A Joint Numerical-Experimental Study on Impact Induced Intra-laminar and Inter-laminar Damage in Laminated Composites

The investigation of the mechanical response of fibre-reinforced composite laminates under impact loads can be very difficult due to the occurrence of simultaneous failure phenomena. Indeed, as a consequence of low velocity impacts, intra-laminar damages, like fibre and matrix cracking, and inter-laminar damages, such as delaminations, can take place simultaneously. These damage mechanisms can lead to significant reductions in strength and stability of the composite structure. In this paper a joint numerical-experimental study is proposed which, by means of non-destructive testing techniques (Ultra-sound and thermography) and non-linear explicit FEM analyses, aims to completely characterise the impact induced damage in composite laminates under low velocity impacts. Indeed the proposed numerical tool has been used to improve the understanding of the experimental data obtained by Non-Destructive Techniques. Applications on samples tested according to the AECMA (European Association of Aerospace Manufacturers) prEn6038 standard at three different impact energies are presented. The interaction between numerical and experimental investigation allowed to obtain an exhaustive insight on the different phases of the impact event considering the inter-laminar damage formation and evolution.     

Recommendation of RILEM Technical Committee 250-CSM: Test method for Textile Reinforced Mortar to substrate bond characterization

Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM), also known as Fabric Reinforced Mortar or Fabric Reinforced Cementitious Matrix, composites are an emerging technology for the external repair and strengthening of existing structures. For most applications, the effectiveness of the TRM reinforcement relies on its bond performance. This recommendation identifies the best practice to characterize the bond behaviour of TRM. A shear bond test method is proposed to determine the peak axial stress (associated with the maximum load that can be transferred from the structural member to the externally bonded TRM reinforcement), the stress–slip relationship and the failure mode that controls the TRM-to-substrate load transfer capacity. Guidelines on specimen manufacturing, experimental setup, test execution, and determination of test results are provided.     

Finite-time control of discrete-time linear systems: Analysis and design conditions

In this paper we deal with some finite-time control problems for discrete-time, time-varying linear systems. First we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for finite-time stability; these conditions require either the computation of the state transition matrix of the system or the solution of a certain difference Lyapunov inequality. Then we address the design problem. The proposed conditions allow us to find output feedback controllers which stabilize the closed loop system in the finite-time sense; all these conditions can be expressed in terms of LMIs and therefore are numerically tractable, as shown in the example included in the paper.     

A very sensitive ion collection device for plasma-laser characterization

In this paper a very sensitive ion collection device, for diagnostic of laser ablated-target plasma, is described. It allows for reducing down to few microvolts the signal threshold at digital scope input. A standard ion collector is coupled to a transimpedance amplifier, specially designed, which increases data acquisition sensitivity by a gain ≈1100 and does not introduce any significant distortion of input signal. By time integration of current intensity, an amount of charge as small as 2.7 × 10(-2) pC can be detected for photopeak events.     

Discovering invariants via simple component analysis

We propose a new technique combining dynamic and static analysis of programs to find linear invariants. We use a statistical tool, called simple component analysis, to analyze partial execution traces of a given program. We get a new coordinate system in the vector space of program variables, which is used to specialize numerical abstract domains. As an application, we instantiate our technique to interval analysis of simple imperative programs and show some experimental evaluations.     

Leakage tests for Am solid sources used for liquid xenon detector monitoring

Experimental tests are described to check solid ²⁴¹Am radioactive sources used to monitor operation of liquid xenon detectors. In particular, radioactive leakage was tested in extreme temperature conditions following immersion in liquid nitrogen for different time periods. No radioactivity loss was detected from the sources considered. The paper describes the source characteristics, test methods and results obtained.     

A short term −12° head down tilt does not mimic microgravity in terms of human gonadal function

A significant reversible decrease in testosterone (T) has been associated with microgravity in male rodents and humans. Urinary T excretion increases in primates under hypergravity. Hypogonadism is somehow related to abnormally high levels of leptin (L), a hormone produced by the adipose tissue which has been found to increase under microgravity simulation conditions like head down bed rest (HDBR). The aim of this study was to assess hemodynamic and pituitary-adrenal and -gonadal adaptation to an acute HDBR test to be eventually used on a routine basis to get better prepared to next space flights. The Authors performed a 1 hour ?12° HDBR in 6 male and 6 female volunteers who underwent heart rate and blood pressure measurement together with a blood draw three times at 30 min intervals from the start to the end of the test for L, T, estradiol (E₂), LH, androstenedione (A), cortisol (F), ACTH. 12 age- and sexmatched control subjects followed the same protocol except for keeping the sitting position all the time. According to the ANOVA for repeated measures, no changes occurred in L, T, E₂ or LH whereas A, F and ACTH significantly decreased independently of gender. During HDBR systolic blood pressure decreased in both genders, diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly only in men and HR showed a more clear-cut decrease in women than in men. As a conclusion, such an acute steep-slope HDBR protocol may be efficiently used to testing immediate individual haemodynamic or adrenal response to microgravity but is not suitable for studies concerning gonadal adaptation.     

Approximate similarity retrieval with M-trees

Motivated by the urgent need to improve the efficiency of similarity queries, approximate similarity retrieval is investigated in the environment of a metric tree index called the M-tree. Three different approximation techniques are proposed, which show how to forsake query precision for improved performance. Measures are defined that can quantify the improvements in performance efficiency and the quality of approximations. The proposed approximation techniques are then tested on various synthetic and real-life files. The evidence obtained from the experiments confirms our hypothesis that a high-quality approximated similarity search can be performed at a much lower cost than that needed to obtain the exact results. The proposed approximation techniques are scalable and appear to be independent of the metric used. Extensions of these techniques to the environments of other similarity search indexes are also discussed. Received July 7, 1998 / Accepted October 13, 1998     

A two-step,fourth-order method with energy preserving properties

We introduce a family of fourth-order two-step methods that preserve the energy function of canonical polynomial Hamiltonian systems. As is the case with linear mutistep and one-leg methods, a prerogative of the new formulae is that the associated nonlinear systems to be solved at each step of the integration procedure have the very same dimension of the underlying continuous problem.The key tools in the new methods are the line integral associated with a conservative vector field (such as the one defined by a Hamiltonian dynamical system) and its discretization obtained by the aid of a quadrature formula. Energy conservation is equivalent to the requirement that the quadrature is exact, which turns out to be always the case in the event that the Hamiltonian function is a polynomial and the degree of precision of the quadrature formula is high enough. The non-polynomial case is also discussed and a number of test problems are finally presented in order to compare the behavior of the new methods to the theoretical results.