Analysis of mesoscopic mechanical dynamic characteristics of ballast bed with under sleeper pads

The meso-dynamical behaviour of a high-speed rail ballast bed with under sleeper pads(USPs)was studied.The geometrically irregular refined discrete element model of the ballast particles was constructed using 3D scanning techniques,and the 3D dynamic model of the rail-sleeper-ballast bed was constructed using the coupled discrete element method-multiflexible-body dynamics(DEM-MFBD)approach.We analyse the meso-mechanical dynamics of the ballast bed with USPs under dynamic load on a train and verify the correctness of the model in laboratory tests.It is shown that the deformation of the USPs increases the contact area between the sleeper and the ballast particles,and subsequently the number of contacts between them.As the depth of the granular ballast bed increases,the contact area becomes larger,and the contact force between the ballast particles gradually decreases.Under the action of the elastic USPs,the contact forces between ballast particles are reduced and the overall vibration level of the ballast bed can be reduced.The settlement of the granular ballast bed occurs mainly at the shallow position of the sleeper bottom,and the installation of the elastic USPs can be effective in reducing the stress on the ballast particles and the settlement of the ballast bed.

Microstructures and Key Properties of Mechanically Deposited Zn-Al Coatings

Zn-Al coatings can provide protection to exposed steel parts in most environments. For this reason, the investigation of Zn-Al coatings become very popular in recent years. In order to study the microstructures and properties of mechanically deposited Zn-Al coating, zinc powders and aluminum powders were used to deposit Zn-AI coating by mechanical plating. The microstruetures, phase constitutes and compositions of the coating were observed and analyzed with optical microscopy （OM）, scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, X-ray diffraction（XRD） and X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy（EDS）. The results of observation show that the coating consists of almost spherically shaped zinc particles point contacting with each other; the coatings are composed of zinc particles, aluminum particles, interstice, and tin; extra fine zinc powders and some smaller interspersed inclusions are positioned in the interstices. Porosity and thickness of the coating were tested by ferroxyl test and magnetic method. The corrosion resistance of coatings was studied by neutral salt spraying test（NSS）, immersion test and electrochemical polarization. It is found that the thickness of the coating dose lacks uniformity, with an uneven thickness distribution and an average variation of approximately 2-5gm; the coating can afford cathodic protection to the steel substrate; the corrosion resistance of Zn-Al coatings is better than that of the mechanically plated zinc coatings with same thickness. These conclusions can be applied to improve anti-corrosion performance by mechanically deposit Zn-Al coatings.

Fixed-Time Sliding Mode Control With Varying Exponent Coefficient for Modular Reconfigurable Flight Arrays

The modular system can change its physical structure by self-assembly and self-disassembly between modules to dynamically adapt to task and environmental requirements. Recognizing the adaptive capability of modular systems, we introduce a modular reconfigurable flight array(MRFA) to pursue a multifunction aircraft fitting for diverse tasks and requirements,and investigate the attitude control and the control allocation problem by using the modular reconfigurable flight array as a platform. First, considering the variable and irregular topological configuration of the modular array, a center-of-mass-independent flight array dynamics model is proposed to allow control allocation under over-actuated situations. Secondly, in order to meet the stable, fast and accurate attitude tracking performance of the MRFA, a fixed-time convergent sliding mode controller with state-dependent variable exponent coefficients is proposed to ensure fast convergence rate both away from and near the system equilibrium point without encountering the singularity. It is shown that the controller also has fixed-time convergent characteristics even in the presence of external disturbances. Finally,simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and control strategies.

Application of Transfer Learningin Mechanical Equipment Intelligent Diagnosis:Literature Review

Accelerating the process of intelligent manufacturing and the demand for new industrial productivity,the operating conditions of machinery and equipment have become ever more severe.As an important link to ensure the stable operation of the production process,the condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of equipment have become equally important.The fault diagnosis of equipment in actual production is often challenged by variable working conditions,large differences in data distribution,and lack of labeled samples,etc.Traditional fault diagnosis methods are often difficult to achieve ideal results in these complex environments.Transfer learning(TL)as an emerging technology can effectively utilize existing knowledge and data to improve the diagnostic performance.Firstly,this paper analyzes the trend of mechanical equipment fault diagnosis and explains the basic concept of TL.Then TL based on parameters,TL based on features,TL based on instances and domain adaptive(DA)methods are summarized and analyzed in terms of existing TL methods.Finally,the problems faced in the current TL research are summarized and the future development trend is pointed out.This review aims to help researchers in related fields understand the latest progress of TL and promote the application and development of TL in mechanical equipment diagnosis.

HIGH SPEED MILLING OF GRAPHITE ELECTRODE WITH ENDMILL OF SMALL DIAMETER

Graphite becomes the prevailing electrode material in electrical discharging machining （EDM）currently.Orthogonal cutting experiments are carried out to study the characteristics of graphite chip formation process.High speed milling experiments are conducted to study tool wear and cutting forces.The results show that depth of cut has great influence on graphite chip formation.The removal process of graphite in high speed milling is the mutual result of cutting and grinding process. Graphite is prone to cause severe abrasion wear to coated carbide endmills due to its high abrasiveness nature.The major patterns of tool wear are flank wear,rake wear,micro-chipping and breakage. Cutting forces can be reduced by adoption of higher cutting speed,moderate feed per tooth,smaller radial and axial depths of cut,and up cutting.

Indentation size effect of germanium single crystal with different crystal orientations

In order to study the indentation size effect(ISE)of germanium single crystals,nano-indentation experiments were carried out on the(100),(110)and(111)plane-orientated germanium single crystals.The true hardness of each crystal plane of germanium single crystals was calculated based on the Meyer equation,proportional sample resistance(PSR)model and Nix-Gao model,and the indentation size effect(ISE)factor of each crystal plane was calculated.Results show that,the germanium single crystals experience elastic deformation,plastic deformation and brittle fracture during the loading process,and the three crystal planes all show obvious ISE phenomenon.All three models can effectively describe the ISE of germanium single crystals,and the calculated value of Nix-Gao model is the most accurate.Compared with the other two crystal planes,Ge(110)has the highest size effect factor m and the highest hardness,which indicates that Ge(110)has the worst plasticity.

Preparation of aluminide coatings at relatively low temperatures

A method was presented to prepare aluminide coatings on metals by combining the pack aluminizing with the ball impact process. This technique applied mechanical vibration to a retort, which was loaded with pack-aluminizing powder, specimens and alloy balls. Pack aluminizing was carried out with repeated ball impact, which accelerated chemical reactions and atomic diffusion. Aluminide coatings were formed at a relatively lower temperature (below 600 ℃) and in a shorter treatment time, compared with the conventional pack aluminizing. The effects of the operation temperature and the treatment time on the formation of the coatings were analysed. The SEM, EDS and XRD analysis results show that the aluminide coatings appear to be homogeneous, with a high density and free of porosity, and have excellent adherence to the substrate. The coatings mainly consist of Al-rich phases such as η-Fe2Al5, θ-FeAl3 and ?CrAl5. Oxidation resistance was studied by high-temperature tests. The formation mechanism of the Al-coatings was also investigated. This technique provides a new approach for industrial diffusion coatings with great energy and time savings.

Numerical Simulation of Thermal Stress Fields in the Magnetic Quenching Process of 45 Steel

Based on a transient temperature distribution of a 45 steel cylinder workpiece during magnetic quenching, which was obtainedby solving the governing equations with nonlinear boundary on the condition of coupling effects of heat-magnetism. Accordingto the theory of thermal non-elasticity, computational mechanics, ferromagnetism and phase transformation, a new constitutiveequation considering effects of phase transformation is proposed and solved by means of finite element method. The transientthermal stress and residual stress are obtained and the influencing factors on the thermal stress of magnetic field are analyzedand discussed.

Spectroscopic properties and mechanism of Tm^(3+)/Er^(3+)/Yb^(3+) co-doped oxyfluorogermanate glass ceramics containing BaF_2 nanocrystals

Transparent Tm^3＋/Er^3＋/yb^3＋ co-doped oxyfluorogermanate glass ceramics containing BaF2 nanocrystals are prepared. Under excitation of a 980-nm laser diode （LD）, compared with the glass before heat treatment, the Tm^3＋/Er^3＋/yb^3＋ co-doped oxyfluorogermanate glass ceramics can emit intense blue, green and red up-conversion luminescence and Stark- split peaks; X-ray diffraction （XRD） and transmission electron microscope （TEM） results show that BaF2 nanocrystals with an average diameter of 20 nm are precipitated from the glass matrix. Stark splitting of the up-conversion luminescence peaks in the glass ceramics indicates that Tm^3＋, Er^3＋ and （or） Yb^3＋ ions are incorporated into the BaF2 nanocrystals. The up-conversion luminescence intensities of Tm^3＋, Er^3＋ and the splitting degree of luminescence peaks in the glass ceramics increase significantly with the increase of heat treat temperature and heat treat time extension. In addition, the possible energy transfer process between rare earth ions and the up-conversion luminescence mechanism are also proposed.

Chemical vapor deposition growth behavior of graphene

The optimized growth parameters of graphene with different morphologies,such as dendrites,rectangle,and hexagon,have been obtained by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition on polycrystalline copper substrates.The evolution of fractal graphene,which grew on the polycrystalline copper substrate,has also been observed.When the equilibrium growth state of graphene is disrupted,its intrinsic hexagonal symmetry structure will change into a non-hexagonal symmetry structure.Then,we present a systematic and comprehensive study of the evolution of graphene with different morphologies grown on solid copper as a function of the volume ratio of methane to hydrogen in a controllable manner.Moreover,the phenomena of stitching snow-like graphene together and stacking graphene with different angles was also observed.

Effects of C and Mn elements on deformation-enhanced ferrite transformation in low carbon (Mn) steels

Effects of C and Mn contents on the deformation-enhanced ferrite transformation （DEFT） in low carbon （Mn） steels have been investigated by hot compression. The microstructures of 2-4μm ultra-fine equiaxed ferrite grains with minors distributed homogeneously can be obtained by DEFT in all the tested steels. The more pronounced refinement is achieved as the C or Mn content increasing because of the higher-density nucleating sites and lower growth rate. The effectiveness of C on the level of refinement is more obvious than that of Mn.

Study on the serialization and applications of low carbon ductile iron

Both the production process and the chemical composition of Sx were studied, and the serialization of low carbon ductile iron was also discussed. It was indicated that Sx modifier was sensitive to the carbon equivalent (CE) of molten iron and to some alloying elements too. When the CE of molten iron and the contents of alloying elements were changed, the content of Sx must be revised with the change correspondingly. Low carbon ductile iron can be stably changed into the one that non-carbon acicular ferrite and retained austenite (about 25%-28%) by quasi-casting bainitic process of using Sx-2 modifier treated Si-Mn-Cr-Cu-alloyed low carbon molten iron. The austenitic low carbon as-cast ductile iron could be obtained by the Ni-Si-Cr 35 5 2 percent alloys molten iron with less than 2% carbon treated by type Sx-3 modifier. The high-toughness ferritic low carbon as-cast ductile iron which contained more than 85 % ferrite in matrix could be got after the molten iron treated by type Sx-4 modifier, and it’s elongation was more than 10 %.

Modeling and Characteristic Analysis of Visco-Hyperelastic Film Based on Biaxial Tensile Experiment

Dielectric elastomers(DEs)show complex mechanical behaviors with different boundary conditions,geometry sizes,and prestress.In this study,a three-component linear visco-hyperelastic model of DE film is developed based on equibiaxial tension.By applying hereditary integrals to analyze multiple-segment loading processesof film stretching,the model parameters are extracted by fitting the visco-hyperelastic film model to the experimental data.To demonstrate the performance of proposed model,the obtained predictive results are compared with the experimental results under different equibiaxial loading conditions.The good agreement between them shows that the linear visco-hyperelastic model is a promising tool for analytically investigating the property of pre-stretched DE actuators.Finally,the Prony series coefficients are calculated according to the relaxation function.This is helpful for simulation analysis using commercial finite element software.

Numerical solution of Poisson equation with wavelet bases of Hermite cubic splines on the interval

A new wavelet-based finite element method is proposed for solving the Poisson equation. The wavelet bases of Hermite cubic splines on the interval are employed as the multi-scale interpolation basis in the finite element analysis. The lifting scheme of the wavelet-based finite element method is discussed in detail. For the orthogonal characteristics of the wavelet bases with respect to the given inner product, the corresponding multi-scale finite element equation can be decoupled across scales, totally or partially, and suited for nesting approximation. Numerical examples indicate that the proposed method has the higher efficiency and precision in solving the Poisson equation.

Semi-active control of a vehicle suspension using magneto-rheological damper

A semi-active magneto-rheological （MR） damper was experimentally investigated and compared to an original equipment manufacturer （OEM） damper for a passenger vehicle, by using a quarter car models. A full-scale two-degree-of-freedom quarter car experimental set-up was constructed to study the vehicle suspension. On-off skyhook controller and Fuzzy-Lyapunov skyhook controller （FLSC） were employed to control the input current for MR damper so as to achieve the desired damping force. Tests were done to evaluate the ability of MR damper for controlling vehicle vibration. Test results show that the semi-active MR vehicle suspension vibration control system is feasible. In comparison with OEM damper, on-off and FLSC controlled MR dampers can effectively reduce the acceleration of vehicle sprtmg mass by about 15% and 24%, respectively.

Improvement of Flat Surfaces Quality of Aluminum Alloy 6061-O By A Proposed Trajectory of Ball Burnishing Tool

Burnishing is a profitable process of surface finishing due to its ability to be automated,which makes burnishing method more desirable than other finishing methods.To obtain high surface finish,non-stop operation is required for CNC machine and we can attain that by choosing a suitable trajectory of the finishing tool.In other words,burnishing paths should be multidirectional rather than monotonic,in order to cover uniformly the surface.Indeed,the burnishing force is also a key parameter of the burnishing process because it determines the degree of plastic deformation,and that makes determining the optimum burnishing force an essential step of the burnishing process a success.Therefore,we consider the strategy of ball burnishing path and the burnishing force as variable parameters in this study.In this paper,we propose a new strategy of burnishing tool path with trochoid cycles that achieves a multidirectional burnishing of the surface according to various patterns.Taking into consideration the optimum burnishing force,to improve flat surface finish of AL6061-O samples by reducing the surface roughness parameter(Rz).Experiments carried out on 3-axis milling machine show that the proposed trochoidal path is more effective than the conventional one.

In vitro Evaluation with 5SBF of Alloy ASTM F75 Thermally Treated with Wollastonite

Samples of a cobalt-based alloy that underwent a surface treatment were evaluated. The samples, which were obtained by casting alloy ASTM F 75, were ground and polished on one side until a mirror finish was obtained. The samples were encapsulated in wollastonite （W） using uniaxial pressure, treated at 1 220 ~C for 1 h and subsequently tempered in water. The characterisation of the sample indicated that part of the ceramic encapsulating material was mechanically incorporated on the metallic surface by growth of the oxide layer of the alloy. After thermal treatment, a series of specimens were submerged in a solution with 5-fold simulated body fluid （5SBF） for 3, 5 and 21 days. Characterisation by scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, energy dispersive spectroscopy （EDS） and X-ray diffraction （XRD） indicated nucleation and growth of a homogenous layer of apatite, beginning on the third day when the sample was submerged.

The Influence of Control Design on Energetic Cost during FES Induced Sit-to-Stand

This paper highlights the benefits of using intelligent model based controllers to produce FES induced sit-to-stand movement (FES-STS), in terms of reducing energy cost and producing more natural responses in comparison with conventional controllers. A muscle energy expenditure model for the quadriceps is implemented in the control design of FES-STS, then simulation is run for three different control designs: an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system controller (ANFIS), a conventional PID controller, and a hybrid ANFIS-PID controller. The PID control strategy results in negative energy expenditure of the quadriceps at the end of the STS initiation phase, this negative energy is caused by the high lengthening speeds at the muscle fiber level, which may lead to muscle fatigue or damage. Contrary to PID controller, model based controllers show positive energy expenditure, lower energy costs, and more natural curves of energy expenditure and knee torques.

Study the Specifications of the Thread through the Construction of the Pipe on the Ring Spinning Machine

In ring spinning, tension develops in the yarn mainly because, to move the Traveler and the balloon length, Lb, around the spindle axis, and to wind the yarn onto the spinning bobbin, work must be done against the frictional force of the ring on the Traveler and of the Traveler on the yarn, as well as against the air drag on the Traveler and on the balloon length. This work is additional to that needed to overcome the friction of the spindle bearings and the air drag on the forming yarn package. The tensions in the yarn during ring spinning may be considered with respect to three zones: 1) the yarn formation zone (i.e., the zone between the pigtail lappet guide and the front rollers of the drafting system);2) the winding zone (i.e., the zone between the Traveler and the bobbin forming zone);3) the balloon zone (i.e., the zone between the Traveler and lappet guide), where the yarn tension changes noticeable shape by relation with Winding Qatar (the yarn tension increases whenever Winding Qatar reduces).

Manufacturing and Thermal Performance Test of (Compound) Solar Collector in Damascus City

Solar water collectors that uses for domestic and industrial applications within temperature up to, are classified under two main types: Flat Plate collector (FP), and Evacuated Tube collector (ET). Thermal performance test results showed that each type have different thermal features. Comparison between (FP & ET) collectors showed that they could take advantages of different thermal features of two types when they work in the same climatic conditions and overlap of these thermal features when they work in different operational conditions. They can take advantage of these features through (compound) solar collector. Compound solar water Collector (CO) composed of a part of flat plate collector shape (FP), and a part of evacuated tube collector shape (ET). Booth have equal reference area, and connected together to be as one Solar collector (CO). Water entered first flat part (FP), then evacuated tube part (ET) then to tank or end-use. In this paper, present design and manufacturing as well the thermal performance test of (compound) solar collector, according to Standard Specification of tests, was EN12975:2001. Mechanical test for (CO) collector conducted successfully according to durability, reliability, and safety requirements. In addition, thermal performance was tested in steady state at the climatic conditions of Damascus city, and concluded the thermal performance of (FP & ET) that constitute (CO) collector. The results showed enhancement of thermal performance.