A Critical Evaluation of Structural Analysis Tools used for the Design of Large Composite Wind Turbine Rotor Blades under Ultimate and Cycle Loading

Rotor blades for 10-20MW wind turbines may exceed 120m. To meet the demanding requirements of the blade design, structural analysis tools have been developed individually and combined with commercial available ones by blade designers. Due to the various available codes, understanding and estimating the uncertainty introduced in the design calculations by using these tools is needed to allow assessment of the effectiveness of any future design modification. For quantifying the introduced uncertainty a reference base was established within INNWIND.EU in which the several structural analysis concepts are evaluated. This paper shows the major findings of the comparative work performed by six organizations (universities and research institutes) participating in the benchmark exercise. The case concerns a 90m Glass/Epoxy blade of a horizontal axis 10MW wind turbine. The detailed blade geometry, the material properties of the constitutive layers and the aero-elastic loads formed the base by which global and local blade stiffness and strength are evaluated and compared. Static, modal, buckling and fatigue analysis of the blade were performed by each partner using their own tools; fully in-house developed or combined with commercially available ones, with its specific structural analysis approach (thin wall theory and finite element models using beam, shell or solid elements) and their preferable analysis type (linear or geometrical non-linear). Along with sectional mass and stiffness properties, the outcome is compared in terms of displacements, stresses, strains and failure indices at the ply level of the blade structure, eigen-frequencies and eigen-modes, critical buckling loads and Palmgren-Miner damage indices due to cycle loading. Results indicate that differences between estimations range from 0.5% to even 40%, depending on the property compared. Modelling details, e.g. load application on the numerical models and assumptions, e.g. type of analysis, lead to these differences. The paper covers these subjects, presenting the modelling uncertainty derived

Chronic multichannel neural recordings from soft regenerative microchannel electrodes during gait

Reliably interfacing a nerve with an electrode array is one of the approaches to restore motor and sensory functions after an injury to the peripheral nerve. Accomplishing this with current technologies is challenging as the electrode-neuron interface often degrades over time, and surrounding myoelectric signals contaminate the neuro-signals in awake, moving animals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of microchannel electrode implants to monitor over time and in freely moving animals, neural activity from regenerating nerves. We designed and fabricated implants with silicone rubber and elastic thin-film metallization. Each implant carries an eight-by-twelve matrix of parallel microchannels (of 120\u2009 7\u2009110\u2009\u3bcm2 cross-section and 4\u2009mm length) and gold thin-film electrodes embedded in the floor of ten of the microchannels. After sterilization, the soft, multi-lumen electrode implant is sutured between the stumps of the sciatic nerve. Over a period of three months and in four rats, the microchannel electrodes recorded spike activity from the regenerating sciatic nerve. Histology indicates mini-nerves formed of axons and supporting cells regenerate robustly in the implants. Analysis of the recorded spikes and gait kinematics over the ten-week period suggests firing patterns collected with the microchannel electrode implant can be associated with different phases of gait

Genotoxic mechanisms for the carcinogenicity of the environmental pollutants and carcinogens o-anisidine and 2-nitroanisole follow from adducts generated by their metabolite N-(2-methoxyphenyl)-hydroxylamine with deoxyguanosine in DNA

An aromatic amine, o-anisidine (2-methoxyaniline) and its oxidative counterpart, 2-nitroanisole (2-methoxynitrobenzene), are the industrial and environmental pollutants causing tumors of the urinary bladder in rats and mice. Both carcinogens are activated to the same proximate carcinogenic metabolite, N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine, which spontaneously decomposes to nitrenium and/or carbenium ions responsible for formation of deoxyguanosine adducts in DNA in vitro and in vivo. In other words, generation of N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine is responsible for the genotoxic mechanisms of the o-anisidine and 2-nitroanisole carcinogenicity. Analogous enzymes of human and rat livers are capable of activating these carcinogens. Namely, human and rat cytochorme P4502E1 is the major enzyme oxidizing o-anisidine to N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine, while xanthine oxidase of both species reduces 2-nitroanisole to this metabolite. Likewise, O-demethylation of 2-nitroanisole, which is the detoxication pathway of its metabolism, is also catalyzed by the same human and rat enzyme, cytochorme P450 2E1. The results demonstrate that the rat is a suitable animal model mimicking the fate of both carcinogens in humans and suggest that both compounds are potential carcinogens also for humans

A Review of Sociological Issues in Fire Safety Regulation

This paper presents an overview of contemporary sociological issues in fire safety. The most obviously social aspects of fire safety—those that relate to the socioeconomic distribution of fire casualties and damage—are discussed first. The means that society uses to mitigate fire risks through regulation are treated next; focusing on the shift towards fire engineered solutions and the particular challenges this poses for the social distribution and communication of fire safety knowledge and expertise. Finally, the social construction of fire safety knowledge is discussed, raising questions about whether the confidence in the application of this knowledge by the full range of participants in the fire safety design and approvals process is always justified, given the specific assumptions involved in both the production of the knowledge and its extension to applications significantly removed from the original knowledge production; and the requisite competence that is therefore needed to apply this knowledge. The overarching objective is to argue that the fire safety professions ought to be more reflexive and informed about the nature of the knowledge and expertise that they develop and apply, and to suggest that fire safety scientists and engineers ought to actively collaborate with social scientists in research designed to study the way people interact with fire safety technology

Cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism of N-(2-methoxyphenyl)-hydroxylamine, a human metabolite of the environmental pollutants and carcinogens o-anisidine and o-nitroanisole

N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine is a human metabolite of the industrial and environmental pollutants and bladder carcinogens 2-methoxyaniline (o-anisidine) and 2-methoxynitrobenzene (o-nitroanisole). Here, we investigated the ability of hepatic microsomes from rat and rabbit to metabolize this reactive compound. We found that N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine is metabolized by microsomes of both species mainly to o-aminophenol and a parent carcinogen, o-anisidine, whereas 2-methoxynitrosobenzene (o-nitrosoanisole) is formed as a minor metabolite. Another N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine metabolite, the exact structure of which has not been identified as yet, was generated by hepatic microsomes of rabbits, but its formation by those of rats was negligible. To evaluate the role of rat hepatic microsomal cytochromes P450 (CYP) in N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine metabolism, we investigated the modulation of its metabolism by specific inducers of these enzymes. The results of this study show that rat hepatic CYPs of a 1A subfamily and, to a lesser extent those of a 2B subfamily, catalyze N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine conversion to form both its reductive metabolite, o-anisidine, and o-aminophenol. CYP2E1 is the most efficient enzyme catalyzing conversion of N-(2-methoxyphenyl)hydroxylamine to o-aminophenol