Design of aluminium boom and arm for an excavator

The aim of this work is to study the boom and the arm of an excavator in order to replace the material, which they are usually made of, with another material. In particular, the study wants to substitute the steel alloy for an aluminium alloy. This change lightens the components of the arm, allows to increase the load capacity of the bucket and so it is possible to increase the excavator productivity per hour.For this purpose many different load conditions have been studied numerically on the original excavator in order to estimate a safety factor and the deformability or flexibility of each component. These parameters have been used in order to design a new arm.The excavator which has been analyzed is composed of three elements and the load conditions assumed, in order to evaluate the stress, are five (lifting at the maximum and minimum distance from the axis of rotation, maximum load induced by hydraulic cylinders, spin of the arm of the excavator and collision with an obstacle, etc.).As regards to the safety factor and deformability in order to maintain the original value the new geometry of the arm involves an increase of the dimension and so the lightness is not correlate only to the variation of the material density.The weight of the final geometry of the aluminium arm is 1080 kg whereas the one of the steel arm is 2050 kg and consequently it has been possible to increase the capacity of bucket from 1 m³ to the 1.35 m³.With reference to the manufacturing cycle of the aluminium arm with the new pins, the price increased about € 2.500-3.000 and this aspect could be justified if we consider that the productivity per hour increased about 35%.     

Dynamic modeling of marine boilers

Experimental investigation was performed on a simplified scale model of a typical marine boiler. Shaker-table tests were performed to determine natural frequencies, and impact tests were used to determine the structural shock response. The dynamic-response data have been used to verify analytical results obtained from a three-dimensional, beam-element model with the consideration of local flexibility at the nozzle-vessel intersections.     

Convective instability of an adsorption front

The monotonous instability of the adsorption front formed in a two-component gas filtered vertically through a fixed bed of adsorbent is demonstrated. A threshold value of the Archimedes adsorption criterion is calculated and the corresponding critical gas flow is considered.     

Electric structure of the combustion front in a homogeneous methane-air mixture

The electric structure of a plane laminar flame propagating through a homogeneous methane-air mixture in the absence of an external electric field is considered. The charged particle concentration and self-electric field distributions in the flame are found. The possibility of the ion-molecular reactions affecting the normal flame propagation velocity is estimated. Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 3–7, January–February, 1998.     

The flow structure in the front of a moving surface layer

Summary Behind the frontal wedge of a moving surface layer there is a zone of entrainment in which the flow is turbulent due to the onset of a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The entrainment coefficient is inversely proportional to the Richardson number. In the turbulent region the gradient Richardson number approached a constant value less than 1/4. The layer thickness and the mean velocity depend on the salt concentration of the underlying fluid. Finally the turbulence decayed leaving a stable interface and the layer behaved much like a free homogeneous flow over a solid boundary.

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Übersicht Hinter der keilförmigen Front einer fließenden Schicht gibt es eine Mischungszone, in der die Strömung turbulent ist. Die Turbulenz entsteht durch eine Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilität. Der Ansaugbeiwert der turbulenten Strömung verhält sich umgekehrt zur Richardsonschen Zahl. In der turbulenten Strömung nähert sich die Richardsonsche Zahl einer konstanten Zahl kleiner als 1/4. Die Dicke und die mittlere Geschwindigkeit der Schicht hängt sehr von der Dichte der unteren Flüssigkeit ab. Schließlich stirbt die turbulente Strömung ab, und die Schicht fließt wie eine homogene Strömung längs einer ebenen Platte.

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The work described herein was carried out as part of a research programme of the Hydraulics Research Station, and the paper is published by permission of the Director of Hydraulics Research. The author wishes also to express his thanks to Mr. J. A. Weller for his help in measurement, and to a referee for his helpful comments.     

Dynamic modeling of preloaded size-dependent nano-crystalline nano-structures

The vibration behavior of size-dependent nano-crystalline nano-beams is investigated based on nonlocal, couple stress and surface elasticity theories. A nanocrystalline nano-beam is composed of three phases which are nano-grains, nano-voids,and interface. Nano-voids or porosities inside the material have a stiffness-softening impact on the nano-beam. A Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is applied in the analysis of nano-crystalline nano-beams for the first time. Residual surface stresses which are usually neglected in modeling nano-crystalline nano-beams are incorporated into nonlocal elasticity to better understand the physics of the problem. Also, a modified couple stress theory is used to capture rigid rotations of grains. Applying a differential transform method(DTM) satisfying various boundary conditions, the governing equations obtained from the Hamilton's principle are solved. Reliability of the proposed approach is verified by comparing the obtained results with those provided in the literature. The effects of the nonlocal parameter, surface effect, couple stress, grain size, porosities, and interface thickness on the vibration characteristics of nano-crystalline nano-beams are explored.     

Wave propagation in an elastic structure modeling a split Hopkinson pressure bar

The Laplace transform with respect to time is used to study the problem of loading wave propagation in a composite elastic structure modeling a split Hopkinson pressure bar. Experiments were performed to compare the theoretical and experimental results. The obtained results can be used as a basis for justifying the split Hopkinson pressure bar technique.     

Approximate modeling of an elastic structure according to test data with various confidences

In this paper, an elastic structure model is constructed according to the test data with various confidences and properly selected analytical parameters (mass matrixM or stiffness matrixK). First, the modeling method is described, and second, the uniqueness of the result is strictly proved. Finally, a numerical example is given to show the reasonableness of this method and the superiority of the result to that in reference [4].     

Effect of initial disturbance on the detonation front structure of a narrow duct

The effect of an initial disturbance on the detonation front structure in a narrow duct is studied by three-dimensional numerical simulation. The numerical method used includes a high-resolution fifth-order weighted essentially non-oscillatory scheme for spatial discretization, coupled with a third-order total variation diminishing Runge-Kutta time-stepping method. Two types of disturbances are used for the initial perturbation. One is a random disturbance which is imposed on the whole area of the detonation front, and the other is a symmetrical disturbance imposed within a band along the diagonal direction on the front. The results show that the two types of disturbances lead to different processes. For the random disturbance, the detonation front evolves into a stable spinning detonation. For the symmetrical diagonal disturbance, the detonation front displays a diagonal pattern at an early stage, but this pattern is unstable. It breaks down after a short while and it finally evolves into a spinning detonation. The spinning detonation structure ultimately formed due to the two types of disturbances is the same. This means that spinning detonation is the most stable mode for the simulated narrow duct. Therefore, in a narrow duct, triggering a spinning detonation can be an effective way to produce a stable detonation as well as to speed up the deflagration to detonation transition process.     

Shock wave front from an underground explosion

Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, No. 6, pp. 23–30, November–December, 1991.     

Dynamic modeling and extended bifurcation analysis of flexible-link manipulator

Abstract

In this article, the nonlinear dynamic analysis of a flexible-link manipulator is presented. Especially, the possibility of chaos occurrence in the system dynamic model is investigated. Upon the occurrence of chaos, the system dynamical behavior becomes unpredictable which in turn brings about uncertainty and irregularity in the system motion. The importance of this investigation is pronounced in similar systems such as double pendulum and single-link flexible manipulator. What makes this study distinct from previous ones is the increase in the number of links as well as the changing the bifurcation parameters from system mechanical parameters to force and torque inputs. To this aim, the motion equations of the N-link robot, which are derived with the aid of the recursive Gibbs-Appell formulation and the assumed modes method, are used. In the end, the equations of motion are developed for a two-link flexible manipulator, and its nonlinear dynamical behavior is analyzed via numerical integration of discrete equations. The results are presented in the form of bifurcation diagrams (for variation of torque amplitude), time histories, phase-plane portraits, Poincaré sections, and fast Fourier transforms. The outcomes indicate that when there is no offset, the decrease in damping results in chaotic generalized modal coordinates. In addition, as the excitation frequency decreases from 2π to π, a limiting amplitude is created at 0.35 before which the behavior of generalized rigid and modal coordinates is different, while this behavior has more similarity after this point. An experimental setup is also used to check the torques as the system input.     

Dynamic response of clamped sandwich beams: analytical modeling

An improved analytical model is developed to predict the dynamic response of clamped lightweight sandwich beams with cellular cores subjected to shock loading over the entire span.The clamped face sheets are simplified as a single-degree-of-freedom(SDOF) system, and the core is idealized using the rigid-perfectly-plastic-locking(RPPL) model. Reflection of incident shock wave is considered by incorporating the bending/stretching resistance of the front face sheet and compaction of the core. The model is validated with existing analytical predictions and FE simulation results, with good agreement achieved. Compared with existing analytical models, the proposed model exhibits superiority in two aspects: the deformation resistance of front face sheet during shock wave reflection is taken into account; the effect of pulse shape is considered. The practical application range of the proposed model is therefore wider.