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Numerous liver cancer oncologists suggest bridging therapies to limit cancer growth until donors are available. Interventional radiology including radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is one such bridging therapy. This locoregional therapy aims to produce an optimal amount of heat to kill cancer cells, where the heat is produced by a radiofrequency (RF) needle. Less experienced Interventional Radiologists (IRs) require a software-assisted smart solution to predict the optimal heat distribution as both overkilling and untreated cancer cells are problematic treatments. Therefore, two of the big three partial differential equations, 1) heat equation (Pennes, Journal of Applied Physiology, 1948, 1, 93–122) to predict the heat distribution and 2) Laplace equation (Prakash, Open Biomed. Eng. J., 2010, 4, 27–38) for electric potential along with different cell death models (O’Neill et al., Ann. Biomed. Eng., 2011, 39, 570–579) are widely used in the last three decades. However, solving two differential equations and a cell death model is computationally expensive when the number of finite compact coverings of a liver topological structure increases in millions. Since the heat source from the Joule losses Qr = σ|∇V|2 is obtained from Laplace equation σΔV = 0, it is called the Joule heat model. The traditional Joule heat model can be replaced by a point source model to obtain the heat source term. The idea behind this model is to solve σΔV = δ0 where δ0 is a Dirac-delta function. Therefore, using the fundamental solution of the Laplace equation (Evans, Partial Differential Equations, 2010) we represent the solution of the Joule heat model using an alternative model called the point source model which is given by the Gaussian distribution.Qrx=∑xi∈Ω1K∑icie−|x−xi|22σ2where K and ci are obtained by using needle parameters. This model is employed in one of our software solutions called RFA Guardian (Voglreiter et al., Sci. Rep., 2018, 8, 787) which predicted the treatment outcome very well for more than 100 patients.

Distributed fibre optic sensors (DFOS) are popular for structural health monitoring applications in large engineering infrastructure because of their ability to provide spatial strain measurements continuously along their lengths. Curved paths, particularly semicircular paths, are quite common for optical fibre placement in large structures in addition to straight paths. Optical fibre sensors embedded in a curved path configuration typically measure a component of strain, which often cannot be validated using traditional approaches. Thus, for most applications, strain measured along curved paths is ignored as there is no proper validation tool to ensure the accuracy of the measured strains. To overcome this, an analytical strain transformation equation has been developed and is presented here. This equation transforms the horizontal and vertical strain components obtained along a curved semicircular path into a strain component, which acts tangentially as it travels along the curved fibre path. This approach is validated numerically and experimentally for a DFOS installed on a steel specimen with straight and curved paths. Under tensile and flexural loading scenarios, the horizontal and vertical strain components were obtained numerically using finite element analysis and experimentally using strain rosettes and then, substituted into the proposed strain transformation equation for deriving the transformed strain values. Subsequently, the derived strain values obtained from the proposed transformation equation were validated by comparing them with the experimentally measured DFOS strains in the curved region. Additionally, this study has also shown that a localised damage to the DFOS coating will not impact the functionality of the sensor at the remaining locations along its length. In summary, this paper presents a valid strain transformation equation, which can be used for transforming the numerical simulation results into the DFOS measurements along a semicircular path. This would allow for a larger scope of spatial strains measurements, which would otherwise be ignored in practice.

A strain profile measurement technique using a chirped fibre Bragg grating (CFBG) sensor by implementing an integration of differences (IOD) method is reported in this paper. Using the IOD method the spatial distribution of strain along the length of the CFBG is extracted from its power reflectance spectra. As a proof of concept demonstration, the developed technique is applied to measure the polymerisation shrinkage strain profile of a photo-cured polymer dental composite which exhibits a non-uniform strain distribution attributed to the curing lamp characteristics. The result from the CFBG technique is compared with that of an FBG array embedded in the dental composite and is correlated with the degree of conversion of the material which also depends on the curing lamp intensity distribution. This technology will have significant impact and applications in a range of medical, materials and engineering areas where strain or temperature gradient profile measurement is required in smaller scales.

Objectives To test the hypothesis that restoration of class II mesio-occlusal-distal (MOD) cavities can be strengthened through judicious choice of restoration geometry and material properties. Methods An intact extracted human maxillary molar tooth was digitized, segmented, reconstructed, and four 3D restored tooth models were developed with four different restoration geometries: one straight, one single-curved, and two double-curved. Stress analysis was conducted for representative loading using finite element analysis, and maximum principal stresses were determined at the dentine-enamel and restoration-enamel junctions. A range of restorative material elastic moduli (5–80 GPa) and Poisson's ratios (0.25–0.35) were studied. Vertical loads of 400 N were applied on occlusal points, while the roots of the molar teeth, below the crevices, were supported in all directions. All the materials were modelled as homogeneous, isotropic, and elastic. Results The maximum principal stresses at the restoration-enamel junctions were strongly dependent on the MOD restoration geometries. Peak stresses occurred along the palatal surface of the restoration rather than the opposite buccal surface. Double-curved restorations showed the lowest peak stress at restoration-enamel junctions. Choice of the mechanical properties of restorative material in the range of 5–35 GPa further reduced stress concentrations on the enamel. Significance Class II MOD restorations may be stronger if designed with double-curved marginal geometries that can reduce stress concentrations. Designs with convex and concave geometries were particularly effective because they reduced stress concentrations dramatically. Results suggest that relatively minor changes to the geometry of a restoration can have a substantial effect on stress at the restoration-enamel junction and motivate future experimental analysis.

This paper presents the progressive crushing performance of composite tubes with varied fibre architecture. The effect of lay-up configuration and influence of percentage of unidirectional (UD) and woven fabric (WF) fibre architectures on the specific energy absorption (SEA) is investigated using experiments. Composite tubes with internal diameter 42 mm and wall thickness to diameter of 0.05 were manufactured for a range of specimens with different ratios of axial and hoop fibres. The samples were chamfered at an angle of 70°. Progressive crushing of specimens under quasi-static (20 mm/min) and dynamic (4.48–6.7 m/s) loading were performed. A new factor Axial Fibre Mass Fraction (AFMF) was introduced to describe the mass fraction of axial fibres to reflect upon the SEA response. To investigate the influence of AFMF and loading rate on the crushing mechanism of composite tubes, computer tomography (CT) was additionally. The calculated SEA for different loading conditions indicate a drop of 10%–20% for dynamic cases depending on the fibre architecture of the samples. The CT-scans present a relationship between debris length and AFMF. The average length of debris decreases with the increase of AFMF which indicates more intense fibre breaking, reduced integrity of the ‘petals’ and hence increased SEA.

Imperfection sensitive CFRP cylindrical shells are used in a variety of civil and aerospace applications and feature a large scatter in buckling load levels induced from imperfections introduced from their manufacture. Currently, there are no complete methods that can realistically simulate cylinders with a full spectrum of imperfection types for a complete diagnosis of possible buckling loads. This forces shell designers to utilise an outdated, inefficient and conservative design philosophy that is unsuitable for modern manufacturing methods and materials. Stochastic analyses can optimise and improve the robust design and reliability of such cylinders through accurate prediction of the range of conceivable buckling loads by realistic simulation of structural imperfections. Such imperfections include initial shell-wall geometric, thickness and material imperfections and non-uniform applied end-loads. A procedure which aims to improve the stochastic modelling of thickness and material imperfections in imperfection sensitive composite cylindrical shells is proposed. Monte-Carlo simulations of axially compressed cylinders are performed to show that the stochastic methods described here are able to capture the scatter introduced from the imperfections. The results show that the axial buckling load of the specific cylinder analysed here can be reduced to 29.5 kN and increased to over 40 kN from a perfect load of 38.2 kN from material and thickness imperfections alone.

Automated fibre placement (AFP) offers high throughput, efficient and accurate manufacturing methods for making multi-stiffened laminated composites. However, processing conditions, machine tolerances and steering of tape can induce small random defects within the laminate, which may compromise the structural integrity. Thus, this paper presents a comprehensive review on the processing/steering-induced defects in AFP and their influence on the quality of the final product. Three key processing parameters in AFP, specifically consolidation force, lay-up speed and curing/melting temperature are attempted elaborately. Additionally, the paper attempted to present the discussions on in-situ process monitoring as well as the Machine Learning (ML) based predictive models for AFP based composites.

This paper presents a neural network modelling method for damage behaviour of composite materials in conjunction with full-field strain measurements. The proposed method utilises the overall structural response of a laminate composite specimen to develop the constitutive model of a single ply unidirectional laminate. Based on an energy principle, a performance function for training the neural networks is derived in terms of the applied external work and the induced strain energy. This allows the proposed method to develop the neural networks without the presence of stress information that is not necessarily obtainable in experiments with non-uniform deformation. The use of neural networks also enables the proposed method to model the damage behaviour without the constraints on the parameter space, such that a more representative model is developed for the actual material behaviour. An example of tailoring the proposed method to model the in-plane shear damage behaviour of a carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminate is demonstrated as well as its numerical validation. The practical application of the proposed method to multi-axial damage-related nonlinear behaviour of composite is presented using the experimental data obtained from a tensile test with an open-hole specimen.

Background. In Indian carp culture, a 1 : 1 mixture of rice bran and oil cake is traditionally used as feed in powder form; it is nutritionally inadequate and also a large part of it goes unutilized as the fish cannot feed on the powder effectively. With a view to improve its nutritional quality and reduce the wastage, the mixture was supplemented with soya and maize flours and converted into pellet form. The performance of the supplemented diets was evaluated by feeding them to catla, Catla catla, one of the popular Indian major carps. Materials and methods. Two test diets were formulated supplementing the feed mixture with soya flour (10% and 20%) and maize flour (39%), replacing equal quantities of rice bran and oilcake. These diets along with the control diet were fed to triplicate groups of catla fry maintained in outdoor cement tanks for 120 days. Results. The test diets enhanced growth and net fish production significantly (P < 0.05). This resulted in higher economic returns under the two test treatments. Survival of fish ranged from 74% to 76%. Carcass of fish receiving the test diets had significantly (P < 0.05) higher lipid and lower moisture levels. Digestive enzyme activity was affected positively (P < 0.05) by the test diets. Conclusion. Replacing rice bran and oilcake from the traditional feed mixture with soya and maize flours proved economically viable.