Brazilian disk test simulation intended for the study of interfacial cracks in bi-materials

The good mechanical characteristics of bimaterials and in particular those of the ceramic-metal couple would make them, industrially, an interesting alternative if their fracture behaviour was better understood. The difference of the mechanical properties of the bonded materials leads to a stress concentration at the vicinity of the interface. This study concerns the analysis of the interfacial fracture in Brazilian disk test, subjected to compressive load. The finite element method is used to carry out this objective. The study is limited to the case of an elastic behaviour of the two components of the assembly and to a pure junction. The behaviour of a crack located at the interface is analyzed by global approach based on the strain energy release rate. The difference of the mechanical properties of the two bonded materials leads to a mixed mode (mode I + II).     

Transient two-dimensional model of heat and mass transfer in a PEM fuel cell membrane

In the present work, a numerical study of heat and mass transfer within the membrane of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is presented. The electrolyte membrane is considered an isotropic porous medium and ideal insulator for electrons and reactants. The adopted model in this study is based on the assumption of single-phase and multi-spices flow, supposed two-dimensional and unsteady. For the water transport, the major considered forces are; the convective force, resulting from the pressure gradient, the osmotic force, due to the concentration gradient and the electric force caused by the proton migration from the anode to the cathode. Based on a one-dimensional model, found in the literature, a transient two-dimensional one was proposed. The set of governing equations, written in velocity–pressure formulation, is solved by the implicit finite difference method. An alternating Direct Implicit scheme was used for the calculation. The numerical resolution gives the time- and space-dependent temperature and water concentration. The main focus lies on the influence of different cases of boundary conditions on water concentration and heat transfer variation with the intention of testing the reliability of the proposed computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code.     

Synthesis and characterization of maleic acid polymer for use as scale deposits inhibitors

The problem of scale formation in oil field production facilities is encountered as a result of mixing of injection water (Lias) rich in sulfate with formation water (Ordovicien) rich in barium. 1 A large number of methods have been developed for the prevention of these deposits. In this work, poly(maleic acid) was studied to ascertain its suitability as an inhibitor of barium sulfate scale deposits. It was synthesized by a free radical solution polymerization. Two different initiators were used namely a potassium persulfate and a redox system composed of potassium persulfate/sodium‐hypophosphite monohydrate. Their concentrations were varied to obtain low‐molecular weight polymers. Physical and chemical properties of the polymers obtained were measured by infrared and UV/VIS spectrometry, solubility test, viscosimetry, refractometry, and liquid chromatography. The effectiveness of poly (maleic acid) formulations as scale inhibitor was studied by turbidimetric tests. The most effective inhibitor formulation was found to be that based on poly(maleic acid) prepared via a redox initiating system. This polymer, used at a concentration of 3 ppm, presented the highest effectiveness namely 96% and 88% at room and oil well temperature, respectively, when compared with two commercial inhibitors. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

A method to improve and automate flat defect detection during ultrasonic inspection

In the nondestructive testing of materials, ultrasonic imagery can detect and characterize defects that are present in a structure. Data are displayed in the form of images, and processing algorithms can be applied for automatic detection and characterization. However, when using diffracted waves, the amplitude is often too low, and the signals are difficult to distinguish from the noise. Other times, the volume of data requires significant computation time. In this paper, we propose a method that can avoid image formation by replacing it with a sparse matrix and significantly reducing the amount of data to process; this allows for the enhancement and the automation of the detection of thin and flat defects such as cracks. The elements of the sparse matrix form a curve, which is sufficient to characterize defects in many cases. These elements are selected from diffracted signals using the split‐spectrum processing method. In this way, the signal‐to‐noise ratio is improved, and the position of the echo signal is accurately determined. When a crack is present in a material, the points of the sparse matrix form a parabola and classical tools of pattern recognition such as the Hough transform can detect it, thus providing significant help in decision‐making processes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SAFT-VNDN: A Socially-Aware Forwarding Technique in Vehicular Named Data Networking

Vehicular Social Networks (VSNs) is the bridge of social networks and Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs). VSNs are promising as they allow the exchange of various types of contents in large-scale through Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication protocols. Vehicular Named Data Networking (VNDN) is an auspicious communication paradigm for the challenging VSN environment since it can optimize content dissemination by decoupling contents from their physical locations. However, content dissemination and caching represent crucial challenges in VSNs due to short link lifetime and intermittent connectivity caused by vehicles’ high mobility. Our aim with this paper is to improve content delivery and cache hit ratio, as well as decrease the transmission delay between end-users. In this regard, we propose a novel hybrid VNDN-VSN forwarding technique based on social communities, which allows requester vehicles to easily find the most suitable forwarder or producer among the community members in their neighborhood area. Furthermore, we introduce an effective caching mechanism by dividing the content store into two parts, one for community private contents and the second one for public contents. Simulation results show that our proposed forwarding technique can achieve a favorable performance compared with traditional VNDN, in terms of data delivery ratio, average data delivery delay, and cache hit ratio.     

Construction of flexible blending parametric surfaces via curves

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a method that allows to solve the blending problem of two parametric surfaces. The blending surface is constructed with a collection of space curves defined by point pairs on the blending boundaries of given primary surfaces. Bézier and C-cubic curves are used to interpolate the blending boundaries. The blending surface is Gⁿ continuously connected to the primary surfaces.     

Data Structures in Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms

Data structures used for an algorithm can have a great impact on its performance,particularly for the solution of large and complex problems,such as multi-objective optimization problems(MOPs).Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms(MOEAs) are considered an attractive approach for solving MOPs,since they are able to explore several parts of the Pareto front simultaneously.The data structures for storing and updating populations and non-dominated solutions(archives) may affect the efficiency of the search process.This article describes data structures used in MOEAs for realizing populations and archives in a comparative way,emphasizing their computational requirements and general applicability reported in the original work.     

Hot compression and fracture toughness of HSS composed hot strip work rolls

The rolls in the finishing stands must have good resistance to both wear and fire cracks. The use of high-speed steel at the finishing stands has shown satisfactory results. The composition of this high-alloyed steel is an important parameter as the most significant change lays on the type, morphology, and volume fraction of the eutectics carbides. The heat treatment of these products consists of high temperature austenization followed by quenching and two temperings, as required in order to increase their overall hardness and to completely eliminate residual austenite. The influence of tempering temperatures on the mechanical properties of these products, determined using tensile, hot compression and fracture toughness tests, was studied in this research work. Their corresponding failure micromechanisms were defined by means of the analysis of fracture surfaces.     

A theoretical analysis of flexional bending of Al/Al2O3 S-FGM thick beams

In this paper, an elastic, rectangular, and simply supported, sigmoid functionally graded material (S-FGM) beam of thick thickness subjected to uniformly distributed transverse loading has been investigated. The S-FGM system consists of ceramic (Al₂O₃) and metal (Al) phases varying through the thickness of beam. Major classes of representative theories such as classical laminate beam theory (CLBT), first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and high-order theories (HOTs) have been considered and a unified kinematic formulation is then proposed. The Poisson’s ratio of the thick S-FGM beam is assumed to be constant, but their Young’s moduli vary continuously throughout the thickness direction according to the volume fraction of constituents defined by sigmoid function. The numerical illustrations concern bending response of S-FGM rectangular beams. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of displacement and stress fields have been presented and discussed.