基于纤维增强复合材料的超声振动辅助加工技术综述

纤维增强复合材料是一类使用范围不断扩大的具有优良机械性能的工程复合材料,但由于其具有各向异性及增强体纤维稳定的理化性能,使得传统金属加工方法很难对纤维增强复合材料进行高质量的加工,特别是对于以芳纶纤维等断裂伸长率较高的纤维为增强体的复合材料,存在较为严重的撕裂、毛刺和分层等加工缺陷。超声振动辅助加工是一种将超声振动附加在机械加工过程中的加工方式。超声振动的加入可使刀具与工件周期性接触,减小切削阻力,降低切削温度,可在一定程度上提高纤维增强复合材料加工的表面质量,减少加工缺陷。在介绍超声振动辅助技术的分类、系统组成和加工机理,及纤维复合材料表面质量、材料去除、加工机理和加工缺陷的基础上,从套料制孔、螺旋铣孔和轮廓铣削三类常见加工工艺方面,论述了针对纤维复合材料的超声振动辅助切削技术的国内外研究进展。基于纤维复合材料超声振动辅助切削技术的发展状况,从基础理论研究、材料表面改性和新加工工艺探索、超声振动加工系统的开发完善等方面,总结了现有研究和应用中的成果及普遍存在的问题,同时对未来研究的发展趋势做出了展望。     

Thermomechanical deformation behaviour of DH36 steel during friction stir welding by experimental validation and modelling

Friction stir welding is a solid state thermomechanical deformation process from which the plasticisation behaviour of the stirred material can be evaluated through the study of flow stress evolution. Flow stress data also supporting the development of a local microstructural numerical model have been generated. Hot compression testing of DH36 steel has been performed at a temperature range of 700–1100°C and strain rates from 10^?3 to 10² s^?1 to study the alloy’s thermomechanical deformation behaviour in conditions that simulate the actual friction stir welding process. It has been found that the evolution of flow stress is significantly affected by the test temperature and deformation rate. The material’s constitutive equation and constants have been calculated after analysis of these data. Preliminary numerical analysis results are in good agreement with experimental observations.     

Deformation analysis of double-sided tube hydroforming in square-section die

In this paper, in order to explore the deformation behavior of double-sided tube hydroforming in square-section die, effect of external pressure on the critical effective strain was theoretically analyzed firstly. And then a special experimental setup was designed for double-sided tube hydroforming in which the difficulty of simultaneous loading was overcome using two independent intensifiers and servo controlling while the sealing of external pressure was guaranteed by the O rings assembled in the interfaces of mandrel/base plate and outer cylinder/base plate. Furthermore, 5A02-O aluminum alloy tubes with outer diameter of 63 mm and thickness of 2 mm were investigated under different external pressures varying from 0 to 80 MPa. At the same time, numerical simulation was conducted using the Abaqus/Explicit software. It is shown that increasing of external pressure has an effect on the fraction of grain boundaries, the number and size of the microvoids and the microhardness in the transition zone, and thus increases the critical effective strain in the transition zone. It can be concluded that the deformation ability of the transition zone is improved by the external pressure in double-sided tube hydroforming of square-section. This investigation shows that double-sided tube hydroforming is a potential forming method for the fabrication of lightweight hollow structures using the tubes with low ductility.     

J-integral-based approach to fatigue assessment of laser stake-welded T-joints

The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the plate thickness on the fatigue strength of laser stake-welded T-joints under the tension loading condition. Fatigue tests were conducted on specimens with plate thicknesses below 5 mm subjected to tension loading with the load ratio R = 0. The statistical analysis of the weld geometry showed a normal distribution of the each parameter that was measured. In addition, the parameters had similar proportions in comparison to the specimens with plate thicknesses above 5 mm. FE analysis was performed with the aim of determining the stress state in the joint along with the J-integral. If the square root of the J-integral, √ΔJ, is used as the fatigue strength assessment parameter, the fatigue strength obtained at five million cycles is similar as in the case of other steel welded joint types. The investigation concluded that the stress state changes with the reduction of the plate thicknesses and the contribution of fracture mode II becomes significant. However, using √ΔJ as a fatigue strength assessment parameter ensures that the complex state of the mixed fracture mode loading is accurately accounted for. This fact further enables the fatigue strength of laser stake-welded T-joints of any plate thicknesses to be described by means of a narrower scatterband than the one obtained by the nominal stress approach.     

A neural network-based methodology of quantifying the association between the design variables and the users’ performances

User performance is highly correlated with design variables of a system. Such association can be described as display–control relationship. In this study, a neural network-based methodology is proposed to identify and quantify the association among design variables (inputs) and to compute their relative influences (RIs) on the two performance measures (outputs) of user response time and response accuracy, using artificial neural network, generalised regression neural network, support vector regression (SVR), multiple linear regression and response surface model. Based on the results of the comparison, it is found that neural network-based methods are more reliable than SVR-based methods in computing the RI of design variables. As a result of our analysis, the best option for optimising each of the measures is suggested. Some useful observations about the design of man–machine systems are also presented, discussed and visualised. In the study of man–machine systems, quantitative methods are seldom adopted for examining the mappings between various displays and controls under a variety of operating conditions. The major contribution of this study is to provide some insights into the usefulness of quantitative methods in evaluating man–machine design in terms of display–control compatibility and to extract explanatory information from renowned black box systems such as neural networks.     

Optimal long-term design,rehabilitation and upgrading of water distribution networks

Given a limited budget, the choice of the best water distribution network upgrading strategy is a complex optimization problem. A model for the optimal long-term design and upgrading of new and existing water distribution networks is presented. A key strength of the methodology is the use of maximum entropy flows, which reduces the size of the problem and enables the application of linear programming for pipe size optimization. It also ensures the reliability level is high. The capital and maintenance costs and hydraulic performance are considered simultaneously for a predefined design horizon. The timing of upgrading over the entire planning horizon is obtained by dynamic programming. The deterioration over time of the structural integrity and hydraulic capacity of every pipe are explicitly considered. The upgrading options considered include pipe paralleling and replacement. The effectiveness of the model is demonstrated using the water supply network of Wobulenzi town in Uganda.     

Offshore wind farm electrical cable layout optimization

This article explores an automated approach for the efficient placement of substations and the design of an inter-array electrical collection network for an offshore wind farm through the minimization of the cost. To accomplish this, the problem is represented as a number of sub-problems that are solved in series using a combination of heuristic algorithms. The overall problem is first solved by clustering the turbines to generate valid substation positions. From this, a navigational mesh pathfinding algorithm based on Delaunay triangulation is applied to identify valid cable paths, which are then used in a mixed-integer linear programming problem to solve for a constrained capacitated minimum spanning tree considering all realistic constraints. The final tree that is produced represents the solution to the inter-array cable problem. This method is applied to a planned wind farm to illustrate the suitability of the approach and the resulting layout that is generated.     

Development and mechanical characterization of solvent-cast polymeric films as potential drug delivery systems to mucosal surfaces

Solvent-cast films from three polymers, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), sodium alginate (SA), and xanthan gum, were prepared by drying the polymeric gels in air. Three methods, (a) passive hydration, (b) vortex hydration with heating, and (c) cold hydration, were investigated to determine the most effective means of preparing gels for each of the three polymers. Different drying conditions [relative humidity – RH (6–52%) and temperature (3–45°C)] were investigated to determine the effect of drying rate on the films prepared by drying the polymeric gels. The tensile properties of the CMC films were determined by stretching dumbbell-shaped films to breaking point, using a Texture Analyser. Glycerol was used as a plasticizer, and its effects on the drying rate, physical appearance, and tensile properties of the resulting films were investigated. Vortex hydration with heating was the method of choice for preparing gels of SA and CMC, and cold hydration for xanthan gels. Drying rates increased with low glycerol content, high temperature, and low relative humidity. The residual water content of the films increased with increasing glycerol content and high relative humidity and decreased at higher temperatures. Generally, temperature affected the drying rate to a greater extent than relative humidity. Glycerol significantly affected the toughness (increased) and rigidity (decreased) of CMC films. CMC films prepared at 45°C and 6% RH produced suitable films at the fastest rate while films containing equal quantities of glycerol and CMC possessed an ideal balance between flexibility and rigidity.     

The angular momentum of light inside a dielectric

Abstract

We consider whether or not a short pulse of light carrying angular momentum will exert a torque when propagating through a transparent disc. The approach is based on the “Einstein-box” argument which we apply to discuss linear optical momentum in a medium. Two competing theories due to Minkowski and Abraham, at least superficially, suggest that the disc will not or will rotate. Our analysis suggests that the disc will rotate and that an experiment using optical tweezers should be able to detect the rotation.     

Asynchronous quantum key distribution on a relay network

We show how quantum key distribution on a multi-user, multi-path, network can be used to establish a key between any two end-users in an asynchronous fashion using the technique of bit-transport. By a suitable adaptation of our previous secret-sharing scheme we show that an attacker has to compromise all of the intermediate relays on the network in order to obtain the key. Thus, two end-users can establish a secret key provided they trust at least one of the network relays.