Fatigue Damage in Notched Composite Laminates Under Tension-Tension Cyclic Loads

The results are given of an investigation to determine the damage states which develop in graphite epoxy laminates with center holes due to tension-tension cyclic loads, to determine the influence of stacking sequence on the initiation and interaction of damage modes and the process of damage development, and to establish the relationships between the damage states and the strength, stiffness, and life of the laminates. Two quasi-isotropic laminates were selected to give different distributions of interlaminar stresses around the hole. The laminates were tested under cyclic loads (R=0.1, 10 Hz) at maximum stresses ranging between 60 and 95 percent of the notched tensile strength

Adaptive controller for hyperthermia robot

This paper describes the development of an adaptive computer control routine for a robotically, deployed focused, ultrasonic hyperthermia cancer treatment system. The control algorithm developed herein uses physiological models of a tumor and the surrounding healthy tissue regions and transient temperature data to estimate the treatment region`s blood perfusion. This estimate is used to vary the specific power profile of a scanned, focused ultrasonic transducer to achieve a temperature distribution as close as possible to an optimal temperature distribution. The controller is evaluated using simulations of diseased tissue and using limited experiments on a scanned, focused ultrasonic treatment system that employs a 5-Degree-of-Freedom (D.O.F.) robot to scan the treatment transducers over a simulated patient. Results of the simulations and experiments indicate that the adaptive control routine improves the temperature distribution over standard classical control algorithms if good (although not exact) knowledge of the treated region is available. Although developed with a scanned, focused ultrasonic robotic treatment system in mind, the control algorithm is applicable to any system with the capability to vary specific power as a function of volume and having an unknown distributed energy sink proportional to temperature elevation (e.g., other robotically deployed hyperthermia treatment methods using different heating modalities)

The laboratory telerobotic manipulator program

New opportunities for the application of telerobotic systems to enhance human intelligence and dexterity in the hazardous environment of space are presented by the NASA Space Station Program. Because of the need for significant increases in extravehicular activity and the potential increase in hazards associated with space programs, emphasis is being heightened on telerobotic systems research and development. The Laboratory Telerobotic Manipulator (LTM) program is performed to develop and demonstrate ground-based telerobotic manipulator system hardware for research and demonstrations aimed at future NASA applications. The LTM incorporates traction drives, modularity, redundant kinematics, and state-of-the-art hierarchical control techniques to form a basis for merging the diverse technological domains of robust, high-dexterity teleoperations and autonomous robotic operation into common hardware to further NASA's research

Ab initio study of reflectance anisotropy spectra of a sub-monolayer oxidized Si(100) surface

The effects of oxygen adsorption on the reflectance anisotropy spectrum (RAS) of reconstructed Si(100):O surfaces at sub-monolayer coverage (first stages of oxidation) have been studied by an ab initio DFT-LDA scheme within a plane-wave, norm-conserving pseudopotential approach. Dangling bonds and the main features of the characteristic RAS of the clean Si(100) surface are mostly preserved after oxidation of 50% of the surface dimers, with some visible changes: a small red shift of the first peak, and the appearance of a distinct spectral structure at about 1.5 eV. The electronic transitions involved in the latter have been analyzed through state-by-state and layer-by-layer decompositions of the RAS. We suggest that new interplay between present theoretical results and reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy experiments could lead to further clarification of structural and kinetic details of the Si(100) oxidation process in the sub-monolayer range.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures. To be published in Physical Rev.

The Virtual Robotics Laboratory

The growth of the Internet has provided a unique opportunity to expand research collaborations between industry, universities, and the national laboratories. The Virtual Robotics Laboratory (VRL) is an innovative program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) that is focusing on the issues related to collaborative research through controlled access of laboratory equipment using the World Wide Web. The VRL will provide different levels of access to selected ORNL laboratory equipment to outside universities, industrial researchers, and elementary and secondary education programs. In the past, the ORNL Robotics and Process Systems Division (RPSD) has developed state-of-the-art robotic systems for the Army, NASA, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, as well as many other clients. After proof of concept, many of these systems sit dormant in the laboratories. This is not out of completion of all possible research topics, but from completion of contracts and generation of new programs. In the past, a number of visiting professors have used this equipment for their own research. However, this requires that the professor, and possibly his students, spend extended periods at the laboratory facility. In addition, only a very exclusive group of faculty can gain access to the laboratory and hardware. The VRL is a tool that enables extended collaborative efforts without regard to geographic limitations

Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning

The way in which school students represent affective aspects of human relationships in drama and what this reveals about learning in drama is the focus of this paper. Such an enquiry traverses the borders between affect, intellect and physicality. Affect and its representation in drama have been themes in the history of drama and theatre and is a current concern in the field of applied theatre and drama. Writers on drama in schools have hitherto been mostly concerned with affect in terms of feelings experienced and emotions represented by students participating in drama. There has, however, been little theorisation of what students’ representation of affective human relations might reveal about the complexity of learning processes involved. Cultural theories of representation and learning are related to an example, drawn from field notes, of school student drama in which students present a stylised representation of a relationship. Because affect is intimately connected with both the bodilyness and modes of representation in drama, multimodal social semiotic analysis will be used as one component of a framework to draw attention to the body as a principal material and tool for making meaning in drama. Theoretically, explanations of learning will be taken from the work of Vygotsky, who maintained a lifelong interest in both drama and learning and the relationship between the two. Concepts taken from the cultural theories of Raymond Williams are also referred to – specifically to the ways in which cultural activity and artefacts represent ‘structures of feeling’