Meso-mechanical Interfacial Behavior of Elbow Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

The strain distributions near the interface when the elbow steel fiber is pulled out from the half-mould concrete matrix are directly measured using a combined method of single fiber pull-out test and digital image correlation. Meanwhile, the real-time processes of the bonding, debonding and sliding at the interface are observed. The micro-mechanism of the strain localization in the failure process of interface when debonding occurs and the strengthening mechanism at the imbedded fiber are discussed. The experimental results show that the meso-scale strain localization gives rise to the localization of shear damage near the fiber interface. This strain localization characterized by the debonding process near the interface occurs, develops and moves gradually at an apparently regular interval. At the elbow part of the imbedded fiber, the peak value of the shearing stress occurs. But the primary debonding does not occur at this place because the strength of the shear damage is increased at the local area of the elbow part in the concrete, displaying an apparent reinforced effect at the end of the fiber.

Towards a standardisation for digital inputs and outputs of protection functions in IEC 60255 series

Fully digitalized substations using IEC 61850 process bus are being introduced all over the world.Numerous utilities have featured pilot projects,demonstrators or even industrial scale deployment of these Fully Digital Protection,Auto-mation and Control Systems(FD-PACS).Product standards such as profiles for Instrument Transformers have been developed and published(IEC 61869-6 and IEC 61869-9 by TC 38-Instrument Transformers).This raises the question about the standards for digitally interfaced protection functions.In 2016,IEC TC 95(Measuring relays and protection equipment)charged a working group to investigate this subject and to elaborate recommendations concerning requirements and testing of protection IED with digital inputs and outputs for protection standards(IEC 60255-1xx series).For protection functions,publisher/subscriber based data streams are supposed to comply with IEC 61850 and IEC 61869 standards.This holds in particular for Sampled Values(SV)representing energising inputs of the protection function,and is also applicable to Generic Object Oriented Substation Event(GOOSE)which can be used for input or output of protection functions.Quality attributes of published data depend on the operational and connection status of the function and the hosting IED.In addition,protection functions have to take into account the information regarding the time synchronisation of the received SV and other parameters.This paper gives an overview of these features and the proposed way to take them into account in the IEC 60255 standard series.It describes the progress of WG 2 and relates it to existing standardization documents.

BRITACOM and the Digitalization of Tax Administration

This article looks at how enhanced digitalization of tax administration can raise both taxpayer service and enforcement effectiveness and address potential bottlenecks and barriers to BRI trade and investment.The article also draws on the extensive experiences from BRI jurisdictions and elsewhere in the world,points to potential learning points for BRI tax administrations.

Computer Aided Design System for Developing Musical Fountain Programs

A computer aided design system for developing musical fountain programs was developed with multiple functions such as intelligent design, 3-D animation, manual modification and synchronized motion to make the development process more efficient. The system first analyzed the music form and sentiment using many basic features of the music to select a basic fountain program. Then, this program is simulated with 3-D animation and modified manually to achieve the desired results. Finally, the program is transformed to a computer control program to control the musical fountain in time with the music. A prototype system for the musical fountain was also developed. It was tested with many styles of music and users were quite satisfied with its performance. By integrating various functions, the proposed computer aided design system for developing musical fountain programs greatly simplified the design of the musical fountain programs.