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This study aims to design and fabricate a prototype of massage chair made of corrugated cardboard materials and evaluate its structural strength. It could be a pioneering study as no one had manifested or discussed it before. The prototype is currently made with dimensions of approximately 60 ´ 50 ´ 100 cm, consisting of 6 cardboard components, affords a reflexology sensation from solid rubber balls, and provides reclinable features at the backrest and footrest. The most prominent benefit of this cardboard massage chair compared to the commercialized ones is environmentally friendly and lightweight products. Moreover, the constructed component can be disassembled and folded, making it a portable massage chair. From the strength evaluation, the cardboard massage chair can still endure a load of 50 kg to the prototype’s seat, backrest, and footrest. However, multi loading directions (e.g., vertical, longitudinal, lateral), stress concentration, and fluctuating person weight would generate tremendous stress and lead to a more substantial possibility of damage and failures on the cardboard after several testing cycles. Therefore, further improvement processes should be investigated to develop an optimized version of cardboard massage chair in the future.

Hybrid composites using adhesive joints are gaining popularity in various industries as their various material combinations can create certain advantages. This research focuses on examining the mode I and mode II fracture toughness characteristics of the combined laminate between Steel Plate Cold Rolled Commercial (SPCC) metal and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite processed using adhesive bonding. SPCC/CFRP hybrid laminate composites were manufactured with a variety of manufacturing options (A, B, and C) to find the most optimal method using two types of epoxy and cyanoacrylate adhesives, with two different bonding processes: secondary bonding and co-bonding. Fracture toughness values were measured through the Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) test for mode I and the End Notched Flexure (ENF) test for mode II. The test results showed that epoxy adhesives in the SPCC/CFRP adhesive joints provided better fracture toughness performance, especially when combined with the co-bonding technique. Specimens from manufacturing option C showed the highest GIC and GIIC values of 83.05 and 254.94 J/m2, respectively. These values increased by 58.98 % and 80.48 % compared to manufacturing options A and B in Mode I. Additionally, the GIIC value for manufacturing option C increased by 78.00 % and 66.76 % compared to manufacturing options A and B. The SPCC/CFRP hybrid laminates showed adhesive failure on the SPCC surface when using epoxy adhesive, whereas adhesive failure occurred on the CFRP surface with cyanoacrylate adhesive for the different manufacturing options.

The study investigates the fabrication and analysis of nickel microparticle-reinforced composites fabricated using the digital light processing (DLP) technique. A slurry is prepared by incorporating Ni-micro particles into a resin vat; it is thoroughly mixed to achieve homogeneity. Turbidity fluctuations are observed, initially peaking at 50% within the first two minutes of mixing and then stabilizing at 30% after 15–60 min. FTIR spectroscopy with varying Ni wt.% is performed to study the alterations in the composite material’s molecular structure and bonding environment. Spectrophotometric analysis revealed distinctive transmittance signatures at specific wavelengths, particularly within the visible light spectrum, with a notable peak at 532 nm. The effects of printing orientation in the X, Y, and Z axes were also studied. Mechanical properties were computed using tensile strength, surface roughness, and hardness. The results indicate substantial enhancements in the tensile properties, with notable increases of 75.5% in the ultimate tensile strength and 160% in the maximum strain. Minimal alterations in surface roughness and hardness suggest favorable printability. Microscopic examination revealed characteristic fracture patterns in the particulate composite at different values for the wt.% of nickel. The findings demonstrate the potential of DLP-fabricated Ni-reinforced composites for applications demanding enhanced mechanical performance while maintaining favorable printability, paving the way for further exploration in this domain.

Lumbar model is an artificial bone that is commonly used in surgical training to simulate working with the human-like bone for the trainer. The common lumbar model is made of rigid polyurethane (PU) foam and is produced using casting. However, the current lumbar model is expensive and has limitations in representing the real human lumbar, especially in geometry, visuals, and haptics. Therefore, an alternative method of fabricating lumbar models made of rigid polyurethane for surgical training using indirect additive manufacturing will be investigated in this paper. The proposed indirect additive manufacturing is a combination of 3D printing and casting methods. The main process of this method is started by fabricating a mold made of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing and subsequently casting PU foam material into the 3D printed PVA mold. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to find the optimized casting process parameters, especially for injecting the material into the mold, to achieve a better quality of lumbar model. The study was conducted using a Design of Experiment (DoE) Taguchi Orthogonal Array to optimize the casting process. The geometrical measurements of middle end-plate depth, upper end-plate width, spinal canal width, spinal canal depth, and lower pedicle length show the error ranged from 0.14% to 0.85%. The average porosity, measured from the body, lamina, and spinous, was found to be non-uniform. It is ranged from 19.58% to 21.94% on the middle part and 39.78% to 45.41% on the subsurface of lumbar model. The density was increased by 64.89% compared to the reference open molded PU foam.

Predicting crack length and orientation in twill woven CFRP plates is notoriously non-trivial due to the interplay of complex physics over multiple length scales. Furthermore, on an industrial scale, a timely yet accurate non-destructive prediction based on a limited amount of data is critical for successful industrial adoption. This paper proposes a physics-assisted surrogate approach, by first measuring electrical conductivities using the Electrical Resistance Charge (ERC) and then developing high-fidelity through-thickness crack models resulting in 42 datasets, and processing the resulting data with a polynomial regression coupled with the leave one out cross validation using physics-based engineered features. The proposed method achieved averaged error of 0.09% and 0.48% for crack length and orientation, respectively, exhibits advantages over the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) in terms of both accuracy and tendency to overfit. This proposed approach paves the way for the maturing of the sought-after real-time Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of crack length and orientation.

Abstract The problem considered in this work is the development of simulation method for simulating car crash which utilizes simple car—impact attenuator model developed in MATLAB. Usually, car crash simulation is done using full finite element simulation which could take hours or days depending on the model size. The purpose of proposed method is to achieve quick results on the car crash simulation. Past works which utilizes simple car—impact attenuator model to simulate car crash use continuous time model and the impact attenuator parameter is obtained from the experimental results. Different from the related works, this work uses discrete time model, and the impact attenuator parameter is obtained from finite element simulation. Therefore, the proposed simulation method is not only achieving quick simulation results but also minimizing the cost and time in obtaining the impact attenuator parameter. The proposed method is suitable for parametric study of impact attenuator.

Abstract This paper discusses a passive vibration control method to improve the shock tolerance of hard disk drives (HDDs) in operating condition (op-shock tolerance). Past works in improving the HDDs’ op-shock tolerance includes (i) parking the head when shock is detected, (ii) installing a lift-off limiter, (iii) structural modification of the suspension, and (iv) installing an external vibration isolation. Methods (i) and (iv) have practical issues, method (ii) works only on single shock direction, and method (iii) requires major engineering design/manufacturing work. Compared to these works, this paper proposes a method which has no practical issues and without requiring major engineering design/manufacturing work. The proposed method is to apply a polymer-based dampening layer on the backside of the baseplate with the purpose of increasing the damping ratio of the 1st bending mode of the baseplate. The location of the dampening layer on the baseplate is first determined by modal analysis and then fine-tuned by non-op-shock tests. The op-shock tolerance improvement is confirmed by op-shock tests where 2.5″ HDD with the dampening layer on the baseplate can withstand a 300G 0.5-ms shock without failure while unmodified HDD can only withstand 250G 0.5-ms shock without failure.

Crispness is the most appealing characteristic of dry food products. However, the term crispness has different subjective meaning among consumers. This study aims to quantitatively measure the crispness of potato crisp by performing compression test on a single specimen, and analyzing the compressive behavior, i.e., compressive strain energy. The crispness of the specimens were differentiated by changing the moisture exposure durations, which are 0, 1, 2, 3, 6 hours, in a room and ambient condition. The measured load and displacement data were transformed into stress and strain curves. The strain energy for every 1% strain increment was calculated and investigated to determine the crispness. The crispness difference among specimens of 0, 3, and 6 hours groups was significantly perceived at 8% of strain. It was revealed that the 3 and 6 hours of room air exposure could decrease the crispness by 17% and 45%, respectively. This suggests the compressive strain energy at a certain strain can be an indicator of crispness. This experimental study is expected to evolve food engineering by proposing a simple yet precise crispness measurement method for dry food.

3D-printed nasopharyngeal swabs for medical sample collection have been manufactured via additive manufacturing (AM), evaluated, and characterized in the present study. A multi-part component of nasopharyngeal swabs was proposed, in which the swab and handle were manufactured separately to reach sustainable production and environmentally friendly products. The swab was investigated using tensile, flexural, surface roughness, dimensional accuracy, and sample collection testing. The influence of printing parameters and post-curing time treatment on the mechanical properties, surface roughness, and dimensional accuracy of 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swabs were also evaluated. The result showed that 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab shows outstanding tensile strength compared to the commercial flock nasopharyngeal swab. Moreover, the swab neck flexibility test showed that both PLA and dental non-castable 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swabs were able to bend 180°. Subsequently, the surface roughness of 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab was identic with the commercial flock nasopharyngeal swab. The proposed 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab design could carry an artificial mucus sample of 141.6 mg at a viscosity of 9455.4 mPa.s. The cost to fabricate a 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab was estimated at USD0.01–0.02 per swab. 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab shows potential as a feasible option, greener, less medical waste, and more sustainable.

This paper reveals the stability characteristics of an electric-powered delta trike (e-trike), which is developed for goods delivery services. The changeable center of gravity position and weight due to electric component placement and the carried good weight can cause instability of the e-trike. Three main parameters are firstly evaluated on the e-trike: 1) geometry, 2) center of gravity, and 3) stiffness and damping coefficient of the suspensions. Single Lane-Change (SLC) and Double Lane-Change (DLC) tests were then conducted following ISO 14791:2000 and ISO 3888-1:2018 standards, respectively. An e-trike model was created and simulated using SIMPACK, a multi-body dynamic software. The simulation results showed that the developed e-trike model can replicate SLC and DLC tests, indicating the model was valid. A parametric study with the validated model was then conducted with various e-trike weights, center of gravity position, and suspension stiffness and damping ratio values. The results showed additional weight and higher center of gravity position can decrease threshold velocity to avoid rollover. The low suspension stiffness also contributed to lower the threshold velocity. However, the damping coefficient value did not change the threshold velocity significantly. These results can be a guideline in designing a delta trike with better performance in stability and maneuverability.

This study derives a rollover index for a delta E-trike. Past works derive the rollover index by considering lateral centrifugal force only. In contrast, this study proposes a rollover index which is derived under the assumption that the centrifugal force act in both lateral and longitudinal direction. This assumption will give a result closer to the real-life application. In addition, a parametric study on the effect of center of gravity location on rollover index is also proposed. The study continued with the layout assessment, which is done as the considerations in rearranging the powertrain components inside the E-trike. The comparison between initial and new layout shows that the new arrangement gives several advantages to the delta E-trike.

This study aims to investigate the effect of rice husks’ particle size on resin-based brake pad performance (i.e. compressive strength, puncture strength, mass loss, wear rate, friction coefficient, and heat resistance). Bisphenol A-epichlorohydrin and cycloaliphatic amine were mixed to form resin and used as the brake pad's base material. In the experiment, rice husk with a specific particle size (i.e., 250, 500, dan 1000 μm) was added to the resin. Rice husk has received considerable interest due to its lignin, cellulose, and silica content, making it suitable as friction material due to its ceramic-like behavior. The experimental results showed small rice husk particles improved compressive strength, puncture strength, and bulk density. This can be obtained from the analysis of the maximum compressive strength for brake pad supported by particles with sizes of 250, 500, and 1000 μm having values of 0.238; 0.173; and 0.144 MPa, respectively. In contrast, large particles formed coarse surfaces and pores, decreased mass loss rate, and improve friction properties (i.e. wear rate, friction coefficient). The friction coefficient values of brake pad supported by particles with sizes of 250, 500, and 1000 µm were, respectively, 0.2075; 0.2070; and 0.3379. Particle size affected interpacking, interfacial bonding, pores number and size, thermal softening, mechanical properties, and friction properties of the brake pad. Comparison between the prepared resin-based and commercial brake pad was also done, confirming the utilization of agro-waste as a potential alternative for friction material in the brake pad.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of plasma nitriding time on the physicochemical properties and mechanical hardness of commercially available martensitic stainless steels, SUS403 (JIS G4304) and SCS6 (JIS G5121). Both steels were chosen as the model materials because of their general applications, such as for pressure vessel, valve, turbine, pump, and conveyor belt in petroleum industry, in which high strength and good corrosion resistant materials are demanded. The nitriding processes were carried out by plasma process at fixed temperature of 450C with varied processing times of 20, 30, and 40 hours. The results show that the addition of nitrogen has a significant role in modifying the microstructure, phase balance, and hardness of both steels. Varying the processing time has a direct impact to the penetration depth of nitrogen into the material. Interestingly, despite similar martensitic properties, we found that the nitrided layer on SUS403 and SCS6 specimens exhibits different iron nitride layer characteristics, i.e., crystal structure/phase and hardness profile. It was revealed that the processing time of 20 hours is suitable to form an Fe4N compound layer. Longer than this period is just increasing the iron-nitride layer thickness. In addition, the present study also discussed the formation process of iron nitride compound-layer during plasma nitriding process.

Temperature management for battery packs installed in electric vehicles is crucial to ensure that the battery works properly. For lithium-ion battery cells, the optimal operating temperature is in the range of 25 to 40 °C with a maximum temperature difference among battery cells of 5 °C. This work aimed to optimize lithium-ion battery packing design for electric vehicles to meet the optimal operating temperature using an air-cooling system by modifying the number of cooling fans and the inlet air temperature. A numerical model of 74 V and 2.31 kWh battery packing was simulated using the lattice Boltzmann method. The results showed that the temperature difference between the battery cells decreased with the increasing number of cooling fans; likewise, the mean temperature inside the battery pack decreased with the decreasing inlet air temperature. The optimization showed that the configuration of three cooling fans with 25 °C inlet air temperature gave the best performance with low power required. Even though the maximum temperature difference was still 15 °C, the configuration kept all battery cells inside the optimum temperature range. This finding is helpful to develop a standardized battery packing module and for engineers in designing low-cost battery packing for electric vehicles.

Following on the 2008-2012 OECD Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) feasibility study of civil engineering, in Japan a mechanical engineering learning outcomes assessment working group was established within the National Institute of Education Research (NIER), which became the Tuning National Center for Japan. The purpose of the project is to develop among engineering faculty members, common understandings of engineering learning outcomes, through the collaborative process of test item development, scoring, and sharing of results. By substantiating abstract level learning outcomes into concrete level learning outcomes that are attainable and assessable, and through measuring and comparing the students’ achievement of learning outcomes, it is anticipated that faculty members will be able to draw practical implications for educational improvement at the program and course levels. The development of a mechanical engineering test item bank began with test item development workshops, which led to a series of trial tests, and then to a large scale test implementation in 2016 of 348 first semester master’s students in 9 institutions in Japan, using both multiple choice questions designed to measure the mastery of basic and engineering sciences, and a constructive response task designed to measure “how well students can think like an engineer.” The same set of test items were translated from Japanese into to English and Indonesian, and used to measure achievement of learning outcomes at Indonesia’s Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) on 37 rising fourth year undergraduate students. This paper highlights how learning outcomes assessment can effectively facilitate learning outcomes-based education, by documenting the experience of Japanese and Indonesian mechanical engineering faculty members engaged in the NIER Test Item Bank project.First published online: 30 November 2017

Multilayer thin films polymer have been commonly used in a wide range of electronics applications, such as solar cells, photoconductors, semiconductors, and light-emitting diodes, in which failure due to delamination can occur. For evaluating and improving the quality of a multilayer thin-film product, the interfacial strength between its layers must be measured correctly and accurately. In this work, the interfacial strength of a multilayer thin-film polymer was quantified by measuring the interfacial energy release rate (interfacial fracture toughness), Gi , using the nanoindentation test technique. Three specimens of four-layer thin films were fabricated on a glass substrate. The top layer of each specimen was prepared with different thicknesses. The unloading curve technique introduced by Kozuki and Kishimoto (2010) was implemented to quantify the Gi of each specimen. Then, cross-sectional observation of the specimens was performed to confirm the layer thicknesses and to identify the delamination condition after the test. The measured Gi tended to increase as the range between the two unloading curves used to calculate the delamination energy widened. This phenomenon is believed to be caused by the plastic energy of the deformed films during the indentation process. Finally, an empirical method for eliminating the effect of the plastic energy on the measured Gi was proposed. Using this method, a pure Gi value can be effectively extracted; thus, the interfacial strength of multilayer thin-film polymers can be measured correctly and accurately.

Weld-joint has been atracting attention to assemble structures of dissimilar metals, particularly in automobile industry. However, the application of weld-joint to steel and aluminum plates is still limited due to uncertainty of the fatigue strength. Fatigue strength of weld-joint is rather complicated to evaluate because both effects of stress concentration at the edge and formation of intermetallic compounds along the interface should be considered carefully. This study focused on finding the key factor that determines the fatigue strength of steel-aluminum brazing joint by considering the variation of strength along interface. The welded part of single lap joint was partially removed by a wire-cut electric discharge machine to investigate the influence of length and location of interface on fatigue strength. When the applied load was relatively low it was found that the numbers of cycles to failure were found to be similar, even though the lengths of interface were different due to partial removal. Furthermore, observation on the fracture surface indicated that early stage of crack propagation showed similar topography regardless of the partial removal of weld part. These results clarified that the number of cycles to failure was mainly consumed at the early stage. Finite element analysis was then conducted to investigate the stress component affecting the fatigue strength. As a result, principal stresses were maximum at the fracture initiation site in all the specimens. Therefore, we concluded that fatigue life of weld-joint is dominant in the early stage of crack propagation, which is characterized by the principal stress.

A novel integration of N2 production, NH3 synthesis, and power generation is performed to realize an effective H2 conversion system to NH3. The system employs the principles of exergy recovery and process integration to achieve high-energy efficiency. The produced high purity N2 from N2 production module is reacted with H2 in NH3 synthesis module to be converted to NH3. In addition, the produced O2-rich gas is utilized as the effective oxidant in power generation module. A single column is adopted in N2 production module, and the feed is divided into two streams which are fed to the middle and bottom of the column. In N2 production module, two operating parameters of bottom feed and refed stream ratios are evaluated in terms of the consumed energy, N2 purity and O2 molar fraction in O2-rich gas. Compared to previous studies on an N2 production system, the proposed N2 production module can reduce the energy consumption of about 43 % (3.27 MW compared to 5.76 MW to produce 1 tmol-N2 h-1).

In turbomachinery, such as turbine, pump, and valve, components damage caused by collapsing cavitation bubbles has been a critical issue that needs a proper solution. For this reason, investigation on the cavitation erosion behavior of materials as well as the life prediction techniques has been extensively conducted. Moreover, a number of repairing techniques, such as by a surface coating of polymeric materials, has been established. However, in real operation, cavitation is actually not the only load acquired by the components. Other external loads, such as centrifugal force and hydraulic pressure, may also affect the generation of damage. Therefore, its effect on the lifetime needs to be considered carefully. In this paper, the behavior of cavitation damage of epoxy resin specimens subjected to uniaxial tensile loading is reported. A self-developed testing device was used to conduct a cavitation test based on ASTM G32 while at the same time exerting a constant uniaxial tensile load to the specimen. Using this device, various levels of tensile stress effect on the cavitation damage was examined. As a result, besides erosion damage, we revealed that the specimens demonstrated fracture when a certain tensile load was applied. Furthermore, as the tensile load was increased, the time to fracture was shortened significantly, indicating the pronounced effect of tensile stress on the damage formation. The crack growth mechanism was then analyzed by fractography. The result indicated that the crack propagation under a mixed condition of cavitation and tensile loads was most likely driven by the combination of creep deformation and fatigue-like crack growth. Finally, a mathematical relationship between tensile stress and cavitation damage life was proposed. The relationship is important to enhancing the existing theory of cavitation damage evaluation in e.g. turbomachinery application.

A zirconium alloy cylindrical tube exhibited fracture under high-velocity axial impact load when high yield strength pellets were inserted as reported by Morishige et al., 2016. The fracture occurred after a crack was initiated at the tensile side of the bending tube. In this paper, FE analyses were conducted to clarify the fracture mechanism as well as the deformation behavior. At first, axial tensile tests using tubes with four slit-holes located at the center were performed in order to evaluate the fracture behavior of the tube. Then, digital image correlation (DIC) method was utilized to measure the local strain near the slit-holes. The results showed that the fracture displacement became smaller with smaller slit-holes’ radius. Also, the strain was concentrated at the slit-holes’ tips where cracks were generated before fracture. Subsequently, FE analyses of the tensile tests were conducted by LS-DYNA using the implicit method to obtain the fracture criterion. The load-displacement curve agreed well with the experiment. Then, the relationship between stress triaxiality and equivalent plastic strain near the slit-holes’ area were evaluated to define the fracture criterion. Finally, FE analyses of the axial impact tests using the dynamic explicit method were conducted to compare with the fracture criterion defined by the axial tensile tests. The results indicated that a localized stress and strain might occur at the tube boundary adjacent to pellets. This was caused by the interaction between tube and pellets’ edge which generated a tensile stress condition at the tube boundary when high yield strength pellet was applied. Under this condition, both stress triaxiality and effective plastic strain could increase and eventually lead to the fracture criterion.