Parallel Cloth Simulation Using OpenGL Shading Language

The primary goal of cloth simulation is to express object behavior in a realistic manner and achieve real-time performance by following the fundamental concept of physic. In general, the mass–spring system is applied to real-time cloth simulation with three types of springs. However, hard spring cloth simulation using the mass–spring system requires a small integration time-step in order to use a large stiffness coefficient. Furthermore, to obtain stable behavior, constraint enforcement is used instead of maintenance of the force of each spring. Constraint force computation involves a large sparse linear solving operation. Due to the large computation, we implement a cloth simulation using adaptive constraint activation and deactivation techniques that involve the mass–spring system and constraint enforcement method to prevent excessive elongation of cloth. At the same time, when the length of the spring is stretched or compressed over a defined threshold, adaptive constraint activation and deactivation method deactivates the spring and generate the implicit constraint. Traditional method that uses a serial process of the Central Processing Unit (CPU) to solve the system in every frame cannot handle the complex structure of clothmodel in real-time. Our simulation utilizes the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) parallel processing with compute shader in OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) to solve the system effectively. In this paper, we design and implement parallel method for cloth simulation, and experiment on the performance and behavior comparison of the mass–spring system, constraint enforcement, and adaptive constraint activation and deactivation techniques the using GPU-based parallel method.     

防护层对爆炸焊接质量的影响

为了研究防护层在炸药爆轰过程中对复板表面的保护作用,依据实验数据,分析了复板在焊接完成后的表面平整度、是否发生熔融现象以及金属结合界面的波状纹理的变化情况。防护层隔绝高温的炸药爆轰产物对复板侵蚀,同时在爆轰初始阶段对于应力波透过防护层作用在复板上的应力有明显的增强效应。最终确定在爆炸焊接过程中对复板厚度为0.2cm时,在其表面均匀覆盖一层0.05~0.15cm的黄油可以较好地保护复板不受高温的爆轰产物侵蚀。实验过程中,选取不同种类炸药进行了对比实验,发现粉状硝铵炸药更加容易装药和控制爆轰速度,本实验选用硝铵炸药完成。     

Consolidation of Cr3C2 doping WC–1TiN–5MgO micro–nano composites by two-step sintering

The effect of Cr₃C₂ additions on WC–1TiN–5MgO composites by two-step hot-pressing sintering (heated to 1750°C and then immediately cooled to 1575°C with a soaking time of 60?min under a sintering pressure of 50?MPa) was comprehensively investigated. The microstructure was characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Mechanical properties, such as hardness, transverse rupture strength, and fracture toughness, were measured. The experimental results show that no η-phase or brittle phases such as W₂C were formed, and excellent mechanical properties were achieved for 0.6?wt.% Cr₃C₂ additions with a hardness of 24.76?GPa, a flexural strength of 1257.1?MPa, and a fracture toughness of 10.08?MPa?·?mm^1/2. Cr₃C₂ addition brought about an improvement in the sinterability and contributed to the homogeneous distribution of second phase nanosized MgO. Crack deflection and crack bridging are the major mechanisms contributing to the drastically enhanced flexural strength and fracture toughness.     

Introducing realistic tire–pavement contact stresses into Pavement Analysis using Nonlinear Damage Approach (PANDA)

Realistic tire–pavement interface contact areas and stresses were incorporated into the Pavement Analysis using Nonlinear Damage Approach (PANDA) user interface (PUI). PANDA is a software library developed to simulate the complex thermo-viscoelastic–viscoplastic–viscodamage responses of the pavement to mechanical and environmental loads. The PUI is an interface generating a finite element representation of the pavement within PANDA. The application of realistic tire loading is necessary to calculate accurate pavement responses. The PUI incorporates a database of tire contact areas and stresses obtained from tire finite element simulations. The database includes tire interface characteristics with pavements for various applied loads, tire inflation pressures, vehicle speeds and scenarios of different rolling simulations. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the effect of simulations of tire contact stresses that match field measurements on viscoelastic and viscoplastic pavement responses. Pavement responses are greatly affected using realistic tire loading contact stresses and contact geometry as compared to simplified contact models. The impact on rutting and damage predictions cannot be ignored if reliable projections of pavement performance are to be made. This study confirms the importance of considering realistic three-dimensional contact stresses to design and analyse pavements.     

A mechanistic approach to evaluate the potential of the debonding distress in asphalt pavements

The debonding distress in asphalt pavement structures is a critical problem that affects the performance of asphalt concrete pavements. It occurs at the layer interface due to the poor bond quality between adjacent asphalt concrete layers and/or when stresses at the layer interface exceed the strengths of the material at the interface. The debonding of the adjacent layers, especially the top surface layer of an asphalt pavement, is a contributing factor to the premature cracking of pavements. Hence, the debonding distress can lead to a reduction in the life of the pavement. This paper presents an analytical and experimental framework to evaluate the potential for debonding at the layer interface of asphalt concrete pavements. Computational analysis was performed to determine the critical stress and strain states in layered asphalt pavements under moving vehicle loads using the Layered ViscoElastic pavement analysis for Critical Distresses (LVECD) computer program developed at North Carolina State University. This computational analysis enables a greater understanding of the critical stress that is involved in debonding and the ways that such stress is affected by pavement design parameters and environmental conditions. In addition, a prediction model was developed that can determine the shear bond strength at the interface of asphalt concrete layers with different tack coat materials at various temperatures, loading rates and normal confining stresses. The systematic and mechanistic framework developed in this study employs the maximum shear ratio concept as a shear failure criterion and provides a tool to evaluate the effects of various loading, environmental and pavement factors on the debonding potential of asphalt pavements. The overall advantages of the mechanistic framework and approach using the LVECD analysis tool will help lead to better understanding of the debonding mechanism, proper selection of the tack coats, and economic benefit in highway pavement maintenance and rehabilitation costs.     

Multiple shear step approach to determine the rotational viscosity of asphalt emulsions and its correlation with water content of original and diluted emulsions

Viscosity determination of thixotropic emulsions with good repeatability has always been a major challenge. Currently, Saybolt Furol viscometer (SFV) is used to determine the viscosity of the emulsion, but the main drawback of the SFV is that it cannot simulate the behaviour of emulsion under different shear rate. Rotational viscometer (RV) can measure viscosity at different shear rates. Due to the thixotropic behaviour of the emulsions, getting repeatable results by following the hot binder specification is a problematic task. In this study, a new multiple shear step approach is used to determine the viscosity of the emulsified asphalt using RV. Three low viscous (SS-1, SS-1H and SS-1L) and two high viscous (CRS-2 and CRS-2P) emulsions were used in this study. Shear stress is gradually stepped up to different levels after certain time interval to determine the viscosity. In this manner, emulsion undergoes a known shear state and each reading is preceded by a certain repeatable shear history. It was observed that with the progression of time and simultaneous increase in shear rate, the viscosity results are much more stable and repeatable with less than 5% coefficient of variance. The final specifications proposed are 220–730 and 5–90 cP at 50 rpm and 30 °C for high and low viscous emulsions, respectively, which are based on 98% probability. Viscosity measured by this approach also showed strong correlation with water content (R² > 0.94). The correlation between viscosity and water content is even stronger after dilution. With different dilution water content, viscosity of CRS-2 and CRS-2P exhibited R² values of 0.97 and 0.98, respectively.     

Mechanical behaviour analysis of buried pressure pipeline crossing ground settlement zone

Numerical simulation model of buried pipeline crossing ground settlement zone was established considering pipeline–soil interaction. Mechanical behaviour of the buried pipeline was investigated, and effects of ground settlement, pipeline parameters and surrounding soil parameters on mechanical behaviour of the buried pipeline were discussed. These results show that there are two high stress areas on both sides of the dividing plane. High stress areas are oval on the top and bottom of the pipeline. Z-shape bending deformation appears under the action of ground settlement. In ground settlement zone, axial strain on the top of the pipeline is compression strain, and axial strain on the bottom of the pipeline is tension strain. On the contrary, they are tension strain and compression strain respectively in no settlement zone. Bending deformation, axial strain and plastic strain of the buried pipeline increase with the increase in ground settlement. Von Mises stress, high stress area, axial strain and plastic strain of the buried pipeline increase with the increasing diameter-thick ratio and internal pressure, but they decrease with the increase in buried depth. Diameter-thick ratio and internal pressure have a small effect on the bending deformation of the buried pipeline. Bending deformation decreases with the increase in buried depth in ground settlement zone. Von Mises stress and high stress area increase with the increasing surrounding soil’s elasticity modulus and cohesion, but they increase first and then decrease with the increase in Poisson’s ratio. Bending deformation of the pipeline in no settlement zone increases with the increase in elasticity modulus and Poisson’s ratio, but it is affected little by the cohesion. Axial strain and plastic strain have a bigger relationship with the elasticity modulus and Poisson’s ratio. Axial strain and plastic strain of the buried pipeline increase with the increase in cohesion, and the change rates increase with the increase in ground settlement.     

A new method using feature extraction for identifying paddy rice species for quality seed selection

The purpose of this work was to explore a new feature extraction method for classifying paddy seeds using a feature extraction algorithm to achieve the area ratio, horizontal–slant and front–rear angles and find whether the proposed features have high discriminating power. Another objective was to find the smallest feature set that can ensure highly accurate recognition of seeds. A total of a 100 image features were extracted, and features having significant discriminating power were identified based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA). From the 100 features, 14 features were found to have high discriminating power and from these features, six were selected as the proposed features. Experimental results show that the proposed features and removal of redundant features enhanced the discriminating power of the feature set, and that the proposed features have an excellent discriminating property for seeds. The presented features resulted in the highest classification accuracy (98.8%) when compared to other methods.     

Development and validation of a Re-Modified Work-Style Short Form Questionnaire for assessment of stress in medical practitioners working in Indian hospitals

Medical practitioners are unduly stressed, leading to ill health, loss of work efficiency, sometimes affecting decision-making capability. The present study was conducted with the aim to quantify the psychosocial factors that affect the medical practitioners working in Indian hospitals. This study constructed and validated Re-Modified Work-Style Short Form Questionnaire, an eight-item instrument based on work style of 108 medical practitioners comprising Indian physicians and surgeons. The re-modified tool had acceptable validity and internal consistency, which the modified one did not. Explorative factor analysis identified and labelled three factors: ‘Working through pain’, ‘Deadlines/pressure’ and ‘Self-imposed workload’. The findings of the study reveal that the mean total work style score exceeded the standardised limits ≥16, which suggests that the work style of medical practitioners working in Indian hospitals are at risk which may precipitate psychosocial stress. Factor weights was derived through Analytic Hierarchy Process to prioritise the relative importance of three potential work-style factors. The study may help to increase the preventive strategies to proactively reduce the effect of risk factors for the precipitation of stress, successfully leading to its attenuation.     

Effect of undulation on SH-wave propagation in corrugated magneto-elastic transversely isotropic layer

This article delves to study the effect of corrugated boundary surfaces on the propagation of horizontally-polarized shear waves (SH-waves) in a magnetoelastic transversely isotropic layer under a hydrostatic state of stress lying over an elastic half-space under gravity. A dispersion equation has been derived in closed-form and is found to be in good agreement to the classical Love-wave equation. The effect of magnetoelasticity, hydrostatic state of stress, gravity, corrugation, position parameter, and undulation on the phase velocity of the SH-wave has been identified. Numerical computation along with graphical demonstration has been carried out for cadmium, magnesium, and zinc materials of hexagonal symmetry to highlight some significant facts.