• Advances in materials Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.169-184
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• 2017

Electro-Discharge machining (EDM) is a thermal process comprising a complex metal removal mechanism. This method works by forming of a plasma channel between the tool and the workpiece electrodes leading to the melting and evaporation of the material to be removed. EDM is considered especially suitable for machining complex contours with high accuracy, as well as for materials that are not amenable to conventional removal methods. However, several phenomena can arise and adversely affect the surface integrity of EDMed workpieces. These have to be taken into account and studied in order to optimize the process. Recently, artificial neural networks (ANN) have emerged as a novel modeling technique that can provide reliable results and readily, be integrated into several technological areas. In this paper, we use an ANN, namely, the multi-layer perceptron and the back propagation network (BPNN) to predict the mean surface roughness of electro-discharge machined surfaces. The comparison of the derived results with experimental findings demonstrates the promising potential of using back propagation neural networks (BPNNs) for getting a reliable and robust approximation of the Surface Roughness of Electro-discharge Machined Components.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.129-139
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• 2018

Post-tensioning (PT) tendons are commonly used for the assembly of modularized concrete members, and tension is applied to the tendons during construction to facilitate the integrated behavior of the members. However, the tension in a PT tendon decreases over time due to steel corrosion and concrete creep, and consequently, the stress on the anchor head that secures the PT tendon also diminishes. This study proposes an automatic detection system to identify tension reduction in a PT tendon using pulsed-eddy-current (PEC) measurement. An eddy-current sensor is installed on the surface of the steel anchor head. The sensor creates a pulsed excitation to the driving coil and measures the resulting PEC response using the pick-up coil. The basic premise is that the tension reduction of a PT tendon results in stress reduction on the anchor head surface and a change in the PEC intensity measured by the pick-up coil. Thus, PEC measurement is used to detect the reduction of the anchor head stress and consequently the reduction of the PT tendon force below a certain threshold value. The advantages of the proposed PEC-based tension-reduction-detection (PTRD) system are (1) a low-cost (< $ 30), low-power (< 2 Watts) sensor, (2) a short inspection time (< 10 seconds), (3) high reliability and (4) the potential for embedded sensing. A 3.3 m long full-scale monostrand PT tendon was used to evaluate the performance of the proposed PTRD system. The PT tendon was tensioned to 180 kN using a custom universal tensile machine, and the tension was decreased to 0 kN at 20 kN intervals. At each tension, the PEC responses were measured, and tension reduction was successfully detected.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.295-308
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• 2018

The excavation of twin tunnels is a process that destabilizes the ground. The stability of the tunnel lining, the control of ground displacements around the tunnel resulting from each excavation and the interaction between them must be controlled. This paper provides a new approach for replacing the costly 3D analyses with the equivalent 2D analyses that closely reflects the in-situ measurements when excavating twin tunnels. The modeling was performed in two dimensions using the FLAC2D finite difference code. The three-dimensional effect of excavation is taken into account through the deconfinement rate ${\lambda}$ of the soil surrounding the excavation by applying the convergence-confinement method. A comparison between settlements derived by the proposed 2D analysis and the settlements measured in a real project in Algeria shows an acceptable agreement. Also, this paper reports the investigation into the changes in deformations on tunnel linings and surface settlements which may be expected if the twin tunnels of T4 El-Harouche Skikda were constructed with a tunneling machine. Special attention was paid to the influence of the excavation phase shift distance between the two mechanized tunnel faces. It is revealed that the ground movements and the lining deformations during tunnel excavation depend on the distance between the tunnels' axis and the excavation phase shift.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.373-380
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• 2020

For large-scale 5MW offshore wind turbines, the discrete equation of fluid domain and the motion equation of structural domain with geometric nonlinearity were built, the three-dimensional modeling of the blade considering fluid-structure interaction (FSI) was achieved by using Unigraphics (UG) and Geometry modules, and the numerical simulation and the analysis of the vibration characteristics for wind turbine structure under rotating effect were carried out based on ANSYS software. The results indicate that the rotating effect has an apparent effect on displacement and Von Mises stress, and the response and the distribution of displacement and Von Mises stress for the blade in direction of wingspan increase nonlinearly with the equal increase of rotational speeds. Compared with the single blade model, the blade vibration period of the whole machine model is much longer. The structural coupling effect reduces the response peak value of the blade displacement and Von Mises stress, and the increase of rotational speed enhances this coupling effect. The maximum displacement difference between two models decreases first and then increases along wingspan direction, the trend is more visible with the equal increase of rotational speed, and the boundary point with zero displacement difference moves towards the blade root. Furthermore, the Von Mises stress difference increases gradually with the increase of rotational speed and decreases nonlinearly from the blade middle to both sides. The results can provide technical reference for the safe operation and optimal design of offshore wind turbines.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 2008

Net shape forging technologies give many effects into the costs and qualities for the finished products. So, the studies to reduce the additional machining amount are very important in forging industry. Specially, there are two main topics in cold forging industry, such as, tool life and precision forging. In this study, new forging technique was proposed to eliminate the machining process for fixing up the length and improve the lead accuracy of gear. The luck-up hub is manufactured through many processes, such as upsetting, piercing and direct extrusion. The gear is formed in direct extrusion process; however, lead accuracy of the gear is over allowance limit. Therefore, the additional sizing process must be added. In this study, process design for closed-die forging of a lock-up hub used for a component of automobile transmission was made using three-dimensional finite element simulations, and the strain distributions and velocity distributions are investigated through the post processor. The rigid-plastic finite-element method for back pressure forging has been used in order to reduce development time and die cost. Using the FEM simulation, we found the optimum value of back pressure. The prototypes of lock-up hub parts were forged into the net-shape. In the experiment, lead precision of tooth are measured by the CCMM(Contact Coordinate Measuring Machine). The dimensional accuracy of forged part was improved up to the 40% when back press was applied.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2020

The uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of rock is a basic parameter in underground engineering design. The disadvantages of this commonly employed laboratory testing method are untimely testing, difficulty in performing core testing of broken rock mass and long and complicated onsite testing processes. Therefore, the development of a fast and simple in situ rock UCS testing method for field use is urgent. In this study, a multi-function digital rock drilling and testing system and a digital core bit dedicated to the system are independently developed and employed in digital drilling tests on rock specimens with different strengths. The energy analysis is performed during rock cutting to estimate the energy consumed by the drill bit to remove a unit volume of rock. Two quantitative relationship models of energy analysis-based core drilling parameters (ECD) and rock UCS (ECD-UCS models) are established in this manuscript by the methods of regression analysis and support vector machine (SVM). The predictive abilities of the two models are comparatively analysed. The results show that the mean value of relative difference between the predicted rock UCS values and the UCS values measured by the laboratory uniaxial compression test in the prediction set are 3.76 MPa and 4.30 MPa, respectively, and the standard deviations are 2.08 MPa and 4.14 MPa, respectively. The regression analysis-based ECD-UCS model has a more stable predictive ability. The energy analysis-based rock drilling method for the prediction of UCS is proposed. This method realized the quick and convenient in situ test of rock UCS.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.403-418
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• 2020

In recent years, the use of Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) as one of the most common ways to increase the strength of concrete samples, has been introduced. Evaluation of the final strength of these specimens is performed with different experimental methods. In this research, due to the variety of models, the low accuracy and impact of different parameters, the use of new intelligence methods is considered. Therefore, using artificial intelligent-based models, a new solution for evaluating the bond strength of FRP is presented in this paper. 150 experimental samples were collected from previous studies, and then two new hybrid models of Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA)-Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC)-ANN were developed. These models were evaluated using different performance indices and then, a comparison was made between the developed models. The results showed that the ICA-ANN model's ability to predict the bond strength of FRP is higher than the ABC-ANN model. Finally, to demonstrate the capabilities of this new model, a comparison was made between the five experimental models and the results were presented for all data. This comparison showed that the new model could offer better performance. It is concluded that the proposed hybrid models can be utilized in the field of this study as a suitable substitute for empirical models.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.88-98
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• 2014

This study is to assess the photocatalytic degradation of PET and Nylon 6 films containing nano-sized $TiO_2$ powders of anatase and rutile types. The PET and Nylon 6 films containing six kinds of the nanoparticles were prepared by melt casting method using a heating press machine. Reflectance in visible region and water contact angles of the irradiated PET and Nylon 6 composite films decreased with increasing UV/$O_3$ irradiation. Also the enhanced hydrophilicity has a close relationship with the increase in the Lewis base parameter, which indicates more oxidized polymer surfaces. The photocatalytic degradation of the nanocomposite films increased with increasing $TiO_2$ content and UV energy, which is more significant with the anatase types rather than the rutile types. The amide linkages in the Nylon 6 seemed to be more susceptible to the UV light compared to the ester groups in the PET, particularly in the presence of the $TiO_2$ photocatalysts. The photoscission and photodegradation of the polymers in the composites produced more degraded structure assisted by the photocatalytic activity of the $TiO_2$ nanoparticles. Also the composite films can bleach the methylene blue dyes more easily under the UV/$O_3$ irradiation, suggesting the photobleaching activity of the $TiO_2$ nanoparticles.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.569-583
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• 2015

Recent years, explosive welding structures have been widely used in many engineering fields. The bonding state detection of explosive welding structures is significant to prevent unscheduled failures and even catastrophic accidents. However, this task still faces challenges due to the complexity of the bonding interface. In this paper, a new method called dual-tree complex wavelet transform based permutation entropy (DTCWT-PE) is proposed to detect bonding state of such structures. Benefiting from the complex analytical wavelet function, the dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) has better shift invariance and reduced spectral aliasing compared with the traditional wavelet transform. All those characters are good for characterizing the vibration response signals. Furthermore, as a statistical measure, permutation entropy (PE) quantifies the complexity of non-stationary signals through phase space reconstruction, and thus it can be used as a viable tool to detect the change of bonding state. In order to more accurate identification and detection of bonding state, PE values derived from DTCWT coefficients are proposed to extract the state information from the vibration response signal of explosive welding structure, and then the extracted PE values serve as input vectors of support vector machine (SVM) to identify the bonding state of the structure. The experiments on bonding state detection of explosive welding pipes are presented to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.136-140
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• 2011

The plasma resistances of nitrile curable perfluoro elastomer (NT PFE) and peroxide curable PFE (PO PFE) after exposing to $NF_3$ and $O_2$ remote plasmas were investigated by analyzing weight loss and morphology of O-ring made of PFE. The compounds were designed following the typical formulations of O-ring/seal which were applied in semiconductor and LCD production site. They were blended by an open roll mill, and then, O-ring was finally made by hot press molding and oven curing. The weight loss was calculated and morphology was observed for each atmosphere and temperature by a digital weighing machine and SEM. As results, it was confirmed the weight loss and related morphology were meaningfully different according to the cure type of PFE, filler system, and the species of remote plasma.