The influence of mechanical action on felting shrinkage of wool fabric in the tumble dryer

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Felting shrinkage of untreated wool fabric occurs easily during tumble drying. Mechanical action applied on fabrics plays a significant part in felting shrinkage of wool fabric. In general, the more severe the mechanical action of a washing or drying machine, the more rapid is felting shrinkage. However, both the degree of mechanical action applied on fabric and the type of mechanical action could influence felting shrinkage of untreated wool fabric. In the current study, fabric movement and felting shrinkage of untreated wool fabric at different rotation speeds of the drum in a tumble dryer under no heating condition were studied. Based on the different fabric movements at different rotation speeds of the tumble drum, the extent of impact force and rubbing force at different rotation speeds were assessed through their ranking. The total mechanical action applied on the fabric was expressed by the percentage of thread removal of “thread removal fabric” during drying process. The results showed that lowest mechanical force on fabrics could be achieved when the higher rotation speed of the drum was used for drying wool fabrics in tumble dryers, and it could prevent wool felting shrinkage. It was also found that falling of the fabric followed by impact to the drum wall caused less felting shrinkage than sliding with rubbing between fabrics. Therefore, falling movement of fabric could be a potential method to dry wool fabric in drying machines without causing severe felting shrinkage

Dimensional change of wool fabrics in the process of a tumble-drying cycle

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Currently domestic tumble dryers are popularly used for drying garments; however, excessive drying and the inappropriate way of tumble agitation could waste energy and cause damage to or the dimensional change of garments. Shrinkage of wool fabrics during tumble drying causes a serious problem for wool garments. The current study investigated the shrinkage of untreated and Chlorine-Hercosett–finished wool fabrics at different drying times. Temperature of air in the tumble dryer, temperature of fabric, moisture content of fabric, and dimensional change at different drying times were measured. For the duration of the tumble drying, the rise of fabric temperature and the reduction of moisture content on the wool fabric were investigated to explore their relationship to the shrinkage of wool fabrics in the tumble-drying cycle. It was found that the tumble-drying process can be divided into different stages according to the temperature change trend of wool fabrics. The shrinkage mechanisms of the untreated and the treated fabrics were different. The dimensional change of untreated wool fabric was caused mainly by felting shrinkage during tumble drying. Chlorine-Hercosett–finished wool fabric can withstand the tumble-drying process without noticeable felting shrinkage due to the surface modification and resin coating of surface scales of wool fibers. The finding from the current research provides further understanding of the shrinkage behavior of wool fabrics during the tumble-drying process, leading to optimizing operational parameters at specific stages of a tumble-drying cycle

Development of Mach Scale Rotors with Composite Tailored Couplings for Vibration Reduction

The use of composite tailored couplings in rotor blades to reduce vibratory hub loads was studied through design, structural and aeroelastic analysis, fabrication, and wind tunnel test of Mach scale articulated composite rotors with tailored flap-bending/torsion couplings. The rotor design was nominally based on the UH-60 BLACK HAWK rotor. The 6-foot diameter blades have a SC1095 profile and feature a linear twist of -12 deg. The analysis of composite rotor was carried out using a mixed cross-section structural model, and UMARC. Five sets of composite rotor were fabricated, including a baseline rotor without coupling, rotors with spanwise uniform positive coupling and negative coupling, and rotors with spanwise dual-segmented coupling (FBT-P/N) and triple-segmented coupling. The blade composite D-spar is the primary structural element supporting the blade loads and providing the desired elastic couplings. Non-rotating tests were performed to examine blade structural properties. The measurements showed good correlation with predictions, and good repeatability for the four blades of each rotor set. All rotors were tested at a rotor speed of 2300 rpm (tip Mach number 0.65) at different advance ratios and thrust levels, in the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel at the University of Maryland. The test results showed that flap-bending/torsion couplings have a significant effect on the rotor vibratory hub loads. All coupled rotors reduced the 4/rev vertical force for advance ratios up to 0.3, with reductions ranging from 1 to 34%. The mixed coupling rotor FBT-P/N reduced overall 4/rev hub loads at advance ratios of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. At a rotor speed of 2300 rpm and an advance ratio of 0.3, the FBT-P/N rotor achieved 15% reduction for 4/rev vertical force, 3% for 4/rev in-plane force and 14% for 4/rev head moment. The reductions in the 4/rev hub loads are related to the experimentally observed reductions in 3/rev and 5/rev blade flap bending moments. Through the present research, it has been experimentally demonstrated that structural couplings can significantly impact rotor vibration characteristics, and with suitable design optimization (coupling strength and spanwise distribution) they can be used to reduce vibratory hub loads without penalties

Dynamics simulation research on load vehicle of deep submergence rescue vehicle (LV-DSRV)

Submarine accidents can cause loss of human life and economy, as well as environment damage. Also submarine rescue is difficult for the complexity of rescue process and the uncertainty of the sea state. Success of rescue process is determined by reliability and safety of rescue device. Therefore, research on related device design is rather important. The existing knowledge always supplies some empirical formulas and generates a design scheme by general design rules. The scheme plan obtained may not be a good one due to simplicity of mechanical calculation analysis and particularity of design requirements. To improve design safety and reliability of shipborne device on submarine rescue system, dynamics simulation model of LV-DSRV based on sea state excitation was created in this paper. Wave excitation input at sea state 5 and 8 was considered as the extreme marine working conditions. Kinetic property of LV-DSRV was calculated making use of virtual prototype technology through ADAMS software, and mechanical characteristics of key parts were also analyzed. Optimization strategy was proposed and verified by increasing the number of horizontal wheels and adding gap between horizontal wheels and the track, providing with a case study for similar marine special mechanism design

The influence of moisture content on shrinkage of wool fabrics during domestic tumble drying process

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Shrinkage of wool fabrics caused during tumble drying is a serious defect. In the drying process, the felting shrinkage of wool fabrics was influenced by the moisture content and temperature of wool fabric as well as mechanical action being applied on the wool fabric. In the current study, the relationship between moisture content of wool fabrics and shrinkage was studied in the drying programs under no heating condition or heated condition. This study also analyzed shrinkage behaviors of the untreated wool fabric and the Chlorine-Hercosett treated wool fabric with different moisture contents. For the untreated wool fabric, moisture content in the fabric could influence the mechanical properties of wool fibers, resulting in the different extent of felting shrinkage of wool fabric during tumble drying. For the Chlorine-Hercosett treated wool fabric at different initial moisture contents, there was no obvious variation in the length change under no heating condition, but a slight difference in the shrinkage under heated condition. The study could lead to the new guidance for efficient drying of wool fabric with less felting shrinkage

Investigation of fabric movement in a tumble dryer for the development of drying method for wool fabrics to save energy

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Tumble dryers are widely used for drying garments, but felting shrinkage could be caused to wool garments during tumble drying process. In order to dry wool fabrics or garments in tumble dryers, flat dry function has been introduced in the dryers, however the energy efficiency is very low. The current study investigated the fabric movement at different rotation speeds in the tumble dryer and their resultant performances in terms of specific moisture extraction rate (SMER), evenness of drying, fabric shrinkage, and fabric smoothness. For shrink-resist treated wool fabrics, tumble drying at the rotation speed to keep fabric movement in projectile motion accompanied with tumbling occasionally could achieve better energy efficiency, drying uniformity and fabric smoothness. For untreated wool fabrics, introducing vertical movement to the flat dry in the tumble dryer can improve the heat exchange between the fabric and hot air, resulting in the increase of energy-efficiency by approximate 30% than flat drying motionlessly. Wool fabric shrinkage can be controlled to be less than 2% with the smooth appearance of fabric at grade 3.5 after drying under the recommended drying condition. This study could help tumble dryer manufacturers design optimal drying methods for wool fabrics with the potential for the reduction of energy consumption

Molecular regulation of starch metabolism

Starch is the second most abundant biomass next to cellulose and composed of amylopectin, a highly branched glucan, and amylose, an essentially linear glucan. The former and the latter glucans usually account for approximately 65–85% and 15–35% of the total starch, respectively. During the last three decades the basic scheme of starch biosynthesis has been established based on numerous biochemical, genetic, and molecular biological approaches worldwide using a variety of higher plants and algae. It is well known that after the synthesis of ADPglucose by ADPglucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), amylopectin’s fne structure is formed by concerted actions of multiple isozymes from three classes of enzymes, starch synthase (SS), starch branching enzyme (BE), and starch debranching enzyme (DBE), and that amylose is synthesized by mainly granule-bound SS (GBSS). In addition to the roles of starch biosynthetic isozymes, the contributions of α-glucan phosphorylase, α-glucan, water dikinase, phosphoglucan, water dikinase, pyruvate, phosphate dikinase, α-amylase, and carbohydrate-binding modules have been documented. Information on the whole genome sequence and omics analyses are available in main plant species. All these results revealed the roles of key biosynthetic isozymes of SS, GBSS, BE, and DBE and subunits of AGPase to starch biosynthesis, and presently we know to what extent the fne structure of starch molecules and the internal structure and physicochemical properties of starch granules as well as starch amounts can be modifed in accord with the activity levels of these isozymes and subunits. However, in spite of numerous past investigations, the regulation of the network of enzymatic reactions has not been fully understood. To resolve the complex mechanisms, we need to examine several topics such as redundancy and supplementary functions of multiple isozymes, enzymeenzyme interaction(s), and regulatory factors controlling catalytic and specific activities of individual isozymes, temporal and spatial co-expression of multiple isozymes, post-translational modifcation of enzymatic capacities such as phosphorylation, glycosylation, and redox state. There are still lots of uncertainties in the understanding of the initiation of starch biosynthesis.Fil: Nakamura, Yasunori. Akita Prefectural University; JapónFil: Steup, Martin. Universitat Potsdam; AlemaniaFil: Colleoni, Christophe. Université de Lille; FranciaFil: Iglesias, Alberto Alvaro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Bao, Jinsong. Zhejiang University; ChinaFil: Fujita, Naoko. University of Guelph; CanadáFil: Tetlow, Ian. University of Guelph; Canad

Hierarchical action and inhibition of plant Dicer-like proteins in antiviral defense

[EN] The mechanisms underlying induction and suppression of RNA silencing in the ongoing plant-virus arms race are poorly understood. We show here that virus-derived small RNAs produced by Arabidopsis Dicer-like 4 (DCL4) program an effector complex conferring antiviral immunity. Inhibition of DCL4 by a viral-encoded suppressor revealed the subordinate antiviral activity of DCL2. Accordingly, inactivating both DCL2 and DCL4 was necessary and sufficient to restore systemic infection of a suppressor-deficient virus. The effects of DCL2 were overcome by increasing viral dosage in inoculated leaves, but this could not surmount additional, non - cell autonomous effects of DCL4 specifically preventing viral unloading from the vasculature. These findings define a molecular framework for studying antiviral silencing and defense in plants.We thank members of the Voinnet laboratory for discussions and Z. Xie for dcl seeds. Funded by CNRS grant to A.D.; NSF grant MCB-0209836, NIH grant AI43288, and U.S. Department of Agriculture grant NRI 2005-35319-15280 to J.C.; and Pao Schloarship (Zhejiang University, China) to J.B. This work is dedicated to the memory of M. and G. Voinnet.Deleris, A.; Gallego Bartolomé, J.; Bao, J.; Kasschau, KD.; Carrinton, JC.; Voinnet, O. (2006). Hierarchical action and inhibition of plant Dicer-like proteins in antiviral defense. Science. 313(5783):68-71. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.11282146871313578