Influence of Confining Pressure on the Crack Growth Behavior in a Highly Filled Elastomer

In this study, the effect of confining pressure on the crack growth behavior in a highly filled elastomer was investigated. The material under investigation contains 86% by weight of hard particles embedded in a rubbery matrix. The specimens were tested at a constant strain rate under a confining pressure. Two confining pressures, 3.45 MPa and 6.9 MPa, and two types of loading, monotonically increasing and cyclic, were considered. The experimental data were analyzed, and the effects of confining pressure on the damage process as well as the constitutive and crack growth behavior in the material are discussed

PID Controller Tuning Optimization with BFO Algorithm in AVR System

This study presents the design and tuning of Proportional Integral Controller (PID) for Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) system to improve the dynamic performance and robustness of the system. The PID controller is the very commonly used compensating controller which is used in higher order system. This controller widely used in many different areas like Chemical process control, Aerospace, Automation and Electrical Drives etc. There are various soft computing techniques which are used for tuning of PID controller to control the voltage in AVR system. Tuning of PID parameters is important because, these parameters have a great effect on the stability and performance of the control system. Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO) techniques is one of the important techniques to tune the PID parameter in AVR system. Numerical solution based on the proposed PID control of an AVR system for nominal system parameters and step reference voltage input validates the good performance

Experimental investigation of the shearing resistance of SODA-Lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and strain rates of 10^6 s^(-1)

Pressure-Shear Plate Impact (PSPI) experiments were conducted to measure the high-rate shearing resistance of soda-lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and at shearing rates of approximately 10^6 s^(−1). Samples of soda lime glass, 5 µm thick, were sandwiched between pure tungsten carbide (WC) plates and impacted by pure WC flyers. Impacting plates were inclined to the direction of approach by an angle of 18°. Normal stress and shearing resistance of the sample were calculated from measured free surface velocities using 1D elastic wave theory. The experimental results show that, at a pressure of 9GPa, the shear stress increases almost linearly up to 1 GPa and then falls quickly to approximately 0.3 GPa — after which it decreases slowly to approximately 0.17 GPa. Comparisons with results of previous experiments on nominally identical samples, impacted to generate lower peak pressures, showed the peak shearing resistance to be much higher at higher pressures; however, the sharp fall in shearing resistance occurs at comparable shear strains (1.5-2)

Experimental investigation of the shearing resistance of SODA-Lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and strain rates of 10^6 s^(-1)

Pressure-Shear Plate Impact (PSPI) experiments were conducted to measure the high-rate shearing resistance of soda-lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and at shearing rates of approximately 10^6 s^(−1). Samples of soda lime glass, 5 µm thick, were sandwiched between pure tungsten carbide (WC) plates and impacted by pure WC flyers. Impacting plates were inclined to the direction of approach by an angle of 18°. Normal stress and shearing resistance of the sample were calculated from measured free surface velocities using 1D elastic wave theory. The experimental results show that, at a pressure of 9GPa, the shear stress increases almost linearly up to 1 GPa and then falls quickly to approximately 0.3 GPa — after which it decreases slowly to approximately 0.17 GPa. Comparisons with results of previous experiments on nominally identical samples, impacted to generate lower peak pressures, showed the peak shearing resistance to be much higher at higher pressures; however, the sharp fall in shearing resistance occurs at comparable shear strains (1.5-2)

Stress fluctuation, crack renucleation and toughening in layered materials

It has been established that contrast in the elastic properties can lead to enhancement of fracture toughness in heterogeneous materials. Focussing on layered materials as a model system, we show that this enhancement is a result of two distinct phenomena – first, fluctuations in stress leading to regions where the stress intensity at the crack is considerably smaller than that of the macroscopically applied value; and second, the lack of stress intensity when a crack is at a compliant to stiff interface thereby requiring renucleation. Using theoretical, computational and experimental methods, we study two geometries – a layered material and a layered material with a narrow channel – to separate the two phenomena. The stress fluctuation is present in both, but renucleation is present only in the layered medium. We provide quantitative estimates for the enhanced toughness

Fuzzy Logic-Based Histogram Equalization for Image Contrast Enhancement

Fuzzy logic-based histogram equalization (FHE) is proposed for image contrast enhancement. The FHE consists of two stages. First, fuzzy histogram is computed based on fuzzy set theory to handle the inexactness of gray level values in a better way compared to classical crisp histograms. In the second stage, the fuzzy histogram is divided into two subhistograms based on the median value of the original image and then equalizes them independently to preserve image brightness. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of proposed FHE algorithm are evaluated using two well-known parameters like average information contents (AIC) and natural image quality evaluator (NIQE) index for various images. From the qualitative and quantitative measures, it is interesting to see that this proposed method provides optimum results by giving better contrast enhancement and preserving the local information of the original image. Experimental result shows that the proposed method can effectively and significantly eliminate washed-out appearance and adverse artifacts induced by several existing methods. The proposed method has been tested using several images and gives better visual quality as compared to the conventional methods

Free volume study of poly(chlorotrifluoroethylene) using positron annihilation spectroscopy as a microanalytical tool

Positron lifetimes and X-ray diffraction measurements were carried out on poly(chlorotrifluoroethylene) films annealed between 25 and 215 degrees C. The positron lifetime results were used to determine the free volume and XRD data were used to determine the apparent crystallite size and crystallinity. The glass transition temperature (T-g) of 52 degrees C obtained from positron results is in agreement with that obtained by thermal analysis. The average free volume cell size is 74 Angstrom(3) in films annealed below T-g, and increases to 84 Angstrom(3) in samples annealed above T-g. Although the observed changes in positron lifetime parameters as a function of annealing temperature are small, they are significant for the kind of material investigated. Our observations are explained in terms of thermally activated chain mobility, local relaxations and long-range motions. We further estimate, for the first time, the activation energies in the amorphous and crystalline regions of the polymer using the Goldanskii kinetic relations. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

Microcoining ripples in metal foils

Experiments, upper bound models, and finite element simulations are used to determine forming loads needed to microcoin surface ripples in thin metal foils. Coining is traditionally performed in a closed die, however enclosing all non-patterned surfaces is difficult to directly scale down to sub-millimeter foils. We find different forming regimes can exist at this small scale in an open pressing configuration. We explore the effects of the metal foil thickness and its work hardening behavior, two primary factors controlling the microcoining ripple forming load. For very thin foils, the load needed to coin a ripple pattern is lower than the load needed to compress the foil so that the open pressing configuration behavior is effectively closed with pattern formation without thickness change. For moderate thickness foils, the load needed to coin significantly drops as the entire foil compresses. For thick foils approaching bulk materials, the pattern will not completely form as the die macroscopically indents into the metal. Work hardening is found to raise the forming load for the thin, effectively closed die scenario, however it is a secondary effect at moderate thickness. This insight is used to microcoin patterns in extremely hard, thin metal foils