Design criterion for fatigue strengthening of riveted beams in a 120-year-old railway metallic bridge using pre-stressed CFRP plates

This study presents a design criterion developed for fatigue strengthening of a 120-year-old metallic railway bridge in Switzerland and presents a pre-stressed un-bonded reinforcement (PUR) system developed to apply the strengthening. The PUR system uses carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates; however, unlike conventional pre-stressed CFRP reinforcement methods, preparation of the existing metallic bridge surface is not required. This decreases the time required for on-site strengthening procedures. The principle of the constant life diagram (CLD) and two fatigue failure criteria (Johnson and Goodman) are described. Analytical formulations are developed based on the CLD method to determine the minimum CFRP pre-stress level required to prevent fatigue crack initiation. The PUR system uses an applied pre-stress force to reduce the mean stress level (and stress ratio) to shift an existing fatigue-susceptible metallic detail from the ‘at risk’ finite life regime to the ‘safe’ infinite life regime. The applied CLD method is particularly valuable when the stress history of the detail is not known and it is difficult to assess the remaining fatigue life. Moreover, it is shown that the currently adopted approach in many structural codes which emphasizes stress range as the dominant parameter influencing fatigue life are non-conservative for tension–tension stress patterns (i.e., stress ratios of 0 < R < 1). Analyses show that the modified Johnson formula accurately reflects the combined effect of stress range, mean stress level, and material properties, and offers a relatively easy design procedure. Details of a retrofit field application on members of a riveted wrought iron railway bridge are given. A wireless sensor network (WSN) system is used for long-term monitoring of the on-site CFRP stress levels and temperature of the retrofitted details. WSN measurements indicate that increases in ambient temperature result in increased CFRP pre-stress levels.     

Gradient-based recursive parameter estimation for a periodically nonuniformly sampled-data Hammerstein–Wiener system based on the key-term separation

The identification of the Hammerstein–Wiener (H-W) systems based on the nonuniform input–output dataset remains a challenging problem. This article studies the identification problem of a periodically nonuniformly sampled-data H-W system. In addition, the product terms of the parameters in the H-W system are inevitable. In order to solve the problem, the key-term separation is applied and two algorithms are proposed. One is the key-term-based forgetting factor stochastic gradient (KT-FFSG) algorithm based on the gradient search. The other is the key-term-based hierarchical forgetting factor stochastic gradient (KT-HFFSG) algorithm. Compared with the KT-FFSG algorithm, the KT-HFFSG algorithm gives more accurate estimates. The simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithms are effective.     

A novel temperature-tolerant foamed resin for enhanced oil recovery

The synthesis and performance of a novel temperature-tolerant foamed resin for enhanced oil recovery were investigated using various methods, including infrared, NMR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and displacement experiments. Polycondensation of furfuryl alcohol prepolymers was confirmed by the infrared and NMR results. The poor temperature tolerance of furfuryl alcohol prepolymers after gelation at high temperatures is mainly due to the fracture of furan rings. The addition of ester additives is an effective method of increasing the temperature tolerance of the prepared foamed resins and can effectively reduce the weight-loss rate of the polycondensation products. The SEM results show that the skeleton structure of the foamed resin remains intact after high-temperature treatment. Thus, the novel plugging agent system has excellent thermal stability and still has a high strength (>0.8 MPa) after high-temperature aging treatment for 40 days, giving the prepared foamed resin a good plugging performance (plugging rate > 91%) at 250 °C. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47161.     

High-resolution ISAR imaging of fast rotating targets based on pattern-coupled Bayesian strategy for multiple measurement vectors

Very high resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging of fast rotating targets is a complicated task. There may be insufficient pulses or may introduce migration through range cells (MTRC) during the coherent processing interval (CPI) when we use the conventional range Doppler (RD) ISAR technique. With compressed sensing (CS) technique, we can achieve the high-resolution ISAR imaging of a target with limited number of pulses. Sparse representation based method can achieve the super resolution ISAR imaging of a target with a short CPI, during which the target rotates only a small angle and the range migration of the scatterers is small. However, traditional CS-based ISAR imaging method generally faced with the problem of basis mismatch, which may degrade the ISAR image. To achieve the high resolution ISAR imaging of fast rotating targets, this paper proposed a pattern-coupled sparse Bayesian learning method for multiple measurement vectors, i.e. the PC-MSBL algorithm. A multi-channel pattern-coupled hierarchical Gaussian prior is proposed to model the pattern dependencies among neighboring range cells and correct the MTRC problem. The expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is used to infer the maximum a posterior (MAP) estimate of the hyperparameters. Simulation results validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm.     

Design of an antibacterial gelatin based on a covalent protein–protein coupling

An antibacterial peptide (AMP), i.e., nisin, was covalently bound to gelatin through a protein–protein coupling. Various reaction conditions were tested to study and optimize parameters of grafting e.g., orientation and density of AMP, which could impact the final antibacterial activity of the modified biopolymer. Modification was investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy and zeta potential. The antibacterial activity of the nisin‐enriched gelatin was evaluated against two staphylococci bacterial strains, i.e., Staphylococus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus. A higher activity was found for gelatin modified at pH = 7.4 revealing an influence of the nisin orientation on the protein antibacterial property. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41825.     

Nonlinear response in glass fibre non-crimp fabric reinforced vinylester composites

This paper addresses the nonlinear stress-strain response in glass fibre non-crimp fabric reinforced vinylester composite laminates subjected to in-plane tensile loading. The nonlinearity is shown to be a combination of brittle and plastic failure. It is argued that the shift from plastic to brittle behaviour in the vinylester is caused by the state of stress triaxiality caused by the interaction between fibre and vinylester. A model combining damage and plasticity is calibrated and evaluated using data from extensive experimental testing. The onset of damage is predicted using the Puck failure criterion, and the evolution of damage is calibrated from the observed softening in plies loaded in transverse tension. Shear loading beyond linear elastic response is observed to result in irreversible strains. A yield criterion is implemented for shear deformation. A strain hardening law is fitted to the stress-strain response observed in shear loaded plies. Experimental results from a selection of laminates with different layups are used to verify the numerical models. A complete set of model parameters for predicting elastic behaviour, strength and post failure softening is presented for glass fibre non-crimped fabric reinforced vinylester. The predicted behaviour from using these model parameters are shown to be in good agreement with experimental results.     

Alloying behavior and novel properties of CoCrFeNiMn high-entropy alloy fabricated by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering

An equiatomic CoCrFeNiMn high-entropy alloy was synthesized by mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). During MA, a solid solution with refined microstructure of 10 nm which consists of a FCC phase and a BCC phase was formed. After SPS consolidation, only one FCC phase can be detected in the HEA bulks. The as-sintered bulks exhibit high compressive strength of 1987 MPa. An interesting magnetic transition associated with the structure coarsening and phase transformation was observed during SPS process.     

改进HSR-FCN的服装图像识别分类算法研究

目前网络上的服装图像数量增长迅猛，对于大量服装图像实现智能分类的需求日益增加。将基于区域的全卷积网络（Region-Based Fully Convolutional Networks，R-FCN）引入到服装图像识别中，针对服装图像分类中网络训练时间长、形变服装图像识别率低的问题，提出一种新颖的改进框架HSR-FCN。新框架将R-FCN中的区域建议网络和HyperNet网络相融合，改变图片特征学习方式，使得HSR-FCN可以在更短的训练时间内达到更高的准确率。在模型中引入了空间转换网络，对输入服装图像和特征图进行了空间变换及对齐，加强了对多角度服装和形变服装的特征学习。实验结果表明，改进后的HSR-FCN模型有效地加强了对形变服装图像的学习，且在训练时间更短的情况下，比原来的网络模型R-FCN平均准确率提高了大约3个百分点，达到96.69%。     

Nonlinear viscoelastic modeling of soft polymers

A one‐dimensional phenomenological constitutive model, representing the nonlinear viscoelastic behavior of polymers is developed in this study. The proposed model is based on a modification of the well‐known three element standard solid model. The linear dashpot is replaced by an Eyring type one, while the nonlinearity is enhanced by a nonlinear, strain dependent spring constant. The new constitutive model was proved to be capable of capturing the main aspects of nonlinear viscoelastic response, namely, monotonic and cyclic loading, creep and stress relaxation, with the same parameter values. Model validation was tested on the experimental results at various modes of deformation for two elastomeric type materials, performed elsewhere. A very good agreement between model simulations and experimental data was obtained in all cases. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42141.     

Simulation of thermal barrier coating spallation induced by the initiation/growth/coalescence of internal crack and interfacial crack based on a real image model

In the furnace cycle test, the growth of oxide film leads to the propagation and coalescence of multiple cracks near the interface, which should be responsible for the spallation of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). A TBC model with real interface morphology is created, and the near-interface large pore is retained. The purpose of this work is to clarify the mechanism of TBC spallation caused by successive initiation, propagation, and linkage of cracks near the interface during thermal cycle. The dynamic growth of thermally grown oxide (TGO) is carried out by applying a stress-free strain. The crack nucleation and arbitrary path propagation in YSZ and TGO are simulated by the extended finite element method (XFEM). The debonding along the YSZ/TGO/BC interface is evaluated using a surface-based cohesive behavior. The large-scale pore in YSZ near the interface can initiate a new crack. The ceramic crack can propagate to the YSZ/TGO interface, which will accelerate the interfacial damage and debonding. For the TGO/BC interface, the normal compressive stress and small shear stress at the valley hinder the further crack propagation. The growth of YSZ crack and the formation of through-TGO crack are the main causes of TBC delamination. The accelerated BC oxidation increases the lateral growth strain of TGO, which will promote crack propagation and coalescence. The optimization design proposed in this work can provide another option for developing TBC with high durability.