Compressive behavior and fracture features of rubber bearing glass-epoxy composites exposed to aqueous media

Epoxy systems containing HTBN rubber material and reinforced with E-glass fibres, exposed to a fixed time duration in three separate media were subjected to compressive mode of deformation. The yield stress and fractographic features noted on the compression failed samples are reported in this work. The experiment reveals that the seawater exposed sample exhibits a drop in strength compared to dry (unexposed) sample. This kind of drop is maintained if the media is changed from seawater to distilled water. When HCl is included in seawater. the experiment shows a small rise in strength value. These changes have been attributed to various factors like medium ingress into samples assisting interface failure, the larger-sized Cl- influencing the extent of diffusion of medium into system and finally their participation in the deformation phenomena. The fractographic features reveal interface separations that show either scattered debris or a cleaner surface or display a whitish-coated matrix region depending on whether the tests are done on unexposed samples or on ones following the immersion in the media.

Influence of martensite content and morphology on the toughness and fatigue behavior of high-martensite dual-phase steels

A series of high-martensite dual-phase (HMDP) steels exhibiting a 0.3 to 0.8 volume fraction of martensite (V m ), produced by intermediate quenching (IQ) of a vanadium and boron-containing microalloyed steel, have been studied for toughness and fatigue behavior to supplement the contents of a recent report by the present authors on the unusual tensile behavior of these steels. The studies included assessment of the quasi-static and dynamic fracture toughness and fatigue-crack growth (FCG) behavior of the developed steels. The experimental results show that the quasi-static fracturetoughness (K ICV ) increases with increasing V m in the range between V m =0.3 and 0.6 and then decreases, whereas the dynamic fracture-toughness parameters (K ID , K D , and J ID ) exhibit a significant increase in their magnitudes for steels containing 0.45 to 0.60 V m before achieving a saturation plateau. Both the quasi-static and dynamic fracture-toughness values exhibit the best range of toughnesses for specimens containing approximately equal amounts of precipitate-free ferrite and martensite in a refined microstructural state. The magnitudes of the fatigue threshold in HMDP steels, for V m between 0.55 and 0.60, appear to be superior to those of structural steels of a similar strength level. The Paris-law exponents (m) for the developed HMDP steels increase with increasing V m , with an attendant decrease in the pre-exponential factor (C).

Nonlinear Dynamics of Beams with Stochastic Parameter Variations

The aim of this paper is to investigate the steady state response of beams under the action of random support motions. The study is of relevance in the context of earthquake response of extended land based structures such as pipelines and long span bridges, and, secondary systems such as piping networks in nuclear power plant installations. The following complicating features are accounted for in the response analysis: (a) differential support motions: this is characterized in terms of cross power spectral density functions associated with distinct support motions, (b) nonlinear support conditions, and (c) stochastically inhomogeneous stiffness and mass variations of the beam structure; questions on non-Gaussian models for these variations are considered. The method of stochastic finite elements is combined with equivalent linearization technique and Monte Carlo simulations to obtain response moments.

Novel phase-transition behavior near liquid/liquid critical points of aqueous solutions: Formation of a third phase at the interface

We report a novel phase behavior in aqueous solutions of simple organic solutes near their liquid/liquid critical points, where a solid-like third phase appears at the liquid/liquid interface. The phenomenon has been found in three different laboratories. It appears in many aqueous systems of organic solutes and becomes enhanced upon the addition of salt to these solutions.

Unsymmetrical aryl disulfides with excellent transparency in the visible region for second order nonlinear optics

Several unsymmetrically substituted aromatic donor acceptor disulfides have been synthesized and analysed for their second order nonlinear optical properties. These molecules exhibit moderately high first hyperpolarizability (beta) with excellent transparency in the visible region. Most of the unsymmetrical disulfides have a cut-off wavelength below 420 nm. Calculations show that the molecules have an asymmetric charge distribution around the disulfide bond which is responsible for their high beta values. These results provide motivation for the design and synthesis of nonlinear optical chromophores with multiple disulfide bonds for large second order nonlinearity and excellent visible transparency.

A new parallel overlapped domain decomposition method for nonlinear dynamic finite element analysis

In this paper a new parallel algorithm for nonlinear transient dynamic analysis of large structures has been presented. An unconditionally stable Newmark-beta method (constant average acceleration technique) has been employed for time integration. The proposed parallel algorithm has been devised within the broad framework of domain decomposition techniques. However, unlike most of the existing parallel algorithms (devised for structural dynamic applications) which are basically derived using nonoverlapped domains, the proposed algorithm uses overlapped domains. The parallel overlapped domain decomposition algorithm proposed in this paper has been formulated by splitting the mass, damping and stiffness matrices arises out of finite element discretisation of a given structure. A predictor-corrector scheme has been formulated for iteratively improving the solution in each step. A computer program based on the proposed algorithm has been developed and implemented with message passing interface as software development environment. PARAM-10000 MIMD parallel computer has been used to evaluate the performances. Numerical experiments have been conducted to validate as well as to evaluate the performance of the proposed parallel algorithm. Comparisons have been made with the conventional nonoverlapped domain decomposition algorithms. Numerical studies indicate that the proposed algorithm is superior in performance to the conventional domain decomposition algorithms. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A nonlinear spectral finite element model for analysis of wave propagation in solid with internal friction and dissipation

A geometrically non-linear Spectral Finite Flement Model (SFEM) including hysteresis, internal friction and viscous dissipation in the material is developed and is used to study non-linear dissipative wave propagation in elementary rod under high amplitude pulse loading. The solution to non-linear dispersive dissipative equation constitutes one of the most difficult problems in contemporary mathematical physics. Although intensive research towards analytical developments are on, a general purpose cumputational discretization technique for complex applications, such as finite element, but with all the features of travelling wave (TW) solutions is not available. The present effort is aimed towards development of such computational framework. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is used for transformation between temporal and frequency domain. SFEM for the associated linear system is used as initial state for vector iteration. General purpose procedure involving matrix computation and frequency domain convolution operators are used and implemented in a finite element code. Convergnence of the spectral residual force vector ensures the solution accuracy. Important conclusions are drawn from the numerical simulations. Future course of developments are highlighted.

Effect of aging on swelling and swell-shrink behavior of a compacted expansive soil

Effect of aging on swelling and swell-shrink behavior of a compacted expansive soil is investigated in this paper. An expansive soil having a liquid limit of 100% is used for this purpose. Compacted specimens were prepared and aged for a predetermined number of days (7, 15, 30, and 90 days) to study their swelling and swell-shrink behavior. It has been shown that aging improves the resistance to compression of compacted specimens. The swelling potentials of specimens also decreased with aging. The dominant factors that influence the aging effects are the water content and degree of saturation at the beginning of the aging process. The changed behavior of aged specimens is attributed to particle rearrangements and formation of bonds, which affect the surface area absorbing water during swelling. The cyclic swell-shrink tests on aged specimens indicated that the differences in vertical displacement during the first swelling were eliminated in the subsequent cycles when specimens were shrunk more, but the aging effect was found to persist with cycles for specimens subjected to lower shrinkage magnitudes.

Nonlinear measures of QT interval series: novel indices of cardiac repolarization lability: MEDqthr and LLEqthr

In this study, we investigated nonlinear measures of chaos of QT interval time series in 28 normal control subjects, 36 patients with panic disorder and 18 patients with major depression in supine and standing postures. We obtained the minimum embedding dimension (MED) and the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE) of instantaneous heart rate (HR) and QT interval series. MED quantifies the system's complexity and LLE predictability. There was a significantly lower MED and a significantly increased LLE of QT interval time series in patients. Most importantly, nonlinear indices of QT/HR time series, MEDqthr (MED of QT/HR) and LLEqthr (LLE of QT/HR), were highly significantly different between controls and both patient groups in either posture. Results remained the same even after adjusting for age. The increased LLE of QT interval time, series in patients with anxiety and depression is in line with our previous findings of higher QTvi (QT variability index, a log ratio of QT variability corrected for mean QT squared divided by heart rate variability corrected for mean heart rate squared) in these patients, using linear techniques. Increased LLEqthr (LLE of QT/HR) may be a more sensitive tool to study cardiac repolarization and a valuable addition to the time domain measures such as QTvi. This is especially important in light of the finding that LLEqthr correlated poorly and nonsignificantly with QTvi. These findings suggest an increase in relative cardiac sympathetic activity and a decrease in certain aspects of cardiac vagal function in patients with anxiety as well as depression. The lack of correlation between QTvi and LLEqthr suggests that this nonlinear index is a valuable addition to the linear measures. These findings may also help to explain the higher incidence of cardiovascular mortality in patients with anxiety and depressive disorders. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Synchronizing and Damping Torques Analysis of Nonlinear Voltage Regulators

This paper makes an attempt to assess the benefits of replacing a conventional generator excitation system (AVR + PSS) with a nonlinear voltage regulator using the concepts of synchronizing and damping torque components in a single machine infinite bus (SMIB) system. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in designing nonlinear excitation controllers, which are expected to give better dynamic performance over a wider range of system and operating conditions. The performance of these controllers is often justified by simulation studies on few test cases which may not adequately represent the diverse operating conditions of a typical power system. The performance of two such nonlinear controllers which are designed based on feedback linearization and include automatic voltage regulation with good dynamic performance have been analyzed using an SMIB model. Linearizing the nonlinear control laws along with the SMIB system equations, a Heffron Phillip's type of a model has been derived. Concepts of synchronizing and damping torque components have been used to show that such controllers can impair the small signal stability under certain operating conditions. This paper shows the possibility of negative damping contribution due to nonlinear voltage regulators and gives a new insight on understanding the physical impact of complex nonlinear control laws on power system dynamics.

A Nonlinear Voltage Regulator With One Tunable Parameter for Multimachine Power Systems

This paper proposes a nonlinear voltage regulator with one tunable parameter for multimachine power systems. Based on output feedback linearization, this regulator can achieve simultaneous voltage regulation and small-signal performance objectives. Conventionally output feedback linearization has been used for voltage regulator design by taking infinite bus voltage as reference. Unfortunately, this controller has poor small-signal performance and cannot be applied to multimachine systems without the estimation of the equivalent external reactance seen from the generator. This paper proposes a voltage regulator design by redefining the rotor angle at each generator with respect to the secondary voltage of the step-up transformer as reference instead of a common synchronously rotating reference frame. Using synchronizing and damping torques analysis, we show that the proposed voltage regulator achieves simultaneous voltage regulation and damping performance over a range of system and operating conditions by controlling the relative angle between the generator internal voltage angle delta and the secondary voltage of the step up transformer. The performance of the proposed voltage regulator is evaluated on a single machine infinite bus system and two widely used multimachine test systems.

Coupled electro-mechanical response of an electroactive polymer cantilever structure and its application in energy harvesting

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMC), piezoelectric polymer composites and nematic elastomer composites are materials, which exhibit characteristics of both sensors and actuators. Large deformation and curvature are observed in these systems when electric potential is applied. Effects of geometric non-linearity due to the chargeinduced motion in these materials are poorly understood. In this paper, a coupled model for understanding the behavior of an ionic polymer beam undergoing large deformation and large curvature is presented. Maxwell's equations and charge transport equations are considered which couple the distribution of the ion concentration and the pressure gradient along length of a cantilever beam with interdigital electrodes. A nonlinear constitutive model is derived accounting for the visco-elasto-plastic behavior of these polymers and based on the hypothesis that the presence of electrical charge stretches/contracts bonds, which give rise to electrical field dependent softening/hardening. Polymer chain orientation in statistical sense plays a role on such softening or hardening. Elementary beam kinematics with large curvature is considered. A model for understanding the deformation due to electrostatic repulsion between asymmetrical charge distributions across the cross-sections is presented. Experimental evidence that Silver(Ag) nanoparticle coated IPMCs can be used for energy harvesting is reported. An IPMC strip is vibrated in different environments and the electric power against a resistive load is measured. The electrical power generated was observed to vary with the environment with maximum power being generated when the strip is in wet state. IPMC based energy harvesting systems have potential applications in tidal wave energy harvesting, residual environmental energy harvesting to power MEMS and NEMS devices.