Fatigue life prediction under variable loading based on a new damage model

To examine the performance of nonlinear models proposed in the estimation of fatigue damage and fatigue life of components under random loading, a batch of specimens made of 6082 T 6 aluminium alloy has been studied and some of the results are reported in the present paper. The paper describes an algorithm and suggests a fatigue cumulative damage model, especially when random loading is considered. This paper contains the results of mono-axial random load fatigue tests with different mean and amplitude values performed on 6082 T 6 aluminium alloy specimens. Cycles were counted with rainflow algorithm and damage was cumulated with a new model proposed in this paper and with the Palmgren–Miner model. The proposed model has been formulated to take into account the damage evolution at different load levels and it allows the effect of the loading sequence to be included by means of a recurrence formula derived for multilevel loading, considering complex load sequences. It is concluded that a ‘damaged stress interaction damage rule’ proposed here allows a better fatigue damage prediction than the widely used Palmgren–Miner rule, and a formula derived in random fatigue could be used to predict the fatigue damage and fatigue lifetime very easily. The results obtained by the model are compared with the experimental results and those calculated by the most fatigue damage model used in fatigue (Miner’s model). The comparison shows that the proposed model, presents a good estimation of the experimental results. Moreover, the error is minimized in comparison to the Miner’s model.     

Charge-extraction technique for studying the surface states in MOSdevices

A method called the charge-extraction technique is proposed for studying the surface states in MOS devices. This new technique utilizes the substrate current arising from the non-steady-state emission of carries from the surface states instead of that arising from their steady-state recombination, as utilized in the charge-pumping method. This is achieved by confining the amplitude of the gate-voltage signal to such a magnitude that the surface region of the device does not cross the depletion limits. A new theoretical model is developed for the present case which predicts the occurrence of a maximum value of the substrate current at a certain optimum frequency of the applied gate-voltage signal. Experimental measurements have been found quite in conformity with the theoretical model. It is found that the maximum substrate current and the corresponding optimum frequency, obtained in this way, can serve as more handy and precise parameters for the determination of the surface states     

Thermomechanical deformation imaging of power devices by electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI)

We present an original imaging method to measure the three components of the surface displacement of working power devices with a nanometric resolution. The method takes advantage of the speckle structure of the analysed object recorded on a CCD camera. This method is complementary of IR thermography and provides interesting information concerning stress and reliability in power devices.     

Performance study of change-point detection thresholds for cumulative sum statistic in a sequential context

Sequential detection is based on a recursive statistic and a threshold it must reach to report a change. In this paper, we consider the score-based cumulative sum statistic and propose to evaluate the detection performance of some thresholds on simulated data. Three thresholds come from the literature: the Wald constant, the empirical constant, and the conditional empirical instantaneous threshold (the latter two are built by a simulation-based procedure). Two new thresholds are built by a simulation-based procedure: the first one is instantaneous, the second is a dynamical version of the previous one. The thresholds' performance measured by an estimation of the mean time between false alarm (MTBFA) and the average detection delay (ADD) are evaluated on independent and autocorrelated data for several scenario, according to the detection objective and the real change in the data. The simulations allow us to compare the difference between the thresholds' results and to see that their performances prove to be robust when a parameter of the prechange regime is misestimated or when the data independence assumption is violated. We found also that the conditional empirical threshold is the best at minimizing the detection delay while maintaining the given false alarm rate. However, on real data, we suggest to use the dynamic instantaneous threshold because it is the easiest to build for practical implementation.     

Efficient estimation of extreme quantiles using adaptive kriging and importance sampling

This study considers an efficient method for the estimation of quantiles associated to very small levels of probability (up to O(10⁻⁹)), where the scalar performance function J is complex (eg, output of an expensive-to-run finite element model), under a probability measure that can be recast as a multivariate standard Gaussian law using an isoprobabilistic transformation. A surrogate-based approach (Gaussian Processes) combined with adaptive experimental designs allows to iteratively increase the accuracy of the surrogate while keeping the overall number of J evaluations low. Direct use of Monte-Carlo simulation even on the surrogate model being too expensive, the key idea consists in using an importance sampling method based on an isotropic-centered Gaussian with large standard deviation permitting a cheap estimation of small quantiles based on the surrogate model. Similar to AK-MCS as presented in the work of Schöbi et al., (2016), the surrogate is adaptively refined using a parallel infill criterion of an algorithm suitable for very small failure probability estimation. Additionally, a multi-quantile selection approach is developed, allowing to further exploit high-performance computing architectures. We illustrate the performances of the proposed method on several two to eight-dimensional cases. Accurate results are obtained with less than 100 evaluations of J on the considered benchmark cases.     

Gammatone filterbank and symbiotic combination of amplitude and phase-based spectra for robust speaker verification under noisy conditions and compression artifacts

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The main novelty of this work resides in incorporating a Gammatone filter-bank as a substitute of the Mel filter-bank in the extraction pipeline of the Product...     

15d-PGJ2 Promotes ROS-Dependent Activation of MAPK-Induced Early Apoptosis in Osteosarcoma Cell In Vitro and in an Ex Ovo CAM Assay

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common type of bone tumor, and has limited therapy options. 15-Deoxy-Δ^12,14-prostaglandin J₂ (15d-PGJ₂) has striking anti-tumor effects in various tumors. Here, we investigated molecular mechanisms that mediate anti-tumor effects of 15d-PGJ₂ in different OS cell lines. Human U2-OS and Saos-2 cells were treated with 15d-PGJ₂ and cell survival was measured by MTT assay. Cell proliferation and motility were investigated by scratch assay, the tumorigenic capacity by colony forming assay. Intracellular ROS was estimated by H₂DCFDA. Activation of MAPKs and cytoprotective proteins was detected by immunoblotting. Apoptosis was detected by immunoblotting and Annexin V/PI staining. The ex ovo CAM model was used to study growth capability of grafted 15d-PGJ₂-treated OS cells, followed by immunohistochemistry with hematoxylin/eosin and Ki-67. 15d-PGJ₂ substantially decreased cell viability, colony formation and wound closure capability of OS cells. Non-malignant human osteoblast was less affected by 15d-PGJ₂. 15d-PGJ₂ induced rapid intracellular ROS production and time-dependent activation of MAPKs (pERK1/2, pJNK and pp38). Tempol efficiently inhibited 15d-PGJ₂-induced ERK1/2 activation, while N-acetylcystein and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate were less effective. Early but weak activation of cytoprotective proteins was overrun by induction of apoptosis. A structural analogue, 9,10-dihydro-15d-PGJ₂, did not show toxic effects in OS cells. In the CAM model, we grafted OS tumors with U2-OS, Saos-2 and MG-63 cells. 15d-PGJ₂ treatment resulted in significant growth inhibition, diminished tumor tissue density, and reduced tumor cell proliferation for all cell lines. Our in vitro and CAM data suggest 15d-PGJ₂ as a promising natural compound to interfere with OS tumor growth.     

Tensile Properties and Fusion Zone Hardening for GMAW and MIEA Welds of a 7075-T651 Aluminum Alloy

Tensile and hardness values for 7075-T651 aluminum alloy in the as welded and post weld heat treated conditions（solubilization and artificial aging-T6）,obtained using GMAW and modified indirect electric arc（MIEA）welding processes are presented.Results showed that the base material along rolling direction exhibited a tensile strength of around 600 MPa and elongation of 11%.For the as welded condition,tensile strength was 260 MPa and elongation percent of 3%.This behavior was attributed to brittleness induced by the microstructural characteristics of the welded alloys,as well as high porosity.Hardness profiles along the welds were obtained and different welded zones were identified.A soft zone（＊100 HV0.1） in the heat affected zone for GMAW and MIEA was observed,the minimum hardness corresponding to weld metal（＊85 and ＊96 HV0.1for GMAW and MIEA,respectively）.The high dilution between filler and base metal during welding in MIEA allows to the Zn and Cu to flow from the base metal into the weld metal,inducing hardening by solution and subsequent artificial aging.In this regard,the hardness of the weld metal for MIEA increases by 56%,while the tensile strength reaches a value close to 400 MPa.For GMAW,non-favorable hardening effect was observed for the weld metal after solution and artificial aging.