Foot landmarking for footwear customization

As consumers are becoming increasingly selective of what they wear on their feet, manufacturers are experiencing problems developing and fitting the right footwear. Literature suggests that shoes with a shape similar to feet may be comfortable because they attempt to maintain the feet in a neutral posture. The objective of this paper is to develop a metric to quantify mismatches between feet and lasts and also to be able to generate the two-dimensional outline of the foot using the minimum number of landmarks. Fifty Hong Kong Chinese were participants in the experiment. In addition to subject weight, height, foot length and foot width, the left foot outlines were drawn and 18 landmarks were marked on each of the two-dimensional foot outlines. A step-wise procedure was used to reduce the chosen 18 landmarks to eight, such that the mean absolute negative error (an indicator of ‘tightness’) between the foot outline and the modelled curve was 1.3 mm. These eight landmarks seem to show an improvement over those proposed by other researchers, thus showing the importance of choosing the right landmarks for modelling the foot. The positive and negative absolute errors were on average 1.8 mm and 1.3 mm respectively. Moreover, the mean errors for the toe region and for the rest of the foot were 1.7 mm and 1.6 mm respectively. The results indicate that the foot outline, an important component for footwear functionality and fitting, may be modelled using eight critical landmarks.     

Experimental evaluation of plowing and scratch hardness of aqueous two-component polyurethane (2K-PUR) coatings on glass and polycarbonate

Scratch resistance of aqueous two-component (2K-PUR) polyurethane coatings deposited on glass and polycarbonate was investigated by constant mode scratch tests. Penetration and residual depths as well as scratch widths were experimentally evaluated. A first analytical model was applied to estimate plowing and scratch hardness of the polyurethane coatings according to contact pressure and load rate and the corresponding 3D maps were drawn out. The experimental findings allowed mapping the scratch response the polyurethane coatings came through varying the applied load, load rate and substrate compliance, thus establishing the basis for the development of useful tools for failure prediction of the investigated coating systems in a broad range of operational conditions.     

Re-print of: FDTD simulation of microwave heating of variable feed

Microwave heating inside a cavity is not uniform and depends on various factors such as: cavity geometry, properties of treated material and frequency. In most applications of microwave (MW) heating there is only a small variation in the nature of the feed. At present, the assessment of uniformity of heating is possible only for the case of batch processing cavities. Therefore, it is desirable to have a parameter that will quantify uniformity of heating for continuously operated (non-batch) applicators. This paper has given an account of and the reasons for the widespread use of a new smoothness parameter (SP). This parameter is also compared to the already available parameter (designed for batch processes) through Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations.Assuming a uniform load, it was demonstrated that heating time and applied microwave power have only a small influence on the proposed uniformity parameter. Simulations of heating were carried out using a variable feed inside two microwave applicators with different uniformity parameters. The results are presented in this paper.     

Spent fuel transportation risk assessment: cask impact analyses

Abstract

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has recently completed an updated Spent Fuel Transportation Risk Assessment, NUREG-2125. This assessment considered the response of three certified casks to a range of impact accidents in order to determine whether or not they would lose their ability to contain the spent fuel or maintain effective shielding. The casks consisted of a lead shielded rail cask that can be transported either with or without an inner welded canister, an all-steel rail cask that is transported with an inner welded canister, and a DU shielded truck cask that is transported with directly loaded fuel. Finite element analyses were performed for impacts at speeds of 48, 97, 145 and 193 kilometres per hour into a rigid target. Impacts in end-on, side-on, and CG-over-corner orientations were analysed for each cask and impact speed. Calculations were performed to equate these impacts onto rigid targets with higher speed impacts onto the yielding targets that exist in the real world. These analyses indicated that a cask with an inner welded canister or a truck cask would not release radioactive material in any impact accident and that only very high-speed impacts onto hard rock targets could result in either release of material or significant degradation of shielding for rail casks without an inner canister. Impacts other than those onto flat unyielding targets were also considered. Analyses show that an impact that bypasses the impact limiters on the ends of the casks does not result in seal failure and neither does an impact by a locomotive also between the impact limiters.     

Durability study of HTPEMFC through current distribution measurements and the application of a model

In this work, a life study of a single 50 cm² high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HTPEMFC) has been carried out and experimental results are used to assess the causes of performance degradation in PBI HTPEMFC. Current distribution measurements, electrochemical characterization and physicochemical post-mortem analyses are combined with a CFD model that uses local parameters to determine that coalescence of catalyst particles (catalyst agglomeration) can be considered one of the main reasons responsible for the PBI fuel cell short life, according to electrochemically active area (ESA) and charge transfer resistance measurements. According to the current density distribution information, this agglomeration apparently occurs over the whole electrode surface. Increase of membrane resistance also contributes to the loss of fuel cell performance, but the significance is not as large as the effect of the catalyst. The model has been demonstrated to be a suitable diagnostic tool to identify degradation causes.     

Mathematical modelling and parameter identification of a stainless steel annealing furnace

A new, comprehensive mathematical model of continuous annealing furnaces is developed, under consideration of both the radiative and convective heat transfer of the furnace components. Based on measured normal operating data from an industrial stainless steel plant, parameter identification is basically carried out using a nonlinear least-squares optimization algorithm for the whole annealing furnace, to estimate optimal values of uncertain parameters, such as emissivities. Due to the complexity of the model, a sequential approach for parameter identification is proposed and implemented, i.e. the parameter set is divided into different subsets, and the parameter estimation is carried out sequentially in several steps and iterations. The performance of the model with the estimated parameters is then evaluated on a different test data set. It is shown that the obtained model can predict temperature evolutions along the furnace in good agreement to measured data, under both steady-state and transient conditions. The presented model is suitable for controller design and process optimization.     

Recent Trends,Applications, and Perspectives in 3D Shape Similarity Assessment

The recent introduction of 3D shape analysis frameworks able to quantify the deformation of a shape into another in terms of the variation of real functions yields a new interpretation of the 3D shape similarity assessment and opens new perspectives. Indeed, while the classical approaches to similarity mainly quantify it as a numerical score, map‐based methods also define (dense) shape correspondences. After presenting in detail the theoretical foundations underlying these approaches, we classify them by looking at their most salient features, including the kind of structure and invariance properties they capture, as well as the distances and the output modalities according to which the similarity between shapes is assessed and returned. We also review the usage of these methods in a number of 3D shape application domains, ranging from matching and retrieval to annotation and segmentation. Finally, the most promising directions for future research developments are discussed.     

Modelling of polyurethane foam thermal degradation within annular region subject to fire conditions

Abstract

Nuclear materials are placed in shielded, stainless steel packaging for storage or transport. These drum type packages often employ a layer of foam, honeycomb, wood or cement that is sandwiched between thin metal shells to provide impact and thermal protection during hypothetical accidents, as those prescribed in the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR 71·73). The present work discusses the modelling of the thermal degradation of polyurethane (PU) foam within an annular region during an 800°C fire. Measurements and analysis by Hobbs and Lemmon [M. L. Hobbs and G. H. Lemmon: ‘Polyurethane foam response to fire in practical geometries’, Polym. Degrad. Stab., 2004, 84, 183–197.] indicate that at elevated temperatures, PU foam exhibits a two-stage, endothermic degradation. The first stage produces a degraded solid and a combustible gas; the second stage reaction consumes the degraded solid and produces another combustible gas. As a result, during a prolonged fire, a gas filled void develops beside the outer metal shell and grows inward toward the inner shell and the containment vessel. As a result of the radial symmetry in the drum geometry, a one-dimensional finite difference model is constructed for the annular foam region. Heat flux is applied to the inner surface to model the decay heat of the containment vessel contents. Thermal radiation and convection boundary conditions with a specified environmental temperature are applied to the outer surface. The material and reaction rate properties determined by Hobbs and Lemmon are applied to the foam. The annular region temperature and composition are determined as functions of radius and time after the environmental conditions are changed from room temperature to those of an 800°C fire. The effects of surface to surface radiation between the package’s outer skin and the undegraded foam and the reaction rate reduction due to material damage during the reaction are evaluated for fires lasting 20 h. The peak package liner temperature caused by a 30 min fire is predicted to be 129°C, well below the short term limit for containment vessel seal (377°C).     

Predicting the tensile creep of concrete

Over a four year period, six phases of testing were performed to observe the influence of age at loading, applied stress level, mix composition and relative humidity on the tensile creep of concrete. From these investigations it was possible to develop a model which allowed the prediction of tensile creep based on a knowledge of the compressive strength of the concrete (determined at the age of loading), the applied stress level and the relative humidity. Subsequently, this model was validated using the results from three independent investigations. Compressive creep as well as tensile creep was also obtained. This allowed a comparison of compressive creep with tensile creep and illustrated that on the basis of equal stresses, tensile creep is on average between 2 and 3 times greater than compressive creep (the maximum ratio is in excess of 8). For this investigation, however, on the basis of stress/strength ratio the difference between tensile and compressive creep is less significant. Considering a simply supported flexural reinforced concrete element, the investigation suggests that it is unwise to consider actual compressive creep equal to actual tensile creep as is often the case in design practice.