterized by the adiabatic temperature change or the isothermal entropy change (both as a function of applied stress/strain). To get these quantities, the evaluation of the eCE can be done using either direct methods, where one measures (adiabatic) temperature changes or indirect methods where one can measure the stress–strain–temperature characteristics of the materials and from these deduce the adiabatic temperature and isothermal entropy changes. The former can be done using the basic thermodynamic relations, i.e. Maxwell relation and Clausius–Clapeyron equation. This paper further presents basic thermodynamic properties of shape memory materials, such as the adiabatic temperature change, isothermal entropy change and total entropy–temperature diagrams (all as a function of temperature and applied stress/strain) of two groups of materials (Ni–Ti and Cu–Zn–Al alloys) obtained using indirect methods through phenomenological modelling and Maxwell relation. In the last part of the paper, the basic definition of the efficiency of the elastocaloric thermodynamic cycle (coefficient of performance) is defined and discussed.

Acoustic emission originates during martensitic transformations from sudden local changes of the displacement field across the propagating interfaces. Acoustic emission reveals the jerky character of the dissipation of the elastic energy excess, which proves that the transition occurs through avalanches. In this paper we show that the analysis of acoustic emission within an appropriate framework is a very useful technique, which provides quantitative dynamical information complementary to that obtained from more standard techniques. In particular, we will show that the probability density function of amplitudes, energies and durations of the detected acoustic signals follows power-law distributions related to avalanche criticality. This is illustrated with examples for non-magnetic and magnetic shape-memory alloys under selected external conditions.

Compression experiments of goethite samples from an iron ore mine in New Caledonia revealed the collapse of the porous samples to follow a power law behavior. The porosity varies between 54 and 84%. The collapse under compression occurs in a series of individual events (avalanches). Each avalanche leads to a jerk in sample compression and an equivalent acoustic emission signal. The probability to find an acoustic emission signal with an energy within E and E + dE is p ( E ) dE , which has a power law distribution p ( E ) ~ E −ɛ , and reveals avalanche criticality. The energy exponent ɛ varies systematically with the porosity of the sample between 1.6 and 2. The results are compared with previous measurements of porous silica (Vycor), which showed a slightly smaller exponent of 1.4. We observe fore- and after-shocks of the largest events. Significant correlations between the largest avalanches and fore-shocks were found in samples with high porosity. These correlations open the possibility for the prediction of a major collapse by acoustic detection of noise.

The first-order diffusionless structural phase transition in Cu67.64Zn16.71Al15.65 is characterized by jerky propagation of phase front related to the appearance of avalanches. In this work we describe a full analysis of this avalanche behaviour using calorimetric heat-flux measurements and the results are compared with acoustic emission (AE) measurements.

A review of recent Acoustic Emission experiments during the compression of synthetic porous SiO\(_2\) (Vycor© and Gelsil) under controlled force rates is presented. The statistical analysis of the recorded signals allows comparison with the statistics of earthquakes from available public seismological catalogues. We discuss different methods to characterize the properties of the individual acoustic emission avalanches and the time correlations between them.

A simple model for the growth of elongated domains (needle-like) during a martensitic phase transition is presented. The model is purely geometric and the only interactions are due to the sequentiality of the kinetic problem and to the excluded volume, since domains cannot retransform back to the original phase. Despite this very simple interaction, numerical simulations show that the final observed microstructure can be described as being a consequence of dipolar-like interactions. The model is analytically solved in 2D for the case in which two symmetry related domains can grow in the horizontal and vertical directions. It is remarkable that the solution is analytic both for a finite system of size $L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L$ and in the thermodynamic limit $L\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, where the elongated domains become lines. Results prove the existence of criticality, i.e., that the domain sizes observed in the final microstructure show a power-law distribution characterized by a critical exponent. The exponent, nevertheless, depends on the relative probabilities of the different equivalent variants. The results provide a plausible explanation of the weak universality of the critical exponents measured during martensitic transformations in metallic alloys. Experimental exponents show a monotonous dependence with the number of equivalent variants that grow during the transition.

We studied the two-step martensitic transition of a Cu-Al-Ni shape-memory alloy by calorimetry, acoustic emission (AE), and resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) measurements. The transition occurs under cooling from the cubic (β, Fm3m) parent phase near 242 K to a mixture of orthorhombic 2H and monoclinic 18R phases. Heating leads first to the back transformation of small 18R domains to β and/or 2H near 255 K, and then to the transformation 2H to β near 280 K. The total transformation enthalpy is ΔHT=328±10 J/mol and is observed as one large latent heat peak under cooling. The back-transformation entropy under heating breaks down into a large component 18R to β at 255 K and a smaller, smeared component of the transformation 2H to β near 280 K. The proportions inside the phase mixture depend on the thermal history of the sample. The elastic response of the sample is dominated by large elastic softening during cooling. The weakening of the elastic shear modulus shows a peak at 242 K, which is typical for the formation of complex microstructures. Cooling the sample further leads to additional changes of the microstructure and domain wall freezing, which is seen by gradual elastic hardening and increasing damping of the RUS signal. Heating from 220 K to room temperature leads to elastic anomalies due to the initial transformation, which is now shifted to high temperatures. The transition is smeared over a wider temperature interval and shows strong elastic damping. The shear modulus of the cubic phase is recovered at 280 K. The phase transformation leads to avalanches, which were recorded by AE and by time-resolved calorimetry. The cooling transition shows very extended avalanche signals in calorimetry with power-law distributions. Cooling and heating runs show AE signals over a large temperature interval above 260 K. Splitting the transformation into two martensite phases leads to power-law exponents ɛ∼2 (β↔ 18R) and ɛ∼1.5 (β↔ 2H) while the phase mixture shows an effective AE exponent of 1.7.

Crack events developed during uniaxial compression of cortical bones cut from femurs of developing pigs of several ages (4, 12, and 20 weeks) generate avalanches. These avalanches have been investigated by acoustic emission analysis techniques. The avalanche energies are power-law distributed over more than four decades. Such behavior indicates the absence of characteristic scales and suggests avalanche criticality. The statistical distributions of energies and waiting times depend on the pig age and indicate that bones become stronger, but less ductile, with increasing age. Crack propagation is equally age-dependent. Older pigs show, on average, larger cracks with a time distribution similar to those of aftershocks in earthquakes, while younger pigs show only statistically independent failure events.