Effect of residual stress on crack propagation in MDPE pipes

Crack propagation behaviour in single edge notched specimens prepared from medium-density polyethylene (MDPE) pipe is examined under creep condition. The crack grown from an exterior notch (inbound) initiated faster than that grown from an interior notch (outbound). Subsequently, the outbound crack propagated monotonically to ultimate failure. The inbound crack showed anomalous behaviour involving two arrest stages prior to ultimate failure. The pipe is found to possess substantial residual stresses. The energy release rate for each case was calculated taking into account the respective residual stream distribution. The fact that the rates of crack propagation are not a unique function of the energy release rate indicates that the fracture is also influenced by morphological gradients imposed by processing conditions.     

Comment on ‘Frequency domain identification of Wiener models’, by E.W. Bai, Automatica 39 (2003), 1521–1530

A frequency-domain identification method is proposed by Bai (2003) for Wiener systems. The key component is a phase estimator that gives estimates of the linear subsystem phase for different frequencies. These estimates are then used to identify the whole system. In this note, it is shown that the phase estimator is not generally consistent. Consequently, consistency of the overall identification method is in turn not generally guaranteed.     

Hammerstein Systems Identification in Presence of Hard Nonlinearities of Preload and Dead-Zone Type

Hammerstein system identification is considered in presence of preload and dead zone nonlinearities. The discontinuous feature of these nonlinearities makes it difficult to get a single system parameterization involving linearly all unknown parameters (those of the linear subsystem and those of the nonlinearity). Therefore, system identification has generally been dealt with using multiple stage schemes including different parametrizations and several data acquisition experiences. However, the consistency issue has only been solved under restrictive assumptions regarding the identified system. In this paper, a new identification scheme is designed and shown to be consistent under mild assumptions.     

Particleboards production from date palm biomass

Date palm biomass is a renewable natural resource that has not widely been utilized in industry. The objective of this study was to examine some chemical properties of date palm trunk and rachis (holocellulose, cellulose, lignin and extractives) and to evaluate their suitability to produce composite panels. Particleboards were produced using trunk and rachis as an alternative raw material for forest products industry in the presence of two types of polycondensation resins (phenol–formaldehyde and melamine urea–formaldehyde) which were selected as binding agents. The panels were tested for their physical (water absorption and thickness swelling) and mechanical (modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity and internal bond strength) properties. The internal bond strength of date palm trunk and date palm rachis based boards met the requirements of the general purpose product standards (EN 312) at 0.70 g/cm³ density. The panels made with phenol–formaldehyde resin showed better performance with respect to the panels made with melamine urea–formaldehyde. In addition, the particleboard made with date palm trunk particles had better quality compared to the particleboard made from date palm rachis particles. Based on preliminary results of this work, raw materials from date palm trunks and rachis can have a promising potential in the manufacture of particleboards and as a substitute for wood in board production.     

Adaptive stabilization of input-saturated plants with known unstable poles

This paper considers the problem of controlling partially uncertain, possibly unstable and non-minimum phase linear plants submitted to a control saturation constraint. It seeks both plant l_∞-stabilization and output tracking. It proposes a direct adaptive controller and shows that if the closed loop poles are placed in a specific region, then the desired stability and tracking objectives are achieved.     

Management of excess energy in a photovoltaic/grid system by production of clean hydrogen

In this article, the authors design a new clean storage device for a photovoltaic system (PV) reinforced by the electrical grid. The photovoltaic system supplies power to a DC load. When the power of the photovoltaic source is insufficient, the electrical grid compensates the energy deficit. On the other hand, if the load is satisfied and the PV source is still able of supplying energy, the energy excess is diverted to an own storage unit materialized by an electrolysis which produces gaseous hydrogen by the process of electrolysis of water. The authors show that the quantity of hydrogen produced is proportional to the photovoltaic energy excess and also to the flow of water injected into the electrolysis. In this case, it is a question of designing an electrolysis with specific characteristics, which takes into account the quantity of energy excess and the flow of water injected into it. The authors abandon the idea of controlling the water flow by means of a pumping-electrovalve system, and initiate the idea of replacing the function of the pump by the action of gravity. The work focuses on the development of an electrolysis optimization approach using the water flow control in its alliance with the PV power excess which is also maximized. For an optimized use of the global system (load and electrolysis), the authors present an architecture based on energy-converting structures (DC/DC and AC/DC). In addition, to increase the reliability and safety of the system, the authors finish by developing a power management strategy (PMS) in the designed system. This power management strategy organizes the energy flow and selects the appropriate path of this flow between the two energy sources (PV and electrical grid) and the two possible energy receivers (load and electrolysis). A complete modeling of the system is developed in the Matlab/Simulink environment. The simulation results show that the hybrid system (PV and electrical grid) is able to permanently supplying the load and potentially storing the excess of the PV energy in the form of hydrogen gas.     

An Evaluation of Routing Protocols for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network Considering the Video Stream

Wireless Personal Communications - In promising application field such as Vehicular Ad hoc Networks, the ability of the driver to exchange video streams smoothly over the network regardless of his...     

Coalitional game‐based behavior analysis for spectrum access in cognitive radios

The core of cognitive radio paradigm is to introduce cognitive devices able to opportunistically access the licensed radio bands. The coexistence of licensed and unlicensed users prescribes an effective spectrum hole‐detection and a non‐interfering sharing of those frequencies. Collaborative resource allocation and spectrum information exchange are required but often costly in terms of energy and delay. In this paper, each secondary user (SU) can achieve spectrum sensing and data transmission through a coalitional game‐based mechanism. SUs are called upon to report their sensing results to the elected coalition head, which properly decides on the channel state and the transmitter in each time slot according to a proposed algorithm. The goal of this paper is to provide a more holistic view on the spectrum and enhance the cognitive system performance through SUs behavior analysis. We formulate the problem as a coalitional game in partition form with non‐transferable utility, and we investigate on the impact of both coalition formation and the combining reports costs. We discuss the Nash Equilibrium solution for our coalitional game and propose a distributed strategic learning algorithm to illustrate a concrete case of coalition formation and the SUs competitive and cooperative behaviors inter‐coalitions and intra‐coalitions. We show through simulations that cognitive network performances, the energy consumption and transmission delay, improve evidently with the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chitosan effects on glass matrices evaluated by biomaterial. MAS-NMR and biological investigations

Bioactive glass 46S6 and biodegradable therapeutic polymer (Chitosan: CH) have been elaborated to form 46S6-CH composite by freeze-drying process. The kinetics of chemical reactivity and bioactivity at the surface were investigated by using physicochemical techniques, particularly solid-state MAS-NMR. Immortalized cell line used to construct multicellular spheroids was employed as three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures for in vitro studies. Obtained results showed a novel structure of the composite; the chemical treatment (ultrasound, magnetic stirring, freeze drying process and lyophilization) led the bioactive glass particles to be loaded in the chitosan-based materials. ²⁹Si and ³¹P MAS-NMR results showed the emergence of two new species, Q _Si ³ (OH) and Q _Si ⁴ , which are characteristic of the vitreous network dissolution in simulated body fluid (SBF). MAS-NMR also confirmed the formation of amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) at the surface of the initial 46S6-CH. Three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures highlighted the effect of chitosan, where the cell viability reached up to 78% in 46S6-CH composite and up to 67% in 46S6. The association of (CH) and bioactive glass (BG) matrix promotes a highly significant bioactivity, demonstrating surface bone formation and satisfactory behavior in biological environment.