Fatigue crack propagation of multiple coplanar cracks with the coupled extended finite element/fast marching method

A numerical technique for modeling fatigue crack propagation of multiple coplanar cracks is presented. The proposed method couples the extended finite element method (X-FEM) [Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 48 (11) (2000) 1549] to the fast marching method (FMM) [Level Set Methods & Fast Marching Methods: Evolving Interfaces in Computational Geometry, Fluid Mechanics, Computer Vision, and Materials Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1999]. The entire crack geometry, including one or more cracks, is represented by a single signed distance (level set) function. Merging of distinct cracks is handled naturally by the FMM with no collision detection or mesh reconstruction required. The FMM in conjunction with the Paris crack growth law is used to advance the crack front. In the X-FEM, a discontinuous function and the two-dimensional asymptotic crack-tip displacement fields are added to the finite element approximation to account for the crack using the notion of partition of unity [Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engng. 139 (1996) 289]. This enables the domain to be modeled by a single fixed finite element mesh with no explicit meshing of the crack surfaces. In an earlier study [Engng. Fract. Mech. 70 (1) (2003) 29], the methodology, algorithm, and implementation for three-dimensional crack propagation of single cracks was introduced. In this paper, simulations for multiple planar cracks are presented, with crack merging and fatigue growth carried out without any user-intervention or remeshing.     

Silicon Nitride Derived from an Organometallic Polymeric Precursor: Preparation and Characterization

Partially crystalline Si₃N₄, with nanosized crystals and a specific surface area greater than 200 m²/g, is obtained by pyrolysis of a commercially available vinylic polysilane in a stream of anhydrous NH₃ to 1000°C. This polymer does not contain N initially. Crystallization to high-purity α-Si₃N₄ proceeds with additional heating above 1400°C under N₂. The changes in crystallinity, powder morphology, infrared spectra, and elemental compositions, for samples annealed from 1000° to 1600°C under N₂, are consistent with an amorphous-to-crystalline transformation. Although macroscopic consolidation and local densification occur at 1400°C, volatilization and accompanying weight loss limit bulk densification. The effect of temperature on specific surface area is examined and related to the sintering process. These results are applicable to pyrolysis, decomposition, and crystallization studies of ceramics synthesized by polymeric precursor routes.     

Cement mortar impregnated with poly(methyl methacrylate-co-styrene)

Polymer-impregnated mortars were prepared by copolymerization of a monomer mixture of methyl methacrylate and styrene in the ratios of 13:87 and 40:60 using Co-60 gamma radiation. The copolymerization characteristics viz. the rate of polymerization, the extent of monomer loss, polymer loading, etc., were studied. The nature and molecular weight of the extractable polymer from the composite were determined. The flexural strength of the copolymer-impregnated composites was found to be better than that of the composites impregnated with component homopolymers.     

New block copolymers II. Synthesis and characterization of an ABA-type block copolymer

A new regular ABA-type triblock copolymer has been synthesized by polycondensation of the acid chloride of carboxy-terminated butadience-acrylonitrile rubber (CTBN) with hydroxyterminated polyethylene isophthalate (PEI) oligomer. This block copolymer was characterized by elemental (nitrogen) analysis, vapor pressure osmometry, viscometry, and IR and NMR spectroscopy. Quantitative estimation of block segments has been carried out by measuring the area under peaks assigned to various protons in the NMR spectrum of the polymer. NMR spectral analysis has been found to agree well with the nitrogen analysis of the polymer. The solubility and solution viscosity behavior of the polymer has also been studied.     

Removal of Cr(VI) using co-immobilized activated carbon and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus subtilis</Emphasis>: fixed-bed column study

Fixed-bed column studies were conducted to evaluate the potential of co-immobilized (activated carbon and Bacillus subtilis) (CI) beads for the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. The impact of various parameters such as initial Cr(VI) concentrations (100, 150, and 200 mg/L), flow rate (3, 9, and 15 mL/min), and bed depth (10, 15, and 20 cm) on Cr(VI) adsorption onto CI beads were investigated. The breakthrough time increased with a decrease in initial Cr(VI) concentration and flow rate, and an increase in bed height. The breakthrough data obtained for Cr(VI) removal was more adequately described by the Thomas model with high correlation coefficients (R ² = 0.982). The eluent, 0.1 M NaOH, provided high elution efficiencies (~90 %) in all the six cycles. Obtained results pointed out that CI beads could potentially be used for the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution.     

Leveraging Transfer Learning for Spatio-Temporal Human Activity Recognition from Video Sequences

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is an active research area due to its applications in pervasive computing, human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, health care, and social sciences. Moreover, dynamic environments and anthropometric differences between individuals make it harder to recognize actions. This study focused on human activity in video sequences acquired with an RGB camera because of its vast range of real-world applications. It uses two-stream ConvNet to extract spatial and temporal information and proposes a fine-tuned deep neural network. Moreover, the transfer learning paradigm is adopted to extract varied and fixed frames while reusing object identification information. Six state-of-the-art pre-trained models are exploited to find the best model for spatial feature extraction. For temporal sequence, this study uses dense optical flow following the two-stream ConvNet and Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (BiLSTM) to capture long-term dependencies. Two state-of-the-art datasets, UCF101 and HMDB51, are used for evaluation purposes. In addition, seven state-of-the-art optimizers are used to fine-tune the proposed network parameters. Furthermore, this study utilizes an ensemble mechanism to aggregate spatial-temporal features using a four-stream Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), where two streams use RGB data. In contrast, the other uses optical flow images. Finally, the proposed ensemble approach using max hard voting outperforms state-of-the-art methods with 96.30% and 90.07% accuracies on the UCF101 and HMDB51 datasets.     

Fault containment in weakly stabilizing systems

Research on fine tuning stabilization properties has received attention for more than a decade. This paper presents probabilistic algorithms for fault containment. We demonstrate two exercises in fault containment in a weakly stabilizing system, which expedite recovery from single failures, and confine the effect of any single fault to the constant-distance neighborhood of the faulty process. The most significant aspect of the algorithms is that the fault gap, defined as the smallest interval after which the system is ready to handle the next single fault with the same efficiency, is independent of the network size. We argue that a small fault gap increases the availability of the fault-free system.     

Partition of unity enrichment for bimaterial interface cracks

Partition of unity enrichment techniques are developed for bimaterial interface cracks. A discontinuous function and the two‐dimensional near‐tip asymptotic displacement functions are added to the finite element approximation using the framework of partition of unity. This enables the domain to be modelled by finite elements without explicitly meshing the crack surfaces. The crack‐tip enrichment functions are chosen as those that span the asymptotic displacement fields for an interfacial crack. The concept of partition of unity facilitates the incorporation of the oscillatory nature of the singularity within a conforming finite element approximation. The mixed‐mode (complex) stress intensity factors for bimaterial interfacial cracks are numerically evaluated using the domain form of the interaction integral. Good agreement between the numerical results and the reference solutions for benchmark interfacial crack problems is realized. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A numerical approach for a comparative study of laser drilling process under single and repetitive pulse

An axisymmetric model is developed to study laser drilling process under a single pulse as well as repetitive laser pulse. The laser pulse irradiated on the surface of the workpiece is volumetric and Gaussian in nature. The laser irradiated surface is subjected to convective‐radiative boundary condition while rest of the surfaces are insulated. Finite volume method is used to discretize the domain under consideration. The resulting algebraic equations are solved with the help of the tridiagonal matrix algorithm to find temperature distribution throughout the domain. The enthalpy‐porosity method is used to track the solid‐liquid interface generated during the laser melting process. Convective heat transfer occurs inside the generated melt pool. The current model is first used to validate the results of the existing literature and as the results agreed well, further studies are made to find out the advantages of using repetitive laser pulse over single pulse laser source for laser drilling process for the same laser energy and total heating duration. Vaporization has been avoided during the process and metal removal occurs through melting only. The present numerical model can provide some insight for practical laser drilling process.