Highly nonlinear contact interaction and dynamic energy dissipation by forest of carbon nanotubes

Mechanical response and energy dissipation of an array of carbon nanotubes under high-strain rate deformation was studied using a simple drop-ball test with the measurement of the dynamic force between the ball and forest of nanotubes. This convenient process allows extracting force–displacement curves and evaluating dissipated energy by the nanotubes. The contact force exhibits a strongly nonlinear dependence on displacement being fundamentally different than the Hertz law. The forest of vertically aligned nanotubes may be used as a strongly nonlinear spring in discrete systems for monitoring signal propagation speed, and as a microstructure for localized energy absorption

Design and commission of an experimental test rig to apply a full-scale pressure load on composite sandwich panels representative of aircraft secondary structure

This paper describes the design of a test rig, which is used to apply a representative pressure load to a full-scale composite sandwich secondary aircraft structure. A generic panel was designed with features to represent those in the composite sandwich secondary aircraft structure. To provide full-field strain data from the panels, the test rig was designed for use with optical measurement techniques such as thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) and digital image correlation (DIC). TSA requires a cyclic load to be applied to a structure for the measurement of the strain state; therefore, the test rig has been designed to be mounted on a standard servo-hydraulic test machine. As both TSA and DIC require an uninterrupted view of the surface of the test panel, an important consideration in the design is facilitating the optical access for the two techniques. To aid the test rig design a finite element (FE) model was produced. The model provides information on the deflections that must be accommodated by the test rig, and ensures that the stress and strain levels developed in the panel when loaded in the test rig would be sufficient for measurement using TSA and DIC. Finally, initial tests using the test rig have shown it to be capable of achieving the required pressure and maintaining a cyclic load. It was also demonstrated that both TSA and DIC data can be collected from the panels under load, which are used to validate the stress and deflection derived from the FE model

Damage in textile laminates of various inter-ply shift

Deformation mechanisms and failure of textile laminates are strongly affected by inter-layer configurations – a mutual shift of the plies. To model it within a traditional framework, one must construct a representative volume element (RVE), which includes all the plies. This is a time consuming and computationally expensive work. As an alternative, the paper suggests boundary conditions (BC) imitating the interaction with the surrounding non-periodic media. This makes possible analysis on a single unit cell of one ply. The proposed BC respect inter-ply configurations, account for the number of plies, distinguish the ply position, and reproduce the meso stress state with a good accuracy. The BC are constructed through (1) averaging of the known periodic solutions with respect to the ply shifts, (2) separation of the solution to the outer and inner ply cases, (3) energy equilibrium of heterogeneous and effective media. The unit cell finite element (FE) modelling is validated by reference full scale solution on the entire laminate

Characteristics of the electric field accompanying a longitudinal acoustic wave in a metal. Anomaly in the superconducting phase

The temperature dependence of the amplitude and phase of the electric potential arising at a plane boundary of a conductor when a longitudinal acoustic wave is incident normally on it is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The surface potential is formed by two contributions, one of which is spatially periodic inside the sample, with the period of the acoustic field; the second is aperiodic and arises as a result of an additional nonuniformity of the electron distribution in a surface layer of the metal. In the nonlocal region the second contribution is dominant. The phases of these contributions are shifted by approximately \pi /2. For metals in the normal state the experiment is in qualitative agreement with the theory. The superconducting transition is accompanied by catastrophically rapid vanishing of the electric potential, in sharp contrast to the theoretical estimates, which predict behavior similar to the BCS dependence of the attenuation coefficient for a longitudinal sound.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Comparison of shearography to scanning laser vibrometry as methods for local stiffness identification of beams

Local stiffness of Euler–Bernoulli beams can be identified by dividing the bending moment of a deformed beam by the local curvature. Curvature and moment distributions can be derived from the modal shape of a beam vibrating at resonance. In this article, the modal shape of test beams is measured by both scanning laser vibrometry (SLV) and shearography. Shearography is an interferometric optical method that produces full-field displacement gradients of the inspected surface. Curvature can be obtained by two steps of derivation of the modal amplitude (in the case of SLV) or one step of derivation of the modal shape slope (in the case of shearography). Three specially prepared aluminium beams with a known stiffness distribution are used for the validation of both techniques. The uncertainty of the identified stiffness distributions with both techniques is compared and related to their signal-to-noise ratios. A strength and weakness overview at the end of the article reveals that the shearography is the technique that shows the most advantages

New double indentation technique for measurement of the elasticity modulus of thin objects

In this paper we introduce a new method to determine the Young's modulus of thin (biological) samples. The method is especially suitable for small objects with a thickness of a few hundred micrometers. Such specimens cannot be examined with existing tests: compression and tensile tests need well-known geometry and boundary conditions while classic indentation tests need relatively thick pieces of material. In order to determine the elastic modulus we use the indentation theory as proposed by Sneddon and correct it with a finite element calculated kappa factor to compensate for the small thickness. In order to avoid material deformations at the contact zone between the sample bottom and the sample stage, we replace the sample stage by a second indentation needle. In this way the sample can be clamped between two identical needles and a virtual mirror plane is introduced. The new method was used on four test-materials and results agreed well with the outcome of a standard compression method applied on large samples of the same materials. As an application example the technique was applied on thin biological samples, namely middle ear ossicles of rabbits

Dimpling process in cold roll metal forming by finite element modelling and experimental validation

The dimpling process is a novel cold-roll forming process that involves dimpling of a rolled flat strip prior to the roll forming operation. This is a process undertaken to enhance the material properties and subsequent products’ structural performance while maintaining a minimum strip thickness. In order to understand the complex and interrelated nonlinear changes in contact, geometry and material properties that occur in the process, it is necessary to accurately simulate the process and validate through physical tests. In this paper, 3D non-linear finite element analysis was employed to simulate the dimpling process and mechanical testing of the subsequent dimpled sheets, in which the dimple geometry and material properties data were directly transferred from the dimpling process. Physical measurements, tensile and bending tests on dimpled sheet steel were conducted to evaluate the simulation results. Simulation of the dimpling process identified the amount of non-uniform plastic strain introduced and the manner in which this was distributed through the sheet. The plastic strain resulted in strain hardening which could correlate to the increase in the strength of the dimpled steel when compared to plain steel originating from the same coil material. A parametric study revealed that the amount of plastic strain depends upon on the process parameters such as friction and overlapping gap between the two forming rolls. The results derived from simulations of the tensile and bending tests were in good agreement with the experimental ones. The validation indicates that the finite element analysis was able to successfully simulate the dimpling process and mechanical properties of the subsequent dimpled steel products

Improved GelSight Tactile Sensor for Measuring Geometry and Slip

A GelSight sensor uses an elastomeric slab covered with a reflective membrane to measure tactile signals. It measures the 3D geometry and contact force information with high spacial resolution, and successfully helped many challenging robot tasks. A previous sensor, based on a semi-specular membrane, produces high resolution but with limited geometry accuracy. In this paper, we describe a new design of GelSight for robot gripper, using a Lambertian membrane and new illumination system, which gives greatly improved geometric accuracy while retaining the compact size. We demonstrate its use in measuring surface normals and reconstructing height maps using photometric stereo. We also use it for the task of slip detection, using a combination of information about relative motions on the membrane surface and the shear distortions. Using a robotic arm and a set of 37 everyday objects with varied properties, we find that the sensor can detect translational and rotational slip in general cases, and can be used to improve the stability of the grasp.Comment: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and System

Shock waves from non-spherical cavitation bubbles

We present detailed observations of the shock waves emitted at the collapse of single cavitation bubbles using simultaneous time-resolved shadowgraphy and hydrophone pressure measurements. The geometry of the bubbles is systematically varied from spherical to very non-spherical by decreasing their distance to a free or rigid surface or by modulating the gravity-induced pressure gradient aboard parabolic flights. The non-spherical collapse produces multiple shocks that are clearly associated with different processes, such as the jet impact and the individual collapses of the distinct bubble segments. For bubbles collapsing near a free surface, the energy and timing of each shock are measured separately as a function of the anisotropy parameter $\zeta$, which represents the dimensionless equivalent of the Kelvin impulse. For a given source of bubble deformation (free surface, rigid surface or gravity), the normalized shock energy depends only on $\zeta$, irrespective of the bubble radius $R_{0}$ and driving pressure $\Delta p$. Based on this finding, we develop a predictive framework for the peak pressure and energy of shock waves from non-spherical bubble collapses. Combining statistical analysis of the experimental data with theoretical derivations, we find that the shock peak pressures can be estimated as jet impact-induced hammer pressures, expressed as $p_{h} = 0.45\left(\rho c^{2}\Delta p\right)^{1/2} \zeta^{-1}$ at $\zeta > 10^{-3}$. The same approach is found to explain the shock energy quenching as a function of $\zeta^{-2/3}$.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Fluid

DefCor-Net: Physics-Aware Ultrasound Deformation Correction

The recovery of morphologically accurate anatomical images from deformed ones is challenging in ultrasound (US) image acquisition, but crucial to accurate and consistent diagnosis, particularly in the emerging field of computer-assisted diagnosis. This article presents a novel anatomy-aware deformation correction approach based on a coarse-to-fine, multi-scale deep neural network (DefCor-Net). To achieve pixel-wise performance, DefCor-Net incorporates biomedical knowledge by estimating pixel-wise stiffness online using a U-shaped feature extractor. The deformation field is then computed using polynomial regression by integrating the measured force applied by the US probe. Based on real-time estimation of pixel-by-pixel tissue properties, the learning-based approach enables the potential for anatomy-aware deformation correction. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed DefCor-Net, images recorded at multiple locations on forearms and upper arms of six volunteers are used to train and validate DefCor-Net. The results demonstrate that DefCor-Net can significantly improve the accuracy of deformation correction to recover the original geometry (Dice Coefficient: from $14.3\pm20.9$ to $82.6\pm12.1$ when the force is $6N$).Comment: Accepted by MedIA. code is availabl