3,820 research outputs found
Use of an ultrasonic-acoustic technique for nondestructive evaluation of fiber composite strength
Details of the method used to measure the stress wave factor are described. Frequency spectra of the stress waves are analyzed in order to clarify the nature of the wave phenomena involved. The stress wave factor was measured with simple contact probes requiring only one-side access to a part. This is beneficial in nondestructive evaluations because the waves can run parallel to fiber directions and thus measure material properties in directions assumed by actual loads. The technique can be applied where conventional through transmission techniques are impractical or where more quantitative data are required. The stress wave factor was measured for a series of graphite/polyimide composite panels, and results obtained are compared with through transmission immersion ultrasonic scans
Specimen geometry effects on graphite/PMR-15 composites during thermo-oxidative aging
Studies were conducted to establish the effects of specimen geometry on the thermo-oxidative stability and the mechanical properties retention of unidirectional Celion 12000 graphite fiber reinforced PMR-15 polyimide composites. Weight loss, flexural strength and interlaminar shear strength are measured at isothermal aging times as long as 1639 hr at a temperature of 316 C for three different specimen geometries. It is found that the three different types of specimen surfaces exhibit different values of weight loss/unit area. The mechanical properties retention is also found to be dependent on geometry for these composites. The interlaminar shear strength decreases significantly over the complete range of aging times. The flexural strength retention starts showing geometric dependency after about 1000 hr of aging at 316C. Weight loss fluxes, associated with the three different types of exposed surfaces, are calculated and used to develop an empirical mathematical model for predicting the weight loss behavior of unidirectional composites of arbitrary geometries. Data are presented comparing experimentally determined weight loss with weight loss values predicted using the empirical model
Ultrasonic evaluation of the strength of unidirectional graphite-polyimide composites
An acoustic-ultrasonic method is described that was successful in ranking unidirectional graphite-polyimide composite specimens according to variations in interlaminar shear strength. Using this method, a quantity termed the stress wave factor was determined. It was found that this factor increases directly with interlaminar shear strength. The key variables in this investigation were composite density, fiber weight fraction, and void content. The stress wave factor and other ultrasonic factors that were studied were found to provide a powerful means for nondestructive evaluation of mechanical strength properties
The Inherent Structure Landscape Connection Between Liquids, Granular materials and the Jamming Phase Diagram
We provide a comprehensive picture of the jamming phase diagram by connecting
the athermal, granular ensemble of jammed states and the equilibrium fluid
through the inherent structure paradigm for a system hard discs confined to a
narrow channel. The J-line is shown to be divided into packings that are
thermodynamically accessible from the equilibrium fluid and inaccessible
packings. The J-point is found to occur at the transition between these two
sets of packings and is located at the maximum the inherent structure
distribution. A general thermodynamic argument suggests that the density of the
states at the configurational entropy maximum represents a lower bound on the
J-point density in hard sphere systems. Finally, we find that the granular and
fluid systems only occupy the same set of inherent structures, under the same
thermodynamic conditions, at two points, corresponding to zero and infinite
pressures, where they sample the J-point states and the most dense packing
respectively.Comment: 5 pages, 3 Figure
Accuracy of the QUAD4 thick shell element
The accuracy of the relatively new QUAD4 thick shell element is assessed via comparison with a theoretical solution for thick homogeneous and honeycomb flat simply supported plates under the action of a uniform pressure load. The theoretical thick plate solution is based on the theory developed by Reissner and includes the effects of transverse shear flexibility which are not included in the thin plate solutions based on Kirchoff plate theory. In addition, the QUAD4 is assessed using a set of finite element test problems developed by the MacNeal-Schwendler Corp. (MSC). Comparison of the COSMIC QUAD4 element as well as those from MSC and Universal Analytics, Inc. (UAI) for these test problems is presented. The current COSMIC QUAD4 element is shown to have excellent comparison with both the theoretical solutions and also those from the two commercial versions of NASTRAN that it was compared to
"Swarm relaxation": Equilibrating a large ensemble of computer simulations
It is common practice in molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo computer
simulations to run multiple, separately-initialized simulations in order to
improve the sampling of independent microstates. Here we examine the utility of
an extreme case of this strategy, in which we run a large ensemble of
independent simulations (a "swarm"), each of which is relaxed to equilibrium.
We show that if is of order , we can monitor the swarm's relaxation
to equilibrium, and confirm its attainment, within , where
is the equilibrium relaxation time. As soon as a swarm of this size
attains equilibrium, the ensemble of final microstates from each run is
sufficient for the evaluation of most equilibrium properties without further
sampling. This approach dramatically reduces the wall-clock time required,
compared to a single long simulation, by a factor of several hundred, at the
cost of an increase in the total computational effort by a small factor. It is
also well-suited to modern computing systems having thousands of processors,
and is a viable strategy for simulation studies that need to produce
high-precision results in a minimum of wall-clock time. We present results
obtained by applying this approach to several test cases.Comment: 12 pages. To appear in Eur. Phy. J. E, 201
Correlation of Positive and Negative Reciprocity Fails to Confer an Evolutionary Advantage: Phase Transitions to Elementary Strategies
Economic experiments reveal that humans value cooperation and fairness. Punishing unfair behavior is therefore common, and according to the theory of strong reciprocity, it is also directly related to rewarding cooperative behavior. However, empirical data fail to confirm that positive and negative reciprocity are correlated. Inspired by this disagreement, we determine whether the combined application of reward and punishment is evolutionarily advantageous. We study a spatial public goods game, where in addition to the three elementary strategies of defection, rewarding, and punishment, a fourth strategy that combines the latter two competes for space. We find rich dynamical behavior that gives rise to intricate phase diagrams where continuous and discontinuous phase transitions occur in succession. Indirect territorial competition, spontaneous emergence of cyclic dominance, as well as divergent fluctuations of oscillations that terminate in an absorbing phase are observed. Yet, despite the high complexity of solutions, the combined strategy can survive only in very narrow and unrealistic parameter regions. Elementary strategies, either in pure or mixed phases, are much more common and likely to prevail. Our results highlight the importance of patterns and structure in human cooperation, which should be considered in future experiments
Impact of generalized benefit functions on the evolution of cooperation in spatial public goods games with continuous strategies
Cooperation and defection may be considered as two extreme responses to a
social dilemma. Yet the reality is much less clear-cut. Between the two
extremes lies an interval of ambivalent choices, which may be captured
theoretically by means of continuous strategies defining the extent of the
contributions of each individual player to the common pool. If strategies are
chosen from the unit interval, where 0 corresponds to pure defection and 1
corresponds to the maximal contribution, the question is what is the
characteristic level of individual investments to the common pool that emerges
if the evolution is guided by different benefit functions. Here we consider the
steepness and the threshold as two parameters defining an array of generalized
benefit functions, and we show that in a structured population there exist
intermediate values of both at which the collective contributions are maximal.
However, as the cost-to-benefit ratio of cooperation increases the
characteristic threshold decreases, while the corresponding steepness
increases. Our observations remain valid if more complex sigmoid functions are
used, thus reenforcing the importance of carefully adjusted benefits for high
levels of public cooperation.Comment: 8 two-column pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication in Physical
Review
Conditional strategies and the evolution of cooperation in spatial public goods games
The fact that individuals will most likely behave differently in different
situations begets the introduction of conditional strategies. Inspired by this,
we study the evolution of cooperation in the spatial public goods game, where
besides unconditional cooperators and defectors, also different types of
conditional cooperators compete for space. Conditional cooperators will
contribute to the public good only if other players within the group are likely
to cooperate as well, but will withhold their contribution otherwise. Depending
on the number of other cooperators that are required to elicit cooperation of a
conditional cooperator, the latter can be classified in as many types as there
are players within each group. We find that the most cautious cooperators, such
that require all other players within a group to be conditional cooperators,
are the undisputed victors of the evolutionary process, even at very low
synergy factors. We show that the remarkable promotion of cooperation is due
primarily to the spontaneous emergence of quarantining of defectors, which
become surrounded by conditional cooperators and are forced into isolated
convex "bubbles" from where they are unable to exploit the public good. This
phenomenon can be observed only in structured populations, thus adding to the
relevance of pattern formation for the successful evolution of cooperation.Comment: 7 two-column pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in Physical
Review
145 MECHANICAL LOADING IS RELATED TO CARTILAGE DEFECTS IN MEDIAL TIBIOFEMORAL OSTEOARTHRITIS
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