• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.83-87
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• 2018

An object in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is affected by many environmental conditions unlike earth's surface such as, Atomic oxygen (AO), Ultraviolet Radiation (UV), thermal cycling, High Vacuum and Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris (MMOD) impacts. The effect of all these parameters have to be carefully considered when designing a space structure, as it could be very critical for a space mission. Polybenzimidazole (PBI) is a high performance thermoplastic polymer that could be a suitable material for space missions because of its excellent resistance to these environmental factors. A thin coating of PBI polymer on the carbon epoxy composite laminate (referred as CFRP) was found to improve the energy absorption capability of the laminate in event of a hypervelocity impact. However, the overall efficiency of the shield also depends on other factors like placement and orientation of the laminates, standoff distances and the number of shielding layers. This paper studies the effectiveness of using a PBI coating on the front bumper in a multi-shock shield design for enhanced hypervelocity impact resistance. A thin PBI coating of 43 micron was observed to improve the shielding efficiency of the CFRP laminate by 22.06% when exposed to LEO environment conditions in a simulation chamber. To study the effectiveness of PBI coating in a hypervelocity impact situation, experiments were conducted on the CFRP and the PBI coated CFRP laminates with projectile velocities between 2.2 to 3.2 km/s. It was observed that the mass loss of the CFRP laminates decreased 7% when coated by a thin layer of PBI. However, the study of mass loss and damage area on a witness plate showed CFRP case to have better shielding efficiency than PBI coated CFRP laminate case. Therefore, it is recommended that PBI coating on the front bumper is not so effective in improving the overall hypervelocity impact resistance of the space structure.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.327-328
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• 2017

Despite provision of drinking water as the most common method of occupational heat stress prevention, there remains confusion in hydration messaging to workers. During work site interactions in a hot and humid climate, workers commonly report being informed to consume tepid fluids to accelerate rehydration. When questioned on the evidence supporting such advice, workers typically cite that fluid absorption is delayed by ingestion of chilled beverages. Presumably, delayed absorption would be a product of fluid delivery from the gut to the intestines, otherwise known as gastric emptying. Regulation of gastric emptying is multifactorial, with gastric volume and beverage energy density the primary factors. If gastric emptying is temperature dependent, the impact of cooling is modest in both magnitude and duration (${\leq}5$ minutes) due to the warming of fluids upon ingestion, particularly where workers have elevated core temperature. Given that chilled beverages are most preferred by workers, and result in greater consumption than warm fluids during and following physical activity, the resultant increased consumption of chilled fluids would promote gastric emptying through superior gastric volume. Hence, advising workers to avoid cool/cold fluids during rehydration appears to be a misinterpretation of the research. More appropriate messaging to workers would include the thermal benefits of cool/cold fluid consumption in hot and humid conditions, thereby promoting autonomy to trial chilled beverages and determine personal preference. In doing so, temperature-based palatability would be maximized and increase the likelihood of workers maintaining or restoring hydration status during and after their work shift.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1213-1218
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• 2004

The present article reports extensive numerical results on the non-local characteristics of ultra-short pulsed laser-induced breakdowns of fused silica ($SiO_{2}$) by using the multivariate Fokker-Planck equation. The nonlocal type of multivariate Fokker-Planck equation is modeled on the basis of the Boltzmann transport formalism to describe the ultra-short pulsed laser-induced damage phenomena in the energy-position space, together with avalanche ionization, three-body recombination, and multiphoton ionization. Effects of electron avalanche, recombination, and multiphoton ionization on the electronic transport are examined. From the results, it is observed that the recombination becomes prominent and contributes to reduce substantially the rate of increase in electron number density when the electron density exceeds a certain threshold. With very intense laser irradiation, a strong absorption of laser energy takes place and an initially transparent solid is converted to a metallic state, well known as laser-induced breakdown. It is also found that full ionization is provided at intensities above threshold, all further laser energy is deposited within a thin skin depth.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.15-31
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• 2023

Organic solar cells utilized natural polymers to convert solar energy to electricity. The demands for green energy production and less disposal of toxic materials make them one of the interesting candidates for replacing conventional solar cells. However, the different aspects of their properties including mechanical strength and stability are not well recognized. Therefore, in the present study, we aim to explore the chaotic responses of these organic solar cells. In doing so, a specific type of organic solar cell constructed from layers of material with different thicknesses is considered to obtain vibrational and chaotic responses under different boundaries and initial conditions. A square plate structure is examined with first-order shear deformation theory to acquire the displacement field in the laminated structure. The bounding between different layers is considered to be perfect with no sliding and separation. On the other hand, nonlocal elasticity theory is engaged in incorporating the structural effects of the organic material into calculations. Hamilton's principle is adopted to obtain governing equations with regard to boundary conditions and mechanical loadings. The extracted equations of motion were solved using the perturbation method and differential quadrature approach. The results demonstrated the significant effect of relative glass layer thickness on the chaotic behavior of the structure with higher relative thickness leading to less chaotic responses. Moreover, a comprehensive parameter study is presented to examine the effects of nonlocality and relative thicknesses on the natural frequency of square organic solar cell structure.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.1021-1026
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• 2011

Structural impact problems are becoming increasingly important for a modern defense industry, high-speed transportation, and other applications because of the weight reduction with high strength. In this study, a numerical investigation on the impact fracture behavior of aluminum plates was performed under various projectile conditions such as nose shapes, velocities, and incidence angles. In order to reduce the iterative numerical analysis, the Latin Square Method was employed. The influence factor was then determined by an FE analysis according to the conditions. The results were evaluated by means of a statistical significance interpretation using variance assessment. It was shown that the velocity and incidence angle can be the most important influence factors representing the impact absorption energy and plastic deformation, respectively.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.67-74
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• 2023

The earth-abundant element-based Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) thin film solar cells (TFSCs) have attracted greater attention in the photovoltaic (PV) community due to their rapid development in device power conversion efficiency (PCE) >13%. In the present work, we demonstrated the fine-tuning of the bandgap in the CZTSSe TFSCs by altering the sulfur (S) to the selenium (Se) chalcogenide ratio. To achieve this, the CZTSSe absorber layers are fabricated with different S/(S+Se) ratios from 0.02 to 0.08 of their weight percentage. Further compositional, morphological, and optoelectronic properties are studied using various characterization techniques. It is observed that the change in the S/(S+Se) ratios has minimal impact on the overall Cu/(Zn+Sn) composition ratio. In contrast, the S and Se content within the CZTSSe absorber layer gets altered with a change in the S/(S+Se) ratio. It also influences the overall absorber quality and gets worse at higher S/(S+Se). Furthermore, the device performance evaluated for similar CZTSSe TFSCs showed a linear increase and decrease in the open circuit voltage (V_oc) and short circuit current density (J_sc) of the device with an increasing S/(S+Se) ratio. The external quantum efficiency (EQE) measured also exhibited a linear blue shift in absorption edge, increasing the bandgap from 1.056 eV to 1.228 eV, respectively.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2000

The crashworthiness of vehicles with finite element methods depends on the geometry modeling and the material properties. The vehicle body structures are generally composed of various members such as frames, stamped panels and deep-drawn parts from sheet metals. In order to ensure the impact characteristics of auto-body structures, the dynamic behavior of sheet metals must be examined to provide the appropriate constitutive relation. In this paper, high strain-rate tensile tests have been carried out with a tension type split Hopkinson bar apparatus specially designed for sheet metals. Experimental results from both static and dynamic tests with the tension split Hopkinson bar apparatus are interpolated to construct the Johnson-Cook and a modified Johnson-Cook equation as the constitutive relation, that should be applied to simulation of the dynamic behavior of auto-body structures. Simulation of auto-body structures has been carried out with an elasto-plastic finite element method with explicit time integration. The stress integration scheme with the plastic predictor-elastic corrector method is adopted in order to accurately keep track of the stress-strain relation for the rate-dependent model accurately. The crashworthiness of the structure with quasi-static constitutive relation is compared to the one with the rate-dependent constitutive model. Numerical simulation has been carried out for frontal frames and a hood of an automobile. Deformed shapes and the Impact energy absorption of the structure are investigated with the variation of the strain rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.832-835
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• 2005

The objective of this research work is to investigate into static and dynamic characteristics of ISB panels with the expanded metal as an internally structured material. In order to investigate static and dynamic characteristics of ISB panels, several experiments, the tensile test, three-point bending test and impact test, are carried out. From the results of the experiments, the mechanical properties, bending stiffness and impact absorption energy of the ISB panel have been obtained. In addition, it has been shown that the static and dynamic characteristics of ISB panel are highly dependent on the crimping angle of the pyramidal structure for the expanded metal.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.108-113
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• 2005

The damageability and repairability of similar platform type vehicles could be very concerned with design optimization. In all the vehicles crash tested, small size passenger vehicles were weakness in aspect of damageability and repairability. The most critical area appears to be repair cost considering that parts cost is the largest portion of total repair cost segments. Besides repair cost, attaching method of front sidemember and subframe are placed special importance for impact energy absorption and damageability and repairability. So in order to improve damageability and repairability of vehicle structure and body component of the monocoque type passenger vehicles, the end of front side member and front back beam should be designed with optimum level and to supply the end of front side member as a partial condition approx 300mm. The effectiveness of design concept on the 40% offset frontal impact characteristics of the passenger vehicle structure is investigated and summarized.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.367-375
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• 2020

Today, the use of special technologies in the admixture of concrete has made tremendous progress, but the problem that has always existed in the construction of concrete members is the brittleness and lack of loading bearing after cracking, which leads to reduced strength and energy absorption. One of the best ways to fix this is to reinforce the concrete with steel fibers. Steel fibers also control cracks due to dry shrinkage, reduce structural crack width, and improve impact resistance. In this study, recycled steel fibers from worn tires have been used in the manufacture of concrete samples, the secondary benefits of which are the reduction of environmental pollution. One of the disadvantages of steel fiber reinforced concrete is the corrosion of steel fibers and their deterioration in harsh environments such as coastal areas. Corrosion caused by chlorine ions in metal fibers causes deterioration and early decommissioning of structures in corrosive environments. In this study, the effect of the dosage of steel fibers (dosages of 15, 30, and 45 kg of fibers per cubic meter of concrete) and aspect ratio of fibers (aspect ratio of 25 and 50) on compressive and flexural strength of concrete samples are investigated. In the following, the effect of fiber corrosion on the results of the mechanical properties of concrete samples is examined. The results show that the increase in fiber causes a relative increase in compressive strength, and a significant increase in flexural strength, and corrosion of steel fibers without reducing workability reduces compressive strength and flexural strength by up to 6 to 11%, respectively.