A Monte-Carlo simulation of the effect of surface morphology on the fracture of nanobeams

Experiments show that the strength of nanostructures can be very high and that strength statistics are dominated by surface flaws. To understand the dependence of strength on the surface morphology, a series of fracture mechanics based Monte-Carlo simulations were performed. The surfaces of previously tested Si nanobeams were measured, statistically characterized and equivalent surfaces were generated. The surface profiles consist of bunched steps with varying heights and widths. At the root of each step, there is a stress singularity defined by a stress intensity factor. The beams were assumed to fail when the stress intensity factor anywhere on the surface exceeds the fracture toughness. In agreement with experiments, simulations show that even a small increase in the surface roughness results in a significant reduction in the strength of nanostructures. Thus, careful attention to the surfaces is essential for optimum strength and reliability at the nanoscale.     

Scattering from dielectric cylindrical shell periodically loaded with metallic patches

A dielectric cylindrical shell that is covered with metallic patches is considered. Entire domain basis functions are employed in the moment method solutions and the infinite sums are accelerated by Kummer's method. Results show that the radar cross-section of the structure vanishes at some specific frequencies.     

Flow patterns in a pilot plant-scale turbulent fluidized bed reactor: Concurrent application of tracers and fiber optic sensors

Hydrodynamics of a turbulent fluidized bed is studied by means of the concurrent application of fiber optic sensors and a helium tracer. It is observed that in the vicinity of the column wall there is a high bubble activity region. Low bubble activity and negative bubble velocities are reported for the dense phase near the column centre-line region. A temperature increase from 22 to 145°C results in a more homogeneous turbulent fluidized bed with smaller bubbles and more gas flowing through an expanded dense bed emulsion phase. Mass transfer coefficients between bubble-emulsion (k_be) and bubble-annulus (k_ba) are evaluated. The dominant mass transfer path was the one from the bubbles to the annular region with k_ba being several times greater than k_be.     

Spherical calcium phosphate nanoparticle fillers allow polymer processing of bone fixation devices with high bioactivity

Treatment of bone defects generally requires a fixation device. Biodegradable implants can often prevent second operations in contrast to metallic implants that are surgically removed after healing. In this study, we investigate the preparation of a bone fixation device with additional bioactivity by adding nanoparticulate amorphous tricalcium phosphate (ATCP) to improve bonding to bone. Medically approved poly(lactide‐co‐glycolide) (PLGA) and spherical (ATCP) nanoparticles were blended directly or through a two‐step approach, where ATCP was first dispersed in PLGA by solvent casting, extruded and hot pressed producing blocks and bone screws. The latter route yielded good particle dispersion while blending alone led to inhomogeneous mixtures. Samples were immersed in simulated body fluid and showed rapid formation of surface hydroxyapatite layers (examined by X‐ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy) already after 3 days, thus confirming very high bioactivity. Polymer degradation during processing and upon simulated implantation conditions was followed by gel permeation chromatography. The elevated temperature during extrusion was the strongest single factor contributing to PLGA degradation. Screws could be machined out of extruded cylinders and demonstrated the ability to process PLGA/ATCP 90/10 composites with regular workshop tools. These properties suggest the use of such composites as improved, bioactive, and degradable bone fixation systems particularly in oral and maxillofacial surgery. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Geo-engineering properties and settlement of peaty soils at an industrial site (Turkey)

Peats consist of the partly decomposed remains of vegetation, which have accumulated in waterlogged areas. They are often unsuitable for supporting structures of any kind due to their high water content, high compressibility, low shear strength and high degree of spatial variability. The paper reports a preliminary study on peats from industrial sites in the city of Kayseri, Turkey. The soils in the study area are classified as peat to muck. The peats are fibrous at shallow depth and become amorphous as they extend to some 8 m depth. The ranges of geo-engineering properties are generally consistent with those reported in the literature, with some variation due to their higher mineral soil contents. The behavior of the peats is essentially frictional, with high friction and relatively small cohesion. The direct shear tests yielded higher shear strengths than those from the triaxial tests, due to the fact that the peat specimens used in the direct shear tests were rich in fibers and mineral soils. Back analysis of the settlement of heavy rolls of metal wires laid on the peat generally confirmed the consolidation properties of the soil determined in laboratory.     

A new wireless asynchronous data communications module for industrial applications

All the sensors such as temperature, humidity, and pressure used in industry provide analog outputs as inputs for their control units. Wireless transmission of the data has advantages on wired transmission such as USB port, parallel port and serial port and therefore has great importance for industrial applications. In this work, a new wireless asynchronous data communications module has been developed to send the earth magnetic field data around a ferromagnetic material detected by a KMZ51 AMR sensor. The transmitter module transmits the analog data obtained from a source to a computer environment where they are stored and then presented in a graphical form. In this design, an amplitude shift keying (ASK) transceiver working at the frequency of 433.92 MHz which is a frequency inside the so called Industrial Scientific Medical band (ISM band) used for wireless communications. The analog data first fed into a 10-bit ADC controlled by a PIC microcontroller and then the digital data is sent to the transmitter. A preamble bit string is added in front of the data bits and another bit string for achieving synchronization and determination the start of the data is used. The data arriving at the receiver is taken by the microcontroller and sent to a LCD display as well as the serial port of a computer where it is written in a text file. A Visual Basic based graphics interface is designed to receive, store and present the data in the form of graphical shapes. In the paper, all the work has been explained in detail.     

A Generic Architecture Multimedia Service and Management

A multimedia service architecture is constructedby using a generic component model. In order to derivespecific components, a generic service agent and genericservice component architectures are developed. Using generic agent and the service components,a TINA-C conformant object-oriented hierarchical genericservice component is developed and presented. As anexample, a multimedia QoS service and management architecture is presented.     

Design and determination of stator geometry for axial flux permanent magnet free rod rotor synchronous motor

During designing a new axial flux permanent magnet free rod rotor synchronous motor, it is important to know before hand in which phase the largest angular velocity can occur, what is the ways to reduce the power consumption, how to achieve to increase or decrease the rotation speed by changing the core geometry. Therefore, presenting these preliminary information that are necessary for the design of a free rod rotor synchronous motor to the researchers is the aim of this work. In this respect, this study presents the design and geometrical dimensions of the stator for a new synchronous motor which is an axial flux permanent magnet free rod machine with three, four, five and six phases. This type of motors are an innovative approach especially for the applications used in industrial stirrers. Each type of stator is designed such that it has an appropriate number of phases. The rotating magnetic field over the stator is established by a PIC based microcontroller feeding the interface circuit to the stator wounds. The maximum angular speeds of bar magnet rotors with four different lengths and masses are calculated theoretically and determined experimentally. In addition, the effects of the distance between the rotor and stator, the angular speed of the rotor within the limits of the operation, and the volume of the liquid to be stirred to the power applied are investigated. Furthermore, the effects of the lengths and angular speeds of the bar magnet rotors to the distance between the rotor and stator are determined. In the light of the information obtained and taking into account the power used, the most appropriate parameters and variables such as the stator geometry changing with the phase used, the length of rotor, the distance between the rotor and stator and the angular speeds of rotor are determined.