3,584 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
SLS Processing Studies of Nylon 11 Nanocomposites
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is widely used for rapid prototyping/manufacturing of
nylon 11 and nylon 12 parts. This processing technique has not been explored for
nylon nanocomposites. This study investigates the technicalities of processing nylon
11-clay and nylon-carbon nanofiber nanocomposites with SLS. Microstructural
analyses of the SLS powders and parts were conducted under SEM. Results suggest
that SLS processing is possible with the new nylon 11 nanocomposites. Yet the SLS
parts built have inferior properties relative to those of injection molding, suggesting
that more fine tuning for the processing is required.Mechanical Engineerin
Mid-infrared photodetectors operating over an extended wavelength range up to 90 K
We report a wavelength threshold extension, from the designed value of 3.1 to 8.9 μm, in a -type heterostructure photodetector. This is associated with the use of a graded barrier and barrier offset, and arises from hole–hole interactions in the detector absorber. Experiments show that using long-pass filters to tune the energies of incident photons gives rise to changes in the intensity of the response. This demonstrates an alternative approach to achieving tuning of the photodetector response without the need to adjust the characteristic energy that is determined by the band structure
Recommended from our members
Polyamide Nanocomposites for Selective Laser Sintering
Current polyamide 11 and 12 are lacking in fire retardancy and high strength/high
heat resistance characteristics for a plethora of finished parts that are desired and required
for performance driven applications. It is anticipated that nanomodification of polyamide
11 and 12 will result in enhanced polymer performance, i.e., fire retardancy, high strength
and high heat resistance for polyamide 11 and 12. It is expected that these findings will
expand the market opportunities for polyamide 11 and 12 resin manufacturers.
The objective of this research is to develop improved polyamide 11 and 12 polymers
with enhanced flame retardancy, thermal, and mechanical properties for selective laser
sintering (SLS) rapid manufacturing (RM). A nanophase was introduced into the
polyamide 11 and 12 via twin screw extrusion to provide improved material properties of
the polymer blends. Arkema RILSAN® polyamide 11 molding polymer pellets and
Degussa VESTAMID® L1670 polyamide 12 were examined with three types of
nanoparticles: chemically modified montmorillonite (MMT) organoclays, surface
modified nanosilica, and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) to create polyamide 11 and 12
nanocomposites.
Wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
were used to determine the degree of dispersion. Injection molded test specimens were
fabricated for physical, thermal, mechanical properties, and flammability tests. Thermal
stability of these polyamide 11 and 12 nanocomposites was examined by TGA.
Mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, and elongation at break were measured.
Flammability properties were also obtained using the Cone Calorimeter at an external
heat flux of 50 kW/m2. TEM micrographs, physical, mechanical, and flammability
properties are included in the paper. Polyamide 11 and 12 nanocomposites properties are
compared with polyamide 11 and 12 baseline polymers. Based on flammability and
mechanical material performance, selective polymers including polyamide 11
nanocomposites and control polyamide 11 were cryogenically ground into fine powders
and fabricated into SLS parts.Mechanical Engineerin
Heritage Language Maintenance and Use among 1.5 Generation Khmer College Students
Most studies of heritage language maintenance have reported a steep attrition in heritage language use among the 1.5 and 2nd generation children of immigrants, in particular among East Asian groups. However, not much is known about the role of heritage languages and the patterns of language maintenance within refugee communities. This study focuses on heritage language use and maintenance among 1.5 generation Khmer college students. The findings show that Khmer students report a high frequency of heritage language use within the home with their parents as well as outside of the home with their co-ethnic peers. The data reveal that oral proficiency in Khmer is significantly more developed than literacy skills and is a necessity for bridging communication with parents and participating in co-ethnic peer social networks. The results of the study also indicate that these students development of English oral and literacy skills were significantly higher than their heritage language skills suggesting a similar trajectory of language loss similar to other immigrant groups, but perhaps at a slower rate
Semantic analysis of field sports video using a petri-net of audio-visual concepts
The most common approach to automatic summarisation and highlight detection in sports video is to train an automatic classifier to detect semantic highlights based on occurrences of low-level features such as action replays, excited commentators or changes in a scoreboard. We propose an alternative approach based on the detection of perception concepts (PCs) and the construction of Petri-Nets which can be used for both semantic description and event detection within sports videos. Low-level algorithms for the detection of perception concepts using visual, aural and motion characteristics are proposed, and a series of Petri-Nets composed of perception concepts is formally defined to describe video content. We call this a Perception Concept Network-Petri Net (PCN-PN) model. Using PCN-PNs, personalized high-level semantic descriptions of video highlights can be facilitated and queries on high-level semantics can be achieved. A particular strength of this framework is that we can easily build semantic detectors based on PCN-PNs to search within sports videos and locate interesting events. Experimental results based on recorded sports
video data across three types of sports games (soccer, basketball and rugby), and each from multiple broadcasters, are used to illustrate the potential of this framework
Collision Avoidance Method for Self-Organizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flights
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China, under Grant 71601181, in part by the Young Talents Lifting Project, China, under Grant 17JCJQQT048, in part by the Huxiang Young Talents, China, under Grant 2018RS3079, and in part by the Complex Situational Cognitive Technology under Grant 315050202.Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm flights have been investigated widely. In the presence of a high airspace density and increasingly complex flight conditions, collision avoidance between UAV swarms is very important; however, this problem has not been fully addressed, particularly among self-organizing flight clusters. In this paper, we developed a method for avoiding collisions between different types of self-organized UAV clusters in various flight situations. The Reynolds rules were applied to self-organized flights of UAVs and a parameter optimization framework was used to optimize their organization, before developing a collision avoidance solution for UAV swarms. The proposed method can self-organize the flight of each UAV swarm during the overall process and the UAV swarm can continue to fly according to the self-organizing rules in the collision avoidance process. The UAVs in the airspace all make decisions according to their individual type. The UAVs in different UAV swarms can merge in the same space while avoiding collisions, where the UAV's self-organized flight process and collision avoidance process are very closely linked, and the trajectory is smooth to satisfy the actual operational needs. The numerical and experimental tests were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The results confirmed the effectiveness of this approach where self-organized flight cluster collision avoidance was successfully achieved by the UAV swarms
Discharge coefficient of high viscosity liquids through nozzles
Experimental investigation on discharge coefficient, Cd, for high viscosity fluid through nozzles was carried out. The viscosity of the fluid used for the test ranged from 350 to 1500 mPa s. The length-to-diameter ratio of the nozzle, l/d and the ratio of nozzle diameter to pipe diameter ratios β were used to investigate the influence of geometry on Cd. Results show a significant dependence of Cd on Re, l/d and β ratio. An empirical correlation on the discharge coefficient was developed based on the data from this study which was also compared with data from other published studies. This correlation, with an R-squared value of 0.9541, was valid for nozzle sizes 10–20 mm and for Re between 1 and 200. Cd values obtained from experimental data, and those from the empirical correlation were compared, and a mean standard deviation of 0.0231 was obtained
Recommended from our members
Innovative Selective Laser Sintering Rapid Manufacturing using Nanotechnology
The objective of this research is to develop an improved nylon 11 (polyamide 11) polymer
with enhanced flame retardancy, thermal, and mechanical properties for selective laser sintering
(SLS) rapid manufacturing (RM). A nanophase was introduced into nylon 11 via twin screw
extrusion to provide improved material properties of the polymer blends. Atofina (now known
as Arkema) RILSAN® nylon 11 injection molding polymer pellets was used with three types of
nanoparticles: chemically modified montmorillonite (MMT) organoclays, nanosilica, and carbon
nanofibers (CNF) to create nylon 11 nanocomposites. Wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD)
and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to determine the degree of dispersion.
Fifteen nylon 11 nanocomposites and control nylon 11 were fabricated by injection molding.
Flammability properties (using a cone calorimeter with a radiant flux of 50 kW/m2
) and
mechanical properties such as tensile strength and modulus, flexural modulus, elongation at
break were determined for the nylon 11 nanocomposites and compared with the baseline nylon
11. Based on flammability and mechanical material performance, five polymers including four
nylon 11 nanocomposites and a control nylon 11 were cryogenically ground into fine powders
for SLS RM. SLS specimens were fabricated for flammability, mechanical, and thermal
properties characterization. Nylon 11-CNF nanocomposites exhibited the best overall properties
for this study.Mechanical Engineerin
Comparison of chemical profiles and effectiveness between Erxian decoction and mixtures of decoctions of its individual herbs : a novel approach for identification of the standard chemicals
Acknowledgements This study was partially supported by grants from the Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research (Project Number 201211159146 and 201411159213), the University of Hong Kong. We thank Mr Keith Wong and Ms Cindy Lee for their technical assistances.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
- …