On the mechanical behavior of aluminum alloys reinforced by long or short alumina fibers or SiC whiskers

This study was initiated to examine the dispersion of longitudinal and transverse waves in metal matrix composites in order to obtain the dynamic elastic modulus and to evaluate various models for predicting the composite's macroscopic elastic constants from the properties of its constituents. The materials chosen for this investigation were alumina continuous fibers on the one hand and alumina and SiC short fibers on the other hand, all embedded in an aluminum alloy matrix. In addition, some indications have been obtained experimentally for the acoustoelastic effect in the composite.     

Twenty-five years of natural coordinates

In the early eighties, the author and co-workers created and further developed the natural coordinates to describe the motion of 2-D and 3-D multibody systems. Natural coordinates do not need angles or angular parameters to define orientation, leading to constant inertia matrices and to the simplest form of the constraint equations. Natural coordinates are composed by the Cartesian coordinates of some points and the Cartesian components of some unit vectors distributed on the different bodies of the system. The points and vectors can be located in the joints, being shared by contiguous bodies, decreasing or even eliminating the need to set joint constraints and reducing the total number of variables. However, other authors prefer not to share variables in order to get even simpler equations and to keep a bigger decoupling of equations, which is preferable in some cases. In this paper the history of natural coordinates is reviewed, as well as the main contributions coming from other research groups. In the second part of the paper some application areas in which natural coordinates can be particularly advantageous are examined. Commemorative Contribution.     

连铸转炉钢包电力牵引车的研制

论述研制连铸转炉钢包牵引车的目的、意义、方案的选择及设计计算校核,对技术要点作出了明确阐述.     

Hypnosis and clinical pain.

Hypnosis has been demonstrated to reduce analogue pain, and studies on the mechanisms of laboratory pain reduction have provided useful applications to clinical populations. Studies showing central nervous system activity during hypnotic procedures offer preliminary information concerning possible physiological mechanisms of hypnotic analgesia. Randomized controlled studies with clinical populations indicate that hypnosis has a reliable and significant impact on acute procedural pain and chronic pain conditions, Methodological issues of this body of research are discussed, as are methods to better integrate hypnosis into comprehensive pain treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multisensory exploration and object individuation in infancy.

Recent research indicates that by 4.5 months, infants use shape and size information as the basis for individuating objects but that it is not until 11.5 months that they use color information for this purpose. The present experiments investigated the extent to which infants' sensitivity to color information could be increased through select experiences. Five experiments were conducted with 10.5- and 9.5-month-olds. The results revealed that multimodal (visual and tactile), but not unimodal (visual only), exploration of the objects prior to the individuation task increased 10.5-month-olds' sensitivity to color differences. These results suggest that multisensory experience with objects facilitates infants' use of color information when individuating objects. In contrast, 9.5-month-olds did not benefit from the multisensory procedure; possible explanations for this finding are explored. Together, these results reveal how an everyday experience--combined visual and tactile exploration of objects--can promote infants' use of color information as the basis for individuating objects. More broadly, these results shed light on the nature of infants' object representations and the cognitive mechanisms that support infants' changing sensitivity to color differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lifetime and ageing management of nuclear power plants: A brief overview of some light water reactor component ageing degradation problems and ways of mitigation

The susceptibility and tendency for nuclear power plant (NPP) components to undergo changes in their mechanical and physical properties in the course of the NPP lifetime is generally termed as “ageing”. The light water reactor (LWR) nuclear environment is not a begnign one; it is characterized not only by fast neutrons, which can degrade metallic structures, but also relatively high temperatures of coolant water (around 300°C) which may contain impurities (e.g. sulphate, chloride, peroxides) which can cause corrosion. The hydrodynamical conditions of the coolant in steam generators, for example, can cause thermal fatigue, erosion and corrosion; suspended particulate matter can accelerate erosion processes which can lead to wall thinning and lowering of safety margins. Ageing is, therefore, a very complex mixture of factors concerned with materials, temperatures, times of exposure to environments which vary with time and with respect to chemical composition and flow charactertistics.

The paper describes a few ageing phenomena which can be considered important due to their impact on nuclear safety issues; their influence on economic aspects (availability) of NPP is outlined. Mitigation measures for NPP component ageing problems are given together with recommendations for addressing such issues in NPP now and in the future.     

Development of damage in a 2D woven C/SiC composite under mechanical loading: I. Mechanical characterization

An investigation has been undertaken to determine the damage mechanisms and the associated mechanical response of a 2D reinforced composite of carbon fibers in an SiC CVI-processed matrix subjected to uniaxial tensile and compressive loadings at room temperature. Under tension loading, an extended non-linear stress/strain response was evidenced and related to a multi-stage development of damage involving transverse matrix microcracking, bundle/matrix and inter-bundle debonding as well as thermal residual stress release. This tensile behavior proved to be damageable-elastic with respect to a fictitious thermalstress-free origin of the stress/strain axis lying in the compression domain. In compression, after an initial stage involving closure of the thermal microcracks present from processing, the composite displayed a linear-elastic behavior until failure. The extent of damage over the material was characterized quantitatively at the microscale by the decrease of the average transverse microcrack spacing and at the macroscale by the decrease of both the longitudinal Young's modulus and the in-plane Poisson's ratio.     

On the application of CAD technology for the synthesis of spatial revolute–revolute dyads

This work presents a method based on Computer Aided Design or CAD for facilitating the synthesis of Revolute–Revolute (R–R) dyads with adjustable moving pivots. The CAD-based method presented in this work ensures that all prescribed rigid-body parameters used to synthesize the R–R dyad satisfy particular kinematic requirements of an R–R dyad. Through the application of this CAD method, five of the six general R–R dyad constraint equations are satisfied and therefore not essential for the synthesis of the R–R dyad. By reducing the number of dyad design constraints from six to one, the user can synthesize R–R links with adjustable moving pivots for multi-phase motion and path generation applications. The example included demonstrates the use of the CAD method in the synthesis of an RRSS path generator with adjustable moving pivots.