Influence of Ultrasonic Waves on the Processing of Cotton with Cationic Softener

In recent years, the textile industry has been forced to develop new technologies to reduce energy and water consumption. The use of ultrasound in textile wet processing is one solution to this problem. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of ultrasonic energy on the processing of cotton with a cationic softener. For this purpose, cotton fabric was treated with a fatty acid amide derivative cationic softener in water using ultrasonic energy during treatment. The physical properties of the fabrics treated under different conditions are discussed. The results show that the treatment of fabrics with softeners in an ultrasound bath is more effective compared to conventional methods and that it enhances the physical properties of the cotton.     

A latency-aware task scheduling algorithm for allocating virtual machines in a cost-effective and time-sensitive fog-cloud architecture

The Journal of Supercomputing - Recently, with the expansion of communications and generated data, the need for processing this high volume of data in minimum time and maximum speed has increased....     

Molecular simulations of the solubility of gases in polyethylene below its melting temperature

We have employed Monte Carlo simulations in the osmotic ensemble to study the solubility of three different gases (N₂, CH₄, CO₂) in polyethylene. The simulations are performed at temperatures below the polymer melting point. Although under such conditions, polyethylene is in a semicrystalline state, we have used simulation boxes containing only a purely amorphous material. We show that under such circumstances, computed solubilities are 4-5 times larger than experimental data. We therefore introduce an original use of the osmotic ensemble to implicitly account for the effects of the complex morphology of semicrystalline materials on gas solubility. We have made the assumption that i) the network formed by polymer chains trapped between different crystallites and ii) the changes in local density from crystalline regions to purely amorphous regions, may be both represented by an ad-hoc constraint exerted on the amorphous phase. A single constraint value emerges, independent of the gas nature, characteristic of the crystalline degree of the polymer. It is concluded that the role of this constraint is mostly to reproduce the effective density of the permeable phase of the real material, indirectly giving insights into the morphology of a semicrystalline polymer.     

Computation of bridge design forces from influence surfaces

An approach for highway bridge design force computation based on three-dimensional finite element analysis is suggested. The implementation of the adjoint method of influence coefficient computation in a typical finite element analysis program is discussed. Deficiency of the adjoint method as applied to bridge design is identified and a remedy is suggested. Through a numerical example, the advantage of the suggested procedure over the conventional approach is shown     

Lateral Load Resistance Evaluation of Wood- and Steel-Stud Partition Shear Walls

This paper summarizes the findings of an experimental study to characterize the cyclic racking and monotonic loading performance of wood-stud and steel-stud wall specimens, which were sheathed on both faces with gypsum wall board (GWB). Some specimens were finished with joint compound at the GWB joints and over screw heads. The study provided data on monotonic and cyclic hysteresis load-displacement relationships. Based on the visual inspection of the specimens during the tests, several aspects of the failure modes were noted. Shear-load capacity and drift capacities were determined based on the envelope curves of the hysteresis cycles. A comparison of the envelope curves for steel-stud and wood-stud specimens provided insight as to the relative behaviors of the two wall system types, including capacity, measures of ductility, and energy dissipation. Finally, the study provided better understanding of the effects of finishing GWB joints on the shear capacity of the wall systems.     

Dynamic Racking Crescendo Tests on Architectural Glass Fitted with Anchored Pet Film

Results are presented of a pilot study conducted recently at the Pennsylvania State University Building Envelope Research Laboratory (BERL) to investigate the response of curtain wall mock-ups glazed with 6 mm (? in.) annealed monolithic architectural glass panels fitted with anchored applied film under simulated earthquake conditions. Three common film-to-frame anchoring methods were evaluated: (1) structural silicone adhesive [13 mm (? in.) triangular cross section] application along the entire glass panel perimeter; (2) an aluminum bar extrusion to anchor the film to the frame horizontal along only the top of the glass panel; and (3) two aluminum bar extrusions to anchor the film to the frame verticals along the two vertical edges of the glass panel. Serviceability (glass cracking) and ultimate (glass fallout) limit-state data were collected during in-plane dynamic racking tests. Other performance characteristics, such as cohesive failure of the structural silicone adhesive, loss of film-to-glass adhesion, film tearing, damage to aluminum anchor bars, pullout of the filmed glass unit from the frame glazing pockets, and eventual entire unit fallout, were also recorded. These preliminary tests indicated that anchorage type can demonstrably influence both the serviceability (initial glass cracking) and ultimate (glass fragment fallout and entire unit fallout) limit states of “unweathered” filmed glass panels. In this study, the structural silicone anchor provided the best serviceability limit-state performance of the three anchor methods tested, and the top anchor provided the best entire-unit glass fallout resistance.     

Provably Good 2D Shape Reconstruction from Unorganized Cross‐Sections

This paper deals with the reconstruction of 2‐dimensional geometric shapes from unorganized 1‐dimensional cross‐sections. We study the problem in its full generality following the approach of Boissonnat and Memari [ [BM07] ] for the analogous 3D problem. We propose a new variant of this method and provide sampling conditions to guarantee that the output of the algorithm has the same topology as the original object and is close to it (for the Hausdorff distance).     

Optimization of continuous steel plate girder bridges

The minimization method and structural optimization approach used in the SPGBROD program for the optimization of continuous steel plate girder highway bridges are briefly described. The standard optimal design formulation used in the program in discussed. An expression for the maximum deflection of continuous highway bridges is derived in order to form an appropriate deflection constraint equation. The results of some applications of the SPGBROD program are presented.     

Seismic Behavior of Curtain Walls Containing Insulating Glass Units

In-plane dynamic racking crescendo tests were performed on full-scale curtain wall mock-ups dry glazed with six different insulating glass unit (IGU) configurations and one laminated glass unit configuration. The tests were conducted to determine the serviceability and ultimate limit state behaviors of these configurations tested under simulated earthquake-induced lateral drifts. All IGU configurations tested were manufactured with an annealed monolithic pane and a laminated pane with an argon fill and an anodized aluminum spacer between the panes. Several parameters were varied in the laminated pane of each configuration including glass lite thickness and glass type in the laminated pane (annealed, heat strengthened, and fully tempered), and PVB interlayer thickness for the laminated pane. Properties of the annealed inside pane were not varied. For each configuration, average drift values for the occurrence of glass cracking in each IGU pane, glass fallout from the monolithic pane, and pullout and fallout of the entire glass unit are reported. Relevant damage to the aluminum framing is also reported. Results of these tests can be used to assess the seismic resistance of similarly glazed architectural glass panels in practice and to improve the design of asymmetric IGU configurations for use in seismic regions.