Experimental evaluation of different spectral methods for damage estimation of an electrical panel bracket mounted on a military wheeled vehicle

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - This study evaluates different frequency domain vibration fatigue methods by verifying the results of the analyses with the experimental data on the...     

Analytical solution of micro-/nanoscale convective liquid flows in tubes and slits

Analytical solutions examining heat transport in micro-/nanoscale liquid flows were developed. Using the energy equation coupled with fully developed velocity, we solved developing temperature profiles with axial conduction and viscous dissipation terms. A comprehensive literature review provided the published range of velocity slip and temperature jump conditions. While molecular simulations and experiments present constant slip and jump values for a specific liquid/surface couple independent of confinement size, non-dimensional forms of these boundary conditions were found appropriate to calculate non-equilibrium as a function of flow height. Although slip and jump conditions are specific for each liquid/surface couple and hard to obtain, we proposed modeling of the slip and jump as a function of the surface wetting, in order to create a general, easy to measure methodology. We further developed possible correlations to calculate jump using the slip value of the corresponding surface and tested in the results. Fully developed Nu showed strong dependence on slip and jump. Heat transfer stopped when slip and jump coefficients became higher than a certain value. Strong variation of Nu in the thermal development length was observed for low slip and jump cases, while an almost constant Nu in the flow direction was found for high slip and jump coefficients. Variation of temperature profiles was found to dominate the heat transfer through the constant temperature surface while surface and liquid temperatures became equal at heat transfer lengths comparable with confinement sizes for no-dissipation cases. In case of non-negligible heat dissipation, viscous heating dominated the Nu value by enhancing the heating while decreasing the heat removal in cooling cases. Implementation of proposed procedure on a micro-channel convection problem from a micro-fluidics application showed the dominant effect of the model defining the slip and jump relationship. Direct use of kinetic gas theory resulted in an increase of Nu by an increase in non-equilibrium, while models developed from published liquid slip and jump values produced an opposite behavior.     

Optimization of fineness to maximize the strength activity of high-calcium ground fly ash – Portland cement composites

Depending on their physical and chemical properties and the amount of replacements with cement, fly ashes may provide an economical production possibility in concrete industry and improve the mechanical and durability performance of concrete. In recent years, ultrafine fly ash has become one of the necessary ingredients of high-performance concrete. However, many of the fly ashes are coarse in nature, hence grinding is necessary to obtain sufficient performance in concrete production. In this study, the effect of grinding on strength activity of ground high-calcium fly ashes was investigated. Physical characteristics such as sieve fineness, grain particle size characteristics and Blaine specific surface area were also determined and compared with raw fly ash. Some case studies and possible interactions between fineness of fly ash, strength and water demand of mortars were discussed. The optimization of fineness coupled with the adjustment of water content were found as the key parameters of effective utilization of high-calcium fly ashes from the view point of strength maximization of cement mortars.     

Mathematical modelling and fuzzy logic based position control of an electrohydraulic servosystem with internal leakage

This paper describes an application of a fuzzy logic position control to an electrohydraulic servosystem. Mathematical model of the electrohydraulic servosystem is obtained considering the internal leakage within the servosystem. Electrohydraulic servosystems are one of the most commonly used actuators. However, electrohydraulic servosystems are difficult to control due to nonlinearity and complexity of their mathematical models. In this paper, as a first step, the mathematical models of the main components of the servosystem are obtained. The effect of compressibility, friction, internal leakage in servovalve, leakage in actuator and inertia are included in the model. Since the system has a complex structure and the system characteristics are time dependent. Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) is applied to the electrohydraulic servosystem. The error and change in error are employed in the FLC. The effect of internal leakage on the mathematical model and performance of the position control system is investigated. Numerical simulation results for position control under a square wave reference input are obtained. Results are presented in graphical form. Physical trends of numerical simulation results are discussed. Although leakage is often ignored in dynamic analysis of servosystems, results shown in the paper indicate that the leakage has a significant effect on the mathematical model and performance of the position control system at small spool displacements.     

Estimation of survivability of communication networks

Communication networks may lose their end-to-end connectivity as a result of events that affect large portions of their topology. Survivability analysis of networks is used to determine this connectivity loss in view of the spatial dependency of damaging events. A dependent damage model and an extension of reliability algorithms are used systematically with Monte Carlo simulation for the survivability estimation of communications networks.<>     

Genetic Logic Gates Enable Patterning of Amyloid Nanofibers

Distinct spatial patterning of naturally produced materials is observed in many cellular structures and even among communities of microorganisms. Reoccurrence of spatially organized materials in all branches of life is clear proof that organization is beneficial for survival. Indeed, organisms can trick the evolutionary process by using organized materials in ways that can help the organism to avoid unexpected conditions. To expand the toolbox for synthesizing patterned living materials, Boolean type “AND” and “OR” control of curli fibers expression is demonstrated using recombinases. Logic gates are designed to activate the production of curli fibers. The gates can be used to record the presence of input molecules and give output as CsgA expression. Two different curli fibers (CsgA and CsgA‐His‐tag) production are then selectively activated to explore distribution of monomers upon coexpression. To keep track of the composition of fibers, CsgA‐His‐tag proteins are labeled with nickel–nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni–NTA‐) conjugated gold nanoparticles. It is observed that an organized living material can be obtained upon inducing the coexpression of different CsgA fibers. It is foreseen that living materials with user‐defined curli composition hold great potential for the development of living materials for many biomedical applications.