Composite Modeling and Analysis of FDM Prototypes for Design and Fabrication of Functionally Graded Parts

Solid Freeform Fabrication technologies have potential to manufacture parts with locally controlled properties (LCP), which would allow concurrent design of part’s geometry and desired properties. To a certain extent, Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) has the ability to fabricate parts with LCP by changing deposition density and deposition orientation. To fully exploit this potential, this paper reports a study on the mechanical properties of FDM prototypes, and related materials and fabrication process issues. Both theoretical and experimental analyses of mechanical properties of FDM parts were carried out. To establish the constitutive models, a set of equations is proposed to determine the elastic constants of FDM prototypes. An example is provided to illustrate the model with LCP using FDM.The financial support for this research was provided by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through Research Grant OGP0192173.Mechanical Engineerin

USING LOW FIELD NMR TO PREDICT VISCOSITIES OF CRUDE OILS AND CRUDE OIL EMULSIONS

ABSTRACT Knowledge of oil viscosity is vital to most areas of the petroleum industry, and is especially important in the production of heavy oil and bitumen. Stable crude oil emulsions are also prevalent in many stages of the production and transport of heavy oil and bitumen. These emulsions contain water as a dispersed phase, which makes them even more viscous than their constituent oil. Knowledge of emulsion viscosity is necessary for determining energy requirements for transport and upgrading of the produced crude. As viscosity increases, conventional measurements become less accurate and more difficult to obtain. An alternate method of predicting viscosities would be extremely beneficial to the industry. Low field nuclear magnetic resonance is examined in this work for its potential to predict viscosity of crude oil and crude oil emulsions. NMR is an attractive alternative to conventional measurements because it provides fast, unbiased and non-destructive data even for high viscosity oils. A correlation was developed which predicts the viscosity of heavy oils and bitumens over a wider range of viscosities than any other published NMR viscosity correlation. Viscosity is increased further by the emulsified water fraction, which can also be measured with NMR. Emulsion NMR models were also developed that provide order of magnitude viscosity predictions over a wide range of emulsion viscosities by incorporating the effect of the suspended water and the size of the water droplets. Data for these correlations have been obtained at different temperatures, proving that NMR can be used to predict viscosity changes with temperature as well

Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor Antagonist Blocks the Development of Endometriosis In Vivo

Endometriosis, a disease of reproductive age women, is a major cause of infertility, menstrual disorders and pelvic pain. Little is known about its etiopathology, but chronic pelvic inflammation is a common feature in affected women. Beside symptomatic treatment of endometriosis-associated pain, only two main suboptimal therapeutic approaches (hormonal and invasive surgery) are generally recommended to patients and no specific targeted treatment is available. Our studies led to the detection of a marked increase in the expression of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in the eutopic endometrium, the peripheral blood and the peritoneal fluid of women with endometriosis, and in early, vascularized and active endometriotic lesions. Herein, we developed a treatment model of endometriosis, where human endometrial tissue was first allowed to implant into the peritoneal cavity of nude mice, to assess in vivo the effect of a specific antagonist of MIF (ISO-1) on the progression of endometriosis and evaluate its efficacy as a potential therapeutic tool. Administration of ISO-1 led to a significant decline of the number, size and in situ dissemination of endometriotic lesions. We further showed that ISO-1 may act by significantly inhibiting cell adhesion, tissue remodeling, angiogenesis and inflammation as well as by altering the balance of pro- and anti-apoptotic factors. Actually, mice treatment with ISO-1 significantly reduced the expression of cell adhesion receptors αv and ß3 integrins (P<0.05), matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) 2 and 9 (P<0.05), vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) (P<0.01), interleukin 8 (IL8) (P<0.05), cyclooxygenease (COX)2 (P<0.001) and the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl2 (P<0.01), but significantly induced the expression of Bax (P<0.05), a potent pro-apoptotic protein. These data provide evidence that specific inhibition of MIF alters endometriotic tissue growth and progression in vivo and may represent a promising potential therapeutic avenue

Estimation of regionalized phenomena by geostatistical methods: Lake acidity on the Canadian Shield

This paperdperA)j7 a geostatistical techniquebased oncond)WA`LG simulations to assess confidPLW intervals of local estimates of lake pH values on theCanad7( Shield This geostatistical approach has beendenA)PFF todA) with the estimation of phenomena with a spatial autocorrelation structure among observations. It uses the autocorrelation structure todA)G7 minimum-variance unbiased estimates for points that have not been measured or to estimate average values for new surfaces. A survey for lake water chemistry has beencondW(P) by the Ministred l&apos;Environnementd Qubec between 1986 and 1990, to assess su face wate quality and dity A)G the a eas affected by acid p ecipitation on the southe n Canadana Shield in Qubec. The spatial st uctu e of lake pH was modA7Gj using two nested sphe ical va iog am modjWPA with anges of 20 km 250 km, accounting espectively fo 20% 55% of the spatial va iation, plus a andjW component accounting fo 25%. The pH d A) have been to const uct a numbe of geostatistical simulations that podLF( plausible ealizations of a given andn function modtio while `hono ing&apos; the expe imental values (i.e., the eal points a e among the simulated dlated and that coespond to the same und lying va iog am modLjB Post-p ocessing of a la ge numbe of these simulations, that a e equally likely to occu , enables the estimation of mean pH values, the p opo tion of affected lakes (lakes with pH^5.5), and the potential error of these parameters within small regions (100 km!100 km). The method provid)W a procedA`L to establish whether acid rain control programs will succeed in redG7WL acid7WL in surface waters, allowing one to consid7 small areas with particular physiographic features rather than large drge AjW basins with several sources of heterogeneity. This jud AGjG on..