Biologic stability of plasma ion-implanted miniscrews

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A DEM investigation of water-bridged granular materials at the critical state

The critical state is an important concept for saturated and partially saturated granular materials as the strength and volume become constant and unique under continuous shear. By incorporating the water bridge effect, the mechanical behaviours of wet granular matters can be studied by the discrete element method (DEM). A series of DEM simulations are performed following the conventional triaxial loading path for dry and wet granular materials, and different suction values are applied at various confining stress levels. Unique critical state behaviours have been observed in both macroscopic and microscopic scales. It shows that the confining stress level plays an important role in the critical state behaviour of wet granular materials. The critical stress ratio for a wet material is not a constant value at different stress levels, and it is found that both the critical stress ratio and void ratio in wet granular matters are also much higher with a low confining stress. A framework is proposed by considering both the contact stress and the capillary stress effects to model the critical state lines. At large strain, the coordination number, the mean inter-particle force and fabric anisotropies evolve to constant critical state values for both dry and wet materials. The macro-parameters formulating the critical state stress ratio are found to be associated with the critical state anisotropies in solid skeleton and water phase fabrics, respectively

A GPU-accelerated three-dimensional SPH solver for geotechnical applications

A three-dimensional GPU-accelerated SPH solver is developed and ready to be released as an open-source tool. In this paper, the SPH formulation, geomechnical aspects of SPH modeling and the GPU parallelization are presented. A numerical case of granular flow passing a cylindrical obstacle is simulated to show the performance of the solver

Numerical shakedown and non-shakedown responses of a Tresca half-space to a three-dimensional moving load

Flexible pavements may fail due to excessive rutting as a result of accumulative plastic deformation; otherwise, if the load is small enough, pavements may deform plastically in the first number of load cycles and then reach a stable state which is termed as ‘shakedown’. Recently some lower-bound and upper-bound solutions have been developed to directly determine the load limit (i.e. shakedown limit) below which an elastic-plastic half space can shake down. However, the actual responses of an elasticplastic half-space subjected to repeated moving loads were not well revealed. In the present study, repeated moving surface loads are applied to a three-dimensional finite element model established in ABAQUS to research on the development of stresses and strains in a Tresca half-space. Also, a numerical shakedown limit can be determined according to the yield condition of structure under a static load following a number of load passes. It is found the development of residual stresses induced by plastic strains plays a key role in helping the half-space to reach the shakedown state. Good agreements are also observed between numerical and theoretical solutions for both shakedown limit and residual stress fields

Experimental investigation on the deformation characteristics of granular materials under drained rotational shear

Rotational shear is the type of loading path where samples are subjected to cyclic rotation of principal stress directions while the magnitudes of principal stresses are maintained constant. This paper presents results from an experimental investigation on the drained deformation behaviour of saturated sand in rotational shear conducted in a hollow cylinder apparatus. Two types of granular materials, Leighton Buzzard sand and glass beads are tested. A range of influential factors are investigated including the material density, the deviatoric stress level, and the intermediate principal stress. It is observed that the volumetric strain during rotational shear is mainly contractive and most of strains are generated during the first 20 cycles. The mechanical behaviour of sand under rotational shear is generally non-coaxial, i.e., there is no coincidence between the principal axes of stress and incremental strain, and the variation of the non-coaxiality shows a periodic trend during the tests. The stress ratio has a significant effect on soil response in rotational shear. The larger the stress ratio, the more contractive behaviour and the lower degree of non-coaxiality are induced. The test also demonstrates that the effect of the intermediate principal stress, material density and particle shape on the results is pronounced

Revealing the impacts of passive cooling techniques on building energy performance: A residential case in Hong Kong

Environmental concerns and growing energy costs raise the importance of sustainable development and energy conservation. The building sector accounts for a significant portion of total energy consumption. Passive cooling techniques provide a promising and cost-efficient solution to reducing the energy demand of buildings. Based on a typical residential case in Hong Kong, this study aims to analyze the integration of various passive cooling techniques on annual and hourly building energy demand with whole building simulation. The results indicate that infiltration and insulation improvement are effective in regard to energy conservation in buildings, while the effectiveness of variations in building orientation, increasing natural ventilation rate, and phase change materials (PCM) are less significant. The findings will be helpful in the passive house standard development in Hong Kong and contribute to the further optimization work to realize both energy efficiency and favorably built environments in residential buildings.</jats:p

DEM and experimental study of bi-directional simple shear

Stress–strain responses of granular material under bi-directional simple shear are comprehensively studied experimentally and numerically. The variable direction dynamic cyclic simple shear apparatus is used to test glass beads under various loading paths, and the DEM is used to reproduce experimental results. These two methods are complementary to each other. The glass beads are subject to the first shearing until a specified shear strain is reached, followed by the second shearing until the failure of samples, and the two shears are at various angles. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical results. Both experimental and numerical studies indicate that the development of shear stresses is dependent on the angle between the two shears in the early stage, and they approach the same ultimate values at the failure. The lateral stress, principal stress and non-coaxiality are also studied in the DEM simulation. While the lateral stress and principal stress are dependent on the angle, the orientations of principal stresses and plastic strain rate almost reach the same value at the failure. The contact force network and material fabric are also investigated to provide insight into the micro-scale responses and macro–micro relations regarding bi-directional simple shear

An easy to control all-metal in-line-series ohmic RF MEMS switch

Copyright @ 2010 Springer-VerlagThe analysis, design and simulation of a novel easy to control all-metal in-line-series ohmic RF MEMS switch is presented, for applications where the operating frequency ranges from DC to 4 GHz. The proposed switch, due to its unique shape and size, assures high isolation and great linearity fulfilling the necessary requirements as concerns loss, power handling and power consumption. Simplicity has been set as the key success factor implying robustness and high fabrication yield. On the other hand, the specially designed cantilever-shape (hammerhead) allows distributed actuation force ensuring high controllability as well as reliability making the presented RF MEMS switch one of its kind

Associations between IL12B polymorphisms and tuberculosis in the Hong Kong Chinese population

Background. Interleukin (IL)-12 plays a vital role in regulating cell-mediated immunity against tuberculosis (TB). Methods. To test whether IL12B genetic polymorphisms might contribute to human TB susceptibility, we examined the genotype frequencies of 5 IL12B polymorphisms (at promoter, intron 2, intron 4, exon 5, and 3′ untranslated region [UTR]) in 516 patients with TB and 514 healthy control subjects from the Hong Kong Chinese population. Results. Individuals homozygous for the IL12B intron 2-repeat marker (ATT) 8 had a 2.1-fold increased risk of developing TB (P < .001) (odds ratio, 2.14 [95% confidence interval, 1.45-3.19]). Estimation of the frequencies of multiple-locus haplotypes composed of IL12B promoter, intron 2, intron 4, and 3′ UTR alleles revealed potential risk haplotypes (designated "A" and "K") and protective haplotypes (designated "B") for TB. Furthermore, combining the genotype data of the 4 informative IL12B loci revealed a strong association between a specific genotype pattern, termed "diplotype I" (heterozygous A and K haplotypes), and TB. In contrast, diplotype II (homozygous BB haplotypes) appeared protective against TB. Conclusions. These findings support the association between IL12B intron 2 polymorphism and TB and between specific IL12B haplotypes and TB.published_or_final_versio

A New Technique for Reachability of States in Concatenation Automata

We present a new technique for demonstrating the reachability of states in deterministic finite automata representing the concatenation of two languages. Such demonstrations are a necessary step in establishing the state complexity of the concatenation of two languages, and thus in establishing the state complexity of concatenation as an operation. Typically, ad-hoc induction arguments are used to show particular states are reachable in concatenation automata. We prove some results that seem to capture the essence of many of these induction arguments. Using these results, reachability proofs in concatenation automata can often be done more simply and without using induction directly.Comment: 23 pages, 1 table. Added missing affiliation/funding informatio