Volume 27, Issue 5-6

As damage occurs in the context of high stresses that are also related to the presence of plastic strains, it is natural to investigate the effect of plasticity on damage evolution and to thus achieve a more realistic model. In this work, the existing and new damage model presented in [Junker P, Schwarz S, Makowski J, Hackl K. Continuum Mech. Therm. 2017, 29 (1), 291–310] is enhanced with plasticity and isotropic hardening. The damage model is based on a relaxation-based approach and does not require additional complex regularization techniques besides considering viscous effects. The benefit of the model are mesh-independent results for the rate-dependent case, even without considering, e.g. gradient terms for mathematical regularization. The enhancement with plasticity and isotropic hardening was investigated for a representative volume element that considerd a damaging matrix material and non-damaging hard precipitates. Two different loading types, pure tension and pure shear, yielded the homogenized stress/strain response for the material at various loading rates. Hereto, several finite discretizations in terms of finite-element meshes were used. The results underline the mesh-independence for physically reasonable loading rates and viscosities.

Long-range interactions occurring in heterogeneous materials are responsible for the dispersive character of wave propagation. To capture these experimental phenomena without resorting to molecular and/or atomistic models, generalized continuum theories can be conveniently used. In this framework, this paper presents a three-length-scale gradient elasticity formulation whereby the standard equations of elasticity are enhanced with one additional strain gradient and two additional inertia gradients to describe wave dispersion in microstructured materials. It is well known that continualization of lattice systems with distributed microstructure leads to gradient models. Building on these insights, the proposed gradient formulation is derived by continualization of the response of a non-local lattice model with two-neighbor interactions. A similar model was previously proposed in the literature for a two-length-scale gradient formulation, but it did not include all the terms of the expansions that contributed to the response at the same order. By correcting these inconsistencies, the three-length-scale parameters can be linked to geometrical and mechanical properties of the material microstructure. Finally, the ability of the gradient formulation to simulate wave dispersion in a broad range of materials (aluminum, bismuth, nickel, concrete, mortar) is scrutinized against experimental observations.

The double diffusivity model proposed earlier by Aifantis and co-workers was applied in this work for modelling the diffusion of metals in sandy aquifers, as well as chloride diffusion in concrete specimens. The theoretical predictions are in very good agreement with the measured concentrations in all cases, showing that the model is capable of dealing with a large variety of double diffusivity problems.

The present study deals with the reflection of SV-waves at a free surface in the presence of magnetic field, initial stress, voids and gravity. When an SV-wave incident on the free surface of an elastic half space, two damped P-waves and an SV-wave are reflected. Among these waves, P-waves are only affected by magnetic fields whereas SV-waves are influenced by both, initial stress and magnetic fields. Effect of gravity is negligible whereas voids played a significant role. These observations can be helpful for seismology and earthquake sciences.

Different numerical and experimental methods have recently been introduced in the literature for the diagnosis of structural damage by using location-dependent changes in the modal parameters (natural frequencies, damping factors and mode shapes). The main task is to determine the presence, location and extent of the damage. This work is concerned with the possibility of introducing, along with a manufacturing process, an on-line quality control for structural components before assembly using modal parameters. The assembly process is usually realized by welding joints or bolts. The structural reliability of the entire system results, therefore, is dependent on the reliability of the single elementary components as well as on the local quality of the welding processes. As a result, a non-destructive control provided together with the relevant assembly or manufacturing process can be important for the integrity of the whole system. The modal analysis techniques [Giannoccaro NI, Messina A, Trentadue B, Masciocco G, Montuori G. Detection of Changes in Mechanical Components for Automobile Chassis Using Modal Data . ATA International Edition, 2001; Messina A, Williams EJ, Contursi T. J. Sound Vib. 1998, 216 (5), 791–808] lend themselves well to the case because they are based on the measurement of parameters (natural frequencies and mode shapes). They are sensitive to the structural modifications but have a different sensitivity for the variations in the generic investigated zones of the system. To enact the real possibility of using such a technique, the defects that are troublesome for integrating the assembled or elementary component must be established. These defects have to induce some variations in the checked parameters (modal parameters) in order to be out of experimental repeatability of the same parameters connected with healthy structural systems. In this work, natural frequencies are shown and compared to a non-contact optical technique subsequently experimentally reliable when used in diagnostic routines connected with geometrically similar components from a molding process.

In the present research work nickel (Ni) and titanium (Ti) elemental powder with an ostensible composition of 50% of each by weight were mechanically alloyed in a planetary high energy ball mill in diverse milling circumstances (10, 20, 30 and 60 h). The inspection exposed that increasing milling time leads to a reduction in crystallite size, and after 60 h of milling, the Ti dissolved in the Ni lattice and the NiTi (B2) phase was obtained. The lattice strain of ball milled mixtures augmented from 0.15 to 0.45 at 60 h milling. With increase in milling time the morphology of pre-alloyed powder changed from lamella to globular. Annealing of as-milled powders at 1100 K for 800 s led to the formation of NiTi (B19′), grain growth and the release of internal strain. The result indicated that this technique is a powerful and highly productive process for preparing NiTi intermetallic compounds with a nano-crystalline structure and appropriate morphology.

In this article, biocomposites derived from a starch-glycerol biodegradable matrix reinforced with jute fibers were fabricated using the wet hand lay-up and compression moulding techniques. Samples having different weight percentages of jute fiber in the starch matrix were analyzed. The fiber’s surface was chemically treated by alkaline sodium hydroxide to improve the interphase bonding between the fiber and the matrix. Tensile tests for the composites were done and the sample with highest tensile strength was selected for further tests that included water absorption (WA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermal analysis (TA). It has been concluded that the ultimate tensile strength was found to be maximum for the composition of 15% fiber by weight composite as 7.547 MPa without epoxy coating and 10.43 MPa with epoxy coating. The major disadvantage of the biocomposite is its high WA property, which in this study was inhibited by the epoxy resin layer. Herein, the results of various tests done disclose a noteworthy improvement in the overall properties of bio-composite, in comparison to the neat biodegradable starch matrix.

This paper presents the relationship between rutting and aggregate gradation of asphalt concrete using a wheel tracking device at 60°C, with 30,000 cycles in air. The experiment was carried out on hot mix asphalt samples using three aggregate gradations which included maximum aggregate sizes of 9.5 mm, 12.5 mm and 19 mm. The result of the experiment showed that the maximum aggregate size has a great influence on the rutting of asphalt concrete.

Active optics techniques on large telescopes and astronomical instrumentations provide high imaging quality. For ground-based astronomy, the co-addition of adaptive optics again increases angular resolution up to providing diffraction-limited imaging at least in the infrared. Active and adaptive optics marked milestone progress in the detection of exoplanets, super-massive black holes, and large-scale structure of galaxies. This paper is dedicated to highly deformable active optics that can generate non-axisymmetric aspheric surfaces – or freeform surfaces – by use of a minimum number of actuators: a single uniform load acts over the surface of a vase-form substrate whilst under reaction to its elliptical perimeter ring. Two such instruments are presented: (1) the Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBall) telescope and multi object spectrograph (MOS) where the freeform reflective diffraction grating is generated by replication of a deformable master grating, and (2) the MESSIER wide-field low-central-obstruction three-mirror-anastigmat (TMA) telescope proposal where the freeform mirror is generated by stress figuring and elastic relaxation. Freeform surfaces were obtained by plane super-polishing. Preliminary analysis required use of the optics theory of 3rd-order aberrations and elasticity theory of thin elliptical plates. Final cross-optimizations were carried out with Zemax raytracing code and Nastran FEA elasticity code in order to determine geometry of the deformable substrates.