Geometrical size effect in high cycle fatigue strength of heavy-walled Ductile Cast Iron GJS400: Weakest link vs. defect-based approach

Fatigue strength is known to decrease with increasing dimension of the component. This is due to a technological size effect, related to the production process, and to a geometrical size effect, due to a higher probability of finding a large defect. To investigate the latter, an heavy-walled component made of Ductile Cast Iron (DCI) has been trepanned and a fatigue test plan has been carried out using 4 different specimen geometries. An attempt has been made to relate the resulting fatigue strength using a weakest-link approach based on the effective volumes and surfaces. This approach seems to work well only in cases of different specimen's lengths. Some of the fracture surfaces were analyzed by means of SEM and the initiating defects were identified and measured. An approach in which the defects population can be randomly distributed in the specimen has been tried. Virtual fatigue tests have been carried out by considering pure propagation of the worst defect. The resulting fatigue curves showed that this approach is promising but needs further description of the initiation phase

Moduli Spaces of Lumps on Real Projective Space

Harmonic maps that minimize the Dirichlet energy in their homotopy classes are known as lumps. Lump solutions on real projective space are explicitly given by rational maps subject to a certain symmetry requirement. This has consequences for the behaviour of lumps and their symmetries. An interesting feature is that the moduli space of charge three lumps is a D2-symmetric 7-dimensional manifold of cohomogeneity one. In this paper, we discuss the charge three moduli spaces of lumps from two perspectives: discrete symmetries of lumps and the Riemann-Hurwitz formula. We then calculate the metric and find explicit formula for various geometric quantities. We also discuss the implications for lump decay

Soundness Discrimination in Ferrite Ductile Irons Through Tensile Data Analysis

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Hexagonal Structure of Baby Skyrmion Lattices

We study the zero-temperature crystalline structure of baby Skyrmions by applying a full-field numerical minimization algorithm to baby Skyrmions placed inside different parallelogramic unit-cells and imposing periodic boundary conditions. We find that within this setup, the minimal energy is obtained for the hexagonal lattice, and that in the resulting configuration the Skyrmion splits into quarter-Skyrmions. In particular, we find that the energy in the hexagonal case is lower than the one obtained on the well-studied rectangular lattice, in which splitting into half-Skyrmions is observed.Comment: RevTeX, 7 pages, 6 figure

a preliminary investigation of strength models for degenerate graphite clusters in grey cast iron

Abstract Defects morphology primarily affects the mechanical properties of grey cast iron. In large castings, porosity and clusters of degenerate graphite are heterogeneously dispersed into the ferrous matrix and serve as initiation sites for fatigue and fracture processes. Strength and toughness of nodular cast iron compare to many grades of steel but experiments show that nodular cast iron also exhibits some specific effects, different from those typical of steels and due to cast iron microstructural inhomogeneity. In the present communication, we report on a preliminary investigation aimed at correlating the effect of the graphite microstructure to the mechanical properties of the material via a simplified geometrical description of the defects

Characterization of A Novel Avalanche Photodiode for Single Photon Detection in VIS-NIR Range

In this work we investigate operation in the Geiger mode of the new single photon avalanche photo diode (SPAD) SAP500 manufactured by Laser Components. This SPAD is sensitive in the range 400-1000nm and has a conventional reach-through structure which ensures good quantum efficiency at the long end of the spectrum. By use of passive and active quenching schemes we investigate detection efficiency, timing jitter, dark counts, afterpulsing, gain and other important parameters and compare them to the "standard" low noise SPAD C30902SH from Perkin Elmer. We conclude that SAP500 offers better combination of detection efficiency, low noise and timing precision

A simple 1-D finite elements approach to model the effect of PCB in electronic assemblies

In this paper, a simple method to describe the effect of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and environment on the thermal behavior of packaged devices is addressed. This approach aims at exploiting the benefit of compact thermal models, which are necessarily one-dimensional, together with the advantage of Finite Element (FE) modeling, which retains all the three-dimensional geometrical details, only in the regions of the model that must be accurately described. The main focus is on correct modeling of long power pulses for subsequent electro-thermal and thermo-mechanical analysis at chip level

Anatomical variations of the equine popliteal tendon

The function of the popliteal muscle and tendon in horses remains undescribed. In humans, it is considered a stabilizer of the posterior-lateral region of the knee; its function is closely related to that of the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) and meniscus. The popliteal tendon (PopT) constitutes the main proximal attachment of the popliteus muscle to the femur, and in humans, insertional variations have been described. Knowledge of anatomical variations is needed for the correct interpretation of diagnostic images and arthroscopic findings. To elucidate further the anatomy of the equine PopT, both hind limbs of 30 horses were dissected. Similar to humans, the equine PopT has 3 variants (types I, II, and III) depending on the number of components forming the tendon. Additionally, the area of insertion varies; the location can be either cranial, underneath, or caudal to the proximal insertion of the LCL. Furthermore, the PopT has a constant attachment to the lateral meniscus. The results of the present study are useful for clinicians working with equine orthopedics, as the tendon and insertional variants could affect the interpretation of diagnostic images and arthroscopic examinations