Search results for: Detection of oxidative stress induced

Authors: Milan Rippel, Petr Teply

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This paper focuses on operational risk measurement techniques and on economic capital estimation methods. A data sample of operational losses provided by an anonymous Central European bank is analyzed using several approaches. Loss Distribution Approach and scenario analysis method are considered. Custom plausible loss events defined in a particular scenario are merged with the original data sample and their impact on capital estimates and on the financial institution is evaluated. Two main questions are assessed – What is the most appropriate statistical method to measure and model operational loss data distribution? and What is the impact of hypothetical plausible events on the financial institution? The g&h distribution was evaluated to be the most suitable one for operational risk modeling. The method based on the combination of historical loss events modeling and scenario analysis provides reasonable capital estimates and allows for the measurement of the impact of extreme events on banking operations.

Keywords: operational risk, scenario analysis, economic capital, loss distribution approach, extreme value theory, stress testing

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Authors: Hirich A., Rami A., Laajaj K., Choukr-Allah R., Jacobsen S-E., El youssfi L., El Omari H.

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Yield and Crop Water Productivity are crucial issues in sustainable agriculture, especially in high-demand resource crops such as sweet corn. This study was conducted to investigate agronomic responses such as plant growth, yield and soil parameters (EC and Nitrate accumulation) to several deficit irrigation treatments (100, 75, 50, 25 and 0% of ETm) applied during vegetative growth stage, rainfed treatment was also tested. The finding of this research indicates that under deficit irrigation during vegetative growth stage applying 75% of ETm lead to increasing of 19.4% in terms of fresh ear yield, 9.4% in terms of dry grain yield, 10.5% in terms of number of ears per plant, 11.5% for the 1000 grains weight and 19% in terms of crop water productivity compared with fully irrigated treatment. While those parameters in addition to root, shoot and plant height has been affected by deficit irrigation during vegetative growth stage when increasing water stress degree more than 50% of ETm.

Keywords: Leaf area, yield, crop water productivity, water saving

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Authors: Hyun June Kim, Tailong Shi, Seden Akdagli, Sam Most, Yuling Yan

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Quantitative analyses of whisker movements provide a means to study functional recovery and regeneration of mouse facial nerve after an injury. However, accurate tracking of the mouse whisker movement is challenging. Most methods for whisker tracking require manual intervention, e.g. fixing the head of the mouse during a study. Here we describe a semi-automated image processing method, which is applied to high-speed video recordings of free-moving mice to track the whisker movements. We first track the head movement of a mouse by delineating the lower head contour frame-by-frame that allows for detection of the location and orientation of the head. Then, a region of interest is identified for each frame; the subsequent application of a mask and the Hough transform detects the selected whiskers on each side of the head. Our approach is used to examine the functional recovery of damaged facial nerves in mice over a course of 21 days.

Keywords: Mystacial macrovibrissae, whisker tracking, head tracking, facial nerve recovery.

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Authors: Saad M. Howladar, Mike Dennett

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The effect of exogenous application; seed priming or foliar spraying of salicylic acid (SA) on Yecora Rojo and Paragon wheat cv. under NaCl-salinity. Gas exchange parameters, growth parameters, yield and yield components were reduced in both cultivars under salinity stress with foliar spray and soaking seeds. Exogenous application of SA through foliar spraying or seed soaking showed a slight increases or decreases with the application method or between cultivars. SA foliar spraying exhibited a slight improvement over SA seed soaking in most parameters, particularly in Paragon. Although, seed soaking was less effective than foliar spraying, it was a slightly better with Yecora Rojo in some parameters. However, the low SA concentration; 0.5mM tended to improve most parameters in both cultivars. From data of the experiment, it has been concluded that the effect of SA depends on cultivar genotype and SA concentration.

Keywords: Salinity, Salicylic acid, Growth parameters, yield components, Wheat cultivars.

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Authors: Chung-Chih Lin, Chien-Liang Wu

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The detection of the polymer melt state during manufacture process is regarded as an efficient way to control the molded part quality in advance. Online monitoring rheological property of polymer melt during processing procedure provides an approach to understand the melt state immediately. Rheological property reflects the polymer melt state at different processing parameters and is very important in injection molding process especially. An approach that demonstrates how to calculate rheological property of polymer melt through in-process measurement, using injection molding as an example, is proposed in this study. The system consists of two sensors and a data acquisition module can process the measured data, which are used for the calculation of rheological properties of polymer melt. The rheological properties of polymer melt discussed in this study include shear rate and viscosity which are investigated with respect to injection speed and melt temperature. The results show that the effect of injection speed on the rheological properties is apparent, especially for high melt temperature and should be considered for precision molding process.

Keywords: Injection molding, melt viscosity, shear rate, monitoring.

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Authors: Muniyasamy Kalanchiam, Moorthy Chinnasamy

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In the competitive environment of aircraft industries it becomes absolutely necessary to improve the efficiency, performance of the aircrafts to reduce the development and operating costs considerably, in order to capitalize the market. An important contribution to improve the efficiency and performance can be achieved by decreasing the aircraft weight through considerable usage of composite materials in primary aircraft structures. In this study, a type of composite material called Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) is explored for the usage is aircraft skin panels. Even though there were plenty of studies and research has been already carried out, here a practical example of an aircraft skin panel is taken and substantiated the benefits of composites material usage over the metallic skin panel. A crown skin panel of a commercial aircraft is designed using both metal and composite materials. Stress analysis has been carried out for both and margin of safety is estimated for the critical load cases. The skin panels are compared for manufacturing, tooling, assembly and cost parameters. Detail step by step comparison between metal and composite constructions are studied and results are tabulated for better understanding.

Keywords: Composites, CFRP, Aircraft Structure, Skin panel.

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Authors: Tallataf Rasheed, Adnan Rashdi, Ahmad Naeem Akhtar

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The accurate spectrum sensing is a fundamental requirement of dynamic spectrum access for deployment of Cognitive Radio Network (CRN). To acheive this requirement a Reliability factors based Fuzzy Logic (RFL) Scheme for Spectrum Sensing has been proposed in this paper. Cognitive Radio User (CRU) predicts the presence or absence of Primary User (PU) using energy detector and calculates the Reliability factors which are SNR of sensing node, threshold of energy detector and decision difference of each node with other nodes in a cooperative spectrum sensing environment. Then the decision of energy detector is combined with Reliability factors of sensing node using Fuzzy Logic. These Reliability Factors used in RFL Scheme describes the reliability of decision made by a CRU to improve the local spectrum sensing. This Fuzzy combining scheme provides the accuracy of decision made by sensornode. The simulation results have shown that the proposed technique provide better PU detection probability than existing Spectrum Sensing Techniques.

Keywords: Cognitive radio, spectrum sensing, energy detector, reliability factors, fuzzy logic.

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Authors: B. G. Sheeparamatti, J. S. Kadadevarmath

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Microcantilevers are the basic MEMS devices, which can be used as sensors, actuators and electronics can be easily built into them. The detection principle of microcantilever sensors is based on the measurement of change in cantilever deflection or change in its resonance frequency. The objective of this work is to explore the analogies between mechanical and electrical equivalent of microcantilever beams. Normally scientists and engineers working in MEMS use expensive software like CoventorWare, IntelliSuite, ANSYS/Multiphysics etc. This paper indicates the need of developing electrical equivalent of the MEMS structure and with that, one can have a better insight on important parameters, and their interrelation of the MEMS structure. In this work, considering the mechanical model of microcantilever, equivalent electrical circuit is drawn and using force-voltage analogy, it is analyzed with circuit simulation software. By doing so, one can gain access to powerful set of intellectual tools that have been developed for understanding electrical circuits Later the analysis is performed using ANSYS/Multiphysics - software based on finite element method (FEM). It is observed that both mechanical and electrical domain results for a rectangular microcantlevers are in agreement with each other.

Keywords: Electrical equivalent circuit analogy, FEM analysis, micro cantilevers, micro sensors.

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Authors: Ahmad R. Naghsh-Nilchi, Mohammad Roshanzamir

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One of the popular methods for recognition of facial expressions such as happiness, sadness and surprise is based on deformation of facial features. Motion vectors which show these deformations can be specified by the optical flow. In this method, for detecting emotions, the resulted set of motion vectors are compared with standard deformation template that caused by facial expressions. In this paper, a new method is introduced to compute the quantity of likeness in order to make decision based on the importance of obtained vectors from an optical flow approach. For finding the vectors, one of the efficient optical flow method developed by Gautama and VanHulle[17] is used. The suggested method has been examined over Cohn-Kanade AU-Coded Facial Expression Database, one of the most comprehensive collections of test images available. The experimental results show that our method could correctly recognize the facial expressions in 94% of case studies. The results also show that only a few number of image frames (three frames) are sufficient to detect facial expressions with rate of success of about 83.3%. This is a significant improvement over the available methods.

Keywords: Facial expression, Facial features, Optical flow, Motion vectors.

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Authors: Seyed Ali Mir Heydari, Mohsen Sayadiharikandeh

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Static analysis of source code is used for auditing web applications to detect the vulnerabilities. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to analyze the PHP source code for detecting LFI and RFI potential vulnerabilities. In our approach, we first define some patterns for finding some functions which have potential to be abused because of unhandled user inputs. More precisely, we use regular expression as a fast and simple method to define some patterns for detection of vulnerabilities. As inclusion functions could be also used in a safe way, there could occur many false positives (FP). The first cause of these FP-s could be that the function does not use a usersupplied variable as an argument. So, we extract a list of usersupplied variables to be used for detecting vulnerable lines of code. On the other side, as vulnerability could spread among the variables like by multi-level assignment, we also try to extract the hidden usersupplied variables. We use the resulted list to decrease the false positives of our method. Finally, as there exist some ways to prevent the vulnerability of inclusion functions, we define also some patterns to detect them and decrease our false positives.

Keywords: User-supplied Variables, hidden user-supplied variables, PHP vulnerabilities.

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Authors: Ahmad Gholami, Saeed Sharafi, Hamid Abbasdokht

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The heterotrophic seedling growth can be defined as a product of two components: (1) the weight of mobilized seed reserve, and (2) conversion efficiency of utilized seed reserve to seedling tissue. The first component can be further divided into (1) initial seed weight, and (2) the fraction of seed reserve, which is mobilized. The objective of this study was the identification of the sensitive seedling growth component(s) in response to drought and salinity stresses. Two experiments were separately conducted using various salinity levels (osmotic pressure) of 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1, 1.25 and 1.5 MPa created using NaCl as first experiment and by polyethylene glycol (drought stress) of 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.2 and 1.4 MPa in second experiment. Seeds of five crops species (Hordeum vulgare, Brassica napus, Zea mays, Medicago sativa and Medicago scutellata) were used in each experiment. In both experiments, seedling growth, fraction of seed reserve utilization and weight of mobilized seed reserve decreased with increasing drought and salt intensity. However, drought and salinity stresses had no effect on the conversion efficiency. It was concluded that the sensitive component of seedling growth is the weight of mobilized seed reserve.

Keywords: Salinity, Drought, Seed reserve, Seedling, Cropsspecies

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Authors: Elie H. Karam, Antoine B. Abche

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It is known that the heart interacts with and adapts to its venous and arterial loading conditions. Various experimental studies and modeling approaches have been developed to investigate the underlying mechanisms. This paper presents a model of the left ventricle derived based on nonlinear stress-length myocardial characteristics integrated over truncated ellipsoidal geometry, and second-order dynamic mechanism for the excitation-contraction coupling system. The results of the model presented here describe the effects of the viscoelastic damping element of the electromechanical coupling system on the hemodynamic response. Different heart rates are considered to study the pacing effects on the performance of the left-ventricle against constant preload and afterload conditions under various damping conditions. The results indicate that the pacing process of the left ventricle has to take into account, among other things, the viscoelastic damping conditions of the myofilament excitation-contraction process. The effects of left ventricular dimensions on the hemdynamic response have been examined. These effects are found to be different at different viscoelastic and pacing conditions.

Keywords: Myocardial sarcomere, cardiac pump, excitationcontractioncoupling, viscoelasicity

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Authors: Mohd Anuar Awang Idris, Muhammad Nubli Abdul Wahab, Nora Yusma Mohamed Yusoff

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Wudu’ (Ablution) and Zikr are amongst some of the spiritual tools which may help an individual control his mind, emotion and attitude. These tools are deemed to be able to deliver a positive impact on an individual’s psychophysiology. The main objective of this research is to determine the effects of Wudu’ (Ablution) and Zikr therapy using the biofeedback emWave application and technology. For this research, 13 students were selected as samples from the students’ representative body at the University Tenaga National, Malaysia. The DASS (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale) questionnaire was used to help with the assessment and measurement of each student’s ability in controlling his or her emotions before and after the therapies. The biofeedback emWave technology was utilized to monitor the student’s psychophysiology level. In addition, the data obtained from the Heart rate variability (HRV) test have also been used to affirm that Wudu’ and Zikr had had significant impacts on the student’s success in controlling his or her emotional pressure.

Keywords: Biofeedback emWave, emotion, psychophysiology, wudu’, zikr.

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Authors: Abdelaziz Zaidi, Belkacem Ould Bouamama, Moncef Tagina

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Bond Graph as a unified multidisciplinary tool is widely used not only for dynamic modelling but also for Fault Detection and Isolation because of its structural and causal proprieties. A binary Fault Signature Matrix is systematically generated but to make the final binary decision is not always feasible because of the problems revealed by such method. The purpose of this paper is introducing a methodology for the improvement of the classical binary method of decision-making, so that the unknown and identical failure signatures can be treated to improve the robustness. This approach consists of associating the evaluated residuals and the components reliability data to build a Hybrid Bayesian Network. This network is used in two distinct inference procedures: one for the continuous part and the other for the discrete part. The continuous nodes of the network are the prior probabilities of the components failures, which are used by the inference procedure on the discrete part to compute the posterior probabilities of the failures. The developed methodology is applied to a real steam generator pilot process.

Keywords: Redundancy relations, decision-making, Bond Graph, reliability, Bayesian Networks.

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Authors: Xie Kai, Laith K. Abbas, Chen Dongyang, Yang Fufeng, Rui Xiaoting

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Effect of plunging motion on the pitch oscillating NACA0012 airfoil is investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A simulation model based on overset grid technology and k - ω shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model is established, and the numerical simulation results are compared with available experimental data and other simulations. Two cases of phase angle φ = 0, μ which represents the phase difference between the pitching and plunging motions of an airfoil are performed. Airfoil vortex generation, moving, and shedding are discussed in detail. Good agreements have been achieved with the available literature. The upward plunging motion made the equivalent angle of attack less than the actual one during pitching analysis. It is observed that the formation of the stall vortex is suppressed, resulting in a decrease in the lift coefficient and a delay of the stall angle. However, the downward plunging motion made the equivalent angle of attack higher the actual one.

Keywords: Dynamic stall, pitching-plunging, computational fluid dynamics, helicopter blade rotor, airfoil.

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Authors: Mallikarjuna Rao Gundavarapu, Ch. Mallikarjuna Rao, K. Anuradha Bai

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Real Time Video Tracking is a challenging task for computing professionals. The performance of video tracking techniques is greatly affected by background detection and elimination process. Local regions of the image frame contain vital information of background and foreground. However, pixel-level processing of local regions consumes a good amount of computational time and memory space by traditional approaches. In our approach we have explored the concurrent computational ability of General Purpose Graphic Processing Units (GPGPU) to address this problem. The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) with adaptive weighted kernels is used for detecting the background. The weights of the kernel are influenced by local regions and are updated by inter-frame variations of these corresponding regions. The proposed system has been tested with GPU devices such as GeForce GTX 280, GeForce GTX 280 and Quadro K2000. The results are encouraging with maximum speed up 10X compared to sequential approach.

Keywords: Connected components, Embrace threads, Local weighted kernel, Structuring element.

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Authors: Yin Yin Phyo, Tun Lin Naing

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This paper investigated the simulation of two-phase interleaved boost converter (IBC) with free and open-source software Scilab/Xcos. By using interleaved method, it can reduce current stress on components, components size, input current ripple and output voltage ripple. The required mathematical model is obtained from the equivalent circuit of its different four modes of operation for simulation. The equivalent circuits are considered in continuous conduction mode (CCM). The average values of the system variables are derived from the state-space equation to find the equilibrium point. Scilab is now becoming more and more popular among students, engineers and scientists because it is open-source software and free of charge. It gives a great convenience because it has powerful computation and simulation function. The waveforms of output voltage, input current and inductors current are obtained by using Scilab/Xcos.

Keywords: Two-phase boost converter, continuous conduction mode, free and open-source, interleaved method, dynamic simulation.

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Authors: K.L. Verma

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Analysis for the generalized thermoelastic Lamb waves, which propagates in anisotropic thin plates in generalized thermoelasticity, is presented employing normal mode expansion method. The displacement and temperature fields are expressed by a summation of the symmetric and antisymmetric thermoelastic modes in the surface thermal stresses and thermal gradient free orthotropic plate, therefore the theory is particularly appropriate for waveform analyses of Lamb waves in thin anisotropic plates. The transient waveforms excited by the thermoelastic expansion are analyzed for an orthotropic thin plate. The obtained results show that the theory provides a quantitative analysis to characterize anisotropic thermoelastic stiffness properties of plates by wave detection. Finally numerical calculations have been presented for a NaF crystal, and the dispersion curves for the lowest modes of the symmetric and antisymmetric vibrations are represented graphically at different values of thermal relaxation time. However, the methods can be used for other materials as well

Keywords: Anisotropic, dispersion, frequency, normal, thermoelasticity, wave modes.

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Authors: P. B. Sob, A. A. Alugongo, T. B. Tengen

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Mechanical behavior of 6082T6 aluminum is investigated at different temperatures. The strain rate sensitivity is investigated at different temperatures on the grain size variants. The sensitivity of the measured grain size variants on 3-D grain is discussed. It is shown that the strain rate sensitivities are negative for the grain size variants during the deformation of nanostructured materials. It is also observed that the strain rate sensitivities vary in different ways with the equivalent radius, semi minor axis radius, semi major axis radius and major axis radius. From the obtained results, it is shown that the variation of strain rate sensitivity with temperature suggests that the strain rate sensitivity at the low and the high temperature ends of the 6082T6 aluminum range is different. The obtained results revealed transition at different temperature from negative strain rate sensitivity as temperature increased on the grain size variants.

Keywords: Nanostructured materials, grain size variants, temperature, yield stress, strain rate sensitivity.

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Authors: Mohammad Hosein Hojati, Fardin Boustani

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Groundwater is one of the most important water resources in Fars province. Based on this study, 95 percent of the total annual water consumption in Fars is used for agriculture, whereas the percentages for domestic and industrial uses are 4 and 1 percent, respectively. Population growth, urban and industrial growth, and agricultural development in Fars have created a condition of water stress. In this province, farmers and other users are pumping groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate, causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables and depletion of this resource. In this research variation of groundwater level, their effects and ways to help control groundwater levels in aquifer of the Kavar- Maharloo plains in Fars plain were evaluated .Excessive exploitation of groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater levels fall too fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown of the groundwater level in this plain were 17 meters during 1995 to 2006. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water level changes in the Kavar-Maharloo Aquifer in the Fars province in order to determine the areas of greatest depletion, the cause of depletion, and predict the remaining life of the aquifer.

Keywords: Aquifer , ground water depletion, water table

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Authors: D. K. Tiwari, Mukesh Kumar Awasthi, G. S. Agrawal

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The effect of an axial electric field on the capillary instability of a cylindrical interface in the presence of heat and mass transfer has been investigated using viscous potential flow theory. In viscous potential flow, the viscous term in Navier-Stokes equation vanishes as vorticity is zero but viscosity is not zero. Viscosity enters through normal stress balance in the viscous potential flow theory and tangential stresses are not considered. A dispersion relation that accounts for the growth of axisymmetric waves is derived and stability is discussed theoretically as well as numerically. Stability criterion is given by critical value of applied electric field as well as critical wave number. Various graphs have been drawn to show the effect of various physical parameters such as electric field, heat transfer capillary number, conductivity ratio, permittivity ratio on the stability of the system. It has been observed that the axial electric field and heat and mass transfer both have stabilizing effect on the stability of the system.

Keywords: Capillary instability, Viscous potential flow, Heat and mass transfer, Axial electric field.

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Authors: Waqas Saleem, Fan Yuqing

Abstract:

A strategy is implemented to find the improved configuration design of an existing aircraft structure by executing topology and shape optimizations. Structural analysis of the Initial Design Space is performed in ANSYS under the loads pertinent to operating and ground conditions. By using the FEA results and data, an initial optimized layout configuration is attained by exploiting nonparametric topology optimization in TOSCA software. Topological optimized surfaces are then smoothened and imported in ANSYS to develop the geometrical features. Nodes at the critical locations of resulting voids are selected for sketching rough profiles. Rough profiles are further refined and CAD feasible geometric features are generated. The modified model is then analyzed under the same loadings and constraints as defined for topology optimization. Shape at the peak stress concentration areas are further optimized by exploiting the shape optimization in TOSCA.shape module. The harmonized stressed model with the modified surfaces is then imported in CATIA to develop the final design.

Keywords: Structural optimization, Topology optimization, Shape optimization, Tail fin

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Authors: Ali Rafiee, Ahad Salimi, Ali Reza Roosta

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Prostate cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in men and is a major cause of mortality in the most of countries. In many diagnostic and treatment procedures for prostate disease accurate detection of prostate boundaries in transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images is required. This is a challenging and difficult task due to weak prostate boundaries, speckle noise and the short range of gray levels. In this paper a novel method for automatic prostate segmentation in TRUS images is presented. This method involves preprocessing (edge preserving noise reduction and smoothing) and prostate segmentation. The speckle reduction has been achieved by using stick filter and top-hat transform has been implemented for smoothing. A feed forward neural network and local binary pattern together have been use to find a point inside prostate object. Finally the boundary of prostate is extracted by the inside point and an active contour algorithm. A numbers of experiments are conducted to validate this method and results showed that this new algorithm extracted the prostate boundary with MSE less than 4.6% relative to boundary provided manually by physicians.

Keywords: Prostate segmentation, stick filter, neural network, active contour.

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Authors: Jayant Sakhardande, Pratik Pattanayak, Mita Bhowmick

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An efficient reintegration of the disabled people in the family and society should be fulfilled; hence it is strongly needful to assist their diminished functions or to replace the totally lost functions. Assistive technology helps in neutralizing the impairment. Recent advancements in embedded systems have opened up a vast area of research and development for affordable and portable assistive devices for the visually impaired. Granted there are many assistive devices on the market that are able to detect obstacles, and numerous research and development currently in process to alleviate the cause, unfortunately the cost of devices, size of devices, intrusiveness and higher learning curve prevents the visually impaired from taking advantage of available devices. This project aims at the design and implementation of a detachable unit which is robust, low cost and user friendly, thus, trying to aggrandize the functionality of the existing white cane, to concede above-knee obstacle detection. The designed obstruction detector uses ultrasound sensors for detecting the obstructions before direct contact. It bestows haptic feedback to the user in accordance with the position of the obstacle.

Keywords: Visually impaired, Ultrasonic sensors, Obstruction detector, Mobility aid

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Authors: Nor Hayati Ibrahim, Yaakob B. Che Man, Chin Ping Tan, Nor Aini Idris

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Interaction effects of xanthan gum (XG), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), and locust bean gum (LBG) on the flow properties of oil-in-water emulsions were investigated by a mixture design experiment. Blends of XG, CMC and LBG were prepared according to an augmented simplex-centroid mixture design (10 points) and used at 0.5% (wt/wt) in the emulsion formulations. An appropriate mathematical model was fitted to express each response as a function of the proportions of the blend components that are able to empirically predict the response to any blend of combination of the components. The synergistic interaction effect of the ternary XG:CMC:LBG blends at approximately 33-67% XG levels was shown to be much stronger than that of the binary XG:LBG blend at 50% XG level (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, an antagonistic interaction effect became significant as CMC level in blends was more than 33% (p < 0.05). Yield stress and apparent viscosity (at 10 s-1) responses were successfully fitted with a special quartic model while flow behaviour index and consistency coefficient were fitted with a full quartic model (R2 adjusted ≥ 0.90). This study found that a mixture design approach could serve as a valuable tool in better elucidating and predicting the interaction effects beyond the conventional twocomponent blends.

Keywords: O/W emulsions, flow behavior, polysaccharideinteraction, mixture design.

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Authors: Ali Roozbahani, Aref Mardani, Roohollah Jokar, Hamid Taghavifar

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Evaluating and measuring the performance parameters of wheels and tillage equipments under controlled conditions obligates the use of soil bin facility. In this research designing, constructing and evaluating a single-wheel tester has been studied inside a soil bin. The tested wheel was directly driven by the electric motor. Vertical load was applied by a power bolt on wheel. This tester can measure required draft force, the depth of tire sinkage, contact area between wheel and soil, and soil stress at different depths and in the both alongside and perpendicular to the direction of traversing. In order to evaluate the system preparation, traction force was measured by the connected S-shaped load cell as arms between the wheel-tester and carriage. Treatments of forward speed, slip, and vertical load at a constant pressure were investigated in a complete randomized block design. The results indicated that the traction force increased at constant wheel load. The results revealed that the maximum traction force was observed within the %15 of slip.

Keywords: Slip, single wheel-tester, soil bin, soil–machine, speed, traction.

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Authors: Amar Al-Obaidi, Verena Kräusel, Dirk Landgrebe

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Induction assisted single point incremental forming (IASPIF) is a flexible method and can be simply utilized to form a high strength alloys. Due to the interaction between the mechanical and thermal properties during IASPIF an evaluation for the process is necessary to be performed analytically. Therefore, a numerical simulation was carried out in this paper. The numerical analysis was operated at both room and elevated temperatures then compared with experimental results. Fully coupled dynamic temperature displacement explicit analysis was used to simulated the hot single point incremental forming. The numerical analysis was indicating that during hot single point incremental forming were a combination between complicated compression, tension and shear stresses. As a result, the equivalent plastic strain was increased excessively by rising both the formed part depth and the heating temperature during forming. Whereas, the forming forces were decreased from 5 kN at room temperature to 0.95 kN at elevated temperature. The simulation shows that the maximum true strain was occurred in the stretching zone which was the same as in experiment.

Keywords: Induction heating, single point incremental forming, FE modeling, advanced high strength steel.

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Authors: M. Cangi, T. Dolar, C. Ersoy, Y. E. Aydogdu, A. I. Aydeniz, A. Mugan

Abstract:

The drum is one of the critical parts in a washing machine in which the clothes are washed and spin by the rotational movement. It is activated by the drum shaft which is attached to an electric motor and subjected to dynamic loading. Being one of the critical components, failures of the drum require costly repairs of dynamic components. In this study, tolerance bands between the drum shaft and its two bearings were examined to develop a relationship between the fatigue life of the shaft and the interaction tolerances. Optimization of tolerance bands was completed in consideration of the fatigue life of the shaft as the cost function. The following methodology is followed: multibody dynamic model of a washing machine was constructed and used to calculate dynamic loading on the components. Then, these forces were used in finite element analyses to calculate the stress field in critical components which was used for fatigue life predictions. The factors affecting the fatigue life were examined to find optimum tolerance grade for a given test condition. Numerical results were verified by experimental observations.

Keywords: Fatigue life, finite element analysis, tolerance analysis, optimization.

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Authors: G. Partheepan, D.K. Sehgal, R.K. Pandey

Abstract:

This paper presents a method for determining the uniaxial tensile properties such as Young-s modulus, yield strength and the flow behaviour of a material in a virtually non-destructive manner. To achieve this, a new dumb-bell shaped miniature specimen has been designed. This helps in avoiding the removal of large size material samples from the in-service component for the evaluation of current material properties. The proposed miniature specimen has an advantage in finite element modelling with respect to computational time and memory space. Test fixtures have been developed to enable the tension tests on the miniature specimen in a testing machine. The studies have been conducted in a chromium (H11) steel and an aluminum alloy (AR66). The output from the miniature test viz. load-elongation diagram is obtained and the finite element simulation of the test is carried out using a 2D plane stress analysis. The results are compared with the experimental results. It is observed that the results from the finite element simulation corroborate well with the miniature test results. The approach seems to have potential to predict the mechanical properties of the materials, which could be used in remaining life estimation of the various in-service structures.

Keywords: ABAQUS, finite element, miniature test, tensileproperties

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Authors: Deepak D, Anjaiah D, Yagnesh Sharma N.

Abstract:

It is well known that the abrasive particles in the abrasive water suspension has significant effect on the erosion characteristics of the inside surface of the nozzle. Abrasive particles moving with the flow cause severe skin friction effect, there by altering the nozzle diameter due to wear which in turn reflects on the life of the nozzle for effective machining. Various commercial abrasives are available for abrasive water jet machining. The erosion characteristic of each abrasive is different. In consideration of this aspect, in the present work, the effect of abrasive materials namely garnet, aluminum oxide and silicon carbide on skin friction coefficient due to wall shear stress and jet kinetic energy has been analyzed. It is found that the abrasive material of lower density produces a relatively higher skin friction effect and higher jet exit kinetic energy.

Keywords: Abrasive water suspension jet, Skin friction coefficient, Jet kinetic energy, Particulate loading, Stokes number.

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