Bending fatigue strength of case-carburized helical gears with large helix angles up to 40 degrees

Case-carburizing of helical gears with large helix angles may form too large hardened layers near the tooth width end on the acute angle side (ACUTE-END), and adversely affect the bending fatigue strength. We investigated the bending fatigue strength of casecarburized helical gears with large helix angles up to approximately 40° through a bending fatigue test, hardness test, and residual stress measurement. We found that the case-carburizing formed large hardened layers near ACUTE-END, reduced the compressive residual stress near ACUTE-END, and restricted the improvement of the bending fatigue strength in a meshing state where tooth root stress became large near ACUTE-END. Based on the obtained bending fatigue limits, we revealed that ISO 6336-3:2006 overestimated the rate of increase of the permissible circumferential loads for helix angles exceeding approximately 30°, and ISO/DIS 6336-3:2018 underestimated this rate for helix angles near 30°.

     

Seismic stability of embankments with different densities and upstream conditions related to the water level

Modeling an embankment by subjecting it to different upstream conditions in a centrifuge is challenging. However, the response of an embankment to shaking under different upstream conditions needs to be studied to ensure that the necessary precautions are taken during its construction and maintenance. Herein, the influence of different upstream conditions and embankment densities are investigated. The pore water pressure values at different locations in an embankment were recorded during seepage and under induced shaking. Accelerometers recorded the response of the embankment to shaking, and a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) measured the settlement at the top of the embankment as a result of the shaking. An image analysis was used to trace the resulting deformation of the embankment due to the shaking. The results indicate that the upstream conditions of the embankment determine the failure mechanism of the embankment in cases of lower density. In addition, the distribution of the water content within the embankment was found to have a greater influence on its response to shaking than the water level height on its upstream side.     

A Hydrogen Management Method in Residential Distributed Generation Systems with Photovoltaic Cells and Hydrogen‐Storage Type Fuel Cells

Recently, renewable energy has been attracting attention as a result of global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels. Photovoltaic (PV) systems have spread rapidly around the world because they generate electric power quietly and can be installed in many places. The output power generated in a PV system fluctuates with changes in solar irradiance and panel temperature. The reverse flow of surplus power in output spikes may have a negative effect on electric power quality, such as on the frequency and voltage in a power system. A residential distributed generation (DG) system composed of a fuel cell (FC) unit, an electrolyzer (EL) unit, and a PV system has been proposed in order to resolve these problems. In order to operate this system without interruption, the hydrogen storage volume must be managed. This paper proposes a novel hydrogen management method for a residential DG system with PV cells and hydrogen‐storage type FCs. The hydrogen storage volume is maintained at the preset frequency by operating the FC unit and the EL unit. Models of the PV, FC, and EL were constructed for a simulation. In the simulation, we showed that the proposed management method is viable for a residential DG system with PV cells and hydrogen‐storage FCs.     

Variable stage-independent double sampling plan with screening for acceptance quality loss limit inspection scheme

The quality loss suggested by Taguchi has been recognised as a new quality evaluation based on variable property instead of the quality evaluation based on traditional attribute property such as the proportion of nonconforming items. Some variable sampling inspection plans in order to assure the quality have been considered. As one of those sampling inspection plans, the single sampling plan with screening (SSPS) has been constructed for acceptance quality loss limit inspection scheme. Further, the repetitive group sampling plan with screening (RGSPS) has been developed for reducing the average total inspection (ATI). Although ATI by RGSPS has successfully been reduced in comparison with ATI by SSPS, RGSPS may sometimes increase the average sampling frequency (ASF) in return for reducing ATI. In this study, the stage-independent double sampling plan with screening (SIDSPS) based on the concept of the acceptance quality loss limit inspection scheme is proposed under the consideration of the trade-off between ATI and ASF. Through some numerical comparisons about ATI and ASF in SSPS, RGSPS, and SIDSPS, the usefulness of SIDSPS proposed in this study is confirmed.     

Posture Control for Personal Mobility Robot Using Feedback Compensation with Unstable Pole

This paper presents a novel posture control approach using feedback compensation with an unstable pole. For a narrow and small personal mobility robot (PMR), this is needed in order to control its posture for achieving quick turning and high acceleration. However, in the conventional control approach that uses the posture angle as a controlled variable, the zero moment point (ZMP) does not settle to the desired point in the following cases: an unknown disturbance force given to the PMR, a fluctuation in the center of gravity of the PMR, and a change in the conditions between the tires and the road surface. In this paper, a novel control method using feedback compensation with an unstable pole is proposed to achieve the desired ZMP in the steady state. The proposed controller changes the control input for the actuator of posture control to zero in order to achieve the desired posture angle. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified through experiments using a prototype of the PMR.     

Visualization of TiO2 Reduction Behavior in Molten Salt Electrolysis

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - An in situ observation technique of the TiO2 interfacial behavior in molten LiCl-KCl electrolysis was developed. The variation of the thin TiO2...     

Bending fracture rule for 3D-printed curved continuous-fiber composite

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an attractive technology to produce complex structures without the need for expensive tools and molds. Additives are usually incorporated with the plastic materials used in 3D printing to increase their strength and rigidity. In particular, carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) shows promise as a material for use in 3D printing. However, the strength of CFRP after printing is still unclear, although it is known that its strength is affected by the plastic melting during printing. In this study, we analyzed the fracture behavior of CFRP specimens before and after bending to different curvature radii. From the experimental results, a fracture criterion that described the behavior of the materials by considering tensile and compressive loads was developed. The fracture mechanism was the same for CFRP specimens with different curvature radii. These results increase our understanding of the mechanical properties of CFRP materials used in 3D printing.     

Tracking topic evolution via salient keyword matching with consideration of semantic broadness for Web video discovery

A method to track topic evolution via salient keyword matching with consideration of semantic broadness for Web video discovery is presented in this paper. The proposed method enables users to understand the evolution of topics over time for discovering Web videos in which they are interested. A framework that enables extraction and tracking of the hierarchical structure, which contains Web video groups with various degrees of semantic broadness, is newly derived as follows: Based on network analysis using multimodal features, i.e., features of video contents and metadata, our method extracts the hierarchical structure and salient keywords that represent contents of each Web video group. Moreover, salient keyword matching, which is newly developed by considering salient keyword distribution, semantic broadness of each Web video group and initial topic relevance, is applied to each hierarchical structure obtained in different time stamps. Unlike methods in previous works, by considering the semantic broadness as well as the salient keyword distribution, our method can overcome the problem of the desired semantic broadness of topics being different depending on each user. Also, the initial topic relevance enables correction of the gap from an initial topic at the start of tracking. Consequently, it becomes feasible to track the evolution of topics over time for finding Web videos in which the users are interested. Experimental results for real-world datasets containing YouTube videos verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Efficiency-enhanced cost-volume filtering featuring coarse-to-fine strategy

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Cost-volume filtering (CVF) is one of the most widely used techniques for solving general multi-labeling problems based on a Markov random field (MRF). However...     

Phase Equilibria and Phase Transition of the Ni–Fe–Ga Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Alloy System

Phase equilibria and martensitic and magnetic transitions of the β (B2 and L2₁) phase in the Ni–Fe–Ga system were investigated. The b phase was found to be in equilibrium with the γ (A1 structure) or γ′ (L1₂ structure) phase. The Curie temperature, T _c , equilibrium temperature, T _o 5 (Ms + Af)/2, martensitic transition starting temperature, M _s , and reverse transition finishing temperature, Af , of the β single–phase alloys were sensitive to the Fe and Ga compositions. The Fe substitution for Ni decreased and increased the T _o and T _c , respectively. The Ga substitution for Ni or Fe decreased both the T _o and T _c . The entropy change accompanying the reverse martensitic transition showed compositional dependence due to the magnetic contribution. The saturation magnetization I _s of the Ni–Fe–Ga system showed a strong dependence on the magnetic valence Z _M . The Is values of the Ni–Fe–Ga alloys annealed at 1023 K showed the same Z _m dependence as other ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA) systems. This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled "Phase Transformations in Magnetic Materials," which occurred during the TMS Annual Meeting, March 12-16, 2006, in San Antonio, Texas, under the auspices of the Joint TMS–MPMD and ASMI–MSCTS Phase Transformations Committee.