Void, definition

Vacuum bag bonding is restricted by definition to less than 1 atm (<15 psi) which can be insufficient to achieve good part contact and prevent bondline voids. Hence vacuum bag bonding is rarely used outside of repair situations. 

We may begin by describing any porous medium as a solid matter containing many holes or pores, which collectively constitute an array of tortuous passages. Refer to Figure 1 for an example. The number of holes or pores is sufficiently great that a volume average is needed to estimate pertinent properties. Pores that occupy a definite fraction of the bulk volume constitute a complex network of voids. The maimer in which holes or pores are embedded, the extent of their interconnection, and their location, size and shape characterize the porous medium. 

One chemical will be a solvent for another if the molecules are able to co-exist on a molecular scale, i.e. the molecules show no tendency to separate. In these circumstances we say that the two species are compatible. The definition concerns equilibrium properties and gives no indication of the rate of solution which will depend on other factors such as temperature, the molecular size of the solvent and the size of voids in the solute. 

Of historical interest may be the use of a half dollar coin (the lighter weight 250 not as efficient). During the early 1940s the coin tap test was used very successfully in evaluating the performances of plastics, particularly RP primary aircraft structures. With a good ear (human hearing ear) there was (and is) a definite different sound between a satisfactory and unsatisfactory RP product. The unsatisfactory product would contain voids, delaminations, defects in fiber distribution, etc. In... 

GL 18] ]R 6a]]P 17/Using the same experimental conditions and catalysts with the same geometric surface area, the performance of micro-channel processing was compared with that of a fixed-bed reactor composed of short wires [17]. The conversion was 89% in the case of the fixed bed the micro channels gave a 58% yield. One possible explanation for this is phase separation, i.e. that some micro channels were filled with liquids only, and some with gas. This is unlikely to occur in a fixed bed. Another explanation is the difference in residence time between the two types of reactors, as the fixed bed had voids three times larger than the micro channel volume. It could not definitively be decided which of these explanations is correct. 

Another term in the language of catalysis is texture. This a general term referring to a variety of physical characteristics. A simple definition is the detailed geometry of the void space in the catalyst particles. Essentially, it is manifested in seven measurements. These are ... 

To evaluate the average pore length, it is necessary to recognize that the porosity sp will represent not only the volumetric void fraction but also at any cross section the fraction of the area occupied by the pore openings. If the average open area associated with each pore is assumed to be 7cr2, the definition of the porosity indicates that... 

Pores are found in many solids and the term porosity is often used quite arbitrarily to describe many different properties of such materials. Occasionally, it is used to indicate the mere presence of pores in a material, sometimes as a measure for the size of the pores, and often as a measure for the amount of pores present in a material. The latter is closest to its physical definition. The porosity of a material is defined as the ratio between the pore volume of a particle and its total volume (pore volume + volume of solid) [1]. A certain porosity is a common feature of most heterogeneous catalysts. The pores are either formed by voids between small aggregated particles (textural porosity) or they are intrinsic structural features of the materials (structural porosity). According to the IUPAC notation, porous materials are classified with respect to their sizes into three groups microporous, mesoporous, and macroporous materials [2], Microporous materials have pores with diameters < 2 nm, mesoporous materials have pore diameters between 2 and 50 nm, and macroporous materials have pore diameters > 50 nm. Nowadays, some authors use the term nanoporosity which, however, has no clear definition but is typically used in combination with nanotechnology and nanochemistry for materials with pore sizes in the nanometer range, i.e., 0.1 to 100 nm. Nanoporous could thus mean everything from microporous to macroporous. 

Thus, there are two limitations of the pycnometric technique mentioned possible adsorption of guest molecules and a molecular sieving effect. It is noteworthy that some PSs, e.g., with a core-shell structure, can include some void volume that can be inaccessible to the guest molecules. In this case, the measured excluded volume will be the sum of the true volume of the solid phase and the volume of inaccessible pores. One should not absolutely equalize the true density and the density measured by a pycnometric technique (the pycnometric density) because of the three factors mentioned earlier. Conventionally, presenting the results of measurements one should define the conditions of a pycnometric experiment (at least the type of guest and temperature). For example, the definition p shows that the density was measured at 298 K using helium as a probe gas. Unfortunately, use of He as a pycnometric fluid is not a panacea since adsorption of He cannot be absolutely excluded by some PSs (e.g., carbons) even at 293 K (see van der Plas in Ref. [2]). Nevertheless, in most practically important cases the values of the true and pycnometric densities are very close [2,7],... 

Fond et al. [84] developed a numerical procedure to simulate a random distribution of voids in a definite volume. These simulations are limited with respect to a minimum distance between the pores equal to their radius. The detailed mathematical procedure to realize this simulation and to calculate the stress distribution by superposition of mechanical fields is described in [173] for rubber toughened systems and in [84] for macroporous epoxies. A typical result for the simulation of a three-dimensional void distribution is shown in Fig. 40, where a cube is subjected to uniaxial tension. The presence of voids induces stress concentrations which interact and it becomes possible to calculate the appearance of plasticity based on a von Mises stress criterion. 

Some very interesting ideas concerning the relationship between free-volume formation and the energy of one mole of hole formation were developed in detail by Kanig42. Kanig introduced some improvements to the definition of free-volume, On the basis of Frenkel s ideas43 he divided the free-volume into two parts, one of which is determined only by the thermal vibrations of atoms in the lattice of a real crystal while the other is connected with inherent free-volume, i.e. voids and holes. It is the latter that makes possible the exchange of particles, i.e. the very existence of the liquid state. He introduced some new definitions of fractions of free-volume ... 

In the quantum field theories that describe the physics of elementary particles, the vacuum becomes somewhat more complex than previously defined. Even in empty space, matter can appear spontaneously as a result of fluctuations of Ihe vacuum. It may be pointed, out, for example, that an electron and a positron, or antielectron, can be created out of the void, Particles created in this way have only a fleeting existence they are annihilated almost as soon as they appear, and their pressure can never be detected directly. They are called virtual particles in order to distinguish them from real particles. Thus, the traditional definition of vacuum (space with no real particles in it) holds. In their excellent paper, the aforementioned authors discuss how, near a superheavy atomic nucleus, empty space may become unstable, with the result that matter and antimatter can be created without any input of energy. The process may soon be observed experimentally. 

Another two-phase composite is chemically or physically blown foam, composed of polymer and voids only (i.e. conventional foamed or cellular polymer). Its compositions lie along the polymer-void border of Fig. 7, and it, too, is limited by the maximum volume fraction of voids allowed, while still maintaining the definition of a foam. The limits mentioned define the allowed compositions for syntactic foams and determine the area within the diagram where they are located. One limiting case is point B which represents the composition of microspheres (0.74), polymer (0.11), and voids (0.15). The microspheres, in this case, are arranged in a hexagonal close packing 85). 

Figure 7. Average fluorescence spectra for four varieties of resinite from the Hiawatha Seam, Utah. Varieties 1, 2, and 3 have a definite shape and a brittle fracture while variety 4 occurs only as a void filling. The reflectance of the seam is 0.65%.

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