Determination of stress intensity factors in three-dimensional problems of fracture mechanics

Dependences of displacements of the surface of a notch on the corresponding stress intensity factors were obtained for axisymmetric bodies with internal and external notches under different deformations (tensile, shear, bending, and torsion). An algorithm is proposed to determine the stress intensity factors of three types (opening mode, longitudinal shear, and transverse shear) from displacements of the notch surface near its tip. The effectiveness of the algorithm is shown, as an example, for numerical analysis of various three-dimensional problems of fracture mechanics.     

Photoelastic investigation of plane wedge-shaped drawing die

A photoelastic investigation is conducted for plane wedge-shaped dies with special reference to the distribution of pressure and friction on the contact surface. A softened celluloid strip is drawn through the gap of Araldite dies kept in the state of glassy elastic. The results are compared with the theoretical results by other investigators.     

Use of three-dimensional photoelasticity in fracture mechanics

The philosophy of fracture mechanics is reviewed and utilized to formulate a simplified approach to the determination of the stress-intensity factor photoelastically for three-dimensional problems. The method involves a Taylor Series correction for the maximum in-plane shear stress (TSCM) and does not involve stress separation. The results are illustrated by applying the TSCM to surface flaws in bending fields. Other three-dimensional problems solved by the TSCM are cited.     

Deformation of melts of mixtures of incompatible polymers in a uniform shear field and the process of their fibrillation

Fibril formation in mixtures of incompatible polymers, in this case polyethylene and polystyrene, has been studied with their melt being deformed in a uniform shear field. It has been found that when polyethylene is present in a smaller amount, it may form very long fibrils 5 to 8 μm in diameter in the deformed mixture. The formation of such fibrils is determined by the relationship between the viscosity ratio of the mixture components and shear stress. Also, just as in the case of a nonuniform shear field in a flow through a duct, fibril formation in melts of mixtures of incompatible polymers in a uniform shear field takes place upon reaching a certain shear stress. The lower the ratio between the viscosities of the fibril-forming polymer and the other component, the lower this shear stress.     

The effect of specimen geometry and lateral constraint on the isothermal compressibility of low-strength polymeric materials

Significant errors can be present in the isothermal pressure-volume relationships that have been obtained from laterally constrained compression tests of low-strength polymeric materials. Laterally constrained compression tests on PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) have shown these errors to result from (1) stress gradients in the specimen caused by constraint friction and (2) unknown volume changes resulting from extrusion of the test specimen. Test-specimen geometry was an important parameter.     

Shear-layer instability in the Mach reflection of shock waves

The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) is an instability that takes the form of repeating wave-like structures which forms on a shear layer where two adjacent fluids are moving at a relative velocity to one another. Such a shear layer forms in the Mach reflection of shock waves. This work focuses on experimentally visualising the presence of the KHI in Mach reflection as well as its evolution. Experimentation was performed at shock Mach numbers of 1.34, 1.46 and 1.61. Plane test pieces and parabolic profiled pieces followed by a plane section having wedge angles of 30 \(^\circ \) and 38 \(^\circ \) were tested. Flow field visualisation was performed with a schlieren optical system. The KHI was best visualised with the camera-side knife edge perpendicular to the shear layer (i.e. the axis of sensitivity along the length of the shear layer). The structure and growth of the instability were readily identified. The KHI forms more readily with increasing Mach number and wedge angle. Second-order Euler, and Navier–Stokes numerical simulations of the flow field were also conducted. It was found that the Euler and laminar Navier–Stokes solvers achieved very similar results, both producing the KHI, but at a much less developed state than the experimental cases. The k \(-\epsilon \) solver, however, did not produce the instability.     

A self-aligning parallel plate (SAPP) fixture for tribology and high shear rheometry

This paper introduces a novel self-aligning parallel plate fixture for rotational rheometers. The ring-shaped shearing surface of this fixture is held on a low friction single contact point bearing and uses hydrodynamic lubrication forces in order to maintain the parallelism of the freely tilting surfaces over a full rotation. The optimized parallelism of the plates enables to conduct tribological measurements of low frictional stress between the shearing surface materials and a fluid at normal loads down to 1.3 kPa. Limited only by the degree of non-flatness of the surfaces, the new fixture can determine boundary lubrication sliding frictions within 10 % and down to angular velocities of 400 μrad/s. In a controlled gap mode, this setup reaches a gap error of 3.4 μm which enables to reliably conduct rheological measurements down to absolute gaps of the parallel plates of 10 μm and to reach high shear rates up to $10^{5}\;{\rm s}^{-1}$ .     

Allowance for the effect of nonisothermicity on heat transfer in channels during the laminar movement of liquids having a linear law of fluidity

Nonisothermal heat exchange during the laminar flow of liquids having a linear law of fluidity in the thermal initial section of channels is analyzed. The calculation for the condition that t_ω =const takes into account the effect of the temperature on the zero-point fluidity and the coefficient of instability of the structure when the thermal conductivity (diffusion) depends on the shear stress.     

An electromagnetic shear-stress gage for large-amplitude shear waves

In many materials, especially plastics, ceramics and rocks, large-amplitude shear-wave propagation studies could provide valuable information for the development of constitutive equations. A newly developed electromagnetic-gage configuration provides an output voltage which is directly related to the dynamic shear stress in the material. The electromagnetic shear-stress gage has been used to make direct measurements of shear-wave stresses in PMMA and Solenhofen limestone. Large-amplitude shear waves were obtained with a new plate-impact technique which generates shear waves by a controlled-reflection process. The configuration of the stress gage permits it to be used simultaneously with more conventional electromagnetic velocity gages, thus providing both types of data in one experiment.     

Design and validation of a new fixture for the shear testing of cellular solids

The design and validation of a new fixture for the shear testing of cellular solids are presented. The fixture is an extended version of a picture-frame shear fixture (EPF) and is suited for comparatively thick rectangular block specimens. The stress state in the specimen is analyzed using a detailed finite element model. The finite element model is based on a 3D CAD model and incorporates friction in the revolute joints. Using specimens with low stiffness, a nearly pure and uniform shear stress state is induced in the specimen. A correction factor for the shear stress is derived which takes into account the friction in the joints and the nonuniformity of the shear stress distribution in the gauge section. The shear response of the polymer foam Rohacell^® 200 WF is determined in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the EPF. The strain state is analyzed by means of digital image correlation and is detected to be very pure and uniform on the specimen’s surface, as predicted by the numerical analysis. The shear modulus obtained with the EPF is in good agreement with the calculated shear modulus derived from tensile tests on the same material. In addition, there is only little scatter of the strength values over the tested specimens which further confirms the accuracy of the new fixture.     

Influence of disperse phase concentration upon the viscoelastic behaviour of emulsions

Rheology of soya oil-water emulsions in the linear region has been studied. The viscoelastic response consisted of three contributions. There was a purely elastic component, a purely viscous component and a contribution due to the retarded compliance. Emulsions became more viscous and elastic with increasing soya oil concentration. Sharp changes in rheology were observed as the concentration approached the random close packed limit. There was also a marked increase in zero-shear viscosity. Breakdown of coagulation structure was observed as the shear stress was increased into the non-linear region. The rheological behaviour of the emulsions in the linear region could be adequately described by the generalized Kelvin-Voigt model.     

Experimental analysis of slow viscous flow using photoviscosity and bubbles

Photoelasticity in solids is a well-developed technique for stress and strain analysis. Less progress has been made in applying a similar effect, photoviscosity, to flow analysis. This paper has three objects: (1) to simplify photoviscous methods; (2) to compare velocity profiles obtained from photoviscosity with those obtained by the double-exposure bubble technique; (3) to determine the principal strain rates and the maximum shear stress from photoviscotity. The problem of slow viscous flow about a cylindrical obstacle in a rectangular channel was selected for the comparison. The fluid was a suspension of milling yellow dye in water. Strain rates and stresses averaged over the path of ligh can be obtained easily using photoviscosity. The bubble technique is shown to be a very powerful tool that permits the determination of the velocity field in three-dimensional problems.     

Photoelastic investigation of a shrink-fit problem

Stress analysis of the components of a shrinkfit assembly has been carried out by the three-dimensional photoelastic technique. Experimental results obtained from the analysis of a typical shrink-fit assembly, wherein a cylindrical wheel is shrink fitted onto a hollow cylindrical hub in an asymmetrical position. Photoelastic models made from hot-setting Araldite B were loaded at the critical temperature in a stress-freezing oven and the meridional and the hoop slices were observed in a transmission polariscope. It is concluded from this investigation that the bending induced in the components due to the asymmetrical placement of the wheel and the contact shear at the interface influences the stress distribution quite considerably. Also, the dimensions of the components in the axial direction have an influence on the mode and contribute to the magnitude of the variation of stress components.     

The rheological behaviour of HDPE/LDPE blends

The rheological behaviour of three types of HDPE/LDPE blends at several compositions (various weight percentages of LDPE) has been studied with the aid of a capillary rheometer and three different capillaries. In particular, entrance effects and shear viscosities have been determined over a wide shear rate region and at different temperatures. Thus activation energies could also be evaluated. Synergistic effects are evidenced when the relevant properties of the homopolymers parents are not too different from one another.     

The effect of a coupling agent on the viscoelastic properties and internal stresses in high density polyethylene filled with glass spheres

It is shown that covalent bonding between high density polyethylene (HDPE) and glass spheres can have a significant influence on the stress relaxation behaviour and the creep properties of the corresponding composites at room temperature. The bonding is obtained by reacting the glass spheres with an azide functional alkoxysilane which is capable of bonding to the HDPE-chain. The internal stress, evaluated from relaxation experiments, increased markedly as a result of this treatment, and it is suggested that the internal stress level reflects the properties of the interphase region between the filler and the bulk matrix and its effect on the viscoelastic properties.     

Adaptive control of MEMS gyroscope using global fast terminal sliding mode control and fuzzy-neural-network

An adaptive control of MEMS gyroscope using global fast terminal sliding mode control (GTSMC) and fuzzy-neural-network (FNN) is presented for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) vibratory gyroscopes in this paper. This approach gives a new global fast terminal sliding surface, which will guarantee that the designed control system can reach the sliding surface and converge to equilibrium point in a shorter finite time from any initial state. In addition, the proposed adaptive global fast terminal sliding mode controller can real-time estimate the angular velocity and the damping and stiffness coefficients. Moreover, the main feature of this scheme is that an adaptive fuzzy-neural-network is employed to learn the upper bound of model uncertainties and external disturbances, so the prior knowledge of the upper bound of the system uncertainties is not required. All adaptive laws in the control system are derived in the same Lyapunov framework, which can guarantee the globally asymptotical stability of the closed-loop system. Numerical simulations for a MEMS gyroscope are investigated to demonstrate the validity of the proposed control approaches.     

The effect of molecular weight on the rheological properties of poly(dimethylsiloxane) filled with fumed silica

The viscometric, stress relaxation, and stress growth rheological properties were measured for various molecular weight PDMS fluids filled with fumed silica. The stress growth function exhibited significant overshoot, when the continuous phase molecular weight was slightly greater than the entanglement molecular weight; however, significant overshoot peaks were not observed, when the continuous phase molecular weight was less than or much greater than the molecular weight between entanglements. The experimentally observed transient rheological properties are rationalized in terms of a molecular model, where interparticle interactions occur via entanglements of the polymer adsorbed on the silica surface. When the molecular weight of the adsorbed polymer is greater than the entanglement molecular weight, the strength of the interparticle interaction will increase substantially and the particle diffusivity will substantially decrease.     

An experimental study of food melt rheology. II. End pressure effects

A twin-screw extruder-fed slit die viscometer (SDV) and a piston capillary rheometer have been used to measure the end pressure losses of a low density polyethylene, maize grits and potato powder. The entrance and exit pressure losses have been measured as a function of extrusion conditions. The entrance pressure losses were found to be less than 10% of the total pressure drop in the SDV for LDPE and maize grits. For the potato material, this loss was found to be as large as 58%. The exit pressures for the potato were between 10–20% of the total pressure drop compared to negligible values for the maize and LDPE. Various approaches due to Bagley, Han and Cogswell were used to investigate the elastic properties of these materials.