Fatigue Life Assessment and Static Testing of Structural GFRP Tubes Based on Coupon Tests

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) hollow tubes are used in structural applications, such as utility poles and pipelines. Concrete-filled FRP tubes (CFFTs) are also used as piles and bridge piers. Applications such as poles and marine piles are typically governed by cyclic bending. In this paper, the fatigue behavior of glass-FRP filament-wound tubes is studied using coupons cut from the tubes. Several coupon configurations were first examined in 24 tension and five compression monotonic loading tests. Fatigue tests were then conducted on 81 coupons to examine several parameters; namely, loading frequency as well as maximum-to-ultimate (max ult) and minimum-to-maximum (min max) stress ratios, including tension tension and tension compression, to simulate reversed bending. The study demonstrated the sensitivity of test results and failure mode to coupon configuration. The presence of compression loads reduced fatigue life, while increasing load frequency increased fatigue life. Stiffness degradation behavior was also established. To achieve at least one million cycles, it is recommended to limit (max ult) to 0.25. Models were used to simulate stiffness degradation and fatigue life curve of the tube. Fatigue life predictions of large CFFT beams showed good correlation with experimental results. © 2008 ASCE.

Invisible Targets, Strengthened Morale: Static Camouflage as a ‘Weapon of the Weak’

In the natural world, camouflage is habitually deployed by 'vulnerable' creatures to deceive predators. Such protective strategies have been culturally, socially and technologically translated into human societies, whereby camouflage has been used to mask intentions, actions, feelings and valuable objects or spaces. Through the material presence of such techniques, everyday spaces can become inscribed as places of sanctuary. Focusing on British civil camouflage work of the 1930s and 1940s, this paper explores the historical, cultural and political connotations of camouflage and how the attainment of invisibility, as a 'weapon of the weak', can both physically and affectively protect urban populations. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

The influence of assembly friction stir weld location on wing panel static strength

Finite Element simulations and mechanical tests are undertaken to assess the impact of weld joint location on stiffened panel static strength. An upper wing cover panel, with a manufacturing process of welding multiple near-net-shape multi-stiffener extrusions with a final net-shape machining phase is investigated. The 7000 series aluminium alloy extrusions and skin bay longitudinal friction stir butt welds are examined. Geometric imperfections exhibit the greatest influence on panel collapse, thus for static strength design the selection of weld joint location should minimise imperfection generation. Moreover the analysis demonstrates limited impact on panel collapse strength when an optimised welding process is employed. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A static test method to assess swivel seat strength in frontal impact

Mechanical swivel seat adaptations are a key aftermarket disability modification to any small-to medium-sized passenger vehicle. However, the crashworthiness of these devices is currently unregulated and the existing 20g dynamic sled testing approach is prohibitively expensive for prototype assessment purposes. In this paper, an alternative quasi-static test method for swivel seat assessment is presented, and two different approaches (free-body diagram and multibody modelling) validated through published experimental data are developed to determine the appropriate loading conditions to apply in the quasi-static testing.Results show the two theoretical approaches can give similar results for estimating the quasi-static loading conditions, and this depends on the seatbelt configuration. Application of the approach to quasi-static testing of both conventional seats and those with integrated seat belts showed the approach to be successful and easy to apply. It is proposed that this method be used by swivel seat designers to assess new prototypes prior to final validation via the traditional 20g sled test.

Correlation of Static Ageing Effects on Automotive Catalysts

This study identifies and analyzes the effect that aging time and temperature have on the CO light-off activity of three-way catalyst samples, aged in a static air (oxidizing) atmosphere. The bench aging time (BAT) equation proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which describes aging as dependent upon time at temperature, was used to calculate a range of oven aging times and temperatures based on a RAT-A engine bench aging cycle.

CO light-off tests carried out on cores aged between 800 and 900 °C have shown that it is the aging temperature that has the greatest effect on catalyst deterioration for static aging testing, with aging time having little effect. These results were in contradiction to the BAT equation, an industry norm for the aging of catalysts. This demonstrates that static aging, whilst showing how temperature affects aging, gives little or no time effects. The results have shown that static aging is not representative of actual aging on a vehicle.

Progressive aging conducted at a temperature of 1000 °C was shown to cause a decrease in catalyst activity as the aging time increased. However, even in these extreme conditions, static aging gave a slower rate of aging with time when compared to engine aging as defined by the BAT equation. Overall, static aging in air has been shown to produce a greater increase in aging due to temperature than predicted by the BAT equation, but less aging due to aging time.

Compiler and Runtime Support for Hybrid Static/Dynamic Scheduling

One of the outstanding issues in parallel computing is the selection of task granularity. This work proposes a solution to the task granularity problem by lowering the overhead of the task scheduler and as such supporting very fine-grain tasks. Using a combination of static (compile-time) scheduling and dynamic (run-time) scheduling, we aim to make scheduling decisions as fast as with static scheduling while retaining the dynamic load- balancing properties of fully dynamic scheduling. We present an example application and discuss the requirements on the compiler and runtime system to realize hybrid static/dynamic scheduling.

Modelling Static and Dynamic FRP-Concrete Bond Behaviour Using a Local Concrete Damage Model

This paper presents a study on the bond behaviour of FRP-concrete bonded joints under static and dynamic loadings, by developing a meso-scale finite element model using the K&C concrete damage model in LS-DYNA. A significant number of single shear experiments under static pull-off loading were modelled with an extensive parametric study covering key factors in the K&C model, including the crack band width, the compressive fracture energy and the shear dilatation factor. It is demonstrated that the developed model can satisfactorily simulate the static debonding behaviour, in terms of mesh objectivity, the load-carrying capacity and the local bond-slip behaviour, provided that proper consideration is given to the selection of crack band width and shear dilatation factor. A preliminary study of the effect of the dynamic loading rate on the debonding behaviour was also conducted by considering a dynamic increase factor (DIF) for the concrete strength as a function of strain rate. It is shown that a higher loading rate leads to a higher load-carrying capacity, a longer effective bond length, and a larger damaged area of concrete in the single shear loading scenario.

Static and dynamic degradation of sintered calcium phosphate ceramics

The chemical compositions of calcium phosphate materials are similar to that of bone making them very attractive for use in the repair of critical size bone defects. The bioresorption of calcium phosphate occurs principally by dissolution. To determine the impact of composition and flow conditions on dissolution rates, calcium phosphate tablets were prepared by slip casting of ceramic slips with different ratios of hydroxyapatite (HA) and ß-tricalcium phosphate (ß-TCP). Dissolution was evaluated at pH4 using both a static and dynamic flow regime. Both the composition of the HA:ß-TCP tablet and flow regime noticeably influenced the rate of dissolution; the 50:50 HA:ß-TCP composition demonstrating the greatest level of dissolution, and, exposure of the ceramic specimens to dynamic conditions producing the highest rate of dissolution. Understanding the impact of phase composition and flow condition with respect to the dissolution of calcium phosphate will aid in the development and improvement of materials for bone substitution.

Crush responses of composite cylinder under quasi-static and dynamic loading

Despite the abundance of studies investigating the performance of composite structures under crush loading, disagreement remains in the literature regarding the effect of increased strain rate on the crush response. This study reports an experimental investigation of the behaviour of a carbon-epoxy composite energy absorber under static and dynamic loading with a strain rate of up to 100s^-1. Consistent damage modes and measured force responses were obtained in samples tested under the same strain rate. The energy absorption was found to be independent of strain rate as the total energy absorption appeared to be largely associated with fibre-dominated fracture, which is independent of strain rate within the studied range. The results from this study are beneficial for the design of energy absorbing structures.

Fusion of Static and Temporal Information for Threat Evaluation in Sensor Networks

In many CCTV and sensor network based intelligent surveillance systems, a number of attributes or criteria are used to individually evaluate the degree of potential threat of a suspect. The outcomes for these attributes are in general from analytical algorithms where data are often pervaded with uncertainty and incompleteness. As a result, such individual threat evaluations are often inconsistent, and individual evaluations can change as time elapses. Therefore, integrating heterogeneous threat evaluations with temporal influence to obtain a better overall evaluation is a challenging issue. So far, this issue has rarely be considered by existing event reasoning frameworks under uncertainty in sensor network based surveillance. In this paper, we first propose a weighted aggregation operator based on a set of principles that constraints the fusion of individual threat evaluations. Then, we propose a method to integrate the temporal influence on threat evaluation changes. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of our system with a decision support event modeling framework using an airport security surveillance scenario.

Effects of temperature and strain rate on the tensile behaviors of SIMP steel in static lead bismuth eutectic

In order to assess the susceptibility of candidate structural materials to liquid metal embrittlement, this work investigated the tensile behaviors of ferritic-martensitic steel in static lead bismuth eutectic (LBE). The tensile tests were carried out in static lead bismuth eutectic under different temperatures and strain rates. Pronounced liquid metal embrittlement phenomenon is observed between 200 °C and 450 °C. Total elongation is reduced greatly due to the liquid metal embrittlement in LBE environment. The range of ductility trough is larger under slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) test.