Evaluation of pulse transit time for different sensing methodologies of arterial waveforms.

We perform a novel comparative analysis between optically and mechanically derived pulse transit time (PTT), which is a universally employed technique for cuffless blood pressure (BP) estimation. Two inline photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensors were placed at the distal and proximal phalanxes of the index finger, and two finger ballistocardiogram (BPP) sensors were wrapped on top of the PPG sensors fixture around the phalanxes of the index finger. The stacking of the BPP sensor over the PPG sensor provided vertical spatial alignment for same location acquisition of the blood flow waveform through the radial artery. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) between PTT derived from the PPG and BPP sensors resulted in a statistically significant difference at p < 0.05. The PTT derived from the BPP sensors showed higher values (17.8 milliseconds on average) than the PTT derived from the PPG sensors. Higher accuracy PTT values will improve the estimation of cuffless BP and thus has the potential to revolutionize the technology

Isothermal Fatigue and Creep-Fatigue Interaction Behavior of Nickel-Base Directionally Solidified Superalloy

The creep-fatigue interaction in directionally solidified nickel-base superalloy was analyzed with the modified Chaboche-based unified viscoplasticity constitutive model. The model features the anisotropic material behavior, hardening/ softening, and stress relaxation. Simple low-cyclic fatigue and specified hold time experiments were conducted on a directionally solidified superalloy (DZ125) at temperatures over 760°C. The material parameters were optimized considering its tensile, cyclic and creep behavior with the Levenberg–Marquardt optimization procedure. The model was constructed in FORTRAN and integrated in FEA software UMAT/ABAQUS. The results show that experimental and simulated hysteresis loop size/shape, peak stresses, stress relaxation, and related areas are closely matched. The modified constitutive model was found to be instrumental for revealing the fatigue and creep-fatigue interaction behavior of such materials and can be used for practical applications.Взаимодействие ползучести и усталости в суперсплаве на основе никеля, полученного направленной кристаллизацией, проанализировано с помощью модифицированной унифицированной определяющей модели вязкопластичности Шабоша. Модель характеризует анизотропное поведение материала, упрочнение/разупрочнение и релаксацию напряжений. Эксперименты по определению малоцикловой усталости и времени пребывания выполнены на суперсплаве (DZ125) при температурах выше 760°С. Параметры материала оптимизированы с учетом его поведения при растяжении, циклической нагрузке и ползучести при помощи метода оптимизации Левенберга–Марквардта. Модель построена на языке ФОРТРАН и интегрирована в программу FEА UMAT/ABAQUS. Показано, что экспериментальные и модельные размеры/ форма петли гистерезиса, пиковые напряжения, релаксация напряжений и их область находятся в соответствии. Установлено, что модифицированную определяющую модель целесообразно применять при анализе усталости и взаимодействия ползучести и усталости подобных материалов, она может также найти практическое применение