Experimental characterization and model identification of directional hardening effects in metals for complex strain path changes

AbstractThe purpose of the current work is the development and application of a new experimental technique and testing device for investigating the complex behavior of sheet metals during non-proportional loading. The method is based on plain strain pure bending, enabling the investigation of large deformation cyclic reversed loading, orthogonal pure bending, as well as springback. The key feature of the pure bending experiment is the absence of contact forces, material slip and friction. Furthermore, during the pure bending test, the strain gradient through the thickness is kinematically prescribed because the specimen is subjected to a plane strain condition in de direction parallel to the rotational axis (Tan et al., 1995), which allows for a straightforward comparison of the pure bending experiments and parallel simulations. The latter is used here via the identification of a recent model for directional hardening effects and arbitrary strain path changes, (Wang et al., 2006, 2008). The current method facilitates experimental investigation of hardening stagnation after reverse loading and cross hardening going well beyond that which is possible with existing methods based on the cyclic shear or tension-shear of sheet metal strips (Bouvier et al., 2005, 2006a,b; Flores et al., 2007.), or pure and three-point bending (Omerspahic et al., 2006; Antonelli et al., 2007; Carbonnière et al., 2009; Yoshida et al., 1998; Weinmann et al., 1988)

Влияние геометрии и граничных условий в области сцепления материалов на рассеяние ультразвуковых волн. Ч. 1. Теоретическое моделирование

The improvement of efficiency, reliability and productivity of ultrasonic testing of objects with cohesion between materials connected by welding, soldering, gluing, etc. is 'an important problem of the modern production technologies. The purpose of the paper is to determine in 3D space the conditions for increasing the sensitivity and reliability of the flaw detection in the cohesion zone between materials when the form of defect interface can be different.In the first part of the theoretical study the features of the formation of the acoustic fields of ultrasonic waves scattered from solid's interface when spot of an acoustic beam crosses the boundary of the defective region in the shape of an ellipse or a long strip have been investigated. In this case, the boundary conditions in the defect area change discretely or linearly.It was suggested to use a phase shift between reflected waves from the defect and defect-free interfaces as the more informative parameter depending on the cohesion between materials. There is shown that there are conditions to achieve sufficiently high sensitivity detection of interface defects when the scattered waves receiving are to be at angles outside the main directivity lobe of the scattering field pattern. The evolution features of the scattering field structure which are needed for the development of the method of evaluation the cohesion of materials has been got.Повышение эффективности, надёжности и производительности ультразвукового контроля соединения материалов сваркой, пайкой, склеиванием и др. является важной народнохозяйственной задачей. Цель работы состояла в установлении условий повышения чувствительности и достоверности обнаружения дефектов сцепления материалов на основе моделирования полей ультразвуковых мод, рассеянных дефектами разной геометрии.Впервые в максимальном приближении выполнен расчёт и анализ полей рассеяния ультразвуковых волн при перемещении пятна акустического луча в виде эллипса или длинной полосы относительно дефектной области с дискретными и плавно изменяющимися в ней граничными условиями. Для характеристики последних с точки зрения взаимодействия упругой волны с границей сред предложено использовать преимущественно фазовый сдвиг θ между волнами, рассеянными от дефектной и бездефектной границы, существенно сказывающийся на изменении параметров результирующего поля рассеяния в его периферийной зоне. Т. е., θ является важным параметром, характеризующим степень сцепления материалов и оказывающим превалирующее влияние на чувствительность предлагаемого метода обнаружения слабо выявляемых дефектов.Установлены особенности эволюции структуры полей рассеяния, являющиеся первичными для разработки методик контроля сцепления материалов предложенным методом. При достаточно малых значениях угла приёма ультразвуковых колебаний в меридиональной плоскости максимум чувствительности измерений достигается в динамическом режиме и приёме рассеянных волн под азимутальными углами, соответствующими 1-му экстремуму диаграммы направленности поля рассеяния опорного акустического луча

Влияние геометрии и граничных условий в области сцепления материалов на рассеяние ультразвуковых волн. Ч. 2. Особенности экспериментального моделирования

Improving the efficiency of diagnostics of objects with layered structure as applied to detection of poorly detectable material bonding defects is an important production task. The aim of the work was to experimentally simulate ultrasonic scattering by samples of proposed defect simulator designs with discretely and smoothly varying boundary conditions correlating with the phase response of longitudinal waves during their interaction with the defect boundary of contacting materials. A brief analysis of some methods and means for experimental simulation of the volume and surface wave scattering at the interfaces of contacting materials as applied to improvement of method of detection of poorly detectable adhesion defects of materials proposed earlier was carried out. For this purpose an immersion installation working in the shadow mode and allowing for simulation the spatial fields of scattered longitudinal waves at inhomogeneous or defective adhesion boundaries was developed and constructed. It is assumed that the waves interacting with such a boundary acquire a discrete or smoothly varying phase shift which significantly affects the formation of the scattering field in its peripheral zone. The greater this shift, the stronger these changes are, which can significantly increase the sensitivity of detection of poorly detected defects. In order to increase the efficiency of such inspection and to develop its methodology a new principle of simulation of such defects has been proposed. Experimental study of longitudinal waves scattering using the developed installation and defect simulators, simulating discretely and smoothly changing boundary conditions which are consistent with a change in the phase shift of the scattered waves is carried out. The amplitude dependences of the scattering field vs. the receiving angle received mainly in the range from - 20º to + 20º and the displacement of the simulated defect relative to the axis of the probing acoustic beam were obtained. As it has been established, there is a quality conformity between the calculated and experimental data. The present study is of interest for solving a number of tasks of increasing efficiency of ultrasonic testing of modern objects with layered structure and will contribute to practical application

Promises of stem cell therapy for retinal degenerative diseases

With the development of stem cell technology, stem cell-based therapy for retinal degeneration has been proposed to restore the visual function. Many animal studies and some clinical trials have shown encouraging results of stem cell-based therapy in retinal degenerative diseases. While stem cell-based therapy is a promising strategy to replace damaged retinal cells and ultimately cure retinal degeneration, there are several important challenges which need to be overcome before stem cell technology can be applied widely in clinical settings. In this review, different types of donor cell origins used in retinal treatments, potential target cell types for therapy, methods of stem cell delivery to the eye, assessments of potential risks in stem cell therapy, as well as future developments of retinal stem cells therapy, will be discussed

Network analysis of human glaucomatous optic nerve head astrocytes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Astrocyte activation is a characteristic response to injury in the central nervous system, and can be either neurotoxic or neuroprotective, while the regulation of both roles remains elusive.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To decipher the regulatory elements controlling astrocyte-mediated neurotoxicity in glaucoma, we conducted a systems-level functional analysis of gene expression, proteomic and genetic data associated with reactive optic nerve head astrocytes (ONHAs).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our reconstruction of the molecular interactions affected by glaucoma revealed multi-domain biological networks controlling activation of ONHAs at the level of intercellular stimuli, intracellular signaling and core effectors. The analysis revealed that synergistic action of the transcription factors AP-1, vitamin D receptor and Nuclear Factor-kappaB in cross-activation of multiple pathways, including inflammatory cytokines, complement, clusterin, ephrins, and multiple metabolic pathways. We found that the products of over two thirds of genes linked to glaucoma by genetic analysis can be functionally interconnected into one epistatic network via experimentally-validated interactions. Finally, we built and analyzed an integrative disease pathology network from a combined set of genes revealed in genetic studies, genes differentially expressed in glaucoma and closely connected genes/proteins in the interactome.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest several key biological network modules that are involved in regulating neurotoxicity of reactive astrocytes in glaucoma, and comprise potential targets for cell-based therapy.</p