Design and analysis of a new magneto rheological damper for washing machine

In this article, a new magneto rheological (MR) sponge damper is proposed for suppression of vibrations in a washing machine. The article presents design optimization of geometric parameters of MR sponge damper (MRSD) using the finite element analysis (FEA) and first order derivative techniques for a washing machine. The article explains the hysteresis behavior and the relationship of damping force with input current for the proposed MRSD. Moreover, the characteristics of the MRSD such as energy dissipation and equivalent damping coefficient are investigated experimentally in terms of input current and excitation amplitude. The passive dampers installed in washing machine are ineffective in reducing unwanted vibrations at resonant frequencies due to real time unbalanced mass. For this purpose, a test setup is established in order to compare the performance of passive dampers with the proposed MRSDs in a washing machine. It is noticed that MRSDs reduce average vibrations of 75.61 % in a low frequency band, whereas in a high frequency band, the MRSDs lessen average vibrations of 30.57 % in a washing machine. In order to determine the performance of proposed design MRSD, a detailed comparison of the performance parameters, such as total damping force, passive force, maximum average vibrations after suppression by MR dampers, maximum current and power ratings is provided with the existing designs of MR damper for washing machine from the literature.     

Determination of Johnson-Cook constitutive equation for Inconel 601

Due to their superior thermal and mechanical properties, super alloys widely used in the aerospace industry have been well-documented in terms of AdvantEdge-based analysis of cutting characteristics rather than experimental methods. However, the well-known super alloy Inconel 601 does not have any database of its material properties in AdvantEdge, which underscores the urgency to build such a database. Hence, the current study uses the Johnson-Cook equation to build a database of Inconel 601’s material properties in AdvantEdge. To that end, drawing on a room temperature tensile test, elevated temperature tensile test and orthogonal cutting test, the current study determines the Johnson-Cook constitutive equation for Inconel 601, and verifies the reliability of the determined Johnson-Cook constitutive equation by comparing the experimental values with the analytical values.     

Wetting characteristics of a water droplet on solid surfaces with various pillar surface fractions under different conditions

A numerical study was carried out using a molecular dynamics program to examine the wetting characteristics of nano-sized water droplets on surfaces with various pillar surface fractions under different conditions. Square-shaped pillars had surface fractions that increased from 11.1 % to 69.4 %. The pillars had 4 different heights and 3 different surface energies. When the pillar surface fraction changed, the contact angle of a water droplet also changed due to the attraction between the droplet and the pillar surface or the inner attraction of the water molecules. The pillar height also has different effects on the water droplet depending on the magnitude of surface energy.     

Winglet geometry effects on tip leakage loss over the plane tip in a turbine cascade

The effects of winglet offset distance, winglet coverage, and winglet cross section on the over-tip leakage loss for the plane tip have been investigated experimentally in a turbine blade cascade for a tip gap height-to-span ratio of h/s = 1.36 %. The results show that the over-tip leakage loss for the full coverage winglet increases steeply with increasing the winglet offset distance. This loss generation is attributed to flow disturbances over the forward-facing and backward-facing steps within the tip gap. The winglet flush mounted to the tip surface provides the best result. With the leading edge winglet portion or without it, the both-side winglet always provides better aerodynamic performance than the corresponding pressure-side winglet or suction-side winglet. Longer coverage of the both-side winglet leads to lower loss. Therefore, the full coverage winglet performs best in the loss reduction for the plane tip. In general, thinner winglet leads to better aerodynamic result, and the winglet cross section having a slant bottom surface with the smallest thickness at its outer end is recommended.     

Analysis of transient flow in a pump-turbine during the load rejection process

The transient flow in pump-turbines during the load rejection process is very complex. However, few studies have been conducted on three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulation. Hence, we simulated 3-D transient turbulent flow in a pump-turbine during the load rejection process using the calculation method of coupling the flow with the rotor motion of rigid body. To simulate the unsteady boundary conditions, the dynamic closing process of the guide vanes was simulated with the dynamic mesh technology. The boundary conditions at the spiral-casing inlet and the draft tube outlet were determined using the user defined functions (UDF) according to the experimental data. The numerical results of the rotational speeds show a good agreement with the experimental data. Then, the complex transient flow in the pump-turbine during the load rejection process was analyzed based on the numerical results. The results show that there are severe unsteady vortex flows in the vaneless space near the conditions under which the hydraulic torque on the runner equals to zero. When the pump-turbine operates into the maximum reverse discharge condition in the reverse pump operating process, the unsteady vortex flows in the vaneless space are instantaneously impacted into the region between the guide vanes and the stay vanes by the sudden reverse flows. The formation and development mechanism of the unsteady vortex flow in the vaneless space is associated with the distribution characteristic of the velocity field.     

Numerical studies on two turbulence models and a laminar model for aerodynamics of a vertical-axis wind turbine

The purpose of this study is the analysis of flow around a one-bladed Darrieus-type wind turbine using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The rotor geometry consists of a NACA 0015 airfoil with chord length of 0.15 m. Numerical simulations are performed using ANSYS Fluent, employing laminar model and two turbulence models: SST k-ω and RNG k-ε. The obtained numerical results of unsteady aerodynamic blade loads are compared with available experimental results from literature. Computed aerodynamic characteristics of normal and tangential forces comply with the experiment results. The RNG k-ε turbulence model has a good accuracy in determining aerodynamic blade loads for the upwind and downwind parts of the rotor. The laminar model and the SST k-ω turbulence model slightly overestimate the tangential aerodynamic blade loads at the downwind part of the rotor. An averaged wind turbine velocity profile computed at one rotor radius downstream of the rotor has a Gaussian shape. The steady-state airfoil characteristics are computed for the Reynolds number comparable to the Reynolds number of a moving blade employing the SST k-ω and RNG k-ε turbulence models and using the same computational grid as for unsteady simulations of the rotor.     

Performance assessment of microwave treated WC insert while turning AISI 1040 steel

This study attributed to post treatment of tungsten carbide (WC) inserts using microwave irradiation. Tungsten carbide inserts were subjected to microwave radiation (2.45 GHz) to enhance its performance in terms of reduction in tool wear rate, cutting force surface roughness and improvement in tool life. Performance of tungsten carbide insert is very much affected by machine operating parameters i.e. speed, feed and depth of cut. An attempt has been made to investigate the effects of machining parameters on microwave treated tool inserts. This paper describes the comparative study of machining performance of untreated and microwave treated WC tool inserts used for turning of AISI 1040 steel. Machining performance has been evaluated in terms of flank wear, cutting force, surface roughness, tool wear mechanisms. Critical examinations of tool wear mechanisms and improvements in metallurgical properties such as microstructural change, phase activation of WC grains were identified using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Results obtained from the turning using the microwave treated tool inserts showed a significant reduction tool wear thereby enhancing the surface quality of workpiece.     

Modeling of friction-stir butt-welds and its application in automotive bumper impact performance Part 1. Thermo-mechanical weld process modeling

The demand for better structural performance in joining of components for road vehicles prompts the implementation of aluminum alloy friction stir welding technology in the automotive industry. The aim of current study is the creation of a 3-D finite element (FE) friction thermal model and stir welding (FSW) process of dissimilar aluminum alloy and for the estimation of crash worthiness performance of FSW fabricated shock absorber assembly. Thermo mechanical simulations and analysis are performed to understand the thermal behavior in the FSW weld zones. The developed models are correlated against published experimental results in terms of temperature profile of the weld zone. The developed models are then implemented for fabricating vehicle bumper parts to illustrate the performance of FSW welded components during an impact. Customary sled testing for low-speed guard necessities is performed utilizing a grating blend welded test apparatus at Wichita State University (WSU) at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR). A few guard congregations are then appended to the test installation utilizing FSW and conventional Gas bend GMAW welding strategies. Numerical models are likewise created where limited component investigation is utilized to contrast the anticipated harm and the real harm maintained by both of the FSW and GMAW manufactured guards. During the research, a new FSW weld mold is created that allows for a better representation of the desired progressive crack propagation. The FSW fabricated bumper based on the Johnson-Cook failure model yields better failure prediction and is in good agreement to the test. The results from this study provide a guideline for an accurate finite element modeling of a FSW fabricated components and their application in the crashworthiness of such structural components.     

Adaptive control of a vehicle-seat-human coupled model using quasi-zero-stiffness vibration isolator as seat suspension

We propose the quasi-zero-stiffness (QZS) vibration isolator as seat suspension to improve vehicle vibration isolation performance. The QZS vibration isolator is composed of vertical spring and two symmetric negative stiffness structures used as stiffness correctors. A vehicle-seat-human coupled model considering the QZS vibration isolator is established as a three degree-of-freedom (DOF) model; it is composed of a quarter car model and a simplified 1 DOF model combined vehicle seat and human body. This model considers the changing mass of the passengers and sets the total mass of the vehicle seat and human body as an uncertain parameter, which investigates the overload and unload conditions in practical engineering. To further improve the vehicle ride comfort, a constrained adaptive backstepping controller law based on the barrier Lyapunov function (BLF) is presented. The dynamic characteristic of the active vehicle-seathuman coupled model under shock excitation was analyzed using numerical method. The results show that the designed controller law can isolate the shock excitation transmitted from the road to the passengers effectively, and both the vehicle and seat suspension strokes remain in the allowed stroke range.