Using of spouted bed spray granulation process for fabricating of metal/ceramic-polymer composites

Naturally occurring structural materials are composites with very high filling degrees on hard constituent. In recent years structure and properties of biological materials have been studied in detail. But it has not been possible to reconstruct this structural design. In this contribution we present a process for the fabrication of very highly filled composite materials by using of the spouted bed spray granulation process. Spouted bed granulation offers many advantages for the design of composite materials. In this investigation fine particles (dP =10-50 µm) could be uniformly spouted, and optimal properties for further processing to bulk materials can be obtained by means of granulation. For this a hybrid spouted bed with horizontal gas inlets was designed, which has a small prismatic process chamber with adjustable inlets and a high conical-cylindrical relaxation zone. The thickness of the polymer layer is adjusted by a two-fluid nozzle. The adjustment of the thickness of polymer layer is very important to fabricate composites of adjustable filling degrees. After granulation the particles are assembled to a composite material by means of warm pressing. Additionally for achievement of very high packing densities bimodal particle size distributions are used. For this purpose, particles in nm-range are firstly suspended in polymer solution and the suspension is sprayed in the spouted bed on coarser particles. Granulated particles are assembled to composites and mechanical properties of these were analysed by 4-point bending-tests. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) via the collaborative research center SFB986. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

MuSIC: Multi-Sequential Interactive Co-Registration for Cancer Imaging Data based on Segmentation Masks

In gynecologic cancer imaging, multiple magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences are acquired per patient to reveal different tissue characteristics. However, after image acquisition, the anatomical structures can be misaligned in the various sequences due to changing patient location in the scanner and organ movements. The co-registration process aims to align the sequences to allow for multi-sequential tumor imaging analysis. However, automatic co-registration often leads to unsatisfying results. To address this problem, we propose the web-based application MuSIC (Multi-Sequential Interactive Co-registration). The approach allows medical experts to co-register multiple sequences simultaneously based on a pre-defined segmentation mask generated for one of the sequences. Our contributions lie in our proposed workflow. First, a shape matching algorithm based on dual annealing searches for the tumor position in each sequence. The user can then interactively adapt the proposed segmentation positions if needed. During this procedure, we include a multi-modal magic lens visualization for visual quality assessment. Then, we register the volumes based on the segmentation mask positions. We allow for both rigid and deformable registration. Finally, we conducted a usability analysis with seven medical and machine learning experts to verify the utility of our approach. Our participants highly appreciate the multi-sequential setup and see themselves using MuSIC in the future. Best Paper Honorable Mention at VCBM2022publishedVersio

Fabrication of composites via spouted bed granulation process and simulation of their micromechanical properties

In this contribution numerical simulation of Young’s modulus of copper-polymer composites is presented. For the simulation of the composites the Bonded-Particle-Model was applied. The model allows representing of the structure of composite materials realistically. The polymer matrix, which surrounds the particles, was represented as network of solid bonds connecting copper particles. Simulation results were validated based on mechanical determination of modulus of elasticity. The modulus of elasticity was approximated in experiments as well as in simulation by four-point-bending tests. It was observed, that obtained simulation results are in good agreement with experimental results

Fabrication of composites via spouted bed granulation process and simulation of their micromechanical properties

In this contribution numerical simulation of Young’s modulus of copper-polymer composites is presented. For the simulation of the composites the Bonded-Particle-Model was applied. The model allows representing of the structure of composite materials realistically. The polymer matrix, which surrounds the particles, was represented as network of solid bonds connecting copper particles. Simulation results were validated based on mechanical determination of modulus of elasticity. The modulus of elasticity was approximated in experiments as well as in simulation by four-point-bending tests. It was observed, that obtained simulation results are in good agreement with experimental results

Fabrication of composites via spouted bed granulation process and simulation of their micromechanical properties

In this contribution numerical simulation of Young’s modulus of copper-polymer composites is presented. For the simulation of the composites the Bonded-Particle-Model was applied. The model allows representing of the structure of composite materials realistically. The polymer matrix, which surrounds the particles, was represented as network of solid bonds connecting copper particles. Simulation results were validated based on mechanical determination of modulus of elasticity. The modulus of elasticity was approximated in experiments as well as in simulation by four-point-bending tests. It was observed, that obtained simulation results are in good agreement with experimental results