Inverse identification of constitutive parameters from heat source fields: A local approach applied to hyperelasticity

In this paper, a new inverse identification method of constitutive parameters is developed from full kinematic and thermal field measurements. It consists in reconstructing the heat source field from two different approaches by using the heat diffusion equation. The first one requires the temperature field measurement and the value of the thermophysical parameters. The second one is based on the kinematic field measurement and the choice of a thermo-hyperelastic model that contains the parameters to be identified. The identification is carried out at the local scale, ie, at any point of the heat source field, without using the boundary conditions. In the present work, the method is applied to the challenging case of hyperelasticity from a heterogeneous test. Due to large deformations undergone by the rubber specimen tested, a motion compensation technique is developed to plot the kinematic and the thermal fields at the same points before reconstructing the heterogeneous heat source field. In the present case, the constitutive parameter of the Neo-Hookean model has been identified, and its distribution has been characterized with respect to the strain state at the surface of a cross-shaped specimen.     

Sinusoidal disturbance rejection in chaotic planar oscillators

The main goal of this paper is to design a compensator able to restore the nominal behavior of a planar system, which is rendered chaotic by an unmeasurable sinusoidal disturbance input. To reach such a goal, some instruments, taken from algebraic geometry, are used to estimate the unmeasurable disturbance from the time derivatives of the output of the system and of the control input. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Impact of the anode operating conditions on the liquid water distribution in the cathode gas diffusion layer

Previous experimental results indicate that the humidification conditions at the anode have an impact on the liquid water distribution in the cathode gas diffusion layer. Numerical simulations are developed to reproduce and analyze this effect. Results consistent with the experimental results are first obtained by playing with the partition coefficients of an advanced pore network model computing the liquid water formation and transfer in the cathode gas diffusion layer (GDL) for a large range of operating conditions. Then, a model for the full anode – cathode assembly is developed by combining the pore network model of the cathode GDL and a 1D model describing the heat and water transfer in the various components of the anode-cathode assembly. This enables one to generalize the dry – wet regime diagram introduced in a previous work by incorporating the effect of the humidity condition at the anode.     

Carbon supported bimetallic Ru‐Co catalysts for H2 production through NaBH4 and NH3BH3 hydrolysis

This work investigates the effect of the addition of small amounts of Ru (0.5‐1 wt%) to carbon supported Co (10 wt%) catalysts towards both NaBH₄ and NH₃BH₃ hydrolysis for H₂ production. In the sodium borohydride hydrolysis, the activity of Ru‐Co/carbon catalysts was sensibly higher than the sum of the activities of corresponding monometallic samples, whereas for the ammonia borane hydrolysis, the positive effect of Ru‐Co systems with regard to catalytic activity was less evident. The performances of Ru‐Co bimetallic catalysts correlated with the occurrence of an interaction between Ru and Co species resulting in the formation of smaller ruthenium and cobalt oxide particles with a more homogeneous dispersion on the carbon support. It was proposed that Ru^°, formed during the reduction step of the Ru‐Co catalysts, favors the H₂ activation, thus enhancing the reduction degree of the cobalt precursor and the number of Co nucleation centers. A subsequent reduction of cobalt and ruthenium species also occurs in the hydride reaction medium, and therefore the state of the catalyst before the catalytic experiment determines the state of the active phase formed in situ. The different relative reactivity of the Ru and Co active species towards the two investigated reactions accounted for the different behavior towards NaBH₄ and NH₃BH₃ hydrolysis.     

Studies of Work ‘in the Wild’

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) -     

Design of High Sensitive Temperature Sensor Based on Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystal

In this effort, a two-dimensional photonic crystal ring resonator (2DPCRR) is simulated. This device is developed for temperature detection in harsh enviro