Fatigue damage in composite cylinders

In this study, optimal angle‐ply orientation of symmetric composite cylinders under fatigue loading is investigated. The fiber‐reinforced plastic cylinders were manufactured from E‐glass/epoxy. The layers were manufactured symmetrically in [±75°]₂, [±60°]₂, [±55°]₂, and [±45°]₂ orientations. Burst pressure of filament‐wound composite cylinders under alternating pure internal pressure was measured experimentally. Internal fatigue pressure testing method was applied to the composite cylinders in close‐ended condition. For this study, a PLC controlled hydraulic pressure testing machine has been employed. The static burst pressure values of specimens were measured; subsequently, fatigue test pressure was applied in 70, 60, and 50% stress levels of burst pressure for each orientation. Damage propagations of the composite cylinders on these stress levels were observed as whitening, leakage, and final failure for [±60°]₂, [±55°]₂, and orientations. When the damage propagation of [±75°]₂ angle‐ply cylinder was observed, whitening and leakage did not occur and final failure occurred suddenly. Stress‐cycle curves obtained from the tests are given in graphics. Experimental results reveal that variation in stress levels and the winding angles have considerable effects on final failure cycles, which is also presented graphically. The optimum winding angle for the composite pressure cylinders or vessels under internal fatigue pressure load was obtained as [±45°]₂ orientation. POLYM. COMPOS., 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Effect of fiber orientation on viscoelastic properties of polymer matrix composites subjected to thermal cycles

Fibers in polymer composites can be designed in various orientations for their usage in service life. Various fiber orientated polymer composites, which are used in aeroplane and aerospace applications, are frequently subjected to thermal cycles because of the changes in body temperatures at a range of −60 to 150°C during flights. It is an important subject to investigate the visco‐elastic properties of the thermal cycled polymer composite materials which have various fiber orientations during service life. Continuous fiber reinforced composites with a various fiber orientations are subjected to 1,000 thermal cycles between the temperatures of 0 and 100°C. Dynamic mechanic thermal analysis (DMTA) experiments are carried out by TA Q800 type equipment. The changes in glass transition temperature (T_g), storage modulus (E′), loss modulus (E′′) and loss factor (tan δ) are inspected as a function of thermal cycles for different fiber orientations. It was observed that thermal and dynamic mechanical properties of the polymer composites were remarkably changed by thermal cycles. It was also determined that the composites with [45°/−45°]_s fiber orientation presented the lowest dynamic mechanical properties. POLYM. COMPOS., 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Supercritical liquefaction of common reed (Phragmites australis) with alkali catalysts

Milled Phragmites australis was liquefied in organic solvents with and without catalyst in a cylindrical reactor at temperatures of 533, 553, and 573 K under supercritical conditions. The liquefied compounds were extracted with diethyl ether and benzene using an extraction procedure. The product yields without catalyst in supercritical methanol, ethanol, and acetone were found to be 55.4%, 64.4%, and 73.5% at 573 K respectively. The highest conversion to liquid products was obtained in supercritical acetone with 10% sodium hydroxide as catalyst at the same temperature in the catalytic runs. Main chemical compounds present in the liquid products obtained in ethanol without catalyst and acetone with sodium hydroxide catalyst at 573 K were analyzed and characterized by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS).     

Evaluation of the validity of the scalar approximation in optical wave propagation using a systems approach and an accurate digital electromagnetic model

The cause and amount of error arising from the use of the scalar approximation in monochromatic optical wave propagation are discussed using a signals and systems formulation. Based on Gauss’s Law, the longitudinal component of an electric field is computed from the transverse components by passing the latter through a two input single output linear shift-invariant system. The system is analytically characterized both in the space and frequency domains. For propagating waves, the large response for the frequencies near the limiting wave number indicates the small angle requirement for the validity of the scalar approximation. Also, a discrete simulator is developed to compute the longitudinal component from the transverse components for monochromatic propagating electric fields. The simulator output helps to evaluate the validity of the scalar approximation when the system output cannot be analytically calculated.     

Planning of capacity,production and inventory decisions in a generic reverse supply chain under uncertain demand and returns

There is a growing interest for the design and operation of reverse supply chain systems due to the cost and the legislation issues. In this paper, we address the disassembly, refurbishing and production operations in a reverse supply chain setting for modular products such as computers and mobile phones considering the uncertainties in this system, which are the return amounts of the used products and demand for final products. We develop a large-scale mixed integer programming model in order to capture all characteristics of this system, and use two-stage stochastic optimisation and robust optimisation approaches to analyse the system behaviour. In the first stage, we focus on the strategic decisions about the capacities at disassembly and refurbishing sites considering different scenarios regarding the uncertainties in the system. In the second stage, we analyse the operational decisions such as production, inventory and disposal rates. We observe through our extensive numerical analysis that the randomness of demand and return values effect the performance of the system substantially and the uncertainty of the return amounts of used products is much more important than the uncertainty of demand in this system.     

Intermediate product selection and blending in the food processing industry

This study addresses a capacitated intermediate product selection and blending problem typical for two-stage production systems in the food processing industry. The problem involves the selection of a set of intermediates and end-product recipes characterising how those selected intermediates are blended into end products to minimise the total operational costs under production and storage capacity limitations. A comprehensive mixed-integer linear model is developed for the problem. The model is applied on a data set collected from a real-life case. The trade-offs between capacity limitations and operational costs are analysed, and the effects of different types of cost parameters and capacity limitations on the selection of intermediates and end-product recipes are investigated.     

Hygrothermal Fracture Analysis of Orthotropic Materials Using J k -Integral

A new computational method based on the J _k -integral is put forward for the purpose of conducting fracture analysis of orthotropic materials subjected to hygrothermal stresses. By utilizing the constitutive relations of plane orthotropic hygrothermoelasticity, an alternative expression for the J _k -integral is derived to replace the general limit definition. A numerical procedure is developed and integrated into a finite element analysis software to implement the proposed form of the J _k -integral. Temperature and specific moisture concentration fields, which are required in fracture calculations, are also computed through finite element analysis. Numerical results are generated by considering an embedded crack in a polymer matrix fibrous composite laminate, that is subjected to steady-state hygrothermal loading. Comparisons of the mixed-mode stress intensity factors computed by the J _k -integral based method to those evaluated via the displacement correlation technique demonstrate that, the proposed form of the J _k -integral is domain independent and leads to numerical results of high accuracy. Presented parametric analyses illustrate the influences of the fiber volume fraction and the crack location on the modes I and II stress intensity factors, the energy release rate, and the T-stress.     

An upside-down normal loss function-based method for quality improvement

Traditional measures of process quality do not offer much information on how much better or worse a process is when finding optimal settings of a given problem. The upside-down normal loss function (UDNLF) is a weighted loss function that provides a more reasonable risk assessment to the losses of being off-target in product engineering research. The UDNLF can be used in process design and optimization to accurately reflect and quantify the losses associated with the process in a way which minimizes the expected loss of the upside-down normal (UDN). The function has a scale parameter which can be adjusted by the practitioners to account for the actual percentage of materials failing to work at specification limits. In this article, the ‘target is best’ case is addressed to estimate the expected loss of UDN due to variation from target in the robust process design and response surface modelling context. An approach is proposed to find the control factor settings of a system by directly minimizing the expected loss. The procedure and its merits are illustrated through an example.     

Investigation of flow properties in natural streams using the entropy concept

This paper examines the discharge and velocity distributions in natural open channel flows using the entropy theory. Flow measurements were carried out at four different cross‐sections in central Turkey. The mean and maximum velocities at these stations exhibited a linear distribution and the entropy parameter was calculated to be M=1.31. Using this value, discharges for all flow conditions were calculated as a function of the measured maximum velocities (u_max). It was observed that the u_max/H and z_max/H ratios remained relatively constant when 0.2≤y/T≤0.8, especially for the wider channels. Using these constant values for each station, u_max and z_max could be determined solely as a function of the water depth H. Although the calculated velocities were higher than those measured at some verticals, the entropy‐based approach presents an attractive alternative to the traditional flow‐measurement techniques for the determination of flow properties because of its simplicity and quick application.