Fracture analysis of dissimilar Al‐Al friction stir welded joints under tensile/shear loading

In this research, fracture of dissimilar friction stir welded (FSWed) joint made of Al 7075‐T6 and Al 6061‐T6 aluminum alloys is investigated in the cracked semi‐circular bend (CSCB) specimen under mixed mode I/II loading. Due to the elastic‐plastic behavior of the welded material and the existence of significant plastic deformations around the crack tip at the propagation instance, fracture prediction of the FSWed specimens needs some failure criteria in the context of the elastic‐plastic fracture mechanics which are very complicated and time‐consuming. For this purpose, the Equivalent Material Concept (EMC) is used herein by which the tensile behavior of the welded material is equated with that of a virtual brittle material. By combining EMC with the 2 brittle fracture criteria, namely the maximum tangential stress (MTS) and mean stress (MS) criteria, the load‐carrying capacity (LCC) of the FSWed CSCB specimens is predicted. Comparison of the experimental results and theoretical predictions from the 2 criteria showed that both criteria could accurately predict the LCC of the cracked specimens. Moreover, as the contribution of mode II loading increases, the size of the plastic region around the crack tip at failure increases, leading to increasing the LCC.     

Optimum design of high power and high efficiency mm‐wave fundamental oscillators

A systematic method to design high power and high efficiency mm‐wave fundamental oscillators is presented. By using a linear time variant method, we first obtain the optimum conditions and show that these conditions can be significantly different for high power and high efficiency fundamental oscillation. Next, we propose a modified multistage ring oscillator with interstage passive networks to exploit the full capacity of the transistors in terms of output power or efficiency. Analytical expressions are also derived to determine the value of passive elements used in the oscillator. To verify the validity of the method, a 77‐GHz two‐stage (differential) VCO is designed in a 65‐nm CMOS process. Careful electromagnetic and circuit simulations demonstrate that the designed VCO has 2‐GHz tuning range, maximum output power of 10.5 dBm and maximum DC to RF efficiency of 24.1%. The designed VCO shows 54.8% and 108.7% improvement in terms of maximum output power and efficiency compared with a conventional cross‐coupled VCO with the same tuning range.     

A daily herd Markov-chain model to study the reproductive and economic impact of reproductive programs combining timed artificial insemination and estrus detection

Our objective was to compare the economic and reproductive performance of programs combining timed artificial insemination (TAI) and different levels of AI after estrus detection (ED) using a daily Markov-chain model. A dairy herd was modeled with every cow following daily probabilistic events of aging, replacement, mortality, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and calving. The probability of pregnancy depended on the combination of probability of insemination and conception rate (CR). All nonpregnant cows had a probability of pregnancy between the end of the voluntary waiting period and days in milk cutoff for AI. After the cutoff, cows were labeled as do not breed and replaced when milk production was below a minimum milk threshold. A similar model was created to represent a replacement heifer herd to simulate and adjust the supply and demand of replacements. The net value (NV) of a program was the sum of milk income over feed cost, replacement and mortality cost, income from newborns, and reproductive costs. The model was used to compare the NV of 19 programs. One program used 100% TAI (42% CR for first TAI and 30% for second-and-later services), whereas the other programs combined TAI with ED. The proportion of cows receiving AI after ED for the combined programs ranged from 30 to 80%, with levels of CR of 25, 30, and 35%. As the proportion of cows receiving AI after ED increased, the CR of cows receiving TAI decreased. The combined programs with CR of 35% for cows receiving AI after ED had the greatest NV and reproductive performance at all levels of ED. The program using 100% TAI had greater NV and better reproductive performance than all programs with 25% CR after ED inseminations, whereas it had very similar performance to combined programs with up to 60% of cows receiving AI after ED and 30% CR. The factor with the greatest relative contribution to the differences among programs was income over feed cost, followed by replacement and reproductive costs. Adjusting the days in milk cutoff for AI to match the supply and demand of heifer replacements improved the NV of all programs except for those with 25% CR after ED, which had either no change or a decrease in NV. In summary, the economic value of reproductive management programs combining TAI and ED depended on the proportion of cows receiving AI after ED and the resulting CR. Adjusting the heifer supply and demand increased the NV of programs with heifer surplus and decreased the NV of programs with heifer deficit.