Measurement of the Timoshenko Shear Stiffness. II: Effect of Transverse Compressibility

This is the second of two papers devoted to the issue of measuring the Timoshenko shear stiffness of thin-walled composite beams. In the first paper, the effect of warping on the effective Timoshenko shear stiffness, as measured through bending tests, was studied. The bending test was simulated using finite-element analysis, and the results indicated that the warping effect was minimal. On the other hand, the evidence suggests that transverse flexibility may have a significant influence on the effective Timoshenko shear stiffness, decreasing the effective shear stiffness at shorter test spans. The purpose of the present study is to further investigate this effect and to explore the use of a sandwich theory to predict the measurement error. A higher-order sandwich theory, which captures the transverse strain at concentrated loads and supports, is applied to a commercially available thin-walled composite beam. The results indicate that the sandwich model does capture the decrease in the effective shear stiffness at short spans, and the dependence of the shear stiffness on span-to-depth ratio is similar to that calculated in the first paper, using the finite-element method.     

User Interfaces for Complex Engineering Software: Application of Virtual Reality

IT systems for engineers are becoming more numerous and complex and will further proliferate in the future. It is infeasible to expect users to be trained to work with a plethora of systems, especially as many of them will only see occasional use. Therefore, in the near future, systems will need user interfaces that allow intuitive access and usage. This paper examines a new style of user interface based on virtual reality.     

Capture of Airborne Particulate Using Surface Applied Emulsions: Potential for Postdetonation Dirty Bomb Cleanup

Recent research has proposed the use of asphalt and tall-oil-pitch emulsions for stabilizing radioactive contamination deposited on surfaces in urban areas. The objective of this project was to investigate whether surface applied emulsions could capture airborne radioactive particulate. Laboratory experiments included wind-blown particulate capture studies using an acrylic column and particulate retainment experiments using a wind box capable of producing wind speeds of 96?km/h. A probe methodology was developed to relate particulate retainment to a tack force on the emulsion surface. Experiments were also performed to determine the potential for such emulsions to absorb particulate matter into their emulsion matrix. Tall-oil-pitch emulsions outperformed asphalt emulsions in terms of particulate retention, tack force, and the ability to absorb magnesium silicate. Both tall-oil-pitch and asphalt emulsions were capable of extracting 22–24?g?m?2 of powder from particulate-laden airflow. Tall-oil-pitch emulsions were capable of retaining as much as 5–10% of magnesium silicate powder applied (i.e., retainment densities of 10–20?g?m?2) even after seven?days of curing and after applying 96.5?km/h (60?mph) wind. Tall-oil-pitch emulsions were able to absorb surface-applied magnesium silicate (approximately 0.1–0.2?g of magnesium silicate per 1.0?g of emulsion within three?days) into their emulsion matrix, preventing the magnesium silicate from being exposed to the external environment. Initial results with these five different emulsion formulations suggested particulate capture was feasible. Future emulsion formulations (i.e., longer curing times with greater acid concentrations) should be tested to optimize this postdetonation response strategy.     

Hydrothermal Modeling Studies of Cooling Tower Alternatives

The Environmental Effects Committee of the ASCE Energy Engineering Division has been developing a report on “Energy Production and Reservoir Water Quality” for publication. The report covers the regulatory framework that dictates much of the procedures for studies related to this topic, the fundamental reservoir hydrodynamics and water quality modeling used in preparing studies, the kinds of studies that can be prepared at different levels of analysis, and a series of applications that illustrate the problems encountered and applications of the various techniques. This study of hydrothermal modeling as applied to examining cooling tower alternatives for an existing steam electric station on a moderately large reservoir is included in this report and is presented here as an illustration of the types of studies included. This particular study subtended the usual steam electric plant cooling water discharge studies that relate to specific regulatory thermal plume size standards, and had to be designed around developing plant and cooling tower operations that would meet specific fisheries requirements for a zone of passage and refuge for fishes throughout the receiving embayment. After being used in developing cooling tower and plant operating details for the designers to work with, it was required that the hydrothermal modeling results be verified under actual tower operating conditions. In addition, it was required that the impact of the combined operations on dissolved oxygen be examined in detail. This paper covers the background to setting up the study, the kinds of statistical comparisons used to verify the hydrothermal studies, and similar studies for the analysis of dissolved oxygen distributions.     

Prevention and Mitigation Strategies to Address Recent Brittle Fractures in Steel Bridges

Brittle fracture results in unplanned loss of service, very costly repairs, concern regarding the future safety of the structure, and potential loss of life. These types of failures are most critical when there is no evidence of fatigue cracking leading up to the fracture and the fracture origin is concealed from view. Hence, the failure occurs without warning and the details are, essentially, noninspectable. In these cases, it appears desirable to take a proactive approach and introduce preventative retrofits to reduce the potential for future crack development. These efforts will help ensure that the likelihood of unexpected fractures is minimized. This paper examines the behavior of two bridge structures in which brittle fractures have developed in recent times, discusses the causes of the failures, and offers suggested design strategies for prevention and retrofit mitigation techniques. In situations where considerable uncertainty exists in the prediction of accumulated damage or in the ability to reliably inspect critical details, preemptive retrofit strategies appear to be highly desirable.     

Proposed Design of a CFRP Flange-to-Flange Connection for Precast Prestressed Double Tee Systems

The current methods of connecting the flanges of precast double tee members, and their respective short comings in specific situations, are described. A new carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) flange-to-flange connection is proposed to eliminate the problems associated with repair requirements for the current connections. Design expressions for the currently used mechanical anchorage and the proposed CFRP connection are presented. A comparative calculation for the two systems is given.     

An Optimized Content-Aware Authentication Scheme for Streaming JPEG-2000 Images Over Lossy Networks

This paper proposes an optimized content-aware authentication scheme for JPEG-2000 streams over lossy networks, where a received packet is consumed only when it is both decodable and authenticated. In a JPEG-2000 codestream, some packets are more important than others in terms of coding dependency and image quality. This naturally motivates allocating more redundant authentication information for the more important packets in order to maximize their probability of authentication and thereby minimize the distortion at the receiver. Towards this goal, with the awareness of its corresponding image content, we formulate an optimization framework to compute an authentication graph to maximize the expected media quality at the receiver, given specific authentication overhead and knowledge of network loss rate. System analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves our design goal in that the rate-distortion (R-D) curve of the authenticated image is very close to the R-D curve when no authentication is required     

Intermediate order in tetrahedrally coordinated silicon: evidence for chainlike objects

In this report, we describe the nature of intermediate order in silicon as determined by recent measurements on thin films using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman scattering. The TEM images show in addition to the expected continuous random network (CRN), the presence of highly ordered quasi-one-dimensional “chain-like objects” (CLO's) that are 1–2 nm wide and tens of nm long that meander and show some evidence of cross-linking with each other. The presence of these objects correlate to a Raman feature centered at 490 cm⁻¹ whose width is 35–40 cm⁻¹, and is used to quantify the heterogeneity in terms of the CLO and CRN (=475 cm⁻¹ scattering) concentrations. The 490 and 35 cm⁻¹ values are consistent with bond angle deviations approaching 0°, and thus reinforces an association with the CLOs. We find that in reference quality a-Si:H (made using pure SiH₄), the CLO concentration is about 5 vol%, while in state-of-the-art material using high H₂ levels of dilution during processing, it increases to about 15%. Increased stability of such material to light-soaking is thus not mediated by a direct volumetric replacement of poor with high-quality components. Rather, an important characteristic of intermediate order in silicon is the low-dimensional aspect of its order, which allows it to influence more total volume than which it is itself composed. Consistent with these and other recent findings, we propose a tensegrity model of amorphous silicon.