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The sustainability of the manufacturing industry is of special importance to increase the protection of the environment. The production of fasteners like self-piercing rivets, however, is costly, time-consuming and energy-intensive. The heat treatment and the coating, which are mandatory in conventional self-piercing rivets to achieve adequate strength, ductility and corrosion resistance, are especially crucial in this respect. Within this paper, an approach for an increase in the sustainability in fastener production is presented. The use of alternative, high strain hardening stainless steels as rivet material enables a shortening of the process chain, because post treatment of the rivets after they are formed can be omitted. As the change in rivet material and processing causes some issues along the process chain, the focus of this paper is on the holistic evaluation of the challenges within the forming of high strain hardening steel and the impact of the changed rivet properties on the joining result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rails play a vital role in the bearing and guidance of high-speed trains, and the normal condition of rail components is the guarantee of the operation and maintenance safety. Fasteners are critical components for fixing the rails, so it is particularly important to detect whether they are in a normal state or not. The current rail-fastener detection models have some drawbacks, including poor generalization ability, large model volume and low detection efficiency. In view of this, an improved YoLoX-Nano rail-fastener-defect-detection method is proposed in this paper. The CA attention mechanism is added to the three output feature maps of CSPDarknet and the enhanced feature extraction part of the Path Aggregation Feature Pyramid Network (PAFPN); the Adaptively Spatial Feature Fusion (ASFF) is added after the PAFPN output feature map, which enables the semantic information of the high-level features and the fine-grained features of the bottom layer to be further enhanced. The improved YoLoX-Nano model has improved the AP value by 27.42% on fractured fasteners, 15.88% on displacement fasteners and 12.96% on normal fasteners. Moreover, the mAP value is improved by 18.75%, and it is 14.75% higher than the two-stage model Faster-RCNN on mAP. In addition, compared with YoLov7-tiny, the improved YoLoX-Nano model achieves 13.56% improvement on mAP. Although the improved model increases a certain amount of calculation, the detection speed of the improved model has been increased by 30.54 fps and by 32.33 fps when compared with that of the Single-Shot Multi-Box Detector (SSD) model and the You Only Look Once v3 (YoLov3) model, reaching 54.35 fps. The improved YoLoX-Nano model enables accurate and rapid identification of the defects of rail fasteners, which can meet the needs of real-time detection. Furthermore, it has advantages in lightweight deployment of terminals for rail-fastener detection, thus providing some reference for image recognition and detection in other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Rail-fastening components are essential for ensuring the safety of urban rail systems by securing rails to sleepers. Traditional inspection methods rely heavily on manual labor and are inefficient. This paper introduces a novel approach to address these inefficiencies and the challenges faced by computer vision-based inspections, such as missed detections due to imbalanced samples and limitations in conventional image segmentation techniques. Our approach transitions the industry's focus from qualitative to a more precise quantitative analysis of rail-fastening components. We propose Mask-FRCN, an advanced image segmentation network that incorporates three key technological enhancements: the fully refined convolutional network module (FRCN),which refines the segmentation boundaries for SFC-type fasteners; the Channel-WiseKnowledge Distillation (CWD) algorithm, which boosts the model's inference efficiency; and the FCRM methodology, which enhances the extraction capabilities for features specific to SFC-type fasteners. Furthermore, we introduce a fastener system inspection and quantization method based on the Mask FRCN method (FIQ), a novel technique for quantifying the condition of components by using image features, template matching with random forests, and a clustering calculation method derived from segmentation results. Experimental results validate that our method significantly surpasses existing techniques in accuracy, thereby offering a more efficient solution for inspecting rail-fastening components. The enhanced Mask-FRCN achieves a segmentation accuracy of 96.01% and a reduced network size of 36.1 M. Additionally, the FIQ method improves fault detection accuracy for SFC-type fasteners to 95.13%, demonstrating the efficacy and efficiency of our innovative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fastener screws are critical components of rail fasteners. For the fastener screw maintenance robot, an image-based fast fastener screw detection method is urgently needed. In this paper, we propose a light-weight model named FSS-YOLO based on YOLOv5n for rail fastener screw detection. The C3Fast module is presented to replace the C3 module in the backbone and neck to reduce Params and FLOPs. Then, the SIoU loss is introduced to enhance the convergence speed and recognition accuracy. Finally, for the enhancement of the screw detail feature fusion, the shuffle attention (SA) is incorporated into the bottom-up process in the neck part. Experiment results concerning CIoU and DIoU for loss, MobileNetv3 and GhostNet for light-weight improvement, simple attention mechanism (SimAM), and squeeze-and-excitation (SE) attention for the attention module, and YOLO series methods for performance comparison are listed, demonstrating that the proposed FSS-YOLO significantly improves the performance, with higher accuracy and lower computation cost. It is demonstrated that the FSS-YOLO is 7.3% faster than the baseline model in FPS, 17.4% and 19.5% lower in Params and FLOPs, respectively, and the P, mAP@50, Recall, and F1 scores are increased by 10.6% and 6.4, 13.4%, and 12.2%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the geological environment and track wear, and deterioration of train bogies may lead to the looseness of subway fasteners. Identifying loose fasteners randomly distributed along the subway line is of great significance to avoid train derailment. This paper presents a convolutional autoencoder (CAE) network-based method for identifying fastener loosening features from the distributed vibration responses of track beds detected by an ultra-weak fiber Bragg grating sensing array. For an actual subway tunnel monitoring system, a field experiment used to collect the samples of fastener looseness was designed and implemented, where a crowbar was used to loosen or tighten three pairs of fasteners symmetrical on both sides of the track within the common track bed area and the moving load of a rail inspection vehicle was employed to generate 12 groups of distributed vibration signals of the track bed. The original vibration signals obtained from the on-site test were converted into two-dimensional images through the pseudo-Hilbert scan to facilitate the proposed two-stage CAE network with acceptable capabilities in feature extraction and recognition. The performance of the proposed methodology was quantified by accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score, and displayed intuitively by t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE). The raster scan and the Hilbert scan were selected to compare with the pseudo-Hilbert scan under a similar CAE network architecture. The identification performance results represented by the four quantification indicators (accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score) based on the scan strategy in this paper were at least 23.8%, 9.5%, 20.0%, and 21.1% higher than those of the two common scan methods. As well as that, the clustering visualization by t-SNE further verified that the proposed approach had a stronger ability in distinguishing the feature of fastener looseness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cold-formed steel (CFS) elements have gained significant attention in the field of structural engineering due to their numerous advantages, including high strength-to-weight ratio, cost-effectiveness, and ease of assembly and prefabrication. This review paper presents a comprehensive state-of-the-art analysis of the design and analysis of CFS structures, with a specific focus on columns and beams. The primary objectives and aims of this review paper are to provide a detailed assessment of the factors influencing the behavior and performance of CFS elements, including partial composite action, fastener spacing, bolt arrangement, web aperture, stiffeners, and connection spacing, to propose and present various formulas and methodologies that accurately estimate critical buckling loads, strength, and moment resistance for CFS members, and to emphasize the significance of proper screw and bolt placement in preventing premature failure and enhancing the overall load-carrying capacity of CFS structures. Additionally, the impact of temperature on the mechanical properties and performance of CFS members is discussed. The review paper proposes different formulas and methodologies to accurately estimate critical buckling loads, strength, and moment resistance for CFS members. Moreover, the paper highlights the importance of proper screw and bolt placement to prevent early failure and improve the overall load-carrying capacity of CFS structures. The discussion also emphasizes the need for revisions in existing standards and codes to provide more practical guidelines for designers and engineers. Overall, this state-of-the-art review paper provides valuable insights and recommendations for researchers and practitioners involved in the design and analysis of CFS elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defect detection of track fasteners is a prerequisite for safe and reliable railroad operation. The traditional manual visual inspection method has been unable to meet the growing demand for railroad network inspection in China. To achieve the need for accurate, fast, and intelligent detection of rail fasteners, this paper proposes a rail fastener defect detection model based on improved YOLOv5s. Firstly, the convolutional block attention module (CBAM) is added to the Neck network of the YOLOv5s model to enhance the extraction of essential features by the model and suppress the information of minor features. Secondly, a weighted bidirectional feature pyramid network (BiFPN) is introduced to realize the multi-scale feature fusion of the model. Finally, the K-means++ algorithm is used to re-cluster the dataset to obtain the anchor box suitable for the fastener dataset and improve the positioning ability of the model. The experimental results show that the improved model achieves an average mean precision (mAP) of 97.4%, a detection speed of 27.3 FPS, and a model memory occupancy of 15.5 M. Compared with the existing target detection model, the improved model has the advantages of high detection accuracy, fast detection speed, and small model memory occupation, which can provide technical support for edge deployment of rail fastener defect detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling of the structural behavior of the housing of an electromagnetic railgun is usually carried out without considering the electromagnetic origin of the forces; the magnetic pressure acting on the rails is assumed to act at the rail surfaces only. This approximation proves to be a great challenge, as moving pressure profiles at speeds of a railgun projectile are very rare in purely mechanical investigations. In the past, we have published several papers on the structural mechanics of railgun housings characterized by discrete supports. We could show that the displacement of rail surfaces at the position of the armature can reach amplitudes that are not negligible. In fact, in the case of metal brush armatures, the increase in distance between the rail surfaces of only tenths of a millimeter can make the difference between the solid contact and arcing to increase. We also matched our findings to experimental data that were, however, so far only gained in static tests. In this paper, we analyze the foundations of our mechanical modeling using electromagnetic calculations. We calculate a 3-D distribution of the $J \times B$ volume force density in the rails and use them as input for our structural mechanics model. A second point to be addressed concerns the parts made from conducting materials, such as our discrete supports made from steel bolts, which are situated in rapidly changing magnetic fields during the experiments. Again, the influence on our structural mechanics modeling is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the performance of a magnetic lead screw (MLS) equipped with skewed arc magnets. Skewed arc magnets are adopted to approximate the helical ones, because the latter is hard to realize. Although similar method had been proposed in the previous literature, discussion about the parameters of the skewed arc magnets was insufficient and little attention was paid to the gear ratio of the resultant MLS. In this paper, the principle of approximation by skewed arc magnets is proposed and discussed, and the performance of the MLS with skewed arc magnets is evaluated and compared with the ideal MLS in terms of thrust force, torque, and gear ratio. It is highlighted that the gear ratio is the fundamental indicator of the MLS’s performance, besides the thrust force and torque. It is shown that the gear ratio of MLS is mainly affected by the reference angle and the arc angle of skewed arc magnets, and optimal values for the two angles are obtained. In addition, the effects of the magnet magnetization on thrust force and torque are analyzed. Finally, dovetail budge and groove are introduced between the adjacent magnet segments for simpler fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threaded fasteners are vastly used in the industry due to ease of mounting and dismounting and flexibility of design. Nonetheless, several researchers indicate that most failures recorded on nearly any kind of machinery and vehicles are initiated at fasteners. This review paper aims at summarising the failures involving threaded fasteners available in the literature. The analysis involves categorization of the failures according to the root cause, e.g., incorrect assembly, overload, fatigue, preload loss during operation, among others. The purpose of this review paper is to give a systematic glance of the topic to the scientific and technical community, to correctly orient future investigations on the broad topic of threaded fasteners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a batch fabrication method to manufacture Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) platforms for 3D integration of sensors spatially-distributed on a 2D plane. In the heart of the concept is a foldable MEMS structure with polymer hinges which is used to support and guide the assembly of the discrete planar sensors by means of folding them into a 3D shape, like origami, providing controlled distribution of sensors in space. Flexible hinges carrying the electrical interconnects are a critical structural element of the platform and material selection study for those is the main focus of this paper. We analyzed different materials for flexible hinges fabrication, including photo-definable polyimide and parylene-C. Three approaches for sensor integration are presented: 1) co-fabrication; 2) sensor drop-in; and 3) transfer bonding. The prototypes of structures with different flexible hinge materials were fabricated and evaluated based on their mechanical flexibility, chemical compatibility, and material outgassing. Parylene-C exhibited similar or better performances compared to polyimide, demonstrating in each of the experiments a higher degree of thermal flexibility up to 350 °C, a superior chemical resistance against hydrofluoric acid, and 2.9 times lower outgassing. [2020-0301] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new rotational and longitudinal symmetric self-clinching fasteners to fabricate reliable connections in busbars with low electrical resistance for energy distribution systems. Connections consist of form-closed joints that are hidden inside regions where two busbars overlap. The investigation into the fabrication and performance of the new self-clinched joints involved finite element modelling and experimentation to determine the required forces and to evaluate the electric current flow and the electrical resistance at different service temperatures. The original design of the joints that was proposed in a previous work was modified to account for busbar strips of copper and/or aluminum with similar or dissimilar thicknesses, connected by means of self-clinching fasteners made from the same materials of the busbars, instead of steel. The effectiveness of the new self-clinched joints was compared to that of conventional bolted joints that are included in the paper for reference purposes. The results show that rotational symmetric self-clinching fasteners yield lighter fabrication and more compact joints with a similar electrical resistance to that of bolted joints. They also show that longitudinal symmetric self-clinching fasteners aimed at replicating the resistance-seam-welding contact conditions yield a reduction in electrical resistance to values close to that of ideal joints, consisting of two strips in perfect contact and without contaminant or oxide films along their overlapped surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important part of track inspection, the detection of rail fasteners is of great significance to improve the safety of train operation. Additionally, rail fastener detection belongs to small-target detection. The YOLOv4 algorithm is relatively fast in detection and has some advantages in small-target detection. Therefore, YOLOv4 is used for rail fastener status detection. However, YOLOv4 still suffers from the following two problems in rail fastener status detection. First, the features extracted by the original feature extraction network of YOLOv4 are relatively rough, which is not conducive to crack anomaly detection on rail fasteners. In addition, the traditional convolutional neural network has a larger number of parameters and calculations, which are difficult to run on the embedded system with low memory and processing power. To effectively solve those two problems, this paper proposes a rail fastener status detection algorithm based on MobileNet-YOLOv4 (M-YOLOv4). The edge features and texture features of rail fasteners are very important for rail fastener detection, and CSPDarknet53 cannot effectively extract the features of fasteners. The MobileNet is used to replace the CSPDarknet53 feature extraction network in the YOLOv4 algorithm, which can extract subtle features of rail fasteners and reduce the number of parameters and calculations of the algorithm. The experimental results show that the M-YOLOv4 algorithm has high detection accuracy and low resource consumption in rail fastener status detection. The false-alarm rate (FAR), missed-alarm rate (MAR), and error rate (ER) were 5.71%, 1.67%, and 4.24%, respectively, and the detection speed reached 59.8 fps. Compared with YOLOv4, the number of parameters and calculations were reduced by about 80.75% and 83.20%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral imagery (HSI) has shown promising results in real-world applications. However, the technological evolution of optical sensors poses two main challenges in HSI classification: 1) the spectral band is usually redundant and noisy and 2) HSI with millions of pixels has become increasingly common in real-world applications. Motivated by the recent success of hybrid huberized support vector machines (HHSVMs), which inherit the benefits of both lasso and ridge regression, this paper first investigates the advantages of HHSVM for HSI applications. Unfortunately, the existing HHSVM solvers suffer from prohibitive computational costs on large-scale data sets. To solve this problem, this paper proposes simple and effective stochastic HHSVM algorithms for HSI classification. In the stochastic settings, we show that with a probability of at least $1-\varrho $ , our algorithms find an $\epsilon $ -accurate solution using $\tilde {O}({1}/{\lambda _{2}\epsilon })$ iterations. Since the convergence rate of our algorithms does not depend on the size of the training set, our algorithms are suitable for handling large-scale problems. We demonstrate the superiority of our algorithms by conducting experiments on large-scale binary and multiclass classification problems, comparing to the state-of-the-art HHSVM solvers. Finally, we apply our algorithms to real HSI classification and achieve promising results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with equivalent 2-D finite-element (FE) models of permanent magnet lead screw (PMLS), to accurately predict the thrust force. Due to the helical-shape permanent magnets (PMs), the magnetic fields of PMLS are typically 3-D and non-symmetric. However, the PMLS is approximately symmetric in some cases and an equivalent 2-D axis-symmetric FE model is developed instead of 3-D models. The problem lies in that no evaluation about the accuracy and applicability of the 2-D axis-symmetric FE model was offered in previous literature. In this paper, the 2-D axis-symmetric FE model is derived based on the concept of equivalent current sheets of PMs. The limitations of the existing 2-D axis-symmetric FE model are clarified, and a novel equivalent 2-D torque FE model is then proposed to predict thrust force with the gear ratio when the 2-D axis-symmetric FE model is not appropriate. It is shown that the choice of equivalent 2-D FE model depends on the lead angle of PMLS, 2-D axis-symmetric FE model is applicable in the range of (0°, 15°), and 2-D torque FE model is preferred in the range of (65°, 90°). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the remarkable recent progress on learning deep generative models, it becomes increasingly interesting to develop models for controllable image synthesis from reconfigurable structured inputs. This paper focuses on a recently emerged task, layout-to-image, whose goal is to learn generative models for synthesizing photo-realistic images from a spatial layout (i.e., object bounding boxes configured in an image lattice) and its style codes (i.e., structural and appearance variations encoded by latent vectors). This paper first proposes an intuitive paradigm for the task, layout-to-mask-to-image, which learns to unfold object masks in a weakly-supervised way based on an input layout and object style codes. The layout-to-mask component deeply interacts with layers in the generator network to bridge the gap between an input layout and synthesized images. Then, this paper presents a method built on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for the proposed layout-to-mask-to-image synthesis with layout and style control at both image and object levels. The controllability is realized by a proposed novel Instance-Sensitive and Layout-Aware Normalization (ISLA-Norm) scheme. A layout semi-supervised version of the proposed method is further developed without sacrificing performance. In experiments, the proposed method is tested in the COCO-Stuff dataset and the Visual Genome dataset with state-of-the-art performance obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For global template matching (GTM), which is commonly used in the positioning of rail fasteners, only the fastener template is used to search the global image in both two dimensions, which will result in errors in two dimensions, and the lower positioning accuracy will be caused. A positioning method for rail fasteners based on double template matching (DTM) is proposed in this paper, in which the double template contains the rail template and the fastener template. First, the rail template is used to scan the original image in horizontal dimension, and the squared Euclidean distance (SED) is used to obtain the rail positioning in the original image. Combining with the prior knowledge of the fastener template image, the image composed of the rail and the fastener can be obtained, which is called the Rail Area Map (RAM) in this paper. Then, after preprocessing the RAM and the fastener template image, the fastener template image is used to scan the RAM in vertical dimension, and the normalized correlation coefficient (NCC) is used to calculate the similarity between the template and the subgraph of the RAM to achieve precise positioning of the fastener. The proposed DTM method adopts a positioning strategy from coarse to fine, and two templates are used to complete different positioning tasks in their own dimension, respectively. Due to the rail can be precise positioned in horizontal dimension, the error of the fastener positioning in the horizontal dimension can be avoided, and thus, the positioning accuracy can be improved. Experiments on the on-site line fastener images prove that the proposed method can effectively achieve the precise positioning of fasteners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The catenary support device inspection is of crucial importance for ensuring safety and reliability of railway systems. At present, visual detection tasks of catenary support devices defect are performed by trained personnel based on the images taken periodically by industrial cameras installed on inspection vehicle in a limited period of time at midnight. However, the inspection mean is inappropriate for low efficiency and high cost. This paper presents a novel network based on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images for catenary support device inspection and focuses on small object detection and the imbalanced dataset. With regards to the first aspect, based on a pyramid network structure, the improved Faster R-CNN consists of a top-down-top feature pyramid fusion structure, which heavily fuses high-level semantic information and low-level detail information. The feature map fusions of three different pooling scales are employed for improving detection accuracy of predicted bounding boxes. With regards to the second, we copy and paste the small proportion objects of dataset for avoiding category imbalance. Finally, quantitative and qualitative evaluations illustrate that the improved Faster-RCNN achieves better performance over the classic methods, yet remains convenient and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fasteners are an important part of railway security. The application of computer vision and image processing on fastener detection has become a research hot spot. However, most of the researches have focused on the missing and damage detection of fasteners up to now. In this paper, a method based on image processing is proposed to locate the center of the hexagon nut in the railway fastener. The precise position of the hexagon nut can be used for the automatic replacement of the nut, which is of great significance for the automatic railway construction and maintenance. The locating method proposed in this paper can be divided into two steps. First, the improved Canny detector which combines surrounding suppression and iterative excitation is used to extract the contours of the fastener. Then, a multifeature hierarchical locating (MHL) algorithm is proposed, which integrates the circle contour of the gasket and the hexagon features of the nut. The experimental results show that the improved Canny detector suppresses noises effectively and highlights the contours of fastener. The MHL algorithm in the next step improves the locating accuracy remarkably while guaranteeing the robustness meantime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to advance the state of the art of aggressive space mapping (ASM) by demonstrating how, for resonant structures, and microwave filters in particular, an ASM-based optimization procedure may converge to the desired target performance in just one step. This behavior is first justified in physical terms, using the electromagnetic cavity perturbation theory, and is then investigated numerically. Several practical filter design demonstrations are also presented. This paper is concluded with a conceptual definition of Space Alignment in the context of ASM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the nonlinear vibration feature of a dynamic model of a gas turbine. First, a rod fastening rotor-bearing coupling model with fixed-point rubbing is proposed, where the fractal theory and the finite element method are utilized. For contact analysis, a novel contact force model is introduced in this paper. Meanwhile, the Coulomb model is adopted to expound the friction characteristics. Second, the governing equations of motion of the rotor system are numerically solved, and the nonlinear dynamic characteristics are analyzed in terms of the bifurcation diagram, Poincaré map, and time history. Third, the potential effects provided by contact degree of joint interface, distribution position, and amount of contact layer are discussed in detail. Finally, the contrast analysis between the integral rotor and the rod fastening rotor is conducted under the condition of fixed-point rubbing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a methodology to identify missing fasteners in railroad tracks using laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) measurements recorded from a moving rail car. In order to investigate the effects of missing fasteners on the rail's dynamic response, three approaches are adopted: (i) rail vibration tests, (ii) modal analysis, and (iii) simulated moving measurements. Next, a missing fastener detection algorithm was introduced based on the frequency range of interest and the feature identified in those approaches. The proposed methodology is validated through field tests conducted on the railway track at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, CO, with two different speeds at 32 km/h (20 mph) and 48 km/h (30 mph). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the operation of drilling rigs, bolts are subjected to significant loads, rendering bolt groups vulnerable to failure due to uneven load distribution. This study investigates the multi-bolt load distribution characteristics of eight-gear and four-gear symmetric transmission mechanisms in drilling rigs. The spring stiffness method is utilized to analyze multi-bolt load distribution. A finite element model of the bolted connection is developed by integrating the structural shape and transmission mechanism. The model's accuracy is validated through a rack strain test under various loads. Based on the finite element analysis results, this study proposes an evaluation method for bolted connections using relative deformation difference. The impacts of bolt pitch, end distance, preload, and thickness of the derrick connection plate under different load positions on the connection are examined. This paper presents a methodology and conclusions that can inform the design of bolted connections for heavy-duty drive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the vibration control effects of floating rail fasteners on the metro depot and its over-track buildings, a metro depot and its over-track buildings are selected for field test and the track-stratum-operation depot-platform coupling finite element calculation model is established and verified by the measured vibration response data. The track-stratum-operation depot-platform-buildings coupling large-scale dynamic finite element analysis model is established based on the extension of the former, and the reaction forces of ordinary fasteners and floating rail fasteners are input into the model respectively to solve the vibration responses of the over-track buildings and analyze the insertion loss of vibration level varying with frequency and maximum Z vibration level in order that the effects of floating rail fasteners on the vibration control of the over-track buildings are evaluated. The research shows that for the building forms studied in this paper, the significant vibration frequency of building floor is 31. 5 Hz when the vibration propagates to the over-track buildings through the depot and the over-track platform. The floating rail fastener has few obvious effects on vibration control at the vibration significant frequency 31. 5 Hz of this over-track buildings, mainly because its stable vibration reduction frequency band occurs above 31.5 Hz. The control effects are optimal near 63 Hz, and the maximum vibration reduction of 15 dB can be achieved. With the floating rail fasteners, the maximum Z vibration level of the over-track building floor generally decreases by 2-5 dB. The research results of this paper can provide reference and basis for the selection and design of damping track for the vibration control of the depot and over-track buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a real-time railway fastener detection system using a high-speed laser range finder camera is presented. First, an extensive analysis of various methods based on pixel-wise and histogram similarities are conducted on a specific railway route. Then, a fusing stage is introduced which combines least correlated approaches also considering the performance upgrade after fusing. Then, the resulting method is tested on a larger database collected from a different railway route. After observing repeated successes, the method is implemented on NI LabVIEW and run real-time with a high-speed 3-D camera placed under a railway carriage designed for railway quality inspection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Because of their superior mechanical properties, preformed helical fittings are widely used in UHV transmission lines. However, they easily slip and become loose under extreme environments, so it is very important to study the fastening characteristics of preformed helical fittings. According to the stress characteristics of preformed helical fittings, a parametric finite element model including a core and preformed armor rods was established. Finally, the finite element model calculation was verified by comparing it with the test results. In this paper, the influences of the preformed armor rod diameter, pitch, length and forming aperture on the fastening characteristics were investigated. The numerical simulation results showed that the smaller the forming aperture of preformed armor rods, the larger the grip force. However, a small forming aperture is inconvenient to install, and too large of a grip force on the core easily leads to core damage. With the increase in the preformed armor rod length, the grip force increased gradually and linearly, and the increase slowed after the pitch number reached 9. The larger the pitch, the smaller the grip force of the preformed helical fittings. The fastening characteristics of preformed armor rods with slightly larger diameters were better and the fourth power of the diameter of the preformed armor rods has a linear relationship with the grip force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tolerance analysis, the effect of clearance fits is especially difficult to estimate because the mating parts are not necessarily in actual contact and can take an infinite number of relative positions. The treatment of these situations is allowed in most of the available methods, possibly introducing additional elements in the dimension chains with appropriate statistical assumptions. The paper provides a similar extension for the static analogy, a previously proposed method that converts the tolerance analysis problem into an equivalent problem of force analysis. The procedure represents each fit, possibly between patterns of features (e.g., fasteners and holes), with a proper constraint in the equivalent static model. The ability of the constraint to transmit forces and torques is determined according to the types and directions of misalignments allowed by the joint clearance. With simple rules, this avoids complications in the static model, which must include only the constraint between parts rather than the geometric details of the mating features. The extended method, currently limited to 2D dimension chains, is demonstrated on examples involving both dimensional and geometric tolerances. The comparison with existing methods shows the correctness of the proposed procedure. The simplicity of the workflow confirms the possibility, already demonstrated for the static analogy, of avoiding numerical simulations or even the use of computer-based tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railway track is a linearly inhomogeneous object that consists of geometrical and elastic discontinuities such as bridges, transition zones, rail joints and crossings. The zones are subjected to the development of local instabilities due to quicker deterioration than the other tracks. Until now, there have been no efficient approaches that could fully exclude the problem of accelerated differential settlements in the problem zones. Many structural countermeasures are directed at controlling the sleeper/ballast loading with the help of fastenings/under-sleeper pad elasticities, sleeper forms and additional bending stiffness reinforcements. However, the efficiency of the methods is difficult to compare. The current paper presents a systematic approach in which the loading distribution effect in the rail support by application of two bending reinforcement methods is compared: auxiliary rail and under-sleeper beam. The study considers only the static effects to reach a clear understanding the influence of the main factors. The track equivalent bending stiffness criterion is proposed for comparing reinforcement solutions. The analysis shows that the activation of the bending stiffness of the reinforcement beams depends on the relative ratio of the rail fastenings stiffness and track support stiffness under sleepers (or under the under-sleeper beam). The comparison demonstrates that conventional auxiliary rail reinforcement solutions are ineffective due to their weak bending because of the high elasticity of fastening clips and the main rail fastenings. The share of an auxiliary rail is maximally 20% in the track bending stiffness and cannot be significantly improved by additional rails. The under-sleeper beam-based reinforcement solutions show noticeably higher efficiency. The highest effect can be achieved by the activation of the horizontal shear interaction between the under-sleeper beam and the rail. The additional track bending stiffness of the under-sleeper-based solutions is about 3.5 times more of the rail one and could be potentially increased to 6–10 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threaded fastening operations are widely used in assembly and are typically time-consuming and costly. In low-volume, high-value manufacturing, fastening operations are carried out manually by skilled workers. The existing approaches are found to be less flexible and robust for performing assembly in a less structured industrial environment. This paper introduces a novel algorithm for detecting the position and orientation of threaded holes and a new method for tightening bolts. First, the elliptic arc fitting method and the three-point method are used to estimate the initial position and orientation of the threaded hole, and the force impact caused by switching from the free space to the constrained space during bolt tightening is solved. Second, by monitoring the deformation of passive compliance, the position information is introduced into the control process to better control the radial force between the bolt and the threaded hole in the tightening process. The constant force controller and orientation compliance controller are designed according to the adaptive control theory. A series of experiments are carried out. The results show that the proposed method can estimate the initial position and orientation of an M24 bolt with an average position error of 0.36 mm, 0.43 mm and 0.46 mm and an orientation error of 0.65°, 0.46° and 0.59°, and it can tighten the bolt with a success rate of 98.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality assessment of stiffness and load-carrying capacity of composite connections is of great importance when it comes to designing timber–concrete composite structures. The new European regulation intended explicitly for timber–concrete structures has made a significant contribution to this field, considering that until today there was no adequate design standard. Due to the proposed general expressions for determining the stiffness and load-carrying capacity of composite connections made with dowel-type fasteners, which are incapable of describing most of the commonly applied fasteners, engineering, and scientific practice remained deprived of a quality assessment of the essential mechanical properties of the connection. In order to overcome this problem, this paper proposes a numerical model of the connection suitable for determining the whole load–slip curve, allowing it to estimate the stiffness and load-carrying capacity of the connection. The model was developed by considering the non-linear behavior of timber and fasteners, which is determined through simple experimental tests. For the numerical model validation, experimental tests were carried out at the level of the applied materials and on the models of the composite connection. Through numerical simulations, analysis of obtained results, and comparison with experimental values, it can be confirmed that it is possible to simulate the pronounced non-linear behavior of the timber–concrete connection using the proposed model. The estimated values of stiffness and load-carrying capacity are in agreement with the conducted experimental testing. At the same time, the deviations are much less than the ones obtained from recommendations given by the new regulation. Additionally, apart from evaluating the value and the simulation of the complete curve, it is possible to determine local effects, such as the crushing depth in timber and concrete, the fastener's rotation, and the participation of forces in the final capacity of the connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To this day, most of the papers related to hybrid joints were focused on single and double lap joints in which shear deformation and degradation was the dominant phenomenon. However, in real constructions, complex state of loads can be created by: a) torsion with shear, b) bending with shear, c) torsion with tensile. Analytical and numerical computation for simple mechanical joints is known, however, the introduction of an adhesive layer to this joint makes the load transferred both through: (1) the adhesive and (2) mechanical fasteners. There is also an interaction between the amount and stiffness of mechanical fasteners and the strength of the adhesive layer. The paper presents the results of numerical calculations for the bending with shear type of load for the hybrid structural joint and corresponding simple joints by: (1) pure adhesion and (2) rivets with different quantity maintaining the same cross-sectional area. A total of 9 simulations were performed for: (1) 4 types of pure rivets connections, (2) pure adhesive joint and (3) 4 kinds of hybrid joints. The surface-based cohesive behavior was used for creation of the adhesive layer, whereas the rivets were modelled by connector type fasteners, which simplify complexity of the numerical model. The use of connectors allowed for effort assessment taking into account damage in both types of connections. Application of connector elements can be useful for larger structures modelling, e.g. aircraft fuselage, where the number of mechanical joints is significant and complex load conditions occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an investigation in the performance of two types of magnetic screws (MSs). The first is the magnet to magnet and consists of permanent magnet (PM) nut and PM screw and the second is a magnet to reluctance and consists of PM nut and a double-start reluctance screw. It is argued that for cost sensitive and long stoke applications, a magnet-to-reluctance MS may be the preferred option. It is also shown that capacitor discharge magnetization techniques can be employed for imprinting helical magnetization distributions on cylindrical PMs, significantly reducing the complexity and facilitating the practical realization of MS systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on mechanical design, optimization, and experimental testing of a novel piezo-actuated elliptical vibration-assisted cutting (EVC) system constructed by flexure hinges. The stroke and natural frequency were analyzed based on the theoretical modeling. An enhanced central composite design was chosen as the design of experiments methodology to reduce the modeling error, and a nondominated sorted genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) was adopted for structure optimization. The optimized EVC generator was manufactured and experimentally tested to investigate practical properties of the proposed EVC system. It shows that the stroke of input end can reach to 30 μ m with a motion resolution of 10 nm, and the first natural frequency can reach to 2600 Hz without considering the manufacturing error. Besides, a relatively small cross-axis coupling ratio (within 0.21%) can be effectively obtained. The developed EVC system is advantageous not only to being equipped with machine tools with various configurations, but also to easily achieving arbitrary vibrations in three-dimensional space through two actuators, which is especially important for the generation of complex structured surfaces. With this paper, it is of great significance to promote industrial application of EVC techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new type electromagnetic lead screw (EMLS) intended for wave energy application. Similar to the mechanical lead screw, this electromagnetic version can transfer slow linear motion to high-rotational motion, offering gearing effects. Compared with the existing pure magnetic lead screw (MLS) employing permanent magnets only, the new EMLS proposed uses dc current to provide the required helical-shape magnetic field, offering a much simpler, robust structure compared with the MLS. The working principle and the performances of this EMLS are analyzed in this paper. Comparison with PM-type lead screw is given. In addition to this, the theoretical analysis to support the use of a 2-D finite element model to analyze the 3-D magnetic-type lead screw is given, which has not been well covered in the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bolts constitute a very important subset of mechanical fasteners. In order to tighten bolts, a degree of bolt preload scatter is to be expected. Since the torque control of tightening bolts is the most popular means of controlling the preload, an appropriate tightening torque becomes pivotal. This paper investigates the torque control problem of bolt tightening process. This process is not as simple as it looks because the inherently nonlinear process contains many uncertainties. To conquer the adverse effects of the uncertainties, this paper designs an adaptive-gain second-order sliding mode controller. Theoretically, such design can guarantee that the bolt tightening process has the closed-loop stability in the sense of Lyapunov. From the aspect of practice, the control method is carried out by a platform. Some comparisons illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the designed controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The railway fastener, as a crucial component of railway tracks, directly influences the safety and stability of a railway system. However, in practical operation, fasteners are often in low-light conditions, such as at nighttime or within tunnels, posing significant challenges to defect detection equipment and limiting its effectiveness in real-world scenarios. To address this issue, this study proposes an unsupervised low-light image enhancement algorithm, CES-GAN, which achieves the model's generalization and adaptability under different environmental conditions. The CES-GAN network architecture adopts a U-Net model with five layers of downsampling and upsampling structures as the generator, incorporating both global and local discriminators to help the generator to preserve image details and textures during the reconstruction process, thus enhancing the realism and intricacy of the enhanced images. The combination of the feature-consistency loss, contrastive learning loss, and illumination loss functions in the generator structure, along with the discriminator loss function in the discriminator structure, collectively promotes the clarity, realism, and illumination consistency of the images, thereby improving the quality and usability of low-light images. Through the CES-GAN algorithm, this study provides reliable visual support for railway construction sites and ensures the stable operation and accurate operation of fastener identification equipment in complex environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel method based on continuum damage mechanics (CDM) and machine learning (ML) models to evaluate the vibration fatigue behavior of W1‐type railway fastener clips subjected to high‐frequency vibration. Firstly, static and fatigue tests are conducted on 60Si2Mn spring steel to acquire elastic modulus, tensile strength, and P‐S‐N curves. Subsequently, a CDM model is established, and numerical simulations are performed under various working conditions to obtain the fatigue characteristics of the clips. Finally, the ML model is trained using numerical simulation results, thereby establishing a mapping model between the working conditions and fatigue characteristics. The developed ML model demonstrates high accuracy in predicting the vibration fatigue life of the clips. Moreover, the Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) algorithm is employed to elucidate the ML model, revealing that the vibration frequency has a greater impact on the fatigue life of the clips compared to the vibration displacement. Highlights: A novel approach is developed for vibration fatigue assessment of fastener clip.The approach effectively combines the continuum damage model and ML (ANN) model.Static and fatigue tests of 60Si2Mn spring steel are conducted.Fatigue characteristic of clips subjected to high‐frequency vibration is studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rod fastening rotor is the core component of gas turbines, which affects the working stability and service life of the whole machine. The characterization of the contact mechanism of a joint's interface is a key problem in dynamic prediction. The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the influence of the joint's interface on the dynamic characteristics of the rod fastening rotor system. According to the equivalent bending stiffness of the joint's interface, the natural frequency of the system is obtained by the analytical method, where the normal contact stiffness of the joint's interface related to the frequency index is established on the theory of fractal contact analysis. After that, the effects of key parameters on the contact stiffness are discussed in detail. Finally, the variations in the vibration frequency are further revealed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the torsional moment of the right-angle fastener bolt is taken as the main research parameter, and the torsional stiffness performance of the right-angle fastener under different working conditions is studied experimentally. By establishing the moment–rotation relationship model of the node, the mechanical performance and rotation characteristics of the semirigid connection of the node are studied. According to the joint stiffness value determined by the experimental study and the theory of semirigid connection frame with lateral displacement, the calculation formulas of the stiffness correction coefficient α u of the transverse bar and the constraint coefficient K at the end of the vertical bar are derived, and the effective length coefficient μ of the vertical bar and the theoretical value of the stable bearing capacity of the vertical bar under different working conditions are given. Compared with the current standard values, it is found that the theoretical calculation results of the percentage increase of the stable bearing capacity of the vertical bar are 3 to 4 times larger than the standard calculation results when the step distance is reduced. The theoretical calculation method can better consider the semirigid characteristics of the joint and the influence of adjacent members on the stable bearing capacity of the vertical bar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the traditional pre-joining technology of aircraft panels, bolts are generally employed for pre-joining. Due to the length and width of panels, bilateral manual operations are required to operate bolts. In this case, there are problems such as low work efficiency, unstable quality, cumbersome operation, and inconvenient installation-removal. This paper takes a temporary fastener with one-side installation-removal as a research object and conducts in-depth research on three levels of quick-pressing: unloading, stable self-locking, and easy automatic installation. Firstly, by coordinating the ratchet and the spring, the restoring force of the spring is used to make the cylindrical top-rod rotary and realize the telescopic function to achieve quick loading and unloading of fasteners; subsequently, through the cooperation between the buckle and the spring, loading and unloading self-locking is attained; afterwards, through the threaded joining and the same cylinder design between the external profile components, the convenience of fasteners for automatic transportation is realized. When assembling two thin-walled parts of the aircraft, only continuous one-side pressing of fasteners is needed to carry out the tightening and unloading work, namely, one-pressing installation and one-pressing removal, which could solve the problems caused by the bilateral operation of traditional bolts and part tolerances. After the application of the fasteners into the pre-joining process of aircraft panels, the experiment results have shown that this temporary fastener provided a good clamping effect, could be quickly and efficiently installed and removed by continuous one-pressing, and avoided the problems of complexity and high cost for pre-joining processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical resistance is among the characteristics that fastening systems must meet to ensure the proper functioning of signaling systems in railway infrastructure. The EN 13146-5:2012 standard specifies a laboratory testing method for determining the electrical resistance under wet conditions between running rails provided by a fastening system on steel or concrete sleepers. In urban railway tracks, the electrical resistance of fastening systems affects the stray current; however, there is no standardized electrical resistance measuring method. There is also no definition for the minimum value that the electrical resistance of fastening systems must satisfy to prevent stray currents. For this reason, this paper analysis the possibility of using the standard EN 13146-5:2012 for the measurement and analysis of the electrical resistance of fastening systems in urban railway tracks. In this study, the electrical resistance of different fastening systems used in urban railway tracks was measured. Based on the tests results, the modifications needed in the EN 13146-5 standard for it to be suitable for urban railway tracks were identified. The proposed modifications include the use of a DC current source. The test should be performed on a rail sample fastened to the concrete base, and the current circuit should be closed by the reference electrode installed in the base. Spraying water from nozzles is not applicable for this measurement. The test should be performed under dry conditions and at different water levels (water on the top of the concrete base and on the top of the levelling layer). Different water levels were used to simulate the most common conditions in urban railway tracks built as part of the road surface, where the track-drying process is very slow. The test should not be performed when the rails are immersed in water, because the current flows directly from the rail into the water in such case, and the fastening system has no influence on the measured electrical resistance value. In addition to describing the proposed changes, the calculation of the minimum electrical resistance value that fastening systems in urban railway tracks must satisfy is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]