Mufflers are basically fabricated items, engineered as an acoustic soundproofing system, for installation within the exhaust system of most combustion engines. Even though the mufflers have become an important part of the exhaust system, their design is quite a complex function that affects the noise characteristics, emission and fuel efficiency of engine. In the paper, "Hybrid Muffler Transmission Loss Performance: A Wave 1D Approach", the authors, Ravi Jatola and Amit Kumar Gupta, have analyzed the transmission loss of muffler using a pressure acoustic technique and numerical approach (Wave 1D Simulation for transmission loss measurement). The study presents the details of muffler transmission loss by decomposition, two-source and two-load methods. It also includes fabrication of an experimental test setup. The analysis suggests that the maximum transmission loss can be achieved with rock wool as absorptive material (density around 60 kg/m3) with respect to variable packing density than an empty muffler.

Multiferroics deals with the study of materials that possess two or more primary ferroic order properties (ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity and ferroelasticity) in the same phase. There are very few materials that exhibit both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties simultaneously in one phase, especially at room temperature. The Magnetoelectric Effect (ME) is a phenomenon that describes how the electric and magnetic properties couple within a material. The magnetization for a single domain is either modeled based on FEM which uses a fully coupled elastodynamics and micromagnetics, or with an uncoupled macro-spin model assuming a uniform strain induced magnetic anisotropy within the nanodot. Both models can be used to predict the changes in magnetoelastic nanodots and/or arrays. However, these have limited switching frequencies, and there are very few approaches that can be used to increase their performance. The most commonly used method is increasing the input voltage to the system, but this sacrifices the energy efficiency of these strain-mediated multiferroic structures. In the paper, "Breaking the Symmetry for Magnetic Reorientation with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy", the authors, Ruoda Zheng, Jin-Zhao Hu, Qianchang Wang, Victor Estrada and Abdon E Sepulveda, have presented a field-free strain-mediated method with geometric asymmetry to improve the coherence and the switching speed. In the study, a finite element model of a 50 nm diameter Ni nanodisk with a sloped surface on a Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) thin film is built, and strain-mediated magnetization switch with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy (PMA) is simulated. The results suggest that the switch speed is 65% faster than the traditional PMA nanodot without affecting the efficiency.

Silicon is a predominant substrate material for the ICs because of its package thickness. A silicon wafer is generally back-thinned once the ICs are produced, and an ultra-precision grinding is needed. However, the processing of a back-thinned wafer, at very high temperatures, is often deflected after grinding, resulting in slippage due to the residual stresses. This can impose problems in the subsequent handling and transportation processes, leading to wafer warpage/breakage. Identification of factors responsible for early-stage warpage control allows to prevent undesirable asymmetric warpage-wafer bifurcation or buckling. In the paper, "Lagrange-Kirchhoff Model for the Deformation of Coated Taiko Silicon Plate", the authors, A Landi and M Renna, have proposed a numerical model to understand the effect of residual stress and warpage. The model presented by the authors is in agreement with the experimental data.