Pre-stressed and reinforced hollow cylindrical mixture of non-linearly elastic solid and ideal fluid subjected to combined deformations: A study within the context of the theory of interacting continua

The theoretical result dealing with the saturation boundary condition, first investigated by [On boundary conditions for a certain class of problems in mixture theory, Int. J. Eng. Sci. 24 (1986) 1453-1463], has been recently extended by [On the saturation boundary condition within the context of the theory of interacting continua containing a certain distribution of fibers, Int. J. Eng. Sci. 41 (2003) 2273-2280] to the case of fibers-reinforced solid-ideal fluid mixture. Taking advantage of this new result, the problem of a hollow cylindrical mixture subjected to combined deformations, previously treated by Gandhi et al. [Some non-linear diffusion problems within the context of interacting continua, Int. J. Eng. Sci. 25 (1987) 1441-1457], is revisited in this contribution and improved by introducing the presence of fibers and residual stress (or pre-stress) characterized by the opening angle of the sector-like cross-section.     

Static analysis of functionally graded beams using higher order shear deformation theory

Displacement field based on higher order shear deformation theory is implemented to study the static behavior of functionally graded metal–ceramic (FGM) beams under ambient temperature. FGM beams with variation of volume fraction of metal or ceramic based on power law exponent are considered. Using the principle of stationary potential energy, the finite element form of static equilibrium equation for FGM beam is presented. Two stiffness matrices are thus derived so that one among them will reflect the influence of rotation of the normal and the other shear rotation. Numerical results on the transverse deflection, axial and shear stresses in a moderately thick FGM beam under uniform distributed load for clamped–clamped and simply supported boundary conditions are discussed in depth. The effect of power law exponent for various combination of metal–ceramic FGM beam on the deflection and stresses are also commented. The studies reveal that, depending on whether the loading is on the ceramic rich face or metal rich face of the beam, the static deflection and the static stresses in the beam do not remain the same.     

The analysis of adhesive bonds using electromagnetic acoustic transducers

The paper presented here outlines a technique for examining aerospace adhesive bonds using electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMAT). The main restriction on the use of bonded structures is the lack of a reliable, applicable non-destructive test. Simple acoustic theory shows that a shear wave at normal incidence to an interface should be a more sensitive probe of interfacing coupling than a longitudinal wave. Conventional piezoelectric shear transducers require a very viscous couplant which makes scanning problematic. The EMAT described here consists of a pancake coil, and a permanent magnet behind the coil provides a static magnetic field normal to the surface of the sample and the plane of the coil. The EMATs used have the advantage of generating broadband radially polarized shear waves, while requiring no acoustic couplant. They are also comparable in size to typical piezoelectric transducers. The broadband nature of the transducer gives it a high spatial resolution in the direction of wave propagation. Experiments performed on plate-like samples have successfully detected deliberately constructed defects, while monitoring the adhesive thickness. Defects have been identified using a C-scan technique using a single EMAT in send-receive mode from either side of the bond.     

Physiological Studies of Retrusive Movements of the Human Tongue

SUMMARY: This study identified that physiologically the superior pharyngeal constrictor muscle at the level of the base of the tongue contributes to retrusive movement of the tongue with constriction of the mid-pharyngeal cavity and possesses unique properties in terms of motor speech control along with the genioglossus muscle. From a kinematic study involving trans-nasal fiberscopy and lateral X-ray fluorography, retrusive movement of the tongue was highly correlated with constrictive movement of the mid-pharyngeal cavity. An electromyographic study revealed that the superior pharyngeal constrictor muscle at the level of the base of the tongue contributes to retrusive movement of the tongue and that the genioglossus muscle contributes to protrusive movement. We also noted that this relationship between the activities of these two muscles were in response to postural changes during vowel productions without changes in the acoustic features. These findings suggest that these two muscles act not only antagonistically to produce retrusive and protrusive movement of the tongue, but also they complement each other to conserve the shape of the vocal tract for speech production. The functional relationship between these two muscles could contribute the consecutive movement of human speech production under various conditions and might be useful when applying rehabilitation approaches for the patients with neurological speech and swallowing disorders.     

Transverse coupling between two general biisotropic slabs

The general formulation for the determining of transverse coupling behaviour between two different biisotropic slabs is proposed based on the method of conventional field perturbation, and some special cases are considered. Since biisotropic medium is a generalization of the well-studied nonreciprocal and reciprocal chiral media, our results are suitable for much more cases.     

High-power transverse flow CW CO2 laser for material processing applications

A transverse flow transversely excited (TFTE) CW CO₂ with a maximum output power about 15 kW has been developed. This is excited by pulser sustained DC discharge applied between a pair of multi-pins anodes and a common tubular cathode. Though the laser power in convective cooled CO₂ laser scales proportionally with the volumetric gas flow, it did not increase in this laser when the volumetric gas flow was increased by increasing the electrode separation keeping the flow velocity constant. The discharge voltage too remained almost unchanged with increase of the electrode separation. These observations are explained considering the electrical discharge being controlled by ionization instability. Laser materials processing applications often demand programming facilities for laser power modulation. A four-stage cascaded multilevel DC–DC converter-based high-frequency switch mode power supply has been developed to modulate the output power of the laser. Laser was operated up to 15 kW output power in four different modes viz. continuous wave mode, pulse periodic mode, single shot mode and processing velocity-dependent power mode with 1.2 kHz modulation bandwidth. We describe briefly the laser system, the SMPS, and the temporal behavior of laser beam.     

Magnetic and mechanical AC loss of the ITER CS1 model coil conductor under transverse cyclic loading

The magnetic field in a coil results in a transverse force on the strands pushing the cable towards one side of the jacket. A special cryogenic press has been built to study in a unique way the mechanical and electrical properties of full-size ITER Cable-in-Conduit (CIC) samples under a transverse, mechanical load. The press can transmit a variable (cyclic) force of at least 650 kN/m to a cable section of 400 mm at 4.2 K. The jacket around the cable is partly opened in order to transmit the transverse force directly onto the cable. A superconducting dipole coil provides the AC magnetic field required to perform magnetisation measurements with pick-up coils. In addition the interstrand resistance (R_c) between various strands selected from topologically different positions inside the cable is measured. The force on the cable as well as the displacement are monitored simultaneously in order to determine the effective cable Young's modulus and the mechanical heat generation due to friction and deformation as the force is cycled. The mechanical heat generation, the coupling loss time constant nτ and R_c of a full-size ITER conductor have been studied under load for the first time. An important result is the significant decrease of nτ, after cyclic loading. It is also observed that the mechanical heat generation decreases with cycling.     

A spectral collocation method for compressible,non-similar boundary layers

An efficient and highly accurate algorithm based on a spectral collocation method is developed for numerical solution of the compressible, two-dimensional and axisymmetric boundary layer equations. The numerical method incorporates a fifth-order, fully implicit marching scheme in the streamwise (timelike) dimension and a spectral collocation method based on Chebyshev polynomial expansions in the wall-normal (spacelike) dimension. The discrete governing equations are cast in residual form and the residuals are minimized at each marching step by a preconditioned Richardson iteration scheme which fully couples energy, momentum and continuity equations. Preconditioning on the basis of the finite difference analogues of the governing equations results in a computationally efficient iteration with acceptable convergence properties. A practical application of the algorithm arises in the area of compressible linear stability theory, in the investigation of the effects of transverse curvature on the stability of flows over axisymmetric bodies. The spectral collocation algorithm is used to derive the non-similar mean velocity and temperature profiles in the boundary layer of a ‘fuselage’ (cylinder) in a high-speed (Mach 5) flow parallel to its axis. The stability of the flow is shown to be sensitive to the gradual streamwise evolution of the mean flow and it is concluded that the effects of transverse curvature on stability should not be ignored routinely.     

Diffraction phenomena in the field of a circular piezoelectric transducer viewed in the time domain

Transient diffraction phenomena in the field of a piston transducer have been explained theoretically in terms of the direct and edge wave contributions to the piston response. Previous experimental studies by other workers have verified this concept for single cycles of 4 MHz radiation. Faster transients are difficult to study using thin piezoelectric transducers due to transducer resonance. Thick piezoelectric transducers of very low resonant frequency can be used to generate and receive step function acoustic transients with rise times of 20 ns or less and the problems of transducer resonance can be avoided. Experimental results are presented which show that when such a step function is propagated between two thick transducers the time course of the received wave can be explained in terms of the direct wave/edge wave model in conjunction with the theory of transient reverberations in piezoelectric elements.