Ultralight X-type lattice sandwich structure (II): Micromechanics modeling and finite element analysis

The methods of homogenization and finite elements are employed to predict the effective elastic constants and stress-strain responses of a new type of lattice structure, the X-structure proposed by the authors in a companion paper. It is shown that in most cases the predictions by the equivalent homogenization theory agree well with the experimental and 3-dimensional finite element calculated results. The theoretical and numerical study supports the argument that the X-structure is superior to the pyramid lattice structure in terms of mechanical strength. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Project) (Grant No. 2006CB601202), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10632060, 10825210), the National “111” Project of China (Grant No. B06024) and the National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China (“863” Project) (Grant No. 2006AA03Z519)     

Dynamic simulation and optimization approach to construction diversion of hydraulic and hydroelectric projects

To solve the engineering and scientific problems in construction diversion and its simulation analysis, a complete scheme is presented. Firstly, the complex constraint relationship was analyzed among main buildings, diversion buildings and flow control. Secondly, the time-space relationship model of construction diversion system and the general block diagram-oriented simulation model of diversion process were set up. Then, the corresponding numerical simulation method and 3D dynamic visual simulation method were put forward. Further, the simulation and optimization platform of construction diversion control process was developed, integrated with simulation modeling, computation and visualization. Finally, these methods were applied to a practical project successfully, showing that the modeling process is convenient, the computation and the visual analysis can be coupled effectively, and the results conform to practical state. They provide new theoretical principles and technical measures for analyzing the control problems encountered in construction diversion of hydraulic and hydroelectric engineering under complex conditions. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Program) (Grant No. 2007CB714101), the National Key Technology R&D Program in the 11th Five year Plan of China (Grant No. 2006BAB04A13) and the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 50525927)     

Development of ecohydrological assessment tool and its application

The development of Hydro-Informatic Modelling System (HIMS) provides an integrated platform for hydrological simulation. To extend the application of HIMS, an ecohydrological modeling system named ecohydrological assessment tool (EcoHAT) has been developed. Integrating parameter-management tools, RS (remote sensing) inversion tools, module-design tools and GIS analysis tools, the EcoHAT provides an integrated tool to simulate ecohydrological processes on regional scale, which develops a new method on sustainable use of water. EcoHAT has been applied to several case studies, such as, the Yellow River Basin, the acid deposition area in Guizhou province and the riparian catchment of Guanting reservoir in Beijing. Results prove that EcoHAT can efficiently simulate and analysis the ecohydrological processes on regional scale and provide technical support to integrated water resources management on basin scale. Supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program in the 11th Five-year Plan of China (Grant No. 2006BAB06B07), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40671123), the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Project) (Grant Nos. 2005CB422207, G19990436), and the National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (“863” Project) (Grant No. 2006AA12Z145)     

In-flight observations of electromagnetic interferences emitted by satellite

Using the data from STAFF/TC-1, this paper for the first time analyzes the electromagnetic interferences of Chinese scientific satellite. The electromagnetic interference of satellite exists mainly below 30 Hz, but can extend to 190 Hz with an obviously decreasing power spectral density. The electromagnetic interferences at frequencies below 190 Hz have good correlation with the solar aspect angle. The electromagnetic interferences at frequencies between 190 and 830 Hz have also correlation with solar aspect angle. However, the electromagnetic interferences at frequencies above 830 Hz have no correlation with the solar aspect angle. The correlation coefficient between solar aspect angel and electromagnetic interferences is around 0.90. The larger the solar aspect angle, the stronger the satellite electromagnetic interference. When the solar aspect angle increases from 90.6° to 93.6°, the electromagnetic interferences at frequencies <10 Hz increase by 8 times and those at frequencies 190–830 Hz increase by 60%. This close association of electromagnetic interferences with the solar aspect angle indicates that the solar aspect angle is the main factor to determine the electromagnetic interferences. The electromagnetic interferences of satellite in sunlight are larger than those in eclipse. The electromagnetic interference produced by solar panel occupies about 87% in the low frequency band (<100 Hz) and 94% in the high frequency band (>100 Hz) of the total electromagnetic interference produced by satellite. These in flight observations of electromagnetic radiation of satellites will be very helpful to the designs of future satellites of space sciences or earthquake sciences. Supported by the National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (“863” Project) (Grant No. 2008AA12A216), the National Science & Technology Supporting Program during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40523006), the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Project) (Grant No. 2006CB806305), and the Specialized Research Fund for State Key Laboratories     

Deformation behavior of Cu-12wt%Al alloy wires with continuous columnar crystals in dieless drawing process

The microstructure and mechanical properties of Cu-12wt%Al alloy wires which are composed of continuous columnar crystals after dieless drawing forming at drawing speed of 1.0―1.4 mm/s and deformation temperature of 600―900℃ were analyzed, and deformation behavior of the alloy during dieless drawing forming was experimentally investigated. The results showed that in the abovemen-tioned conditions, recrystallization phenomenon was not found during dieless drawing forming. When a drawing speed of 1.0 mm/s was...     

An e-quality control model for multistage machining processes of workpieces

To track and control the changes of process quality attributes in multistage machining processes (MMPs), an e-quality control (e-QC) model is proposed. The e-QC model is defined as a quality information service node with e-formalizing technology, whose input/output and intermediate process (that is IPO) are known to other nodes, and its implemention in MMPs is provided. In order to establish the e-QC model, a measuring network is constructed to acquire the original quality data, and the changes of process quality attributes are monitored and diagnosed by the integrated quality analysis tools attached to the e-QC, which can be tracked by information template network in real time. Furthermore, a hierarchical control method is adopted to coordinate e-QCs, in which the quality loss and adjusting cost are used to quantify the opportunities for e-QCs to improve process quality. At last, a prototype is developed to verify the proposed methods. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973”) (Grant No. 2005CB724106) and the National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China (“863”) (Grant No. 2007AA00Z108)     

Internal state variable models for microstructure in high temperature deformation of titanium alloys

There exists an interaction between microstructural evolution and deformation behavior in high temperature deformation of titanium alloys. And the microstructure of titanium alloys is very sensitive to the process parameters of plastic deformation process. In this paper, on the basis of plastic deformation mechanism of metals and alloys, a microstructural model including dislocation density rate equation and grain growth rate equation is established with the dislocation density rate being an internal state variable. Applying the model to the high temperature deformation process of Ti60 titanium alloy, the average relative errors of grain sizes between the experiments and the predictions are 9.47% for sampled data, and 13.01% for non-sampled data. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50475144), the NPU Foundation for Research (Grant No. NPU-FFR-006), and the National Basic Research Program of China (“973”) (Grant No. G20000672)     

Ultralight X-type lattice sandwich structure (I): Concept,fabrication and experimental characterization

A new type of ultra-lightweight metallic lattice structure (named as the X-type structure) is reported. This periodic structure was formed by two groups of staggered struts in the traditional pyramid structure, and fabricated by folding expanded metal sheet along rows of offset nodes and then brazing the folded structure (as the core) with top and bottom facesheets to form sandwich panels. The out-of-plane compressive and shear properties of the X-type lattice sandwich structure were investigated experimentally and compared to those of the sandwich having a pyramidal truss core. It is found that the formation of the 2-dimensional staggered nodes can effectively make the X-type structure more resistant to inelastic and plastic buckling under both compression and shear loading than the pyramidal lattice truss. Obtained results show that the compressive and shear peak strengths of the X-type lattice structure are about 30% higher than those of the pyramidal lattice truss having the same relative density. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Project) (Grant No. 2006CB601202), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10632060,10825210), the National “111” Project of China (Grant No. B06024) and the National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China (“863” Project) (Grant No. 2006AA03Z519)     

Preparation of nanocrystalline BaTiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> ceramics

The high-dense nanocrystalline BaTiO₃ (BT) ceramics with grain size smaller than 100 nm have been successfully prepared by the two step sintering and the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. The successive transitions in nanograin BT ceramics from rhombohedral to orthorhombic, tetragonal and cubic transitions, similar to those in coarse BT ceramics, were revealed by in-situ temperature dependent Raman spectrum. The multiphase coexistence and the diffused phase transition character were demonstrated in the 8 nm nanocrystalline BT ceramics. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Project) (Grant No. 2002CB613301) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50872093)     

Soil erosion and sediment transport in the gullied Loess Plateau: Scale effects and their mechanisms

Scale effects exist in the whole process of rainfall―runoff―soil erosion―sediment transport in river basins.The differences of hydrographs and sediment graphs in different positions in a river basin are treated as basic scale effects,which are more complex in the gullied Loess Plateau,a region notorious for high intensity soil erosion and hyper-concentrated sediment-laden flow.The up-scaling method of direct extrapolation that maintains dynamical mechanism effective in large scale application was cho-sen as...     

The solidification of two-phase heterogeneous materials: Theory versus experiment

The solidification behavior of two-phase heterogeneous materials such as close-celled aluminum foams was analytically studied. The proposed analytical model can precisely predict the location of solidification front as well as the full solidification time for a two-phase heterogeneous material composed of aluminum melt and non-conducting air pores. Experiments using distilled water simulating the aluminum melt to be solidified (frozen) were subsequently conducted to validate the analytical model for two selected porosities (ɛ), ɛ=0 and 0.5. Full numerical simulations with the method of finite difference were also performed to examine the influence of pore shape on solidification. The remarkable agreement between theory and experiment suggests that the delay of solidification in the two-phase heterogeneous material is mainly caused by the reduction of bulk thermal conductivity due to the presence of pores, as this is the sole mechanism accounted for by the analytical model for solidification in a porous medium. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Project) (Grant Nos. 2006CB601202, 2006CB601203), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10572111, 10632060), the National 111 Project of China (Grant No. B06024) and the National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China (“863” Project) (Grant No. 2006AA03Z519).     

Molecular dynamics simulation of the test of single-walled carbon nanotubes under tensile loading

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to do the test of sin-gle-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) under tensile loading with the use of Bren-ner potential to describe the interactions of atoms in SWCNTs. The Young’s modulus and tensile strength for SWCNTs were calculated and the values found are 4.2 TPa and 1.40―1.77 TPa, respectively. During the simulation, it was found that if the SWCNTs are unloaded prior to the maximum stress, the stress-strain curve for unloading process overlaps with the loading one, showing that the SWCNT’s de-formation up to its fracture point is completely elastic. The MD simulation also demonstrates the fracture process for several types of SWCNT and the breaking mechanisms for SWCNTs were analyzed based on the energy and structure be-havior.     

Application of time reversal mirror technique in microwave-induced thermo-acoustic tomography system

Microwave-induced thermo-acoustic tomography (MITAT) is a promising technique with great potential in biomedical imaging. It has both the high contrast of the microwave imaging and the high resolution of the ultrasound imaging. In this paper, the proportional relationship between the absorbed microwave energy distribution and the induced ultrasound source distribution is derived. Further, the time reversal mirror (TRM) technique based on the pseudo-spectral time domain (PSTD) method is applied to MITAT system. The simulation results show that high contrast and resolution can be achieved by the TRM technique based on PSTD method even for the received signals with very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the model parameter with random fluctuation. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60771042), the National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program (“863” Project) (Grant No. 2007AA12Z159), 111 Project (Grant No. B07046), SiChuan Excellent Youth Foundation (Grant No. 08ZQ026-039), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China and Program for Changjiang Scholars     

The oscillatory damped behavior of double wall carbon nanotube oscillators in gaseous environment

The mechanical oscillatory behaviors of multiwall carbon nanotube oscillators in gaseous environment are investigated using the molecular dynamics method. The effects of ambient gas and temperature on intertube frictional force and oscillation frequency are analyzed. It is found that the intertube frictional force increases with the ambient gas density and temperature. Higher gas density and higher temperature cause a more rapid decay in the oscillation amplitude and an increase of the oscillation frequency. Compared to the vacuum environmental condition, the collision between gas atoms and the nanotube walls is a main ingredient leading to the increase of the energy dissipation. Gas damping may be the main reason for the failure of carbon nanotube oscillators working in gas environment. The ambient temperature also has an important effect on oscillations and low temperature is advantageous to sustain oscillations. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973”) (Grant No. 2006CB300404), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50676019, 50775017), the Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. BK2006510, BK2007113), and the Research Funding for the Doctor Program from Chinese Educational Ministry (Grant No. 20050286019)     

Effect of coagulation temperature on structures and properties of poly(<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-phenylene benzobisoxazole) (DHPBO) fibers during dry-jet wet-spinning process

The effect of coagulation temperature on the morphology, microstructures and mechanical properties of dihydroxy poly(p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) (DHPBO) fibers was investigated during dry-jet wet-spinning process, in which the coagulation bath concentration and drawn ratio were kept as 10 wt% of PPA in water and 1.7, respectively. The structures and mechanical properties of the as-spun DHPBO fibers were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, and single fiber tensile testing. The results indicated that in PPA/H₂O coagulation system, when the coagulation temperature was 25°C, highly crystallized DHPBO as-spun fibers possessing fine crystallites, circular and smooth morphology, and excellent mechanical properties could be achieved. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50673017), Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (Grant No. B603) and the Program of Introducing Taleuts of Discipline to University of People’s Republic of China (“111” Program) (Grant No. 111-2-04)     

Research on cohesive sediment erosion by flow: An overview

Erosion of cohesive sediment by flow is a very complicated phenomenon occurring worldwide. Understanding and modeling of the erosion process are important for many issues such as the breaching of embankments, riverbank stability, siltation of harbors and navigation channels, service life of reservoirs, distribution of (heavy metal) pollutants and water quality problems. In the last few decades, numerous studies have been done on the erosion of cohesive sediment by flow. Nevertheless, the factors affecting the erosion resistance of cohesive sediment are still not fully understood and the knowledge of the physics of cohesive sediment erosion is inadequate, as a result the mathematical modeling of this erosion is far from satisfactory. In this paper an overview of the studies on the erosion resistance, erosion threshold and the erosion rate of cohesive sediment by flow is presented. The outcomes achieved so far from the studies and the existing problems have been analyzed and summarized, based on which recommendations are proposed for future research. Supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (Grant Nos. 2006BAC14B02 and 2006BAB05B03) and the National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China (Grant No. 2007CB714106)     

A luminescence enhancement approach through Si/O nanostructure

An Si/O patterned shell array was fabricated by a technique utilizing nanosphere self assembly and reactive pressure pulsed laser deposition. The nanostructure produced by this technique enhanced the luminescence intensity by a factor of three compared with that of a flat film. The amount of enhancement observed coincided well with the expected enhancement by simulation. The technique in this paper provided a flexible, designable and compatible approach to luminescence enhancement. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Project) (Grant No. 2002CB613505) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 90206046)     

Effect of air bubble size on cavitation erosion reduction

Over the past 60 years, the air concentration in water has been considered as a control index of cavitation erosion reduction and widely used in the designs of hydraulic structures. However, the mechanism of air entrainment against cavitation erosion has been paid good attention to. In the present work, the effect of air bubble size on cavitation erosion reduction was experimentally investigated. A device with micron-scale orifice diameters(10, 20 and 50 μm in size) was specially designed to introduce air bubbles into water. The experiments about the effect of air bubble size were conducted by means of a vibratory apparatus, including the behavior of formation and movement for single air bubble, the characteristics of cavitation erosion reduction at different air entrainment conditions. The findings demonstrate that high air concentration has significant effects on cavitation erosion reduction.But, a notable problem was that the size of air bubbles is of outstanding effect on cavitation erosion reduction. Small air bubbles support to alleviate cavitation erosion, even at same air concentration.     

A reliability assessment method based on support vector machines for CNC equipment

With the applications of high technology,a catastrophic failure of CNC equipment rarely occurs at normal operation conditions.So it is difficult for traditional reliability assessment methods based on time-to-failure distributions to deduce the reliability level.This paper presents a novel reliability assessment methodology to estimate the reliability level of equipment with machining performance degradation data when only a few samples are available.The least squares support vector machines(LS-SVM) are int...     

Molecular dynamics simulation for aggregation phenomena of nanocolloids

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) method was used to study the dielectrophoresis (DEP) motion of nanocolloids in non-uniform electric field. By changing the electric field strength and system temperature, aggregation phenomena of nanocolloids was analyzed. Simulation results showed that at normal temperature, though the Brownian force can affect the motion of colloids, the attractive force will increase quickly with the distance between colloids down to 12σ , which makes colloids aggregate. When the Brownian force is weak to colloid's motion, for the enhancement of electric field strength, the DEP force of colloid will increase and so did the attractive force, which finally quickens the aggregate speed. Simulation results also showed that the temperature' enhancement will increase the Brownian force of colloids, hence disturbing the colloids aggregation. Moreover, the DLVO theory was used to study the motion of a pair of interactional colloids, both the potential energy and the attractive force versus distance of colloids were presented, then the latter graph was used to compare with another graph elicited by MD method. Results showed that the two graphs were nearly the same, indicating the MD model accorded with the theory.