In this study, the impact response of glass/epoxy laminates interleaved by Polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers is considered. PCL is a thermoplastic polymer, which is a good choice for toughening epoxy-based composite. The impact tests were conducted on curved laminates and under 24 and 36J. The results showed that the effect of interleaving on impact parameters such as maximum load is negligible, but on the other hand could decrease damaged area significantly. By inserting 30?m of PCL nanofibers between each layer of laminate the damaged area decreased about 27%.

The effect of football neck collar on the right external carotid blood flow was investigated for ten healthy subjects using Echo-Doppler technique and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. Carotid is in charge of blooding head’s parts including the brain and eyes. Hence, the evaluation of affected carotid flow by using neck collars is crucial for an improved ergonomic design. The testings were divided into three main categories; participants without wearing neck collar (Category 1), wearing neck collar (Category 2), and finally wearing neck collar with an embedded gap adjacent to the carotid artery position (Category 3). The experimental and numerical results revealed that wearing the neck collar (Category 2) reduced the average blood carotid flow by 28% compared to the case with no neck collar (Category 1). This average blood carotid flow reduction was improved by 15% when a gap separates the collar from the carotid artery position (Category 3). The results of this paper suggest a new design for the next generation of the neck collar by devising an appropriate gap near to carotid artery. The numerical results were validated and were in a reasonable agreement with the experimental data.

In this paper, a volume criterion based on a simple scalar quantity, the mean value of the strain energy (SED), has been used to assess the static strength of notched components made of Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). The local-strain-energy based approach has been applied to a well-documented set of experimental data recently reported in the literature. Data refer to blunt U-notched cylindrical specimens of commercial PMMA subjected to static loads and characterised by a large variability of notch tip radius (from 0.67 mm to 2.20 mm). Critical loads obtained experimentally have been compared with the theoretical ones, estimated by keeping constant the mean value of the strain energy in a well-defined small size volume. In addition, some new tests dealing with V-notched specimens with end holes have been carried out to investigate the effect of the notch opening angle.

Cutouts are commonly used as access port for mechanical and electrical structures. Most of the structures generally work under severe dynamic loading and different constrained conditions during their service life. This may lead to vibration of the structure. Therefore, it is necessary to predict the vibration responses of laminated composite plates with cutouts precisely with less computational cost and good accuracy of these complex structures. A suitable finite element model is proposed and developed based on first order shear deformation theory using ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) code. The model has been discretized using an appropriate eight nodded element (SHELL 281) from the ANSYS element library. The free vibrations are computed using Block-Lanczos algorithm. The convergence study has been done of the developed model and compared with those available published literature. Effects of different geometric parameters (aspect ratio, thickness ratio, boundary conditions, number of layers, angle of lamina geometry of cutout, cutout side to plate side ratio and distance between cutouts) and material properties on the free vibration responses are discussed in detail. The frequency increases with increase in the number of layers, modulus ratio of plate and angle of lamina. The frequency decreases with increase in aspect ratio, thickness ratio, size of cutout and distance between cutouts. The boundary conditions of the plate play an important role in the free vibrations of the plate with cutouts. The Non-dimensional frequencies are higher for fully clamped boundary condition in comparison to other boundary conditions.

The investigation of dynamic response of intervertebral disc is beneficial for the development of new synthetic and engineered tissues for treating diseased or injured disc. There are limited experimental studies on comparing the effect of loading mode and rate on global response of intervertebral disc. In this study, in-vitro experiments were performed using a total of 24 porcine motion segments. The harvested specimens were assigned to prolong and 2 different cyclic loadings. Both disc deformations and water contents were measured to investigate how the mode and rate of loading affect the response of intervertebral disc. In parallel, a backward FE poroelastic model combined with in-vitro experiments were used to find the material properties of intervertebral discs. The experimental result showed that the final disc height loss under creep loading was significantly greater than cyclic groups. Increasing the frequency of cyclic loading decreased the disc height loss. The water content decreased significantly in cyclic loading from those in prolong loading. The backward FE models showed that, the elastic modulus of anulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus were 2.43 (±0.48) MPa and 1.46 (±0.29) MPa, respectively. The hydraulic permeability was 2.08 (±0.42) ×10-16m4/Ns, and the Poisson’s ratio was 0.21 (±0.03). In conclusion, this study investigated how the loading mode and rate affect porcine intervertebral disc deformation. It is found that dynamic stiffness is greater at higher frequencies which resulted from interactions between the solid phase and fluid flow within the disc.

Leaf springs in vehicles are used to absorb, store and release energy. During this cycle stresses induced in the springs must not exceed design stress, in order to avoid settling or premature failure. Number of experiments are done in order to determine the stresses, load rate and deflection, which involves lot of time and cost. Today, the technologies in leaf springs are changing gradually; therefore new tools are required to keep aligned with worldwide technological requirements. The work presented in this paper provides a CAE solution to static analysis of 65Si7 leaf springs used in light commercial vehicles (LCV’s). A practical model of leaf spring used in LCV has been taken into consideration for this study. It has been experimentally tested for deflection, stress and load rate on a full scale leaf spring testing machine. A static structural CAE analysis of leaf spring has been done under similar loading condition. The CAD model of the leaf spring has been prepared in solid works and analyzed using ANSYS. Using CAE tools, ideal type of contact and meshing elements have been proposed to achieve results closer to the experimental results. The analytical method for static analysis of the leaf springs has also been described. CAE results have been compared with experimental and analytical results for validation.

The fatigue failure around rail-end-bolt holes is particularly dangerous since it leads to derailment of trains and consequently to inevitable accidents. It is well-known that the fatigue life of structural holed components, subjected to cyclic load, can be increased by generating compressive hoop stresses around the holes. These beneficial residual compressive stresses significantly reduce the maximum values of the operating tensile stresses arising at the critical points of the components and thus impede the formation of first mode cracks. A new approach to enhancement of fatigue life of rail-end-bolt holes has been developed. The approach involves sequential drilling and reaming through a new combined tool and then slide diamond burnishing by a new device. The technology implementation was carried out on machine tool. The process of creating residual stresses has been studied both experimentally and numerically. The experimental study was conducted by means of a modified split ring method. A reliable finite element modeling approach to the slide diamond burnishing process was developed. On this basis, the process was optimized by means of a genetic algorithm. As a result, the optimal combination of the governing process parameters is established, which ensures both maximum depth of the compressive zone and maximum absolute values of the residual stresses.

In this paper, we have provided hands-on experience in systematic design, implementation and flight test of an atmospheric data acquisition flying vehicle as a standard CanSat telemetry mission. This system is designed for launching from a rocket at a separation altitude about 1000-meter. During its flight, the reusable flying vehicle collects environmental data and transmits it directly to the ground station. The ground station, which is implemented at a pre-defined radio frequency band receives data and plots the respective graphs. The design performs based on a systematic approach, in which the first step is set aside to mission and objectives definition. In the next step, the system requirements are identified and the required main subsystems and elements with their technical requirements will be extracted. The structure analyses were also performed by ABAQUS software to obtain the natural frequency and the mode shape. The wireless communications, onboard microcontroller programming, sensor interfacing and analog to digital conversion describe the basic technologies employed in the system implementation. This flying vehicle in comparison with the other similar ones is more lightweight, has few interface circuits and high precision sensors. According to the flight test outputs, low power consumption, high transmit line up to 2Km despite of limitation in TX power and up to 10g normal acceleration withstanding are important specific characteristics of the implemented flying system.

The effect of first nonsingular stress term of elastic stress field on fracture toughness around bi-material notch tip is studies in this paper. First, a modified maximum tangential stress criterion (MMTS) is proposed for determination of the fracture toughness at the tip of the interface notches. The proposed criterion takes into account the effect of first nonsingular stress term as well as the singular stress terms. Then, the effect of I-stress on determination of the fracture toughness is studied analytically. Finally, the proposed criterion is applied on a finite element (FE) simulated laboratory specimen. A very good correlation was observed between the FE results and theoretical predictions.

Fracture phenomenon in orthotropic materials, generally associates with region called, “damaged zone” in crack tip vicinity. In quasi-brittle materials, this area is known as fracture process zone (FPZ). This area contains a multitude of microcracks, which cause difficulties in analytical process of the region. Also, energy waste in damaged zone can affect the material fracture properties. The characteristics of damaged zone should be considered to figure out the residual strength of composite materials. It also can help to predict the value or even the direction of crack growth of orthotropic materials. So far, several efforts have been made to determine the mechanical properties of this region, but none of them (due to the immense complexity of this region) can express the behavior of this region properly. Moreover, previous approach has not been verified by new experimental and numerical results, yet. In the present study, a new approach “damaged zone simulation (DZS)” is proposed based on the experimental and numerical data, for investigating the orthotropic damaged zone properties. Comparison with existing analytical data shows the capabilities of the presented approach.