Influence of zinc and cadmium co-doping on optical and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrites

Zinc and cadmium based cobalt ferrites Zn_xCd_0.375-xCo_0.625Fe₂O₄ (where x = 0, 0.075, 0.125, 0.25) were successfully synthesized by a facile co-precipitation technique. Structural, optical and magnetic characteristics of the doped ferrites were systematically analyzed. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed the formation of cubic spinel structure in all samples. Scanning electron microscopic analysis of surface morphology revealed cubic and spherical shaped ferrite particles. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the existence of metal oxygen (M − O) bonding in the prepared samples. Moreover, the prepared samples exhibited two frequency bands corresponding to phonon vibrational stretching in both octahedral and tetrahedral lattice positions. The optical properties were investigated in detail through photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The PL spectrum confirmed the strong emission peaks in the ultraviolet to visible region of all the samples. Further, four active Raman modes, associated with cubic spinel structure are identified in all prepared samples. Finally, the magnetic characteristics are evaluated by using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) revealing ferrimagnetic and soft magnetic behavior of the samples. As the Zn and Cd co-doping in Co was increased, the H_c was decreased. The magnetic studies show the maximum H_c of 576 Oe for Cd doped cobalt ferrite, and maximum saturation magnetization (M_s) for Zn–Cd doped cobalt ferrite. It is envisaged that the newly prepared Zn–Cd co-doped cobalt ferrite would be appropriate for a number of important applications, for example, magnetic recording devices, sensors, actuators, high-density data storage devices, and biomedical equipments.     

High-Performance Unidirectional Manipulation of Microdroplets by Horizontal Vibration on Femtosecond Laser-Induced Slant Microwall Arrays

The high-performance unidirectional manipulation of microdroplets is crucial for many vital applications including water collection and bioanalysis. Among several actuation methods (e.g., electric, magnetic, light, and thermal actuation), mechanical vibration is pollution-free and biocompatible. However, it suffers from limited droplet movement mode, small volume range (V_Max/V_Min < 3), and low transport velocity (≤11.5 mm s⁻¹) because the droplet motion is a sliding state caused by the vertical vibration on the asymmetric hydrophobic microstructures. Here, an alternative strategy is proposed—horizontal vibration for multimode (rolling, bouncing/reverse bouncing, converging/diffusing, climbing, 90^o turning, and sequential transport), large-volume-range (V_Max/V_Min ≈ 100), and high-speed (≈22.86 mm s⁻¹) unidirectional microdroplet manipulation, which is ascribed to the rolling state on superhydrophobic slant microwall arrays (SMWAs) fabricated by the one-step femtosecond laser oblique ablation. The unidirectional transport mechanism relies on the variance of viscous resistance induced by the difference of contact area between the microdroplet and the slant microwalls. Furthermore, a circular, curved, and “L”-shaped SMWA is designed and fabricated for droplet motion with particular paths. Finally, sequential transport of large-volume-range droplets and chemical mixing microreaction of water-based droplets are demonstrated on the SMWA, which demonstrates the great potential in the field of microdroplet manipulation.     

Pseudospectral method for assessing stability robustness for linear time-periodic delayed dynamical systems

The article presents a pseudospectral approach to assess the stability robustness of linear time-periodic delay systems, where periodic functions potentially present discontinuities and the delays may also periodically vary in time. The considered systems are subject to linear real-valued time-periodic uncertainties affecting the coefficient matrices, and the presented method is able to fully exploit structure and potential interdependencies among the uncertainties. The assessment of robustness relies on the computation of the pseudospectral radius of the monodromy operator, namely, the largest Floquet multiplier that the system can attain within a given range of perturbations. Instrumental to the adopted novel approach, a solver for the computation of Floquet multipliers is introduced, which results into the solution of a generalized eigenvalue problem which is linear w.r.t. (samples of) the original system matrices. We provide numerical simulations for popular applications modeled by time-periodic delay systems, such as the inverted pendulum subject to an act-and-wait controller, a single-degree-of-freedom milling model and a turning operation with spindle speed variation.     

Mitigation of ground vibrations induced by high speed railways using double geofoam barriers: Centrifuge modeling

This paper presents a study of the propagation and mitigation of ground vibrations induced by high speed railways using 8 centrifuge tests. In the reported tests here, geofoam is used as a barrier in various locations and arrangements (single and double) to mitigate ground vibrations. The results show that the surface waves guide the propagation pattern of ground vibrations induced by high speed railways and also reveal that geofoam is a proper material for the mitigation of such ground vibrations. While the use of single geofoam barriers can reduce ground vibrations by up to 54.5%, their performance at low input frequencies are undesirable. Double geofoam barriers are used and tested in various locations to eliminate such inconvenient effects and improve the mitigation of ground vibrations. The results show that double geofoam barriers can mitigate the vibrations by about 14%–35% more than a single geofoam barrier and undesirable performances for the mentioned low input frequencies are also eliminated.     

Dynamische Verformungsmessungen an Eisenbahnbrücken mittels Mikrowelleninterferometrie

Dynamic measurements of railway bridge displacements through microwave interferometry – Part 1: measurement method The microwave interferometry is a rather new measuring technique, yet little‐known in civil engineering applications. It allows the non‐contact acquisition of structural displacements with accuracy in the sub‐millimetre range at a sampling rate of up to 4 kHz. The high sampling frequency allows also the caption of dynamic structural responses, which can be used for a straightforward determination of the main modal parameters of the structures (natural frequencies, damping ratios). Furthermore, the synchronous acquisition of the overall motion of the targeted object is possible due to a high range resolution, which facilitates a direct identification of modal shapes. This paper gives a short introduction of the measurement method and outlines its boundary conditions and limitations with respect to applications in railway bridge dynamics. The knowledge has been gained on the basis of comprehensive systematic experimental investigations performed within the frame of a cooperation project with the German Railways (Deutsche Bahn AG). As a result an evaluation matrix was created, which clearly illustrates the applicability of the microwave interferometry for different railway‐specific tasks. The second part will present selected results of microwave interferometry measurements of railway bridges in comparison to parallel conventional measurements and the corresponding numerical investigations, which were used for the validation of the measurement technique.     

Mitigation of tower and out-of-plane blade vibrations of offshore monopile wind turbines by using multiple tuned mass dampers

Offshore wind turbines are vulnerable to external vibration sources such as wind and wave excitations due to the increasing size and flexibility. It is necessary to mitigate the excessive vibrations of offshore wind turbines to ensure the safety and serviceability during their operations. Some research works have been carried out to control the excessive vibrations of the tower and the in-plane vibrations of blades. Very limited study focuses on the out-of-plane vibration mitigation of blades. In the present study, a detailed finite element (FE) model of the latest NREL 5MW wind turbine is developed by using the FE code ABAQUS. The tower and blades are explicitly modelled, and the rotating of the blades is considered. Multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMDs) are proposed to be installed in the tower and each blade to simultaneously mitigate the out-of-plane vibrations of the tower and blades when the wind turbine is subjected to the combined wind and wave loadings. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method are systematically investigated. Numerical results show that MTMDs can effectively mitigate the out-of-plane vibrations of the tower and blades when the wind turbine is in either the operational or parked condition.     

Development of passive viscoelastic damper to attenuate excessive floor vibrations

Recent changes in the construction of building floors have included the use of light material composite systems and long span floor systems. Although these changes have many advantages, such floor systems can suffer from excessive vibration due to human activities. This problem is exacerbated in office buildings due to the reduction in inherent damping associated with modern fit outs. Excessive floor vibrations are often realised after the completion of construction or following structural modifications and normally arise due to inadequate knowledge of the damping values in the design process. Thus rectification measures are normally required to reduce floor accelerations. This paper proposes a new innovative passive viscoelastic damper to reduce floor vibrations. This damper can be easily tuned to the fundamental frequency of the floor and can be designed to achieve various damping values. The paper discusses the analytical development of the damper with experimental results presented on a prototype to demonstrate its effectiveness.     

考虑拉索拉力增量时多跨拉索的固有横振

往考虑由振动引起的拉索拉力增量基础上,把具有中间支承的多跨拉索转化为在多个集中荷载作用下单跨拉索的强迫振动,然后采用 Laplace 变换求得了多跨连续拉索固有振动的解析解,讨论分析了拉索拉力增量对多跨连续拉索固有振动频率的影响。     

Optimal design of composite multilayered plated and shell structures

For multilayered plated and shell structures the formulation of the optimization problem is strongly dependant on the definition of the design variables. Therefore, the first part of the work is devoted to the definition of design variables and the forms of objective functions. Then, two numerical examples have been solved to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed formulations and the optimization algorithm (the modified evolutionary strategy). They deal with thickness and shape optimization problems subjected to dynamic and static constraints, respectively.     

钢琴乐声仿真频谱模型研究

频谱模型的乐音仿真是运用声学理论,由一系列基本函数及其时变幅度乘积的迭加来实现乐器的发声。通过对钢琴琴弦振动和衰减特性的分析以及共鸣箱共振作用的探讨,提出了一种新的数字化钢琴乐音仿真技术,仿真模型由激励系统和共振系统两部分组成。系统以琴弦振动方程为基础,先进行时域上的包络修饰,以模拟琴弦振动的自然衰减,这样可以使乐音各音符间衔接和谐;然后在频域上以频谱包络建模滤波器组,实现共振系统的仿真,对音色进行修饰。该方法能更为有效的雕刻声音,同时较好的表现音色,从而使乐音听起来更加和谐。