Sandwich core periodic cell topology effects

Les panneaux composites sandwich possédant une âme nid d'abeille permettent de disposer à la fois de propriétés statiques hors plan intéressantes (en raison de leur rigidité équivalente élevée) et de caractéristiques de masses faibles. Pour cette raison, ils sont largement utilisés dans les industries aérospatiale, automobile et navale. Les environnements dans lesquels ces matériaux sont utilisés mettent en jeu des efforts dans des gammes de fréquences larges. Si un rapport rigidité / masse élevé est profitable dans le domaine des basses fréquences, il conduit généralement à des comportements vibratoires et acoustiques médiocres lorsque la fréquence d’excitation augmente. La question abordée dans ce travail peut être formulée comme : comment les concepts périodiques peuvent-ils améliorer les signatures vibroacoustiques large bande et les performances de ces structures ? La plupart des solutions vibroacoustiques sont limitées en terme de bande de fréquences d’efficacité, et induisent généralement un ajout de masse. La prise en compte de règles de conception vibroacoustiques à un stade précoce du développement du produit est l'un des principaux objectifs de recherche en vue d’améliorer leurs performances et permettrait de concevoir des structures accordées sans aucune intervention ultérieure ou augmentation de masse. Ce travail se concentre donc sur l'étude des topologies de base de panneaux sandwich existants et a pour objectif de créer de nouvelles structures améliorées. La recherche a été menée en essayant de maintenir les propriétés structurelles souhaitées, ce qui justifie l'utilisation d'une telle solution en premier lieu, mais également en considérant son utilisation potentielle comme plate-forme pour la mise en place d’inserts de matériaux périodiques résonants. Ces noyaux cellulaires ont été fabriqués en utilisant la technique du Kirigami (qui est une variante de l'Origami) : il s’agit d’une ancienne technique japonaise qui consiste à créer des structures 3D en pliant et en découpant une feuille de matériau 2D. Cette technique de fabrication peut être utilisée comme un moyen systématique de produire des configurations générales en nid d'abeilles avec des composites à fibres longues par thermoformage et / ou autoclavage. Le principal indicateur utilisé ici afin d’évaluer les performances vibroacoustiques des topologies innovantes proposées est le nombre et la plage de bandes d'arrêt, également connues sous le nom de bandes interdites, qui décrivent les plages de fréquences dans lesquelles les ondes élastiques ne peuvent pas se propager dans la structure. Ce manuscrit est organisé en cinq chapitres. Le premier consiste en un bref aperçu des structures périodiques dans les différents domaines d'ingénierie. L'accent est mis sur les panneaux sandwich et leurs techniques de fabrication les plus populaires sera également décrit. Le deuxième chapitre présentera au lecteur le concept de propagation des ondes élastiques dans les milieux périodiques. De plus, des phénomènes comme les interférences de Bragg ou les bandes interdites résonantes seront présentés ainsi que la théorie de Floquet-Bloch appliquée aux structures à périodiques typiquement utilisées dans l’aéronautique. Cette dernière dérivation mathématique sera fusionnée avec l'approche d'analyse par éléments finis et mise en œuvre comme base pour les outils de prédiction numérique spécialement développés afin de permettre la réalisation d’investigations paramétriques sur des panneaux sandwich complets ou des cœurs nus. La théorie de Floquet-Bloch permet de récolter des informations cruciales sur le comportement dynamique de l’ensemble de la structure en n’effectuant l’analyse que sur une petite partie de celle-ci (cellule unitaire).[...]Honeycomb sandwich panels are well known to provide interesting static out of plane properties because of their high equivalent stiffness whilst containing mass and for this reason, they are widely used as a ‘building brick’ in the Aerospace, Automotive and Naval industries. The environment in which these materials operate involve external forces which excites them in the mid-low frequency range. However, while a high stiffness/mass ratio is a desirable static property, the vibration frequency domain is usually in the high range and therefore they become poor mechanical and acoustic insulators within the frequency range they are usually subjected to. The question addressed then is simple: how periodic concepts can improve the broadband vibroacoustic signatures and performances of those structures? Most of vibroacoustic solutions are frequency band limited, specific and usually include the addition of mass, which for certain engineering segments is disadvantageous. Including vibroacoustic design rules at early stage of product development is one of the main research targets to improve their performance and would allow to design tuned structures without any later intervention or mass increment. This work focuses on investigating existing sandwich panel core topologies and attempt to create novel improved structures. The research was carried out trying to maintain the desired structural properties which justifies the usage of such solution in the first place but also considering its potential use as a platform for Multiphysics resonating periodic material inserts. Such cellular cores were manufactured using Kirigami, which is a variation of Origami, an ancient Japanese technique that consists in creating 3D structures by folding a 2D sheet of material. This manufacturing technique can be used as a systematic way to produce general honeycomb configurations with off-the-shelf long fibre composites by thermoforming and/or autoclaving. The main indicator on which I will focus to evaluate the vibroacoustic performance of the proposed innovative topologies will be the number and range of stopbands, also known as a bandgaps, which describe the frequency ranges in which elastic waves are not transmitted within the structure, in combination with the constituent material and its damping properties. This manuscript is organised in five chapters. The first one consists of a brief overview on periodic structures in the various engineering domains. Emphasis on Sandwich panels and their most popular manufacturing techniques will also be described. The second chapter will introduce the reader to the concept of elastic wave propagation in periodic media. Also, phenomena like Bragg or resonant bandgaps will be explained as well as the Floquet-Bloch theory applied to macro-scale structures such as aeronautical cellular cores.[...

AUXHEX – a Kirigami inspired zero Poisson's ratio cellular structure

This work describes the development, manufacturing and testing of a zero Poisson’s ratio PEEK cellular structure (AuxHex) made using Kirigami-inspired techniques. The AuxHex hybrid cell pattern is a combination of cells with different shapes that interlock with each other. This principle can lead to graded honeycombs possessing, in different areas, synclastic as well as anticlastic behavior. The AuxHex samples produced have been tested for flatwise compression according to ASTM standards and the results are compared with a unit-cell-based analytical model. Hexagonal-cell shaped honeycombs were also produced with the same technique and used for direct comparison. The mechanical flatwise properties have been benchmarked against the ones of other experimental PEEK-based cores and commercially available honeycombs. AuxHex samples are found to have higher stiffness compared to other experimental PEEK honeycombs, but lower compared with the commercially available honeycombs. The strength thought, while it is still higher compared to the other experimental PEEK cores, it is comparable with other honeycomb configurations

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for anomalous production of events with three or more leptons in pp collisions at √s = 8TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5fb-1 of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy s=8TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying τ leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t→cH), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, λtcH and λctH, respectively, of |λtcH|2+|λctH|2<0.21

Measurement of associated W plus charm production in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe