Modelling the evolution of residual stresses during tensile testing of elastoplastic wires subjected to a previous bending operation

During coiling operations high residual stresses are frequently developed in steel wire. In this paper the stress distribution in wires during coiling, unwinding and subsequent tensile testing is modelled for numerous bending degrees, assuming perfect Voce plastic deformation and linear elastic behaviour. The influence of such residual stresses on the observed tensile test data can be deduced. It is shown that coiling with spool radii as used today industrially can lead to measurement of wire properties deviating significantly from the “true” properties of a properly coiled wire. Also, a method is proposed to deduce the original flow behaviour of coiled samples from tensile test curves, hence filtering the effect of the residual stresses.     

Peach-palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth.) waste as substrate for xylanase production by Trichoderma stromaticum AM7

This work investigated the xylanase production by fungi isolates from tropical agroforestry systems using peach-palm industrial waste as a substrate. Trichoderma stromaticum AM7 was the best xylanase producer and there was a 160% increase in xylanase activity after optimizing by the Box–Behnken statistical design. The optimization process demonstrated that the maximum activity occurred at 0.95% nitrogen concentration after 6 days of cultivation at 32°C, which achieved a yield of 1440?U?g^?1 of dry initial substrate. Analysis by scanning electron microscopy showed degradation of the fibers after cultivation. The optimum pH and temperature for xylanase activity were 5.0 and 50°C, respectively. The extensive degradation of the peach-palm waste and xylanase production by T. stromaticum AM7 was due to the combination of a good physicochemical composition of the culture medium and the characteristics of the selected fungus.     

Analysis of a new thruway communication system with discreteminimal zones

A mobile communication system for high-speed thruways is currently under consideration in Japan. The system consists of fixed stations installed at regular intervals (2-5 km) along the thruway which are connected to a host computer. Subscribing customers can communicate with the system as they drive through each station's communication zone of minimal type (40-100 m). The authors develop and analyze a stochastic model for this new communication system. The model closely follows the sequence of operations which actually take place according to a communication protocol for handling collisions, and requires no exponential assumptions for the underlying service times. The tradeoff between the total number of stations installed and the probability of successful completion of a task within z km after the initial submission is investigated. Some numerical results are also given for illustrating the tradeoff, with validation via SIMAN simulation     

A Universal Transducer Interface for Capacitive and Resistive Sensor Elements

This paper presents a new universal transducer interface.This interface, which is read out by a microcontroller, servicesthe following sensor elements: capacitors, platinum resistors,thermistors, resistive bridges and potentiometers. The A/D conversionis based on a first-order oscillator. A combination of classicaland some new measurement techniques has been applied on a singlechip to obtain high accuracy, good long-term stability and areduction of the effects of interference and parasitic elements.The circuit has been fabricated in a 0.7 µm CMOSprocess. The main test results are: an accuracy of 10–15bits and a resolution up to 16 bits while the measurement timeis in the range 1–100ms. These results hold over the temperaturerange –20°C to 80°C. Calibrationof the electronic part is not required. The number of externalcomponents has been kept to a minimum.     

Feature-Preserving Surface Reconstruction and Simplification from Defect-Laden Point Sets

We introduce a robust and feature-capturing surface reconstruction and simplification method that turns an input point set into a low triangle-count simplicial complex. Our approach starts with a (possibly non-manifold) simplicial complex filtered from a 3D Delaunay triangulation of the input points. This initial approximation is iteratively simplified based on an error metric that measures, through optimal transport, the distance between the input points and the current simplicial complex—both seen as mass distributions. Our approach is shown to exhibit both robustness to noise and outliers, as well as preservation of sharp features and boundaries. Our new feature-sensitive metric between point sets and triangle meshes can also be used as a post-processing tool that, from the smooth output of a reconstruction method, recovers sharp features and boundaries present in the initial point set.