Sheet molding compound characterization using spiral flow

Sheet molding compound (SMC) is a fiber‐reinforced polymeric composite. It is often used in automotive, marine, and industrial applications over other materials because of its high strength to density ratio, resistance to corrosion, and low cost. There is a demand in the SMC industry to be able to characterize SMC processability. This is particularly true for heavy truck body panels, one of the fastest growing applications of SMC. Because of their large size and high strength requirement, the molding forces have a major influence in the molding cycle. Also because of the long flow paths involved, the ability of the paste to carry glass needs to be properly characterized when developing new SMC materials. In this article, we demonstrate the benefits of using spiral flow as a processability tester. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Use of pile foundations in soils classed as type II in terms of proneness to slump-type settlement and compacted with wetting

Translated from Osnovaniya, Fundamenty i Mekhanika Gruntov, No. 5, pp. 12–15, September–October, 1989.     

Pickup (critical) velocity of particles

This work presents experimental results on pickup velocity (critical velocity) measurements for a variety of particulate solids. The present experiments together with previously published experiments of a number of researchers encompass about 100 measurements of 24 materials for a wide range of particle sizes, shapes and densities. Based on the experimental results, three zones are defined by establishing simple relationships between the Reynolds and Archimedes numbers. The empirical relationships were further modified by taking into account the pipe diameter and particle shape (sphericity). The three-zone model was shown to reasonably correlate to Geldart's classification groups.     

Scandinavian Thins on Top of Cake: New and Improved Algorithms for Stacking and Packing

We show how to compute the smallest rectangle that can enclose any polygon, from a given set of polygons, in nearly linear time; we also present a PTAS for the problem, as well as a linear-time algorithm for the case when the polygons are rectangles themselves. We prove that finding a smallest convex polygon that encloses any of the given polygons is NP-hard, and give a PTAS for minimizing the perimeter of the convex enclosure. We also give efficient algorithms to find the smallest rectangle simultaneously enclosing a given pair of convex polygons.     

The Topology of Transportation Networks: A Comparison Between Different Economies

This paper presents an analysis of the topology of transportation networks within different systems of cities. Urban entities and their components are complex systems by their nature; there is no central force that affects their spatial structure. Thus, we study transportation networks within different countries as complex networks. Based on the above, we consider cities as nodes, while direct air and railways routes represent the links. We present characteristics of these networks including their degree and clustering coefficient. Transportation networks can be used as an indicator of economic activity between cities. Cities with strong economic relationship are characterized by high volume of connectivity. Our findings suggest that the topology of the analyzed transportation networks can be used to classify the countries they belong to based on their economic development.

On Schematological Equivalence of Dataflow Networks

We consider the problem of determining when two dataflow networks with uninterpreted nodes always have the same input-output behavior. We define a set of behavior-preserving transformations on networks and show that this set is “schematologically complete”; i.e., networks have the same input-output behavior under all interpretations if and only if they can be transformed into isomorphic networks. As a by product, we obtain a polynomial algorithm for deciding schematological equivalence of dataflow networks.     

Towards capacity and profit optimization of video-on-demand services in a peer-assisted IPTV platform

This paper studies the conditions under which peer-to-peer (P2P) technology may be beneficial in providing IPTV services over typical network architectures. It has three major contributions. First, we contrast two network models used to study the performance of such a system: a commonly used logical “Internet as a cloud” model and a “physical” model that reflects the characteristics of the underlying network. Specifically, we show that the cloud model overlooks important architectural aspects of the network and may drastically overstate the benefits of P2P technology. Second, we propose an algorithm called Zebra that pre-stripes content across multiple peers during idle hours to speed up P2P content delivery in an IPTV environment with limited upload bandwidth. We also perform simulations to measure Zebra’s effectiveness at reducing load on the content server during peak hours. Third, we provide a cost-benefit analysis of P2P video content delivery, focusing on the profit trade-offs for different pricing/incentive models rather than purely on capacity maximization. In particular, we find that under high volume of video demand, a P2P built-in incentive model performs better than any other model, while the conventional no-P2P model generates more profits when the request rate is low. The flat-reward model generally falls in between the usage-based model and the built-in model in terms of profitability except for low request rates. We also find that built-in and flat-reward models are more profitable than the usage-based model for a wide range of subscriber community sizes. Funding for J. Rahe’s research has been provided by AT&T Labs, the State of California under the MICR Oprogram, and by the Toshiba Corporation. Zhen Xiao is partially supported by China MOST project (2006BAH02A10).     

A finite element scheme with a high order absorbing boundary condition for elastodynamics

A high-order absorbing boundary condition (ABC) is devised on an artificial boundary for time-dependent elastic waves in unbounded domains. The configuration considered is that of a two-dimensional elastic waveguide. In the exterior domain, the unbounded elastic medium is assumed to be isotropic and homogeneous. The proposed ABC is an extension of the Hagstrom–Warburton ABC which was originally designed for acoustic waves, and is applied directly to the displacement field. The order of the ABC determines its accuracy and can be chosen to be arbitrarily high. The initial boundary value problem including this ABC is written in second-order form, which is convenient for geophysical finite element (FE) analysis. A special variational formulation is constructed which incorporates the ABC. A standard FE discretization is used in space, and a Newmark-type scheme is used for time-stepping. A long-time instability is observed, but simple means are shown to dramatically postpone its onset so as to make it harmless during the simulation time of interest. Numerical experiments demonstrate the performance of the scheme.