Android Application Design with MIT App Inventor for Bluetooth Based Mobile Robot Control

Wireless Personal Communications - In this study, a Bluetooth-based Android application interface is developed to perform a manual and automatic control of a four-wheel-driven mobile robot designed...     

Forming sheet metals by means of multi-point deep drawing method

Multi-point deep drawing (MPDD) is an advanced manufacturing technology for 3D sheet metal parts and it can form a variety of part shapes without the need for solid dies. In this study, a test set has been prepared for multi-point deep drawing process utilizing the multi-point forming technology. Drawability attributes of gradually rectangular shaped container have been observed using a sheet, which has the quality of Erdemir 7114 and is suitable for deep drawing process, and also using multi-pointed punch with a given tool geometry and a draw velocity. The blank shape to be drawn without wrinkling and tearing has been determined. Wrinkles and dimples are the major forming defects in the MPDD process. In conventional deep drawing, the method to form sheet metal with a blank holder is an effective way to suppress wrinkling; and the same is true in MPDD. The process of multi-point forming technology decreases production cost of die, provides flexible usage, and it is convenient to achieve the most even deformation distribution.     

Detection and frequency of VT1, VT2 and eaeA genes in Escherichia coli O157 and O157:H7 strains isolated from cattle, cattle carcasses and abattoir environment in Istanbul

The aim of this study was to detect VT1, VT2 and eaeA genes and to determine the frequency of these genes in Escherichia coli O157 and O157:H7 strains isolated from cattle, cattle carcasses and environmental samples of the 5 abattoirs located in Istanbul, Turkey. For this, the presence of VT1, VT2 and eaeA genes in 26 strains of E. coli O157:H7 and 6 strains of O157 was investigated by multiplex-PCR. The results have shown that eaeA gene was detected in all O157 and O157:H7 strains tested. Both VT2 and eaeA genes were detected in 4 (80%) of 5 strains of E. coli O157 and eaeA alone in 1 strain of O157. In 27 strains of O157:H7, 5 (18.5%) strains were found to be positive for VT1, VT2 and eaeA genes, 19 (70.3%) strains for both VT2 and eaeA and, 3 (11.1%) strains for only eaeA gene. Either VT1 alone or VT2 alone was not detected in any strains tested. eaeA gene alone in 2 strains, VT2-eaeA genes in 9 strains and VT1-VT2-eaeA genes in 2 strains were detected in 13 of E. coli O157:H7 strains isolated from cattle. eaeA alone in 1 strain, VT2-eaeA genes in 5 strains and VT1-VT2-eaeA genes in 2 strains were detected in 8 of E. coli O157:H7 strains isolated from carcasses. VT2-eaeA genes in 5 strains (isolated from hands, apron, knife and floor) and VT1-VT2-eaeA genes in 1 strain (isolated from knife) were also detected in 6 of E. coli O157:H7 strains isolated from environmental samples. This study reveals that most of the strains are found to be toxigenic and it is most likely that strains isolated from carcasses and abattoir environment originated from cattle feces. Therefore, HACCP systems are necessary from farm to table especially in the abattoirs to prevent contamination of meat and abattoir environment with intestinal content.     

An experimental study on the comparative assessment of hydraulic bulge test analysis methods

An in-depth understanding and full characterization of mechanical behavior for sheet materials are required since it is critical to establish the highly reliable material models over a broad range of strain levels for accurate modeling and analysis of sheet material deformation processes such as stamping, hydroforming, deep drawing, etc. Hydraulic bulge testing of sheet materials has been known to provide flow stress properties at higher strain levels compared to commonly used tensile tests mainly due to the fact the tested specimens are strained under biaxial loading conditions. However, analysis of the hydraulic bulge test data has not been standardized yet as there have been numerous approaches developed and adopted throughout the years. In this study, different approaches for the analysis of hydraulic bulge were compared with experimental results to determine the best combination in obtaining accurate flow curves models at room and elevated temperature conditions for different lightweight materials of interest for several industrial applications (AA5754 and AISI 201). It was determined that Panknin’s bulge radius and Kruglov’s thickness calculation approaches are the best combination to accurately obtain the flow curves at both cold and elevated temperature conditions.     

Comparative investigations on numerical modeling for warm hydroforming of AA5754-O aluminum sheet alloy

This study aimed to determine the proper combinations of numerical modeling conditions (e.g. solver, element type, material model) for warm hydroforming of AA5754-O aluminum alloy sheets. Assessment of finite element analyses (FEA) is based on comparison of numerical results and experimental measurements obtained from closed-die forming, hydraulic bulge and tensile tests at different temperature (25–300 °C) and strain rate (0.0013–0.013 1/sec) levels. Thinning (% t) and cavity filling ratios (CFR) on the formed parts were taken as comparison parameters. Several numerical analyses employing different element types, solution methods and material models were performed using the commercially available FEA package LS-Dyna to determine the best combination of modeling options to simulate the actual warm hydroforming operation as accurately as possible. Analyses showed that relatively better predictions were obtained using isotropic material model, shell elements and implicit solution technique when compared with experimental results.     

A moderated mediation model of the relationship between organizational citizenship behaviors and job performance.

Addressing numerous calls for future research on understanding the theoretical mechanisms that explain the relationship between organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and job performance, this study focused on how an employee's relationships with coworkers mediate the relationship between his or her OCBs and his or her job performance. It also looked at how task autonomy might moderate this mediated relationship. The results of an empirical study involving 364 jewelry designers, 310 coworkers, and 284 supervisors indicated that coworker relations mediated the relationship between OCBs and job performance. In addition, task autonomy positively moderated both paths of this mediated relationship. Finally, these results hold for OCBs that are targeted at individuals but not for OCBs that are targeted toward organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissolution of lateritic nickel ore using ascorbic acid as synergistic reagent in sulphuric acid solution

The dissolution of nickel and cobalt from Caldag lateritic nickel ore using the combination of sulphuric and ascorbic acids was investigated. The use of other organic acids, namely citric, maleic and stearic acids, as synergistic reagents was studied for comparison. The results revealed that the use of ascorbic and citric acids markedly improved the dissolution of cobalt compared to the other two organic acids that only showed slight synergistic effect on the leaching rate. In terms of nickel dissolution, ascorbic acid is the most effective synergist, followed by citric, maleic and stearic acids in descending order. Under the most optimized conditions found in this study, i.e., using 1 mol/L of sulphuric acid with the presence of 4 g/L of ascorbic acid at 80 °C and solid-to-liquid ratio of 1/10, more than 99% and 98% leaching rates of cobalt and nickel, respectively, can be achieved within 4 h of leaching. In addition, the leaching performance is relatively insensitive to the change of ascorbic acid concentration from 2 to 4 g/L which is highly desirable from operational perspective.     

A study on the analytical modeling for warm hydro-mechanical deep drawing of lightweight materials

The warm hydroforming process has become an emerging technology in recent years to reduce the weight of automotive body structure and minimize the number of process steps. In this study, analytical models were developed to investigate the effects of process conditions such as temperature, hydraulic pressure, blank holder force and forming speed. The analytical model under hydro-mechanical deep drawing (HMD) condition was developed based on experimental results in the literatures. FE models were also developed to validate the analytic models. Then, the analytic model was validated through comparisons with both existing experimental results and FE results. The analytical model provided rapid and reasonably accurate results for the design of warm hydroforming process. Based on this analytic model, several parametric studies were performed regarding to the temperature, hydraulic pressure, blank holder force, and punch speed conditions. It was demonstrated that the process windows for a successful part forming could be rapidly predicted with a reasonable accuracy by the analytic model compared to lengthy and costly thermo-mechanical FEA or experimental trial and error.     

Mathematical modelling of a solid particle motion in a re‐circulatory fluidised bed unit

Two fundamental properties of the particles are their velocity and consequent displacement versus time history during the granulation process. Knowledge of the particle velocity might supply much information about the sub‐processes. In this paper, an analytical model of a solid particle motion in an internal re‐circulatory fluidised bed unit is developed and validated against experimentally obtained data. The model predictions show good correspondence with the experimental results for the spherical particles. For the case of non‐spherical granules, the agreement between the model and the experiments is not equally convincing but still adequate.