Failure mode transition and energy dissipation in naturally occurring composites

The microstructural aspects of compressive inelastic deformation in balsa wood are investigated with emphasis on the failure mode transition and its effects on energy dissipation characteristics. The architectural features as well as the composite character of cell wall ultrastructure are discussed in a framework to understand the complex interrelationship between microstructure and macroscopic behavior in this extremely lightweight cellular biocomposite. Based on this discussion and experimental results, it is concluded that the biomimetic approach may prove to be a viable strategy in designing composite structures with high specific energy absorption capacity.     

Fringing in tubular permanent-magnet machines: Part I. Magnetic field distribution, flux linkage, and thrust force

This paper extends an analysis developed for tubular permanent-magnet machines to account for the effect of fringing associated with the finite length of the ferromagnetic armature core. The magnetic field distribution, established by using an analytical technique formulated in the cylindrical coordinate system, provides an accurate means of evaluating the effect of the fringing flux on the thrust force and the back-electromotive force. Finite-element calculations confirm the analytically derived results. In Part II of the paper, the analysis is used to predict the cogging force that results from end effects and to facilitate minimization of the force.     

Effect of anisotropy of tin on thermomechanical behavior of solder joints

Properties of body centered tetragonal tin are highly anisotropic. As a consequence large stresses can develop at the tin grain boundaries due to coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch during temperature excursions. A modeling approach to evaluate the 3D stress states that develop at grain boundaries during thermomechanical fatigue in tin-based solder is presented. Development of significant amounts of stresses in the plane of the grain boundary can cause grain-boundary sliding and surface-relief effects, while those normal to the grain boundary can cause grain-boundary decohesion and cracking.     

The effects of nonlocal impact ionization on the speed of avalanche photodiodes

The nonlocal enhancement in the velocities of charge carriers to ionization is shown to outweigh the opposing effects of dead space, increasing the avalanche speed of short avalanche photodiodes (APDs) over the predictions of a conventional local model which ignores both of these effects. The trends in the measured gain-bandwidth product of two short InAlAs APDs reported in the literature support this result. Relatively large speed benefits are predicted to result from further small reductions in the lengths of short multiplication regions.     

Start-up and steady-state results of a full-scale UASB reactor treating malting wastewater.

An Imhoff tank was reconstructed into a 250 m3 UASB reactor in order to treat a malting plant wastewater. The UASB was inoculated with sludge from an anaerobic lagoon used for slaughterhouse wastewater treatment. After two months of operation the reactor achieved full load with an HRT of 17 h, a COD removal higher than 80% and a biogas production of 300 m3/day (77% average methane content), with an organic loading rate of 3.6 kgCOD/m3.d (0.24 kgCOD/kgVSS.d). A yield coefficient of 0.09 gVSS/gCODrem was found from a mass balance. The fat present in the inoculated sludge (48 mg/gSSV) did not affect the start up performance. Sludge from the inoculum with high content of fat (270 mg/gSSV), was separated by flotation in the first week of operation. The COD removal efficiency was scarcely influenced by the reactor operation temperature (17-25 degrees C).     

Analysis of feedback for higher order polarization-mode dispersion mitigation of NRZ 40-Gb/s optical transmission

First-order polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) compensation by means of a polarization controller and a differential delay line is not sufficient to guarantee error-free transmission for 40-Gb/s channels when higher order effects severely increase signal distortion. Higher order mitigation is possible by cascading more than one first-order block. However, only two-stage or three-stage devices remain simple enough to be actually controlled. The performance of such higher order PMD compensators is evaluated by means of numerical simulations. Two different feedback signals have been used, demonstrating that first-order and higher order PMD distortion of nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) pulses at 40 Gb/s can be strongly mitigated for instantaneous values of the differential group delay (DGD) up to the bit slot, when the compensator is properly controlled.     

Management gaps analysis: a case study of groundwater resource management in New Zealand

The primary objective of this project is to identify gaps, whether real or perceived, that hinder effective groundwater management in New Zealand. These gaps show as gaps in information, gaps in implementation, gaps in technological and management tools, and gaps in understanding of fundamental processes. The secondary objective is to propose a management strategy to close the identified gaps. Several methods are used to meet these objectives: surveys distributed to selected staff in each regional council; the review of various written reports; the analysis of land-use databases; and private consultation within each regional council. Results show that groundwater management in New Zealand is generally reactionary with the main gaps being in strategic planning and national guidelines. Most gaps appear to be predominantly information and implementation issues. In some cases there are gaps in the understanding of fundamental processes within an aquifer system, including the long-term effects of land-use on groundwater quality. An adaptive management approach is suggested as a means of closing these gaps.     

Interior symmetry and local bifurcation in coupled cell networks

A coupled cell system is a network of dynamical systems, or 'cells', coupled together. Such systems can be represented schematically by a directed graph whose nodes correspond to cells and whose edges represent couplings. A symmetry of a coupled cell system is a permutation of the cells and edges that preserves all internal dynamics and all couplings. It is well known that symmetry can lead to patterns of synchronized cells, rotating waves, multirhythms, and synchronized chaos. Recently, the introduction of a less stringent form of symmetry, the 'symmetry groupoid', has shown that global group-theoretic symmetry is not the only mechanism that can create such states in a coupled cell system. The symmetry groupoid consists of structure-preserving bijections between certain subsets of the cell network, the input sets. Here, we introduce a concept intermediate between the groupoid symmetries and the global group symmetries of a network: 'interior symmetry'. This concept is closely related to the groupoid structure, but imposes stronger constraints of a group-theoretic nature. We develop the local bifurcation theory of coupled cell systems possessing interior symmetries, by analogy with symmetric bifurcation theory. The main results are analogues for 'synchrony-breaking' bifurcations of the Equivariant Branching Lemma for steady-state bifurcation, and the Equivariant Hopf Theorem for bifurcation to time-periodic states.     

Experimental characterisation of the drying effect on uniaxial mechanical behaviour of mortar

The main objective of this present study was to evaluate, for a standard mortar, the drying effect on its mechanical behaviour. Numerous uniaxial compression tests were thus performed with loading-unloading cycles. They were carried out on different samples previously preserved under various conditions of conservation: preserved from desiccation, air drying and rapid drying at 60°C. The obtained results showed significant influences of these conditions on the material behaviour (increase in strength, decrease in Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio) and the necessity of taking into account the coupling effects between mechanical—poromechanical behaviours and drying.     

Gamma-irradiation-induced Ag/SiO2 composite films and their optical absorption properties

Small Ag particles or clusters dispersed mesoporous SiO₂ composite films were prepared by a new method: First the matrix SiO₂ films were prepared by sol-gel process combined with the dip-coating technique, then they were soaked in AgNO₃ solutions followed by irradiation of γ-ray at room temperature and in ambient pressure. The structures of these films were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), and optical absorption spectroscopy. It has been shown that the Ag particles grown within the porous SiO₂ films are very small, and they are isolated and dispersed from each other with very narrow size distributions. With increasing the soaking concentration and an additional annealing, an opposite peakshift effect of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was observed in the optical absorption measurements.