In vitro ultrasonic and mechanic characterization of the modulus of elasticity of children cortical bone

The assessment of elastic properties in children’s cortical bone is a major challenge for biomechanical engineering community, more widely for health care professionals. Even with classical clinical modalities such as X-ray tomography, MRI, and/or echography, inappropriate diagnosis can result from the lack of reference values for children bone. This study provides values for elastic properties of cortical bone in children using ultrasonic and mechanical measurements, and compares them with adult values. 18 fibula samples from 8 children (5–16 years old, mean age 10.6 years old ±4.4) were compared to 16 fibula samples from 3 elderly adults (more than 65 years old). First, the dynamic modulus of elasticity (E_dyn) and Poisson’s ratio (ν) are evaluated via an ultrasonic method. Second, the static modulus of elasticity (E_sta) is estimated from a 3-point microbending test. The mean values of longitudinal and transverse wave velocities measured at 10 MHz for the children’s samples are respectively 3.2 mm/μs (±0.5) and 1.8 mm/μs (±0.1); for the elderly adults’ samples, velocities are respectively 3.5 mm/μs (±0.2) and 1.9 mm/μs (±0.09). The mean E_dyn and the mean E_sta for the children’s samples are respectively 15.5 GPa (±3.4) and 9.1 GPa (±3.5); for the elderly adults’ samples, they are respectively 16.7 GPa (±1.9) and 5.8 GPa (±2.1). E_dyn, ν and E_sta are in the same range for children’s and elderly adults’ bone without any parametric statistical difference; a ranking correlation between E_dyn and E_sta is shown for the first time.     

Friction and wear performance of some thermoplastic polymers and polymer composites against unsaturated polyester

Wear experiments have been carried out with a range of unfilled and filled engineering thermoplastic polymers sliding against a 15% glass fibre reinforced unsaturated polyester polymer under 20, 40 and 60 N loads and 0.5 m/s sliding speed. Pin materials used in this experimental investigation are polyamide 66 (PA 66), poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) and aliphatic polyketone (APK), glass fibre reinforced polyamide 46 (PA 46 + 30% GFR), glass fibre reinforced polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE + 17% GFR), glass fibre reinforced poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK + 20% GFR), glass fibre reinforced poly-phylene-sulfide (PPS + 30% GFR), polytetrafluoroethylene filled polyamide 66 (PA 66 + 10% PTFE) and bronze filled pofytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE + 25% bronze) engineering polymers. The disc material is a 15% glass fibre reinforced unsaturated polyester thermoset polymer produced by Bulk Moulding Compound (BMC). Sliding wear tests were carried out on a pin-on-disc apparatus under 0.5 m/s sliding speed and load values of 20, 40 and 60 N. The results showed that the highest specific wear rate is for PPS + 30% GFR with a value of 1 × 10⁻¹¹ m²/N and the lowest wear rate is for PTFE + 17% GFR with a value of 9.41 × 10⁻¹⁵ m²/N. For the materials and test conditions of this investigation, apart from polyamide 66 and PA 46 + 30% GFR polymers, the coefficient of friction and specific wear rates are not significantly affected by the change in load value. For polyamide 66 and PA 46 + 30% GFR polymers the coefficient of friction and specific wear rates vary linearly with the variation in load values.     

Design of dual-core resonant leaky optical fibre based gain flattening filters for erbium doped fibre amplifiers

We propose optical fibre based filters employing dual-core resonant leaky structure for gain equalization of erbium doped fibre amplifier (EDFA). Spectral loss variation of the structure has been utilized to suppress gain peak and, thus, flatten overall gain profile in the C-band. We show 15.7 dB flat gain with ± 1.6 dB ripple in the wavelength range from 1525 nm to 1555 nm using a single filter and 18±0.7 dB gain using two cascaded filters.     

Using 1 MHz pulse-echo ultrasound externally applied to detect mastoid effusion: cadaver experiments

The objective of this study is to explore the feasibility of using ultrasound to detect mastoid effusion (ME). In the past, ultrasound has been used to measure middle ear effusion (MEE) by injecting water into the external ear canal to measure echoes from the tympanic membrane, which is uncomfortable for the patient. It has been shown that air cells in the mastoid of patients with MEE are filled with fluid, which implies that ME could be a useful indicator of MEE. This study suggests using ultrasound to detect ME as a potentially noninvasive approach for MEE detection. In vitro experiments were performed on ten cadaver samples of the human ear. A single-element 1 MHz transducer was used to measure the mastoid of each cadaver before and after injecting water into the mastoid. The experimental results showed that the relative amplitudes of ultrasonic signals differed significantly between before (0.24 ± 0.09, mean ± standard deviation) and after (0.15 ± 0.03) the water injection (p < 0.05, t-test), demonstrating that the ultrasonic reflection can be used to detect ME. The location of the human mastoid under the skin behind the ear allows external measurements, and hence ultrasound-based ME detection may be an alternative, noninvasive diagnostic approach to detecting MEE in the future, providing an examination that avoids discomfort.     

Simple sensing head geometry using fibre Bragg gratings for strain-temperature discrimination

In this work, a simple sensing head geometry using fibre Bragg gratings for strain and temperature discrimination is presented. The sensing head geometry consists in one fibre with two FBGs bonded with a dummy optical fibre. Due to this new configuration, different strain sensitivities of the two FBGs are obtained (≈65% difference), while temperature sensitivities remain the same. This difference in strain sensitivities is substantially larger than in all previously reported dual grating sensors. The obtained experimental errors were ±13.48 με and ±2.44 °C, respectively. It is also demonstrated that this new configuration can be used as a temperature-independent strain sensor.     

Influence of the substrate position angle on the adhesion of ZnO thin films deposited on polyimide foil substrates

ZnO thin films, as polymer protection layers against ultraviolet radiation, were deposited on polyimide foil substrates using cathodic vacuum arc deposition technique. X-ray diffraction results showed that all the samples had (0 0 2) preferred orientation and the FWHM decreased as the position angle decreased. A fragmentation test was employed to investigate the influence of substrate position angle on the adhesion of ZnO thin films. It was found that the intrinsic adhesion between the ZnO film and the polyimide substrate is about 60 MPa at the substrate position angle of 0°. When the position angle increases to ±60°, the value of intrinsic adhesion decreases to about 30 MPa.     

Development of calibration techniques for ultrasonic hydrophone probes in the frequency range from 1 to 100 MHz

The primary objective of this work was to develop and optimize the calibration techniques for ultrasonic hydrophone probes used in acoustic field measurements up to 100 MHz. A dependable, 100 MHz calibration method was necessary to examine the behavior of a sub-millimeter spatial resolution fiber optic (FO) sensor and assess the need for such a sensor as an alternative tool for high frequency characterization of ultrasound fields. Also, it was of interest to investigate the feasibility of using FO probes in high intensity fields such as those employed in HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound) applications. In addition to the development and validation of a novel, 100 MHz calibration technique the innovative elements of this research include implementation and testing of a prototype FO sensor with an active diameter of about 10 μm that exhibits uniform sensitivity over the considered frequency range and does not require any spatial averaging corrections up to about 75 MHz. The results of the calibration measurements are presented and it is shown that the optimized calibration technique allows the sensitivity of the hydrophone probes to be determined as a virtually continuous function of frequency and is also well suited to verify the uniformity of the FO sensor frequency response. As anticipated, the overall uncertainty of the calibration was dependent on frequency and determined to be about ±12% (±1 dB) up to 40 MHz, ±20% (±1.5 dB) from 40 to 60 MHz and ±25% (±2 dB) from 60 to 100 MHz. The outcome of this research indicates that once fully developed and calibrated, the combined acousto-optic system will constitute a universal reference tool in the wide, 100 MHz bandwidth.     

Estimation of the fibre temperature during the inscription of arc-induced long-period gratings

The underlying formation mechanisms and the properties of long-period gratings produced through arc discharges are intrinsically related to the temperature reached by the fibre during arc exposure. In this work, the determination of the fibre temperature was based on Plank’s blackbody radiation law. The radiation emitted by the optical fibre during heating due to an electric arc discharge, detected using a Cronin spectrometer, was fitted to the emission spectrum of the blackbody radiation, allowing the estimation of the temperature range attained by the fibre. A peak temperature of 1400 ± 50 °C was obtained.     

Effect of vacuum heat treatment on tensile strength and fracture performance of cold-sprayed Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings

The previous study [1] indicated that dense thick Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings could be formed by cold spraying, and the post-spray heat treatment could significantly influence the microstructure and microhardness of the as-sprayed Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings. In this study, the tensile strength and fracture performance of the Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings after annealing were investigated. The vacuum heat treatment was conducted under 10⁻² Pa at 850 °C for 4 h. Results showed that the heat treatment had a great contribution to the healing-up of the incompleteness of the interfaces between the deposited particles. In addition, the coating microhardness decreased from 156.8 ± 4.6 Hv_0.2 for the as-sprayed coatings to 101.7 ± 4.5 Hv_0.2 for the annealed ones. The mean tensile strength of the annealed coatings was approximately 294.1 ± 36.1 MPa compared to that of 45.0 ± 10.5 MPa for the as-sprayed ones, which results from the partially metallurgically bonded zones between the deposited particles inducing by the heat treatment process.     

Microstructure, bonding strength and thermal shock resistance of ceramic coatings on steels prepared by plasma electrolytic oxidation

Ceramic coatings were successfully prepared on steel by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) in aluminate electrolyte and silicate electrolyte, respectively. The microstructure of the coatings including surface morphology, phase and element composition were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The bonding strength between the ceramic coating and the substrate was tested using different methods including tensile tests and shearing tests. The thermal shock resistance of the coatings was also evaluated. The results indicated that coatings obtained in both electrolytes were porous and coarse. The average diameters of the pores were below 10 μm. PEO coatings obtained in aluminate electrolyte were composed of Fe₃O₄ and FeAl₂O₄, while those obtained in silicate electrolyte were in a noncrystal state. PEO coatings obtained in aluminate electrolyte showed similar change trend of tensile strength and shearing strength with increasing treating time, namely, a relatively high values with middle time treating and low value with short and long time treating. The best coating was the samples treated with 30 min, whose tensile strength was 20.6 MPa and shearing strength was 16 MPa. The tensile strength and shearing strength of coatings obtained in silicate electrolyte were not strongly influenced by the treating time, the values of which were range in 14 ± 2 MPa and 11 ± 2 MPa, respectively. Coatings obtained in both electrolytes showed the best thermal shock resistance with middle time treating. Coatings obtained in silicate electrolyte show a little better thermal shock resistance than those obtained in aluminate electrolyte.     

A novel polyol method to synthesize colloidal silver nanoparticles by ultrasonic irradiation

A polyol synthesis of silver nanoparticles in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation was compared with other configurations (at ambient temperature, 120 °C, and 120 °C with injected solutions) in the absence of ultrasonic irradiation in order to obtain systematic results for morphology and size distribution. For applying ultrasonic irradiation, rather fine and uniform spherical silver particles (21 ± 3.7 nm) were obtained in a simple (at ambient temperature without mechanical stirring) and fast (within 4 min, 3.61 × 10⁻³ mol min⁻¹) manner than other cases (at ambient temperature (for 8 h, 0.03 × 10⁻³ mol min⁻¹): 86 ± 16.8 nm, 120 °C (for 12 min, 1.16 × 10⁻³ mol min⁻¹): 64 ± 14.9 nm, and 120 °C with injected solutions (during 12 min): 35 ± 6.8 nm; all other cases contained anisotropic shaped particles). Even though the temperature of polyol reaction reached only at 80 °C (<120 °C) in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation, a uniform mixing (i.e. enhanced collision between silver particle and surrounding components) by ultrasonic irradiation might induce a better formation kinetics and morphological uniformity.     

Ultrasonic distance and velocity measurement using a pair of LPM signals for cross-correlation method: improvement of Doppler-shift compensation and examination of Doppler velocity estimation

Real-time distance measurement of a moving object with high accuracy and high resolution using an ultrasonic wave is difficult due to the influence of the Doppler effect or the limit of the calculation cost of signal processing. An over-sampling signal processing method using a pair of LPM signals has been proposed for ultrasonic distance and velocity measurement of moving objects with high accuracy and high resolution. The proposed method consists of cross correlation by single-bit signal processing, high-resolution Doppler velocity estimation with wide measurement range and low-calculation-cost Doppler-shift compensation. The over-sampling cross-correlation function is obtained from cross correlation by single-bit signal processing with low calculation cost. The Doppler velocity and distance of the object are determined from the peak interval and peak form in the cross-correlation function by the proposed method of Doppler velocity estimation and Doppler-shift compensation. In this paper, the proposed method of Doppler-shift compensation is improved. Accuracy of the determined distance was improved from approximately within ±140 μm in the previous method to approximately within ±10 μm in computer simulations. Then, the proposed method of Doppler velocity estimation is evaluated. In computer simulations, accuracy of the determined Doppler velocity and distance were demonstrated within ±8.471 mm/s and ±13.87 μm. In experiments, Doppler velocities of the motorized stage could be determined within ±27.9 mm/s.     

Spray pyrolytic deposition of transparent aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films

Optically transparent Al₂O₃ films has been synthesized, on quartz substrates at 500, 600 and 700 °C, from 0.02 M aluminum acetyl acetonate (Al(acac)₃) in ethanol, by using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis technique. The films synthesized at 500, 600 and 700 °C are amorphous having average particle sizes 27 ± 6, 18 ± 3 and 14 ± 3, respectively. The films are found to be 95% optically transparent in the visible region. The optical transparency of the films in the ultraviolet region is found to increase with increase in deposition temperature. The observed increase in optical band gap and decrease in refractive index is attributed to the decrease in particle size with increase in deposition temperature. The stoichiometry and chemical bonding of the amorphous film studied using XPS and FTIR spectroscopy revealed the presence chemisorbed oxygen.     

Compression of silver in a diamond anvil cell: Pressure dependences of strength and grain size from X-ray diffraction data

Two silver samples, coarse grained (c-Ag, grain size 300±30 nm) and nanocrystalline (n-Ag, grain size 55±6 nm), are compressed in a diamond anvil cell in separate experiments. The pressure is increased in steps of ∼3 GPa and the diffraction pattern recorded at each pressure. The grain size and compressive strength are determined from the analysis of the diffraction line-widths. The grain size of c-Ag decreases rapidly from 300±30 nm at ambient pressure to 40±8 nm at 15 GPa, and then gradually to 20±3 nm at 40 GPa. After pressure release to ambient condition, the grain size is 25±4 nm. The strength at ambient pressure is 0.18±0.05 GPa and increases to 1.0±0.3 GPa at 40 GPa. The grain size of n-Ag decreases from 55±6 nm at ambient pressure to 17±4 nm at 15 GPa and to 14±3 nm at 55 GPa. After release of pressure to ambient condition, the grain size is 50±7 nm. The strength increases from 0.51±0.07 GPa at ambient pressure to 3.5±0.4 GPa at 55 GPa. The strength is found to vary as the inverse of the square-root of the grain size. The results of the present measurements agree well with the grain-size dependence of strength derived from the hardness versus grain size data at ambient pressure available in the literature.     

The spectral sensitivity of long period gratings fabricated in elliptical core D-shaped optical fibre

Long period gratings (LPGs) were written into a D-shaped optical fibre that has an elliptical core with a W-shaped refractive index profile and the first detailed investigation of such LPGs is presented. The LPGs’ attenuation bands were found to be sensitive to the polarisation of the interrogating light with a spectral separation of about 15 nm between the two orthogonal polarisation states. A finite element method was successfully used to model many of the behavioural features of the LPGs. In addition, two spectrally overlapping attenuation bands corresponding to orthogonal polarisation states were observed; modelling successfully reproduced this spectral feature. The spectral sensitivity of both orthogonal states was experimentally measured with respect to temperature and bending. These LPG devices produced blue and red wavelength shifts depending upon the orientation of the bend with measured maximum sensitivities of −3.56 and +6.51 nm m, suggesting that this type of fibre LPG may be useful as a shape/bend orientation sensor with reduced errors associated with polarisation dependence. The use of neighbouring bands to discriminate between temperature and bending was also demonstrated, leading to an overall curvature error of ±0.14 m⁻¹ and an overall temperature error of ±0.3 °C with a maximum polarisation dependence error of ±8 × 10⁻² m⁻¹ for curvature and ±5 × 10⁻² °C for temperature.     

Digital image correlation approach to cracking and decohesion in a brittle coating/ductile substrate system

By using a digital image correlation technique, the full/local field strain in a brittle coating/ductile substrate system during tension has been successfully monitored. One of the most important experimental results indicates that the distribution of interfacial shear stress in the segmented coating is antisymmetric about the center, which clarifies several controversial assumptions introduced in theoretical models. Two key mechanical properties of thermal barrier coatings, fracture strength in coating and interfacial adhesion strength, were determined as 35.0 ± 4.6 and 14.1 ± 3.2 MPa, respectively, which are consistent with available experimental data.     

Investigation of the optical gain and noise figure for multi-channel amplification in EDFA under optimized pump condition

We present the results of an investigation of optical gain and noise figure for simultaneous multi-channel amplification of an erbium doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) under optimized pump condition. Different pump configurations with varying input signal levels show interesting features on gain flatness. In the experiment, population inversion along the fibre length which determines the gain-spectra and noise characteristics of the amplifier is adjusted through optimized fibre length and injected pump power in order to minimize the gain-tilt at C-band. It is observed that bi-directional pumping manifests the best combination of low noise and high gain of EDFA which are useful as in-line repeaters in WDM network. We obtain 30 ± 1.5 dB intrinsically flat small signal gain from 1538 nm to 1558 nm band of wavelength with noise figure <4 dB for 16-channel simultaneous amplification in a single stage EDFA without gain flattening filter.     

Microstructure and properties of TiC-Fe36Ni cermet coatings by reactive plasma spraying using sucrose as carbonaceous precursor

This study is aimed to introduce an innovative precursor pyrolysis process to prepare Ti-Fe-Ni-C compound powder and to discuss and evaluate the relationship between microstructure and properties of TiC-Fe36Ni cermet coatings in-situ synthesized by reactive plasma spraying (RPS) of these compound powders. The main characteristic of the pyrolysis process is that sucrose (C12H22O11) is used as a source of carbon as well as a binder to bind reactive constituent particles. The compound powder with high bonding strength can avoid the problem that reactive constituent particles are separated during spraying. The TiC-Fe36Ni cermet coatings present typical splat-like morphology of thermally sprayed coatings and consist of two different areas: one is a composite reinforcement area where spherical fine TiC particles (100-500 nm) homogeneously distribute within the Fe36Ni matrix; the other is an area of TiC accumulation. The surface hardness of the coatings reaches about 90 ± 2 (HR15N). The maximum and average microhardness values of the coatings are 1930 HV_0.2 (Vicker Hardness) and 1640 HV_0.2, respectively. The average bonding strength of the coatings is about 62.3 MPa. The wear resistance property of the coatings is much more than that of Ni60 alloys coatings.     

Direct enrichment of olive oil in oleuropein by ultrasound-assisted maceration at laboratory and pilot plant scale

The possibility to improve the nutritional value of olive oil by enriching it in phenolic compounds from olive leaves (e.g., oleuropein) by ultrasonic maceration was studied. The experimental design used led to the following optimal extraction conditions: ultrasonic power of 60 W, temperature of 16 °C and sonication duration of 45 min. The high total phenolic content (414.3 ± 3.2 mg of oleuropein equivalent/kg of oil), oleuropein (111.0 ± 2.2 mg/kg of oil) and α-tocopherol (55.0 ± 2.1 g/kg of oil) concentrations obtained by optimized ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) proved the efficiency of this process when compared with the conventional solid-liquid extraction. Histochemical analyses showed that this efficiency is due to specific alteration of the phenol-containing leaf structures. Furthermore, the radical-scavenging activity of the processed oil (DPPH test) and its stability toward lipid autoxidation (heating test) confirmed its enrichment in antioxidants. Sensory evaluation of the enriched olive oil showed a slight increase in bitterness but an overall acceptability. Finally, the enriched olive oil was characterized by clear green color (L^∗, a^∗, b^∗ parameters).     

Synthesis and characterization of Parylene C/nanosilica composite film

A smooth, semitransparent and homogeneous Parylene C/nanosilica composite film was prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The film was deposited onto the Si substrate coated with a modified nanosilica layer. The nanosilica modified by silane coupling agent have uniform diameters and distribution in the film. The diameter can be roughly estimated in the range of 80-150 nm. The thermal stability of the composite film containing modified silica nanoparticles is better than that of the pure and doped film with commercial nanoparticles, which is ascribed to the strong chemical bonding between the modified nanosilica and Parylene monomers. σ_e and σ_s, as elastic limit and yield stress, are about 21.2 MPa and 23.4 MPa of the pure film, compared with 32.1 MPa and 33.4 MPa of the composite film due to the nanosize effect and intensive interface adhesion of silica nanoparticles as reinforcement.