The influence of autoclave steam on polymer and organic fibre modified ceramic shells

The removal of wax from an unfired ceramic shell system without cracking or dimensional alterations is a key stage within the investment casting process. The effect of autoclave steam on polymer and fibre modified investment casting mould behaviour has been investigated. The polymer modified system exhibited a higher mechanical strength in the green dry state, but that strength significantly reduced when subjected to a simulated autoclave “wet” condition, giving a 38% reduction in a flat bar section and a 45% reduction in an edge test. It is suggested that this is related to the softening of the latex particles when they are in contact with steam. In comparison the fibre modified system showed a much lower reduction in strength when subjected to “wet” conditions. Calculating the adjusted fracture load (AFL) bearing capacity for the extra shell thickness of the fibre system showed that the fibre system outperforms the polymer system when the samples were tested “wet”, showing a 33% increase in a flat bar section and an increase of over 150% in the more vulnerable edge region. The results suggest that the effect of moisture must be taken into account when studying the shell behaviour under autoclave conditions.     

Application of the Extended Distance Transformation in digital image colorization

In this paper we present a novel colorization scheme that takes advantage of the modified morphological distance transform to propagate the color, scribbled by a user on the grayscale image. First, based on the scribbled image, the topological distance values are computed for each image pixel, describing its distance to the inserted color markers. These values are then complemented with the structural information and luminance changes derived from the original grayscale image. The distances are then used along with gradient based features to reproduce original image structures while propagating the new colors obtained during the additive color blending process. Extensive experiments performed on various kinds of natural images demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed colorization method. They also showed that the main advantage of the presented algorithm is its computational speed and ability to produce visually pleasing colorization results promptly after providing the color information.     

Control of properties of PZT ceramics during liquid-phase sintering

A PZT ceramic modified by 0.4Pb-(1–x)(B₂O₃)–x(GeO₂) glass, and glass-ceramics modified by V₂O₅, have been obtained. The influence of the chemical composition of the glasses on the mechanical strength and dielectric parameters of these ceramics is investigated. The mechanical and electrical parameters of PZT ceramics are considerably improved by small additions of glass ( 1 mass %) of suitable composition. During heat treatment, the mobility of the domain walls may be changed as a result of the interaction of smelt glass with the surface layer of the crystallites (resulting from a change of V _Pb ^t" vacancy concentration in grains and decreased mechanical tension on the grain boundaries). By introducing the glass, we can decrease the porosity of the ceramics and thus decrease the attenuation of surface acoustic waves in piezoelectric filters. The origin of the liquid phase during sintering of the PZT glass-ceramics prevents PbO evaporation. This determines the preservation of the solution's stoichiometry. The glass addition leads to a decrease in the sintering temperature of PZT, which simplifies the technological process. The glass ceramics are obtained by common ceramic technology which is used for commercial piezoceramic production. The main technological problem is choosing the chemical composition and concentration of the glass and thermal process parameters.     

Fusion of smartphone sensor data for classification of daily user activities

Multimedia Tools and Applications - New mobile applications need to estimate user activities by using sensor data provided by smart wearable devices and deliver context-aware solutions to users...     

A hybrid tactile sensor-based obstacle overcoming method for hexapod walking robots

Intelligent Service Robotics - Walking robots are considered as a promising solution for locomotion across irregular or rough terrain. While wheeled or tracked robots require flat surface like...     

Magnetic,electrical and thermal transport properties of Al–Cr–Fe approximant phases

Two stable approximant phases in the Al–Cr–Fe system – a gamma-brass phase (γ-AlCrFe) and a mixture of two orthorhombic approximants of the decagonal phase (O₁/O₂-AlCrFe) – were investigated using magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity measurements, combined with structural investigations using X-ray diffraction, light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The investigated approximants exhibit physical properties that are in many respects between those of regular metals and quasicrystals (QCs); their electrical resistivities show very weak temperature dependences and the resistivity values are higher than for regular metals and lower than for Al-based QCs. The magnetic susceptibility results show the existence of a small fraction (of about 1% for the γ-AlCrFe and about 10 times less for the O₁/O₂-AlCrFe) of localized magnetic moments with Curie-like temperature dependence. Thermal conductivity measurements show that the electronic and lattice contributions are of comparable size at room temperature. While the electronic contribution can be described by the Wiedemann–Franz law, the lattice contribution can be reproduced by the sum of the Debye term (long-wavelength phonons) and the term due to hopping of localized vibrations. At the lowest measured temperature (8 K), scattering of phonons on stacking-fault-like defects limits the heat transport, and this type of defect has also been observed in the LM and SEM structural investigations.     

Detection of delamination in laminated composites with limited measurements combining PCA and dynamic QPSO

This paper presents an output only damage diagnostic algorithm based on frequency response functions and the principal components for health monitoring of laminated composite structures. The principal components evaluated from frequency response data, are employed as dynamical invariants to handle the effects of operational/environmental variability on the dynamic response of the structure. Finite element models of a laminated composite beam and plate are used to generate vibration data for healthy and damaged structures. Three numerical examples include a laminated composite beam, cantilever plate made of carbon–epoxy and a laminated composite simply supported plate. Varied levels of delamination of laminated composite plies and matrix cracking at varied locations in the plies are simulated at different spatial locations of the structure. Numerical investigations have been carried out to identify the spatial location of damage using the proposed principal component analysis (PCA) based algorithm. In order to limit the number of sensors on the structure, an optimal sensor placement algorithm based on PCA is employed in the present work and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm with a limited number of sensors is also investigated. Finally, the inverse problem associated with the detection of delamination and matrix cracking is formulated as an optimization problem and is solved using the newly developed dynamic quantum particle swarm optimization (DQPSO) algorithm. Studies carried out and presented in this paper clearly indicate that the proposed SHM scheme can robustly identify the instant of damage, spatial location, the extent of delamination and matrix cracking even with limited sensor measurements and also with noisy data.     

Constructive quantum scaling of unitary matrices

In this work, we present a method of decomposition of arbitrary unitary matrix \(U\in \mathbf {U}(2^k)\) into a product of single-qubit negator and controlled-\(\sqrt{\text{ NOT }}\) gates. Since the product results with negator matrix, which can be treated as complex analogue of bistochastic matrix, our method can be seen as complex analogue of Sinkhorn–Knopp algorithm, where diagonal matrices are replaced by adding and removing an one-qubit ancilla. The decomposition can be found constructively, and resulting circuit consists of \(O(4^k)\) entangling gates, which is proved to be optimal. An example of such transformation is presented.     

Controllability of second-order infinite-dimensional systems

In the paper, the approximate controllability of linear abstract second-order infinite-dimensional dynamical systems is considered. It is proved using the frequency-domain method, that approximate controllability of second-order system can be verified by the approximate controllability conditions for the corresponding simplified first-order system. General results are then applied for approximate controllability investigation of a vibratory dynamical system modeling flexible mechanical structure. Some special cases are also considered. Moreover, remarks and comments on the relationships between different concepts of controllability are given. The paper extends earlier results on approximate controllability of second-order abstract dynamical systems.     

Corrosion investigation of stainless steel water pump components

Two components of a water pump installed in a casting shop for recirculation of cooling water experienced severe and accelerated corrosion after two months in service. The received pieces of the water pump assembly were a shaft and a conical tube, which was used as connector with the impeller. The shaft exhibited circumferential pitting corrosion behavior in specific areas where it was in contact with another pump component. Light optical microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy were mainly used as analytical techniques for corrosion process evaluation and for the identification of the morphology and chemical composition of corrosion products, in order to draw safe conclusions concerning the type of the corrosion and the respective root-source. The main findings of the investigation indicated that pitting corrosion was the dominant failure mechanism for both water pump components influenced by the presence of aggressive environmental conditions, characterized by the presence of chlorides and sulfates that accelerate corrosion process above a certain temperature range (T > 50–55 °C).