On the Use of Piezoelectric Sensors in Structural Mechanics: Some Novel Strategies

In the present paper, a review on piezoelectric sensing of mechanical deformations and vibrations of so-called smart or intelligent structures is given. After a short introduction into piezoelectric sensing and actuation of such controlled structures, we pay special emphasis on the description of some own work, which has been performed at the Institute of Technical Mechanics of the Johannes Kepler University of Linz (JKU) in the last years. Among other aspects, this work has been motivated by the fact that collocated control of smart structures requires a sensor output that is work-conjugated to the input by the actuator. This fact in turn brings into the play the more general question of how to measure mechanically meaningful structural quantities, such as displacements, slopes, or other quantities, which form the work-conjugated quantities of the actuation, by means piezoelectric sensors. At least in the range of small strains, there is confidence that distributed piezoelectric sensors or sensor patches in smart structures do measure weighted integrals over their domain. Therefore, there is a need of distributing or shaping the sensor activity in order to be able to re-interpret the sensor signals in the desired mechanical sense. We sketch a general strategy that is based on a special application of work principles, more generally on displacement virials. We also review our work in the past on bringing this concept to application in smart structures, such as beams, rods and plates

Mechanical Mixing in Nonlinear Nanomechanical Resonators

Nanomechanical resonators, machined out of Silicon-on-Insulator wafers, are operated in the nonlinear regime to investigate higher-order mechanical mixing at radio frequencies, relevant to signal processing and nonlinear dynamics on nanometer scales. Driven by two neighboring frequencies the resonators generate rich power spectra exhibiting a multitude of satellite peaks. This nonlinear response is studied and compared to $n^{th}$-order perturbation theory and nonperturbative numerical calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Exploring the Language Socialization of Study Abroad Medical Students in Hungary

In the present study, I explore the identity construction of study abroad medical students at the University of Pécs Medical School through the coding and qualitative content analysis of written accounts and interview data. I aim to understand the factors leading to or prohibiting students from developing multiplex social networks during their sojourn. 133 first- and secondyear medical students submitted written accounts of their experiences, and five study abroad medical students were interviewed for the research. I collected the written data in February of 2019. The participants were asked to provide a story detailing their experience as a study abroad student in Pécs. After two coding cycles, I identified five aspects of identity construction namely SELF-EVALUATION, EVALUATION OF THE SA CONTEXT, ADJUSTING TO THE SA CONTEXT, SOCIAL NETWORKS, and COMMUNICATION; and their connection with the participants’ language socialization. The semi-structured interviews took place in February of 2020. I designed the interview questions based on the aspects of identity construction identified in the written data the previous year. After transcribing and coding the interview data, I analysed the interviews keeping in mind the aspects of identity construction, and focusing on the topics of identity, agency, and the development of social networks. The analysis revealed that international medical students in Pécs seemed to consider their study abroad experience to be a time of personal change and identity construction. The accounts pointed to a limited interest in the host culture and members of the host community. The written accounts suggested that study abroad medical students in Pécs rarely manage to build social networks that contain members of the host community. The five interviewees’ identities rarely led to seeking out access to members of the host community. Despite their beliefs of the study abroad being a time of personal growth and learning, and despite the proclaimed language learner identities of some of them, most interviewees did not exercise their agency over their Hungarian language learning or over constructing social6 networks that involve Hungarians. The only exception was an Uyghur student, who found a meaningful historical connection between his identity as an ethnic minority and the host culture. His case demonstrated how an investment in the host culture, identity construction, and agency over language learning can lead to legitimate participation in a Hungarian-speaking community of practice and regular, meaningful Hungarian input

Dynamic displacement tracking in viscoelastic solids by actuation stresses: a one-dimensional analytic example involving shock waves

A one-dimensional (1D) analytic example for dynamic displacement tracking in linear viscoelastic solids is presented. Displacement tracking is achieved by actuation stresses that are produced by eigenstrains. Our 1D example deals with a viscoelastic half-space under the action of a suddenly applied tensile surface traction. The surface traction induces a uni-axial shock wave that travels into the half-space. Our tracking goal is to add to the applied surface traction a transient spatial distribution of actuation stresses such that the total displacement of the viscoelastic half-space coincides with the shock wave produced by the surface traction in a purely elastic half-space. We particularly consider a half-space made of a viscoelastic Maxwell-type material. Analytic solutions to this tracking problem are derived by means of the symbolic computer code MAPLE. The 1D solution presented below exemplifies a formal 3D solution derived earlier by the present authors for linear viscoelastic solids that are described by Boltzmann hereditary laws. In the latter formal solution, no reference was made to shock waves. Our present solution demonstrates its validity also in the presence of singular wave fronts. Moreover, in our example, we show that, as was also indicated in our earlier work, the actuation stress can be split into two parts, one of them producing no stresses, and the other no displacements in two properly enlarged problems

Electromechanical analysis of an adaptive piezoelectric energy harvester controlled by two segmented electrodes with shunt circuit networks

This paper presents an adaptive power harvester using a shunted piezoelectric control system with segmented electrodes. This technique has spurred new capability for widening the three simultaneous resonance frequency peaks using only a single piezoelectric laminated beam where normally previous works only provide a single peak for the resonance at the first mode. The benefit of the proposed techniques is that it provides effective and robust broadband power generation for application in self-powered wireless sensor devices. The smart structure beam with proof mass offset is considered to have simultaneous combination between vibration-based power harvesting and shunt circuit control-based electrode segments. As a result, the system spurs new development of the two mathematical methods using electromechanical closed-boundary value techniques and Ritz method-based weak-form analytical approach. The two methods have been used for comparison giving accurate results. For different electrode lengths using certain parametric tuning and harvesting circuit systems, the technique enables the prediction of the power harvesting that can be further proved to identify the performance of the system using the effect of varying circuit parameters so as to visualize the frequency and time waveform responses

Influence of rate dependent plasticity on a sheet metal bending process

The high demands on precision and quality of industrial sheet metal forming processes are increasing steadily. Therefore, more and more effects concerning the machines but also the material behaviour of the workpiece must be considered. Here, we consider an automatic panel bender of Salvagnini Maschinenbau GmbH. In this application, it turned out that the speed of bending is a relevant influence factor. Goal of this work is to estimate the influence of strain rate on bending forces and the shape of the bent profile

A new numerical method for inverse Laplace transforms used to obtain gluon distributions from the proton structure function

We recently derived a very accurate and fast new algorithm for numerically inverting the Laplace transforms needed to obtain gluon distributions from the proton structure function $F_2^{\gamma p}(x,Q^2)$. We numerically inverted the function $g(s)$, $s$ being the variable in Laplace space, to $G(v)$, where $v$ is the variable in ordinary space. We have since discovered that the algorithm does not work if $g(s)\rightarrow 0$ less rapidly than $1/s$ as $s\rightarrow\infty$, e.g., as $1/s^\beta$ for $0<\beta<1$. In this note, we derive a new numerical algorithm for such cases, which holds for all positive and non-integer negative values of $\beta$. The new algorithm is {\em exact} if the original function $G(v)$ is given by the product of a power $v^{\beta-1}$ and a polynomial in $v$. We test the algorithm numerically for very small positive $\beta$, $\beta=10^{-6}$ obtaining numerical results that imitate the Dirac delta function $\delta(v)$. We also devolve the published MSTW2008LO gluon distribution at virtuality $Q^2=5$ GeV$^2$ down to the lower virtuality $Q^2=1.69$ GeV$^2$. For devolution, $\beta$ is negative, giving rise to inverse Laplace transforms that are distributions and not proper functions. This requires us to introduce the concept of Hadamard Finite Part integrals, which we discuss in detail.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures; title and abstract changed, typos correcte

Spatial distribution of PAH concentrations and stable isotope signatures (δ13C, δ15N) in mosses from three European areas – Characterization by multivariate analysis

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations and N, C stable isotope signatures were determined in mosses Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw. from 61 sites of 3 European regions: Île-de-France (France); Navarra (Spain); the Swiss Plateau and Basel area (Switzerland). Total PAH concentrations of 100-700 ng g-1, as well as δ13C values of -32 to -29‰ and δ15N values of -11 to -3‰ were measured. Pearson correlation tests revealed opposite trends between high molecular weight PAH (4-6 aromatic rings) content and δ13C values. Partial Least Square regressions explained the very significant correlations (r > 0.91, p < 0.001) between high molecular weight PAH concentrations by local urban land use (<10 km) and environmental factors such as elevation and pluviometry. Finally, specific correlations between heavy metal and PAH concentrations were attributed to industrial emissions in Switzerland and road traffic emissions in Spain