Crack tip parameters and elastic-plastic fracture of metals

By using optical displacement-measuring techniques we obtain the crack tip fields in terms of crack tip strain, crack opening angle (COA) and crack tip opening angle (CTOA). Thin plates with different crack configurations made of six elastic-plastic materials with strain hardening exponent ranging from 3 to are studied. We find that the COA resistance curve assumes certain characteristics common to all the materials. The experimental results indicate that the critical value of COA may be used as a fracture toughness parameter for these materials.

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Résumé En utilisant une technique de mesure optique des déplacements, on obtient les champs régnant à l'estrémité d'une entaille, qui s'experiment par la déformation d'extrémité d'entaille, l'angle d'ouverture de la crique (COA et l'angle d'ouverture de la pointe de la crique (CTOA). On étudie des feuillards présentant différentes configurations de fissures et réalisés en six matériaux élasto-plastiques dont les modules d'écrouissage s'échelonnent de 3 à l'infini.On trouve que la courbe de résistance COA suppose certaines caractéristiques communes à tous les matériaux. Les résultats expérimentaux indiquent que la valeur critique du COA peut être utilisée comme paramètre de ténacité à la rupture pour les matériaux étudiés.

     

On the method-independent lower bound (MILB) to the variance of attenuation estimation in random reflection

Based on the Cramer-Rao inequality, the MILB is calculated for the problem of estimating the frequency slope of the attenuation coefficient of tissue from random reflections of ultrasonic waves. Under typical signal conditions, this bound for a 1-cm x 1-cm region was found to be about 0.08 db/(MHz-cm), rather close to the clinical requirement of 0.1 dB/(MHz-cm). Comparison to existing methods (including an autoregressive deconvolution method) shows room for further improvement.     

Effect of silver addition on superconductivity in the Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr1.6Ca2Cu3O10−y system

Silver/superconductor composites containing 0 to 80 vol% silver have been prepared and their properties determined. Optimum heat treatment at sintering temperatures ( 800° C) under low oxygen pressures produces material with high critical current density and improves physical properties. Magnetic susceptibility measurements have been found to be consistent with resistivity results. In order to retain a single high-T _c phase with increasing silver content, decreased oxygen partial pressures are required. Using the normal-state resistivity of these composites, a percolation threshold at a silver volume fraction of 43% was observed, while zero resistivity measurements show that a continuous superconducting network can be obtained with up to 80 vol% silver. The critical current density of 21 vol% silver-doped samples was found to be 1520 A cm^–2 at 77.3 K, compared to 260 A cm^–2 for an undoped sample.     

HAR-sEMG: A Dataset for Human Activity Recognition on Lower-Limb sEMG

Knowledge and Information Systems - In the past decade, human activity recognition (HAR) has grown in popularity due to its applications in security and entertainment. As recent years have...     

Simple Question Answering over Knowledge Graph Enhanced by Question Pattern Classification

Knowledge and Information Systems - Question answering over knowledge graph (KGQA), which automatically answers natural language questions by querying the facts in knowledge graph (KG), has drawn...     

Turbulent Details Simulation for SPH Fluids via Vorticity Refinement

A major issue in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) approaches is the numerical dissipation during the projection process, especially under coarse discretizations. High‐frequency details, such as turbulence and vortices, are smoothed out, leading to unrealistic results. To address this issue, we introduce a vorticity refinement (VR) solver for SPH fluids with negligible computational overhead. In this method, the numerical dissipation of the vorticity field is recovered by the difference between the theoretical and the actual vorticity, so as to enhance turbulence details. Instead of solving the Biot‐Savart integrals, a stream function, which is easier and more efficient to solve, is used to relate the vorticity field to the velocity field. We obtain turbulence effects of different intensity levels by changing an adjustable parameter. Since the vorticity field is enhanced according to the curl field, our method can not only amplify existing vortices, but also capture additional turbulence. Our VR solver is straightforward to implement and can be easily integrated into existing SPH methods.     

Maximizing learning without sacrificing the fun: Stealth assessment,adaptivity and learning supports in educational games

In this study, we investigated the validity of a stealth assessment of physics understanding in an educational game, as well as the effectiveness of different game-level delivery methods and various in-game supports on learning. Using a game called Physics Playground, we randomly assigned 263 ninth- to eleventh-grade students into four groups: adaptive, linear, free choice and no-treatment control. Each condition had access to the same in-game learning supports during gameplay. Results showed that: (a) the stealth assessment estimates of physics understanding were valid—significantly correlating with the external physics test scores; (b) there was no significant effect of game-level delivery method on students' learning; and (c) physics animations were the most effective (among eight supports tested) in predicting both learning outcome and in-game performance (e.g. number of game levels solved). We included student enjoyment, gender and ethnicity in our analyses as moderators to further investigate the research questions.     

Inquiry-based mobile learning in secondary school science education: A systematic review

Recent years have seen a growing call for inquiry-based learning in science education, and mobile technologies are perceived as increasingly valuable tools to support this approach. However, there is a lack of understanding of mobile technology-supported inquiry-based learning (mIBL) in secondary science education. More evidence-based, nuanced insights are needed into how using mobile technologies might facilitate students' engagement with various levels of inquiry and enhance their science learning. We, therefore, conducted a robust systematic literature review (SLR) of the research articles on mIBL in secondary school science education that have been published from 2000 to 2019. We reviewed and analysed 31 empirical studies (34 articles) to explore the types of mIBL, and the benefits and constraints of mIBL in secondary school science education. The findings of this SLR suggest new research areas for further exploration and provide implications for science teachers' selection, use and design of mIBL approaches in their teaching.     

Application of deep learning algorithms in geotechnical engineering: a short critical review

Artificial Intelligence Review - With the advent of big data era, deep learning (DL) has become an essential research subject in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). DL algorithms are...     

Parallel optimization of three-dimensional wedge-shaped underwater acoustic propagation based on MPI+OpenMP hybrid programming model

The three-dimensional wedge-shaped underwater acoustic propagation model exists analytical solution, which provides verification for models like FOR3D propagation model under certain situation. However, the solving process of a three-dimensional complex underwater sound field problem is hindered by intensive computing and long calculation times. In this paper, we exploit a hybrid parallel programing model, such as MPI and OpenMP, to accelerate the computation, design various optimization methods to improve the overall performance, and then carry out the performance and optimization analysis on the Tianhe-2 platform. Experiments show that the optimized implementation of the three-dimensional wedge-shaped underwater acoustic propagation model achieves a 46.5 speedup compared to the original serial program, thereby illustrating a substantial performance improvement. We also carried out scalability tests and parallel optimization experiments for large-scale practical examples.