A study of electrostatic spring softening for dual-axis micromirror

Electrostatic spring softening is an important characteristic of electrostatically actuated dual-axis micromirror, since it lowers the resonant frequencies. This paper presents an approach based on approximating the electrostatic forces by the first-order Taylor's series expansion to investigate this characteristic. The dual-axis micromirror studied in this paper has three motion modes, two torsional (about x- and y-axis, respectively) and one translational (about z-axis). The stiffnesses of all these modes are softened by a DC bias voltage applied to the mirror plate. The resonant frequencies are lowered with the increment of the bias voltage. The relationship of the bias voltage and the resonant frequencies of all the motion modes is derived. The analytical results show that the resonant frequency curves are affected by the capacitor geometries, i.e. the gap between the mirror plate and the electrodes and the electrodes size. The lowering curves drop slowly when the bias voltage is small. While for large bias voltage, the lowering curves drop rapidly. The experiment results are consistent with those obtained by the analytical approach.     

Laser Raman spectroscopic study of photoreaction dynamics in p -chloro cinnamic acid crystal

Raman phonon spectroscopy has been used to study photodimerization reaction inp-chloro cinnamic acid (pCCA) crystal. The β-form of the crystal yields the 4,4′-dichloro-β-truxinic acid dimer. Six distinct low frequency phonon bands are observed in thepCCA monomer crystal. On reaction progress, these bands show a monotonic shift to lower frequencies and broaden out. Finally, in the dimer crystal the phonon spectrum shows two weak broad bands. These results suggest that the reaction is homogeneous in the initial stages and, as the product concentration increases, the lattice becomes highly disordered. The reactant and the product were characterised by infrared and Raman spectroscopy. The disappearance of aliphatic C=C bond stretching vibration and appearance of cyclobutane ring deformation and cyclobutane ring-breathing vibrations on reaction confirm photodimerization by cyclobutane ring formation. The large Stoke's shift between the absorption and emission band suggest strong exciton-phonon coupling in the monomer lattice. This reaction seems to be phonon-mediated.     

Miscibility of PVC/PMMA blends by vicat softening temperature, viscometry, DSC and FTIR analysis

 This paper deals with the miscibility of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). Blends of variable compositions from 0 to 100 wt% were prepared in the presence (15, 30 and 50 wt%) and in the absence of di ethyl- 2 hexyl phtalate as plasticizer. Their miscibility was investigated by using various analytical methods: determination of the Vicat softening temperature, a viscometry method based on the criterion of polymer–polymer miscibility, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results show that the plot of Vicat temperature against composition is a continuous curve, indicating the miscibility of the blend. The viscometry method and DSC find that the two polymers are miscible up to about 60 wt% of PMMA. This miscibility is due to a specific interaction of hydrogen bonding type between carbonyl groups (C=O) of PMMA and hydrogen from (CHCl) groups of PVC, as evidenced by FTIR spectroscopy. The two-band deconvolution shows an increase in associated groups percentage in the domain of miscibility.     

One-dimensional model with rotational and liquid-crystalline phase transitions

A one-dimensional system of hard-rod particles with rotational-like internal degrees of freedom is considered. Particles interact with each other through the infinite-range, infinitely weak attractive Kac potential, and through a nearest-neighbor short-range potential. The latter depends also on the internal states of the interacting particles. Exact results for thermodynamic properties and for some correlation functions are obtained. It is found that the considered system exhibits several first-order transitions between phases with different rotational structure, i.e., with different ordering with respect to the internal degrees of freedom. The calculated equation of state seems to suggest that in the solutions of liquid-crystalline substances in neutral solvents there may exist regions in which the coefficient of thermal expansion is negative—an effect similar to that well known in liquid water.     

Asymptotic expansion homogenization of discrete fine-scale models with rotational degrees of freedom for the simulation of quasi-brittle materials

Discrete fine-scale models, in the form of either particle or lattice models, have been formulated successfully to simulate the behavior of quasi-brittle materials whose mechanical behavior is inherently connected to fracture processes occurring in the internal heterogeneous structure. These models tend to be intensive from the computational point of view as they adopt an “a priori” discretization anchored to the major material heterogeneities (e.g. grains in particulate materials and aggregate pieces in cementitious composites) and this hampers their use in the numerical simulations of large systems. In this work, this problem is addressed by formulating a general multiple scale computational framework based on classical asymptotic analysis and that (1) is applicable to any discrete model with rotational degrees of freedom; and (2) gives rise to an equivalent Cosserat continuum. The developed theory is applied to the upscaling of the Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM), a recently formulated discrete model for concrete and other quasi-brittle materials, and the properties of the homogenized model are analyzed thoroughly in both the elastic and the inelastic regime. The analysis shows that the homogenized micropolar elastic properties are size-dependent, and they are functions of the RVE size and the size of the material heterogeneity. Furthermore, the analysis of the homogenized inelastic behavior highlights issues associated with the homogenization of fine-scale models featuring strain-softening and the related damage localization. Finally, nonlinear simulations of the RVE behavior subject to curvature components causing bending and torsional effects demonstrate, contrarily to typical Cosserat formulations, a significant coupling between the homogenized stress–strain and couple-curvature constitutive equations.     

Finite Element Based Micro-mechanical Modeling of Interphase in Filler Reinforced Elastomers

Characteristic properties of elastomers can be tailored by embedding them with filler particles. Along with enhancing the overall properties of the composite, filler particles also induce some inelastic effects. In this paper, a finite element computational model is used to study the effect of microstructure morphology in filled elastomers, on its macroscopic large deformation behavior. A multiphase material model that accounts for the hypothesis of shift in glass transition temperature in the vicinity of the filler particle is developed to simulate the interphase between the fillers and the matrix. It also accounts for the breakdown and re-aggregation of filler networks under cyclic loading. Examples at the microstructural level, demonstrating the dynamics of the interphase using the developed multiphase model have been successfully simulated. The obtained results are in good qualitative agreement with the Mullins effect. Therefore, computational experiments using this methodology enable the prediction of the experimentally observed softening behavior in filled elastomers based on its microstructure evolution.     

N330炭黑增强天然橡胶材料力学性能的实验研究

为了研究炭黑对橡胶材料力学性能的影响,对9种不同体积含量的炭黑填充橡胶材料进行了准静态力学实验研究。利用循环拉伸加卸载实验分析了炭黑对橡胶Mullins效应及能量损耗的影响,通过单轴拉伸实验研究了炭黑对橡胶材料刚度和起始模量的影响,采用多步松弛拉伸加卸载实验研究了炭黑对橡胶材料应力行为的应变历史相关性的影响。实验结果表明:炭黑填充量越高,橡胶材料的刚度越大,初始模量越大,Mullins效应也越明显;随着炭黑填充量的增加,橡胶在加卸载循环中所产生的迟滞损耗、Mullins效应相对能量损耗以及残余应变都呈现出非线性增长趋势;随着炭黑填充量的升高,橡胶在加卸载过程中的应力松弛现象越明显,其平衡态迟滞损耗以及与时间相关部分的迟滞损耗也越大。     

显式模拟类橡胶材料Mullins效应滞回圈

通过显式、直接的方法提出一个多轴可压缩应变能函数,用来模拟类橡胶材料在加载——卸载作用下,由于Mullins效应而产生的应力——应变滞回圈. 本文的创新点在于将表征能量耗散的变量引入到应变能函数.新的弹性势具有以下两个特点:第一,在加载情况下,新引入的变量不会对弹性势产生任何影响,因此,只要给出合适的形函数显式表达,3个基准实验,包括单轴拉伸和压缩,等双轴拉伸和压缩,以及平面应变,都可精确模拟;第二,新引入的变量在卸载情况下将被激活.在不同的卸载应力下,变量将发生改变,从而影响弹性势,使其最终产生不同的应力——应变关系卸载曲线,与对应的加载曲线共同构成应力——应变滞回圈.通过对Mullins效应实验数据进行分析和研究,得出了卸载形函数在不同卸载应力下变化的规律,并预测不同卸载应力下的应力——应变关系.最后,我们将得到精确匹配实验数据的数值模拟结果,从而证明本文方法不仅可以精确匹配至少3个基准实验,还可以模拟和预测类橡胶材料在加载——卸载作用下由于Mullins效应而产生的滞回圈.      

循环加载作用下皮肤应力软化的连续介质模型

皮肤组织作为富含纤维的非均匀材料,具有复杂的力学特性．皮肤组织在循环加载作用下,随着循环次数的增加,加载过程的应力响应逐渐降低,并最终达到不随循环次数增加而改变的稳定状态,这种现象被称为应力软化行为．本文对加载过程中纤维的延展机制对宏观力学响应的影响进行研究,认为在外界载荷较小时该机制主导了宏观层次上的应力软化行为,随着外界载荷的增大,拉伸过程中微观结构损伤的演化开始产生影响,而且此时内部微观结构的演化由两种机制共同影响,据此建立了连续介质模型,将宏观尺度上应力软化行为和微观结构的演化相关联．将所获得的应力响应理论结果与猪离体头部皮肤在循环加载作用下的实验结果进行对比分析,证明了该模型能够合理地描述皮肤组织在循环加载作用下的应力软化行为．