Characterization of residual stresses from cold expansion using spatial statistics

Residual stress fields from cold expansion have been widely used to extend the fatigue life of aircraft structures. However, the spatial statistical character of these residual stress fields has not been established and has not been incorporated in current analysis methods. The objective of this study was to establish a spatial statistical method to quantify the residual stress field around a cold expanded hole. A framework called the Spatial Analysis of Residual Stress (SpARS) was developed utilizing spatial correlation, response surface modelling techniques and statistical resampling methods to characterize the residual stress field. Our results showed that tolerance bounds on residual stress can be quantified using this method. We also demonstrated the SpARS method using recently published round robin case studies. The newly developed model will be useful for aircraft structural fatigue crack growth analyses to incorporate residual stress fields for extending inspection intervals for fatigue and fracture critical structures.     

Procedural Synthesis using Vortex Particle Method for Fluid Simulation

We propose a fast and effective technique to improve sub‐grid visual details of the grid based fluid simulation. Our method procedurally synthesizes the flow fields coming from the incompressible Navier‐Stokes solver and the vorticity fields generated by vortex particle method for sub‐grid turbulence. We are able to efficiently animate smoke which is highly turbulent and swirling with small scale details. Since this technique does not solve the linear system in high‐resolution grids, it can perform fluid simulation more rapidly. We can easily estimate the influence of turbulent and swirling effect to the fluid flow.     

Analysis of the cost‐effectiveness of information networks with applications

This paper presents a methodology for the analysis of the cost‐effectiveness of information networks over a period of time. The cost‐effectiveness is considered to be associated with use‐dependent and use‐independent costs and benefits. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long‐range wireless sensor networks with transmit‐only nodes and software‐defined receivers

Wireless sensor networks for environmental monitoring and agricultural applications often face Long‐range requirements at low bit rates together with a large numbers of nodes. This paper presents the design and test of a novel wireless sensor network that combines a large radio range with very low power consumption and cost. Our asymmetric sensor network uses ultra‐low‐cost 40‐MHz transmitters and a sensitive software‐defined radio receiver with multi‐channel capability. Experimental radio range measurements in two different outdoor environments demonstrate a single‐hop range of up to 1.8 km. A theoretical model for radio propagation at 40 MHz in outdoor environments is proposed and validated with the experimental measurements. The reliability and fidelity of network communication over longer periods is evaluated with a deployment for distributed temperature measurements. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of the transmit‐only low‐frequency system design approach for future environmental sensor networks. Although there have been several papers proposing the theoretical benefits of this approach, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to provide experimental validation of such claims. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Field Emission and Cathodoluminescence of ZnS Hexagonal Pyramids of Zinc Blende Structured Single Crystals

Single‐crystal hexagonal pyramids of zinc blende ZnS are fabricated by facile thermal evaporation in an ammonia atmosphere at 1150 °C. It is found that ZnS pyramids grow along the [111] crystal axis and possess a sharp tip with a diameter of ～10 nm and a micrometer‐sized base. The structural model and growth mechanism are proposed based on crystallographic characteristics. This unique ZnS pyramid structure exhibits a low turn‐on field (2.81 V µm^?1), a high field‐enhancement factor (over 3000), a large field‐emission current density (20 mA cm^?2), and good stability with very small fluctuation (0.9%). These superior field‐emission properties are clearly attributed to the pyramid morphology, with micrometer‐sized bases and nanotips, and high crystallinity. Moreover, a stable UV emission of 337 nm at room temperature is observed and can be ascribed to the band emission of the zinc blende phase. These results suggest that the ZnS hexagonal pyramids can be expected to find promising applications as field emitters and optoelectronic devices.