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Moisture transport in high strength concrete is investigated in this paper. The experiment that involves the water suction is carried out in a long-term. The moisture profiles are measured by non-destructive capacitance method, the last profile is determined gravimetrically. The suction experiment is carried out in isothermal condition at the temperature of 22±1 °C and 25-30% relative humidity.

Electromagnetic (EM) shielding effectiveness of fifteen woven fabrics which use different yarns as raw materials were evaluated and compared in this paper. Test samples were obtained through the change of yarn structure, the content of stainless steel filaments and process parameters. Fabric electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (SE) was analyzed in terms of the content of stainless steel filaments,fabric density and fabric tightness .The mechanism of electromagnetic shielding of worsted fabric with stainless steel filaments was further studied at different frequencies. The result has certain directive significance on developing high-performance woolen fabrics against electromagnetic radiation.

The Deep Surface Rolling (DSR) technology can substantially increase the fatigue life of metallic materials due to the introduction of deep compressive residual stresses in the material surface. These beneficial compressive residual stresses can be achieved up to a depth of 1 mm. The DSR technology also produces a good surface finish unlike bead peening technology. In this study, the main objectives were: (1) to study the feasibility of DSR for fatigue life improvement of high strength aluminium alloy (7075-T651) repaired with laser cladding technology, and (2) to investigate the effect of thermal stressing on the fatigue life improvement of DSR. Previously published results have shown that post-heat treatment of laser clad high strength Al alloy coupons improved their fatigue life. The experimental results in this paper show that the fatigue life was substantially increased using the DSR technique on laser clad 7075-T6 aluminium alloy compared to laser cladding alone and laser cladding followed by post heat treatment.

New flue-curing process which can accommodate new curing barn which temperature and humidity can be auto-controlled was studied. Based on results of the study on new curing barn and the baking theory, the flue-curing process for new curing barn was programmed. Flue-curing results of this new curing process for new curing barn were compared to the results of conventional baking process for conventional barn. The comparison result was that the new process was simple, convenient and easy-running. The quality of cured tobacco leaf from new curing process was improved: proportion of orange tobacco leaf, the first class tobacco leaf and the first/secondary class leaf was improved by 3.38, 4.74 and 2.03 percentage respectively than the value of conventional process. Meanwhile, the value of total sugar, starch, nicotine, total nitrogen, protein and the difference between total sugar and reducing sugar were lower than the result of conventional process. Chemical composition was more balance than conventional process.

Aim of this paper is to present a numerical method for modeling of the so-called “equivalent box section fiber beam concrete element”. By comparing hysteresis curves of specimen of the concrete structure plotted with rebar beam with those plotted with the equivalent box section beam under a set of loading cases, the following conclusions are obtained: 1) The modeling technology of equivalent box section beam can overcome the difficulty which the rebar in beam can only be used in static calculation, and the fiber beam element can be applied to dynamic explicit analysis; 2) By comparing hysteresis curves which are plotted by the rebar beam with those obtained with model of equivalent box section beam, it is found that results are in good agreement for a specific typical loading case; 3) By comparing hysteresis curves of the equivalent box section beam with experimental data under given loading case, numerical results indicate that numerical results obtained with proposed modeling technology can fit the experiment phenomena very well.

For an increase in safety against crack initiation and growth in metallic structures of airplanes different concepts were developed in the past. In the focus of this work are profiles made of continuously reinforced extruded aluminum. The production and the used die set of these profiles is presented as well as problems occurring in terms of geometrical inaccuracies of the embedded high strength wires. In addition, this paper attends to the problem of lateral seam weld formation. The interface between the AA-2099 as well as AA-6056 aluminum alloy and the high strength wires Nivaflex and Nanoflex were characterized by metallurgic investigations and push-out tests. As a result it can be stated that a sufficient geometrical accuracy could be achieved and a high interface strength can be accomplished even if a slight gap is still present in the interface layer between matrix and reinforcing element.

In this paper, Button rock asphalt particle was directly added into hot asphalt mixture (HMA) to produced high modulus asphalt mixture (HMAM). In order to evaluate the performance properties of HMAM with BRA, dynamic compressive complex modulus (E*) test, rutting test and moisture resistance test were used to investigate HMAM with BRA and HMA with SBS modifier. Test results indicate BRA can greatly improve dynamic E*and rutting resistance of HMA compared with SBS modified asphalt mixture. Moisture resistance ability of HMAM with BRA has the same level with SBS modified asphalt mixture. Therefore, BRA particle can be used to produce HMAM, which have more superior performance properties than SBS asphalt modifier.

The blade, made of TC11 titanium alloy, is prone to result in fatigue failure in the formidable environment in aero-engine. So a higher performance request of the material is brought forward. In this paper, laser shock peening(LSP) as a solution is applied to TC11 titanium alloy and microstructure, residual stress and microhardness with and without LSP were examined and compared via transmission electron microscope(TEM), X ray diffraction(XRD)and microhardness tester. The TEM results indicate that a great high density of dislocations are generated and evolve into the dislocation wall, sub-boundary and grain boundary. The nanocrystallites are formed and become smaller and more uniform with greater impacts. A high compressive residual stress above -540MPa is introduced with an increasing plastically affected layer with different impacts. The microhardness test result shows that LSP can obviously increase the hardness by 20 percent or so, and the affected depth increases with the impact from 600μm to 1200μm.

In this paper, polypropylene (PP) melt blown non-woven fabric is treated by atmospheric He, He/O2 or He/CO2 glow discharge plasma. The variation of the surface hidrophilicity of PP sample is experimentally investigated by the surface water contact angle. The results show that the surface water contact angle firstly has a sharp decline and then up to saturation. It is worth noting that the time the water contact angle is up to saturation greatly shortens when a spot of O2 or CO2 are added into the atmospheric He. In addition, when the PP samples are treated by the atmospheric glow discharge plasma, it is necessary of selecting a right applied voltage.

In this paper, the tensile strength of 3-dimension-4-direction braided/epoxy resin composites after accelerated aging for different period of time at 150°C was investigated. The tensile tests of 3-dimension-4-direction braided/epoxy resin composite samples without aging and aged 60 hours, 120 hours, 180 hours, at 150°C were carried out. The damage forms of braided composite samples tested were investigated. The experiment result indicates that the accelerated aging process at 150°C has some effect on the tensile strength of braided composite samples. The average tensile strengths of composite samples aged 60 hours, 120 hours, and 180 hours period of time at 150°C are 92.44%, 91.62% and 84.91% of average tensile strength of braided composite samples without aging, respectively. This means that the tensile strength will be decreased when the aging period of time increases at 150°C. The damage form of samples tested shows that when accelerated aging, the resin in the composite samples is damaged, which makes the adhesive force between fiber bundles and epoxy resin decline, so that the ability of fiber and resin bearing the tensile load together decreases.

Monodispersed silica spheres have attracted much attention because of their widely applications in the areas of catalysis, adsorption, chromatography packing materials and advanced ceramics. This paper focused on its application as a packing material of function coatings for space applications. Nanosized monodispersed silica spheres can be fabricated by Stöber method. However, microsized monodispersed silica spheres are not easy obtained. In this paper monodispersed silica spheres with the size between 200nm to 2000nm were fabricated by hydrolysis of tetraethoxy silane (TEOS) in isopropyl alcohol solvent and using ammonia as catalyst through multi-step growth method. The influence of silica seed number density and TEOS concentration on monodispersity and size of silica sphere were studied. The result shows that monodispersed silica spheres could be obtained through control the concentration of TEOS and the silica seed number density during every growth step. The diameter of monodispersed silica spheres increased with the steps of growth.

In the present paper, the γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized by the co-precipitation process and followed by calcination. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the as prepared nanoparticles. The results show that the phase structure of the nanoparticles is γ-Fe2O3 with the particle size ranging from 40 to 50 nm. The catalytic activity of the γ-Fe2O3 was investigated by decomposing the phenol in liquid phase. The results showed that γ-Fe2O3 has the highest catlytic activity.

Grinding aids to increase grinding efficiency in cement production are materials that can produce large amounts of high-quality cement in a short time by reducing surface energy by preventing particle agglomeration and improving fluidity. In the paper, a grinding aid using glycerol-waste antifreeze(GAP) is prepared and its effect on the grinding properties of clinker is investigated in contrast to that without the grinding aid. The results are as follows: The angle of repose of the cement powder added with GAP decreases as the grinding time increases (decreases by 3.8° when the grinding time is 60 minutes), indicating that it increases the flowability of the powder. On the contrary, the residual amount of 45µm sieve is also significantly reduced (4.6% decrease) and the specific surface area increases (30.5m2/kg), which results in an increase in the grinding efficiency. In the size range of 3 to 32µm, it increases the particle content, makes the particle size distribution uniform, the 7d and 28d activity index of the powder is improved by 5% and 6%, respectively, and increases the compressive strength of the cement. In addition, it is confirmed that the performance of the TEA grinding aid and the grinding aid are similar, and are very effective in terms of economy.

In this paper we address sensitivity of SnO2 thin film deposited by thermal chemical vapor deposition in terms of its behavior towards humidity variations. The structural, optical and electrical properties of SnO2 thin film deposit at different substrate temperature grown by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are also reviewed. FESEM image reveal smallest particle size of SnO2 at substrate temperature 500°C. Pl measurement shows red shift of SnO2 at substrate temperature 500°C. All thin film performing slightly linear sensitivities towards relative humidity (RH%).

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) is an anisotropic material with outstanding tensile strength in the direction of axial but low compressive strength in the direction of radial, so the radial compressive failure and sliding failure are easy to occur in the practical application of compression and hanging wires. In this paper, the influence of different parameters on radial compressive failure and sliding failure is studied. The finite element method is used to simulate and analyze the CFRP and wedge clamp to find optimum condition parameters to make the CFRP neither sliding failure nor radial compressive failure. The parameters are as follows: interference between the CFRP and the inner wedge, friction coefficient between the CFRP and the inner wedge, angle of the wedge, inner wedge material elastic modulus. The results show that the most appropriate parameter is: the interference between 0.0236mm and 0.0252mm, the friction coefficient between 0.194 and 0.206, the wedge angle is greater than 1.75° and the elastic modulus of wedge material has little influence on the compressive failure and slippage failure of the CFRP.

The Optical Fiber-based communication system has established its proficiency and inevitability towards regular progress and advancement worldwide. The most attractive wavelength for optical fiber communication is 1.55 μm, as it represents the lowest loss. The other challenging parameter ‘Material Dispersion’ gets reduced to ‘Zero’ at 1.27 μm wavelengths for conventional pure silica-based Optical Fiber. To improve the system towards a better unification between the loss and dispersion, the Dispersion Shifted Fiber (DSF) has been introduced. The Dispersion Flattened Fiber has introduced the concept of flat dispersion over a wide range of wavelengths. But the effective combination of the mechanisms to compensate for all the challenges is yet to be established properly. The said mechanisms are complex to design and implement. So, there is an immense scope to search for an alternative to get control over the loss and dispersion. At present, a fair number of material compositions of optical fiber are reported with different specifications. Our study on some of these fiber compositions has produced some interesting data towards the broader flatness and the minimum dispersion effect over a considerable range of wavelengths around the Zero Material Dispersion Wavelength (ZMDW). It helps to have more effective wavelength division Multiplexing (WDM). In this paper, we have studied different prospective options of optical fiber doping profiles to explore and propose an effective and optimized alternative among the available fiber profiles. We have studied the samples of pure SiO2 fibers along with B2O3 and GeO2 doped fibers and samples of Fluoride-based ABCY and ZBLAN glass Fibers to propose an effective combination of materials among the available options to get the optimized conjugation of loss and dispersion. Our report on the comparative study of different fiber materials has produced some effective results to have minimum material dispersion at the lowest loss wavelength to invite worldwide attention from system designers.

Focusing 3-axis diffractometer set-up equipped with bent perfect crystal (BPC) monochromator and analyzer offers the sensitivity in determination of strains Dd/d < 10-4 in polycrystalline materials which is about one order of magnitude higher with respect to that of conventional 2-axis neutron scanners. It also offers possibility of line profile analysis for reasonable sample volumes and counting times. In this paper, the feasibility of using the 3-axis set-up even for measurements of rather large bulk polycrystalline samples with an acceptable resolution is presented. As the 3-axis set-up exploits focusing in real and momentum space, by a proper adjustment of the curvature of the analyzer, a high-resolution determination of the lattice changes can also be achieved even on large irradiated gauge volumes, though with a slightly relaxed resolution. It can be successfully exploited namely, in the strain/stress measurements on samples exposed to an external load, e.g. in tension/compression rig, in aging machine etc. In addition to the original performance where the analysis is carried out by rocking the BPC analyzer and the neutron signal registered by a point detector, a new alternative is offered which uses a fixed rocking angle position of the analyzer and the detector signal is registered by a one-dimensional position sensitive detector (PSD). This trick makes possible in some cases the elastic strain/stress measurements considerably faster and thus reduces the drawback of the time consuming step-by-step analysis.

Concrete members are reinforced by steel fibers to overcome their brittle nature. This paper is focused on the effect of percentage of fiber and the maximum aggregate size on mechanical properties of concrete samples such as compressive and tensile strengths, and ductility. The mean values of these quantities show that by increasing the reinforcement content to 0.66% and the size to 12.5 mm, there is a dramatic improvement on properties of samples. Also, they demonstrate that the size of coarse aggregate has more effect on improvement of the quantities in comparison to steel fiber content and changing the size and fiber content has more effects on ductility than mechanical properties. Statistical approach which considers standard deviations of experimental data, confirms that the gravel regardless of fiber content, leads to the highest improvement on properties with size of 12.5 mm. But the results show for volumetric steel fiber without considering aggregate size, is 0.33%. This clearly indicates the effect of data scattering on mean values of mechanical properties and ductility.

Dyeing cellulosic fibres with reactive dyes wastes great quantities of salt and water. The objective of this work is to dye cellulosic fibers using colored nanoparticles (CNPs) as an alternative to dyeing with reactive dyes, without salt and without washing off at the end of dyeing. Samples of cotton were dyed by exhaustion with CNPs at medium to dark colours. Build-up of colour compared to samples from previous work is given and shows a big improvement. Washfastness results are given. Washing-off after dyeing was not necessary for the red and yellow colours. The blue colour needs some washing off since the fastness is lower than for the other colours even though soaping is not necessary, saving energy and time relative to dyeing with reactive dyes.

In this paper, the post ballistic impact behaviour of kevlar-glass fibre hybrid composite laminates was investigated against 9×19 mm projectile. Eight different types of composite laminates with different ratios of kevlar woven fibre to glass fibre were fabricated using hand lay-up with epoxy matrix. Ballistic behaviour like ballistic Limit (V50), energy absorption, specific energy absorption and Back Face Signature (BFS) were studied after bullet impact. The results indicated that as the Percentage of glass fibre is increased there was a linear increment in the ballistic behaviour. Addition of 16% kevlar fabric, composite sample meets the performance requirement of NIJ0101.06 Level III-A. Since the maximum specific energy absorption was observed in Pure Kevlar samples and the adding of glass fibre increases the weight and Areal Density of the sample, further investigations need to be carried out to utilize the potential of glass fibre for ballistic applications.

The important characteristic in the creation of longitudinal splitting cracks in pretensioned concrete members has found to be the geometry of the pre-stressing wire indents. Longitudinal splitting along prestressing tendons can result in severe splitting of prestressed member in the field under loading over time. The research evaluated the influence of wire type indentation on the longitudinal splitting in prestressed concrete members fabricated with different concrete mixtures and different compressive strength of concrete. A key objective was to find the best type of wire to avoid failures in the field. A study was conducted at Kansas State University to understand the effect of wire type on the longitudinal splitting between prestressing steel and prestressed concrete. Three different types of wires will be presented in this paper denoted as “WB”, “WF” and “WQ”. The wires have different parameters which include indent depth, indent width, indent sidewall angle, indent pitch and indent volume.

The paper presents the results of researches carried out by a joint team from Department of Steel Structures and Structural Mechanics, together with Department of Materials Science and Engineering, from University Politehnica Timisoara, focused on the possibility of creating built-up cold-formed steel beams made of corrugated galvanized steel sheets by resistance welding, which will replace the similar beams built by self-drilling screws. Resistance spot welding technologies were developed and tested, together with mechanical testing of the welded joints, which were performed in our laboratories. The results obtained and presented confirm the good quality of the welded joints and, as a result, the good capability of this technology to be used in production, to replace the old type of beams.

The paper aims to report preliminary researches towards to development of new hybrid welding system by coupling a microwave beam with a TIG torch. The main research was focused on the designing of hybrid system as well as to establish the heating/welding mechanism by coupling two different thermal sources. Therefore, a specific welding chamber was designed taking into consideration the limitations provided by microwave waveguide technical specs, geometrical shape and dimensions of the TIG torch as well as the temperature monitoring during welding process and video surveillance for data recording. A microwave generator with adjustable power from 0 to 1250 W was coupled with a TIG torch and welding power source in order to establish the main parameters for hybrid system. The preliminary researches reported that the MW-TIG hybrid welding could be applied to eutectic joining of materials using low power (up to 600 W) injected from microwave generator as well as low welding current (up to 20 A). The flow of shielding gas have been established initially to 2 l/m. The research related to stabilization of MW-WIG plasma arc have been studied by increasing the flow of shielding gas up to 10 l/m. The results have shown that the microwave generator and TIG torch can be coupled to obtain hybrid-welding process without any matching tuning devices but with risks for damaging the microwave generator. Further researches will be done in order to design auxiliary devices to optimize the hybrid-welding process and to avoid any unwanted plasma arc discharge from welded base materials to microwave generator. In terms of temperature monitoring, an infrared pyrometer has been used. The IR pyrometer was targeted to the base materials in order to be able to measure their temperature without any influences from plasma arc. The results obtained have shown a stable plasma at average microwave power around 400 W even without any TIG current.

The paper aims to report researches in microbonding process of composite magnetic materials using as thermal source the heat produced in base materials by the conversion of the electromagnetic waves with high frequency into thermal energy. This technology can be applied by targeting the base materials with microwaves and taking into account that composite magnetic materials based on ferrites, present good absorbance and conversion properties of the microwaves into heat. For experimental research, the base materials were sintered sampled of raw products obtained from stoichiometric mixtures of 6Fe2O3 + BaCO3. The raw products were obtained by milling and alloying processes using planetary ball mills. The milling and alloying processes have been perfomed in dry environement for homogeneous mixtures and wet environment for mixtures obtained using mechanical alloying. In terms of eutectic alloys used for microbonding, there have been used lead free Sn96,5%+Ag3%+Cu0,5% with melting point around 2170 C. The microbonding process have been perfomed in two steps: first step was focused on prepairing the base materials by cleaning and deposition of eutectic alloys on their surfaces; the second step was the heating of the base materials in microwave field. A microwave generator with adjustable input power from 0 W to 6000 W with a WR340 waveguide have been used as thermal sources. The researches have shown that the base materials were bonded using less than 10 % of microwave power and the eutectic alloys reached the melting temperature în less than 3 seconds when the magnetron was set to full power. A matching load impedance automatic tuner up to 6000 W have been used for increasing the level of absorbed power from nicrowave generator to samples and decreasing the level of rejected power from composite magnetic material to microwave generator. The temperature have been measured using IR pyrometers with range measurement between 0 and 7000 C. The process can be succesfully applied to a large scale for small parts of electrical engines with permanent cermic magnets.

The paper presents a series of experimental researches performed using the design of experiments method RSD (Response Surface Design) for modeling and optimizing the welding process of PE 100 pipelines, used in natural gas distribution. In this sense, the aim was to analyze the influence of controllable factors such as pressure, temperature and time on the objective functions, aiming to obtain certain characteristics of the welded joint. By modeling the welding process, based on the results obtained, an optimal welding procedure was established and validated to meet the conditions imposed on the objective functions.

This paper summarized the research work carried out by a team from Department of Steel Structures and Structural Mechanics, together with Department of Materials Science and Engineering, from University Politehnica Timisoara, which tried to determine the possibility to use welding for obtaining built-up cold-formed steel beams made of corrugated galvanized steel sheets (grade S350GD+Z). There were analyzed two joining processes: MIG brazing and Resistance Spot Welding with the aim to replace the self-drilling screws used until now. The results are very promising and these solutions of joining have beside economic advantages also technical and quality ones.

Developing a non-destructive method which delivers fast, accurate and non-invasive results regarding the concrete compressive strength, is an important issue, currently investigated by many researchers all over the world. Different methodologies, like using the simple non-destructive testing (NDT) or the fusion of different techniques approach, were taken into consideration in order to find the optimal, most suitable method. The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach in this direction. The methodology consists in predicting the concrete compressive strength through ultrasonic testing, for non-destructive determination of the dynamic and static moduli of elasticity. One important, basic assumption of the proposed methodology considers values provided by technical literature for concrete dynamic Poisson’s coefficient. The air-dry density was experimentally determined on concrete cores. The dynamic modulus of elasticity was also experimentally determined by using the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) method on concrete cores. Further on, the static modulus of elasticity and the concrete compressive strength can be mathematically calculated, by using the previously mentioned parameters. The experimental procedures were performed on concrete specimens, namely concrete cores extracted from the raft foundation of a multistorey building; initially they were subjected to the specific NDT, namely ultrasonic testing, and the validation of the results and the proposed methodology derives from the destructive testing of the specimens. The destructive testing is generally recognized as the most trustable method. The precision of the proposed method, established with respect to the destructive testing, revealed a high level of confidence, exceeding 90% (as mean value). It was noticed that even the cores with compressive strength outside of mean range interval (minimum and maximum values) presented high rate of precision, not influencing the overall result. The high rate of accuracy makes this method a suitable research background for further investigations, in order to establish a reliable NDT methodology which could substitute the very invasive and less convenient, destructive method.

In this paper, the specific wear rate (SWR) and the coefficient of friction (CoF) of steel embedded glass/epoxy hybrid composites were examined and compared. Experiments were carried on the pin-on-disc machine on different types of composite materials like plain composite (steel volume 0%) and hybrid composites (steel volume 5% and 10%) pressed against a rotating steel disc (EN 31). Composites were fabricated using the hand-lay-up method. The volume percentage of steel pin/pipe varied from 0 to 10% and glass fiber from 50 to 60%, while the percentage of epoxy was kept 40% stable. The experiments were carried out on a group of samples for duration 20 minutes for different loads of 70N, 80N, 90N, 100N, and 110N with a varying sliding distance of 1000 m, 1250 m, 1500 m, 1750 m, and 2000 m. The results show that the SWR and CoF vary with different load and sliding distance. In general, CoF rises for some time of rubbing, and then it remains constant for the rest of the testing time. The results obtained show that the SWR and CoF increase with increasing sliding distance and load for all the composites. However, SWR and CoF decrease as an increase in the volume percentage of steel. An SWR of hybrid composite is observed to be reduced by 28.02% and 45.98% with an increasing percentage of steel by 5% and 10% respectively. CoF of hybrid composite is observed to be reduced by 14.11% and 24.02% with an increasing percentage of steel by 5% and 10% respectively. At last, the worn surfaces of the hybrid composites were studied through a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Shallow and fine grooves appeared on the worn surfaces of hybrid composites at low loads and cracks were found in large quantities at high load which increased weight loss.

Microchannel heat sink plays a vital role in removing a considerable amount of heat flux from a small surface area from different electronic devices. In recent times, the rapid development of electronic devices requires the improvement of these heat sinks to a greater extent. In this aspect, the selection of appropriate substrate materials of the heat sinks is of vital importance. In this paper, three boron-based ultra-high temperature ceramic materials (ZrB2, TiB2, and HfB2) are compared as a substrate material for the microchannel heat sink using a numerical approach. The fluid flow and heat transfer are analyzed using the finite volume method. The results showed that the maximum temperature of the heat source didn’t exceed 355K at 3.6MWm-2 for any material. The results also indicated HfB2 and TiB2 to be more useful as a substrate material than ZrB2. By applying 3.6 MWm-2 heat flux at the source, the maximum obtained surface heat transfer coefficient was 175.2 KWm-2K-1 in a heat sink having substrate material HfB2.

Lattice structures can be highly complex imitating natural cellular materials. By the wide adoption of additive manufacturing technologies, lattice structures are a popular design element with many advantages for lightweight and highly functional parts. A detailed examination and an intense inspection of this type of new design element and this new production method is necessary to enable a broad industrialization. In this study we demonstrate how to use x-ray based industrial CT to measure lattice structures in additive manufacturing. This paper shows certain challenges and approaches for metrology on lattice structures. The results show significant deviations between designed and built parts, highlighting the need for quantification and non-destructive inspection.

Y-shaped carbon nanowires as a multi-branched carbon nanostructure have potential applications in electrical nano-devices. In this paper, we report the synthesis of Y-shaped carbon nanowires obtained from ethanol flames. These Y-shaped carbon nanowires have different morphologies from one to another. It is interesting that there are two Y-junctions on individual carbon nanowires. According to our experimental results, the growth mechanism of Y-shaped carbon nanowires has been discussed and a possible growth model of these Y-shaped carbon nanowires has been proposed.

High strength concrete (HSC) characterized by high compressive strength but lower ductility compared to normal strength concrete. This low ductility limits the benefit of using HSC in building safe structures. Nanomaterials have gained increased attention because of their improvement of mechanical properties of concrete. In this paper we present an experimental study of the flexural behavior of reinforced beams composed of high-strength concrete and nanomaterials. Eight simply supported rectangular beams were fabricated with identical geometries and reinforcements, and then tested under two third-point loads. The study investigated the concrete compressive strength (50 and 75 N/mm2) as a function of the type of nanomaterial (nanosilica, nanotitanium and nanosilica/nanotitanium hybrid) and the nanomaterial concentration (0%, 0.5% and 1.0%). The experimental results showed that nano particles can be very effective in improving compressive and tensile strength of HSC, nanotitanium is more effective than nanosilica in compressive strength. Also, binary usage of hybrid mixture (nanosilica + nanotitanium) had a remarkable improvement appearing in compressive and tensile strength than using the same percentage of single type of nanomaterials used separately. The reduction in flexural ductility due to the use of higher strength concrete can be compensated by adding nanomaterials. The percentage of concentration, concrete grade and the type of nanomaterials, could predominantly affect the flexural behavior of HSRC beams.

For the characteristics of the hammer handle is under bending stress and impact constantly alternating and the the main of the hammer is Withstand strong impact and friction in use，the paper designed a new type of composite casting process of hammerhead. It has two wear block imbedding in the below of the hammer ，and it set in on both sides of the axis of the hummer wiche with Inverted trapezoidal dovetail structure. The wear block was cast by high chromium cast iron, and it is properly heat treatment and surface cleaning before casting, but Into the mold after re-heated to temperature above 600 °C，At the same time，poured into the cast high-manganese steel quickly，so the block and hammer handle fused together，the block of composite hammer does not wear off in the use, and the wear resistance of the hummer improved significantly.

In this paper we prepared electroless Ni-plated wood veneers using two Pa activation methods. One is the traditional Pa colloid activation and the other uses Pa2+ions. SEM-EDS results indicated that the coatings were continuous, uniform and compact with a P content of lower than 4 wt.%. XRD analysis showed that the coatings were crystalline, which was related to the low P content. The plated wood veneers exhibit good electro-conductivity with surface resistivity of lower than 0.3 Ω cm-2and higher electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of over 60 dB in frequencies from 10 MHz to 1.5 GHz.

The ultraviolet (UV) fluorescent anti-counterfeiting offset printing ink, which can emit visible light (400-800 nm) under the excitation of ultraviolet light (200-400 nm), has been extensively adopted in the modern printing technology. In this paper, we used the red-emitting phosphor BaCaBO3F: Eu3+, Li+ as the fluorescent pigment for printing ink and investigated the influence on additive amount of the luminescence properties of fluorescent ink in order to determine a more ideal ratio of fluorescent ink .Besides, the shear viscosity, thixotropy, visco-elasticity and the temperature dependence of viscosity according to the rheology theory and rheological technique were also studied, and finally the valuable parameters and patterns were successfully obtained.

TiC – Fe composite coating was produced on AISI 1020 steel by the tungsten inert gas (TIG) cladding process to increase the hardness and wear resistance properties of the substrate. In this paper authors have investigated the effect of process parameters on the microstructure and hardness value of the coated layer. In this TIG cladding process the variable parameter is only current, whereas the other parameters such as scanning speed, standoff distance, and voltage and gas flow rate are fixed. Fe and TiC powders were mixed in the proper ratio of 80wt% - 20wt% and 90wt% - 10wt% respectively. The microstructure and micro-hardness value of the samples were investigated by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Vickers micro hardness tester. The result of SEM shows the distribution of the coating powder in the cladded zone. Micro hardness profile shows the variation of the hardness value in the cladded zone as well as in the substrate. The hardness value decreases with increase in distance from top surface of the cladded layer, which is due to difference in cooling rate. Also, the hardness value of cladded layer decreases with increase in current from 140A to 150A. The maximum hardness value of cladded layer was achieved as 262 HV0.05with 140A current and composition of 90 wt.% - 10wt% (Fe - TiC), which was nearly two times higher than that of the as received AISI 1020 steel substrate. Keywords TIG, Microstructure, Micro hardness, Titanium Carbide (TiC), Iron (Fe) powder.

The aim of this paper is to perform a study on how the elevated temperature and gradient of temperature affect the natural frequencies of aluminum honeycomb plate. This study is carried out for temperature range between 200K and 800K, and gradient temperature (ΔT) across the thickness direction of the plate between [0-500K]. Different honeycomb plate geometries have been selected for the analysis, by changing the core thickness, skins thickness and cell size. The obtained results show that the effect of the temperature is noticeable. At temperature 800K, the natural frequencies decrease by 16.1% in comparison to their values at ambient temperature (300K). That means, high temperature makes the material suffers from weak rigidity, which furthermore contribute to high decrease of all the frequencies. In addition, investigations carried out in this work relate to the modal analysis of the honeycomb plate, under various gradients of temperature across the core of the plate. The obtained results show that the gradient of temperature has an effect on the modes of vibration of the honeycomb plate. This effect becomes significant when the gradient of temperature is very high. At ΔT equal 500K, the natural vibration modes decrease by 9.5% in comparison to the case where no gradient of temperature (ΔT = 0K) is applied between the two faces of the plate. Keywords: honeycomb panel; aluminum; natural frequency; finite element method; temperature.

In the present scenario, the automobile industry, and aerospace industries are considerable scuffles to strive for innovative lightweight materials among manufacturing industries. They preserve their place by reducing the cost of their products and services. For this tenacity, the demand for lightweight material, low cost, and high-performance material are needed. Aluminum matrix composite is developed to fulfill and becomes an engineer’s material. Aerospace & Automobile industries are eager to introducing compound aluminum metal matrix composites due to their excellent mechanical & tribological properties which makes a reduction in the weight of the component. In this project the LM13 as the matrix material while SiC and B4C have been considered as dual reinforcement. Stir casting is the modest and inexpensive method of fabricating an aluminum matrix composite. For the Evaluation of Mechanical &Tribological behavior of DRP composite castings (LM13/B4C/SiC) selection for experimentation tests. In this paper different specimens of the MMC with LM13 Al Alloy 2wt% SiC and 2wt% B4C, 2wt% SiC and 4% B4C, 4wt% SiC, 2wt% B4C, 4wt% SiC and 4wt% B4C are taken for carried to invention out the increase in DRP in the composites will intensification the mechanical properties of the LM13 Al Alloy SiC and B4 C composite formed.

The series resistance (Rs) controls the device performance significantly and for organic diode, the typical value of Rs is quite high. There are not many reports on the investigation of the high value of resistance in organic diodes. In this paper, we report that the trapping of charge carriers which is an important parameter to control the charge transport mechanism in organic solids is responsible for this high value of series resistance. In this paper effect of trap energy on Rs has been studied in the presence of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles on Phenosafranine (PSF) dye-based organic diode. It is already reported that by incorporating nanoparticles, trap energy is reduced which in turn increases the conductivity and efficiency of the device. So it is expected that trap energy has a strong influence on Rs. In this work we have measured Rs by using the Cheung Cheung method and the trap energy is also measured by analyzing the dc current. The value of Rs is related to trap energy. The extracted values of Rs are about 250.8 KΩ, 108.0 KΩ, and 98.4 KΩ respectively for only PSF, PSF+ZnO, and PSF+TiO2. It is also been observed that by incorporating nanoparticles the trap energy is reduced. The estimated values of the trap energy are about 0.090eV, 0.078eV ,0.072eV respectively for only PSF, PSF+ZnO, and PSF+TiO2. It has been observed that lowering of trap energy by incorporating TiO2 and ZnO reduces the value of Rs.

In the present paper (1-x)Pb (Zr1-yTiy)O3 – xPb (Mn1/3Sb2/3)O3 – z at%E system, with E = Pr3+, Nd5+ and Gd3+ where x = 0.12; y = 0.48; z = 0 and 0.02 ceramic synthesized by solid state reaction technique is analysed. The investigation aims studying of the effect of dopants on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of such piezoelectric ceramic. The prepared powders have been uniaxially pressed into discs with diameter of 10 – 12 mm and thickness of 1.2 mm. Sintering has been carried out in air atmosphere at temperatures of 1150°C and 1200°C, respectively, for 2 hours each, followed by a controlled cooling at a rate of 200°C /h. The piezoelectric properties have been investigated after a suitable preparation, including polishing, metallization. The structure of the samples has been determined by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), while the morphology and grains size have been investigated by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The piezoelectric properties have been studied by the resonance - antiresonance method. XRD analysis reveals a perovskite tetragonal structure and, as expected for ceramic materials, SEM analysis indicates that the average grain size increases as sintering temperature increases. The dielectric and piezoelectric properties have been determined measuring the ceramic discs, and properties, as dielectric permittivity (εr), dielectric loss (tg δ), and the electromechanical coupling factor (kp) have been obtained. The acquired results indicate a significant effect of the dopants on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of such materials.

This paper emphases on the effect of various machining constraint on surface roughness and material removal rate in turning SiC reinforced Al alloy composite through taguchi orthogonal array based experimental analysis which has been further optimized using principal component analysis (PCA). Experimental investigation has been conducted under minimum quality lubricant (MQL) cutting environment. Palm oil has been used as lubricant where flow rate and pressure were kept at 120 ml/hr and 8 bar. The whole experiment has been designed using L25 orthogonal array having three input parameters and five different level to measure surface roughness and material removal rate. Taguchi S/N ratio-based optimization has been implemented where smaller the better criteria has been used for surface roughness whereas larger the better criteria has been used for material removal rate. From Analysis of variance, it is observed that cutting speed and feed rate are the most prominent factor for surface roughness. Nevertheless, Depth of cut and cutting speed are the most dominant factor for material removal rate. While comparing the predicted output values with experimental values, MAPE value is found in the range of 0.23 % for surface roughness and 0.045 % for material removal rate which is in very much tolerable range. Correlation coefficient value for experimental values of the resultant output is 0.98286 and 0.99869 respectively which signifies the effectiveness of the whole experiment. Subsequently, machining parameters were optimized using PCA technique. To attain satisfactory response values, depth of cut, cutting speed and feed rate need to be at 0.85 mm, 396 m/min and 0.16 mm/rev respectively. By applying the model, surface roughness of 0.7257 μm and MRR of 53856 mm3/min can be obtained. Keywords: SiC reinforced Al alloy; Turing; Minimum Quality Lubricant; Surface Roughness; MRR; Taguchi orthogonal array; Principal component analysis

The impact-echo method is commonly used for detection of flaws in concrete elements based on the shift in the thickness frequency of a plate-like member. However, there is a need to develop this efficient technique for other applications. This paper investigates the feasibility of using the impact echo-method for identifying corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete structures. For this purpose, 180 reinforced concrete cubes were cast and tested. The main parameters studied were the amount of recycled aggregate (i.e. 0%, 25%, 50% and 100%), nanosilica (1.5% and 3%) and the steel bar diameter (12 and 20mm). Different levels of corrosion were electrochemically induced by applying impressed voltage technique for 2, 5, 10 and 15 days. The impact-echo results were correlated against the actual corrosion levels obtained by the mass loss method. The experimental results showed that the response of impact echo in terms of frequency peaks is found to be sensitive to the high and moderate levels of corrosion. However, no clear trend was observed at the initial stage of corrosion. It is demonstrated that the impact-echo testing can be effectively used to qualitatively detect the damage caused by corrosion phenomenon in reinforced concrete structures.

The paper proposes the analysis of an alternative technology for manufacturing deodorant roll-on balls of polypropylene. With the current extrusion-blowing technology, the manufacturing of these balls results in an uneven wall thicknesses and a large technological runner of material that needs to be grinded and reintroduced into the injection equipment, which involves additional raw material and energy consumption.The proposed alternate method of manufacturing these balls (as spherical objects) is to form the ball from two ball halves joined together by infrared radiation welding. This process will result in significant savings in raw materials and energy.Further improvements of dimensional capabilities and control of welding parameters are required prior the transfer on high productivity manufacturing lines. Additionally, this technology can be assimilated into other applications where hollow balls of plastic are used.

The paper presents the assembling flux of thermocouple-instrumented nuclear fuel element for research reactor, from the point of view of the welding / brazing engineer, considering nuclear quality and safety requirements: fuel element structural reliability (no radioactive leaks through joints) and temperature signal reliability (thermocouple sheath integrity), this signal being an essential parameter for reactor normal operation and emergency shut-down. The paper is a real case study for an experimental instrumented element recently developed at INR-Pitesti describing technology choices as balance between fabrication complexity and risk of failure in joining processes, especially in later stages when added value increases. All joints (welded or brazed) fall into microjoining category, and it is shown how some special provisions may influence reliability. Focus is put on brazing thin-walled Inconel sheathed thermocouples, where erosion and local loss of ductility are known issues, leading to sheath rupture. Choosing as filler the less aggressive BNi-9 helped too little. A simple but efficient technique has been developed to address this matter adequate to narrow spaces inside a nuclear fuel element, where no room is available for solutions described in literature e.g. distal preplacing of filler. The solution prevents sheath from having prolonged contact with large volume of molten filler by using locally a miniature barrier (thin stainless-steel coil or sleeve) which only allows capillary wetting, being also a perfect real-time visual indicator of brazing progress and completion. As proved in the present paper, this method along with using filler formulation with lower Carbon content (without organic binder) enhances significantly, 8 times at least, resistance to bending fatigue. A particular vacuum brazing chamber design is employed: narrow quartz tube with external induction coil and top fitting letting outside the long thermocouples attached, reducing much the chamber volume and degassing. Careful impedance match is therefore required to overcome induction power loss due to the larger coil-to-workpiece gap. Additional joining problems are discussed e.g. inherent differential expansion of long parts during induction heating which afterwards may put tension upon braze during solidification and determine delayed cracking, this being avoided through wise order of operations. Another concern is the final precision weld between instrumentation segment having attached the hard-to-handle long thermocouples bunch and nuclear segment with the heavy Uranium pellets. The result of this research is successful assembling of first Romanian prototype with joints exhibiting He leak rate bellow 1E-09 std.cc/sec and overall reliability proved during reactor irradiation testing.

Inconel 718 is a very difficult metal for machining because of its high plasticity. Lately, more and more researchers are interested in using it for cavitation parts, such as the plugs and drawers of the valves. For this purpose, thermal volumetric treatments have been initiated to facilitate mechanical machining, aiming simultaneously to obtain good compression and cavitation resistance results. Therefore, this paper presents the results of cavitation erosion behavior and cavitation resistance of ICONEL 718, subjected to two thermal treatment regimes, differentiated by the duration (temperature 800 °C and residence times 5 hours, and respectively 10 hours). The assessment of the cavitation resistance provided by each heat treatment regime is based on the average durability cavitation parameter, as defined by K. Steller. The research is achieved by using the standard vibrator device with piezo - ceramic crystals from the Cavitation Laboratory of the Politechnica University of Timisoara.

Among the uses of stainless steel GX5CrNi18-10 one mentions the hydraulic machine blades and the rotors, which are highly susceptible to cavitation. To achieve a long life service under cavitation conditions, the pieces made of this steel are subjected to volumetric thermal treatments, which change the structure and mechanical properties. In this paper, one presents the results of the research concerning the behavior and the resistance to the cavitation erosion of the thermally sensitized GX5CrNi18-10 stainless steel, applying four different temperature regimes (two at 650°C and two at 750°C) and different durations (30 minutes and respectively 60 minutes). The results are presented in the form of cumulative mass loss curves M (t) and erosion rate v (t). The assessment of the cavitation resistance provided by each heat treatment regime is based on the average durability cavitation parameter, as defined by K. Steller. The research was conducted on the standard vibrator with piezo-ceramic crystals from the Cavitation Laboratory of the Politechnica University of Timisoara.

In this paper, heat affected zone characteristics of DP1000 steels was investigated during diode laser beam welding (LBW). A butt-welded joint of specimen in dimension of 300 x 150 mm each (according to EN15614-11:2002) with 1 mm thickness is used for the experimental purpose. The welding thermal cycle and the cooling circumstances in the HAZ was determined by real experiment and the physical simulation. A Gleeble 3500 thermo-physical simulator was used to physically simulate the coarse grain heat affected zone (CGHAZ) on the base material specimens by the utilization of the thermal cycles for t8/5 =2.5 s. The results of the physical simulation were validated by real welding experiments. The properties of the simulated and the real HAZ was examined by optical microscopic, scanning electron microscope and hardness tests.

The paper present some general aspects regarding results obtained by ISIM Timișoara at FSW of steel alloys, with wide use in important industrial fields. The paper also contains information on own contributions of ISIM Timișoara in the field of FSW.Until the present, ISIM Timisoara has responded to some specific requests from the industry, for applying of the FSW process to light alloys and industrial copper Cu 99.The paper presents some general elements regarding the results obtained to welding steels having wide use in industry and which can substantiate industrial applications.The experimental welding programs were developed using the techniques of application of the FSW process, made by ISIM Timisoara: FSW welding machine, welding tools for steels, monitoring systems of the welding process FSW, respectively system for applying of the FSW-TIG hybrid welding process.Sintered tungsten carbide P20S tools with smooth shoulder and pine in 3 constructive variants: smooth conical, smooth cylindrical and pine with four flat recesses (pyramid trunk) were used.It has been shown that the welding tools made of P20S tungsten carbide, with sharp edges, are more resistant and present the best solution for FSW applications.Experimental programs have shown that by observing specific process conditions, the FSW process can be applied with excellent results when welding steel.

The paper reviews machining of CoCr alloys by electric discharge machining and ultrasonic aided discharge machining. The removal mechanism is discussed, modeled with Comsol Multiphysics and validated using experimental data.

With the evolution of society new materials or classes of materials must be developed. The metallic alloys with amorphous structure have exceptional physical properties due to the spatial order of the atoms in structure and the absence of crystalline defects such as dislocations, grain boundaries, etc. Due to the metastable states in which these alloys are located, obtaining bulk materials from amorphous metal alloys is difficult, being limited to simple geometries and high production cost. This problem can be solved by using the ultrasonic welding of amorphous ribbons for the production of bulk metallic glasses.In this paper, we aimed to produce bulk metallic glasses materials by welding the ribbon packages in ultrasonic field. In order to prove the preservation of the amorphous structure of both the primary welding alloys as well as after the welding of the amorphous ribbons, Differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis were carried out. Vickers micro-hardness test was also performed in order to reveal the mechanical properties in the welded joint.