Effects of soil moisture on cotton root length density and yield under drip irrigation with plastic mulch in Aksu Oasis farmland

Effects of soil moisture on cotton root length density (total root length per unit soil volume) and yield under drip irrigation with plastic mulch were studied through field experiments. The results indicate that spatial distributions of root length density of cotton under various water treatments were basically similar. Horizontally, both root length densities of cotton in wide and narrow rows were similar, and higher than that between mulches. Vertically, root length density of cotton decreased with increasing soil depth. The distribution of root length density is different under different irrigation treatments. In conditions of over-irrigation, the root length density of cotton between mulches would increase. However, it would decrease in both the wide rows and narrow rows. The mean root length density of cotton increased with increasing irrigation water. Water stress caused the root length density to increase in lower soil layers. There is a significant correlation between root length density and yields of cotton at the flower-boll and wadding stages. The regression between irrigation amount and yield of cotton can be expressed as y = -0.0026x2+18.015x-24845 (R2 = 0.959). It showed that the irrigation volume of 3,464.4 m3/hm2 led to op-timal root length density. The yield of cotton was 6,360 .8 kg/hm2 under that amount of irrigation.

From concept to reality-A review to the primary test stand and its preliminary application in high energy density physics

Pulsed power technology,whereas the electrical energy stored in a relative long period is released in much shorter timescale,is an efficient method to create high energy density physics(HEDP)conditions in laboratory.Around the beginning of this century,China Academy of Engineering Physics(CAEP)began to build some experimental facilities for HEDP investigations,among which the Primary Test Stand(PTS),a multi-module pulsed power facility with a nominal current of 10 MA and a current rising time~90 ns,is an important achievement on the roadmap of the electro-magnetically driven inertial confinement fusion(ICF)researches.PTS is the first pulsed power facility beyond 10 TW in China.Therefore,all the technologies have to be demonstrated,and all the engineering issues have to be overcome.In this article,the research outline,key technologies and the preliminary HEDP experiments are reviewed.Prospects on HEDP research on PTS and pulsed power development for the next step are also discussed.

Use of Plastic Correction Formula to Improve Accuracy of Welding Residual Stress Test with Blind-Hole Method

The blind-hole method is the most widely used approach to experimentally determine the distribution of residual stress. This paper aims to improve test accuracy of welding residual stress and conducts an experimental study on the strain release factors involved when using the blind-hole method for Q235 and Q345, two steels commonly used in building structures. The ranges of strain release factors A and B in the elastic stage, the effects of strain release factors on residual stress calculated values, and the plastic corrected strain release factors are analyzed considering of the effect of plastic deformation around the blind hole on measurement accuracy. Finally, a simplified calculation formula to determine strain release factors is proposed for use with the blind-hole method. Results show that in the elastic stage, strain release factor A for Q235 and Q345 ranges from-0.399 to-0.525 and strain release factor B from-0.791 to-0.960. Changing the strain release factors A and B shows that calculated residual tensile stress varies in relation to a decrease in both factor values. However, there is a increase in calculated residual compressive stress with a decrease in the strain release factor A value, but there is an decrease with a decrease in strain release factor B value. Calculated residual stress applied to elastic strain release factors is compared with that applied to amended plastic strain release factors for Q235 steel. The maximum deviation between calculated residual stress and test stress is reduced from 21.1 to 1.0%,and for Q345 steel from 26.5 to 1.2%. It is thus evident that the plastic correction formula proposed in this paper can be used in calculations when conducting a residual stress test.

Fall cone tests considering water content, cone penetration index, and plasticity angle of fine-grained soils

This paper analyzed the consistency of some parameters of soils in the literature and experimental results from fall cone test and its application to soil plasticity classification.Over 500 data from both literatures and experiments using fall cone and Casagrande methods were compiled to assess the relationships among specified water content,cone penetration index ebT,and plasticity angle eaT of finegrained soils.The results indicate that no unique correlation exists among b,liquid limit of the fall cone test(LLc)and a.The water content at 1 mm cone penetration eC0T correlates well with b,plasticity ratio eRpT(i.e.the ratio of plastic limit to liquid limit),and a.Finally,the potential of using the btan a diagram to classify soil plasticity was also discussed.

Effect of Nb on plasticity and oxidation behavior of TiAlNb intermetallic compound by density functional theory

Based on the pseudo potential plane-wave method of density functional theory(DFT),Ti1-xNbxAl(x=0,0.062 5,0.083 3,0.125,0.250) crystals' geometry structure,elastic constants,electronic structure and Mulliken populations were calculated,and the effects of doping on the geometric structure,electronic structure and bond strength were systematically analyzed.The results show that the influence of Nb on the geometric structure is little in terms of the plasticity,and with the increase of Nb content,the covalent bond strength remarkably reduces,and Ti-Al,Nb-M(M=Ti,Al) and other hybrid bonds enhance;meanwhile,the peak district increases and the pseudo-energy gap first decreases and then increases,the overall band structure narrows,the covalent bond and direction of bonds reduce.The population analysis also shows that the results are consistent with the electronic structure analysis.The density of states of TiAlNb shows that Nb doping can enhance the activity of Al and benefit the form of Al2O3 film.All the calculations reveal that the room temperature plasticity and the antioxidation properties of the compounds can be improved with the Nb content of 8.33%-12.5%(mole fraction).

Stress-strain behavior of plastic concrete using monotonic triaxial compression tests

The mechanical behavior of plastic concrete used in the cut-off walls of earth dams has been studied.Triaxial compression tests on the specimens in various ages and mix designs under different confining pressures have been done and the stress-strain behavior of such materials and their strength parameter changes have been experimentally investigated.It has been observed that increasing the confining pressures applied on the specimens causes the material behavior to be alike the more ductile materials and the compressive strength increases considerably as well.Moreover,a parametric study has been carried out to investigate the influence of essential parameters on the shear strength parameters of these materials.According to the research,increasing the coarse to fine aggregates ratio leads to the increase of compressive strength of the specimens as well as the increase of the cohesion and internal friction angle of the materials.Furthermore,the bentonite content decrease and the cement factor increase result in an increase of the cohesion parameter of plastic concretes and decrease of the internal friction angle of such materials.

Toxicity Tests of Soil Contaminated by Recycling of Scrap Plastics

The present investigation studied the toxicity of soil contaminated by untreated discharge from a factory that recycles used plastics. The nearby agricultural areas and freshwater fish ponds were polluted with high concentrations of Cu, Ni, and Mn. Water extracts from the contaminated soil retarded root growth of Brassica chinensis (Chinese white cabbage) and Cynodon dactylon (Bermuda grass) where their seeds were obtained commercially. The contaminated populations of C. dactylon, Panicum repen (panic grass), and Imperata cylindrica (wooly grass) were able to withstand higher concentrations of Cu. Ni, and Mn, especially C. dactylon, when compared with their uncontaminated counterparts. 1990 Academic Press, Inc.

Elastic-plastic properties of thin film on elastic-plastic substrates characterized by nanoindentation test

To characterize the elastic-plastic properties of thin film materials on elastic-plastic substrates,a simple theory model was proposed,which included three steps:dimensionless analysis,finite element modeling and data fitting.The dimensionless analysis was applied to deriving two preliminary nondimensional relationships of the material properties,and finite element modeling and data fitting were carried out to establish their explicit forms.Numerical indentation tests were carried out to examine the effectiveness of the proposed model and the good agreement shows that the proposed theory model can be applied in practice.

ANALYSIS OF SIZE EFFECT,SHEAR DEFORMATION AND DILATION IN DIRECT SHEAR TEST BASED ON GRADIENT- DEPENDENT PLASTICITY

The paper concerns the issue of size law,localized deformation and dilation or compaction due to shear localization. It is assumed that the shear localization initiates at the peak shear stress in the form of single shear band,and based on gradient-dependent plasticity,an analytical solution on size effect or snap-back is obtained. The results show that the post peak response becomes steeper and even exhibits snap-back with increasing of length. For small specimen,the relative shear displacement when specimen failure occurs is lower than that of larger specimen and the shear stress-relative displacement curve becomes steeper. The theoretical solution on non-uniformity of strains in shear band is obtained and evolution of the relative shear displacement is represented. By resorting to the linear relation between local plastic shear strain and local plastic volumetric strain,the dilation and compaction within shear band are analyzed. Relation between apparent shear strain and apparent normal strain and relation between shear displacement and vertical displacement are established.

The Changes of Heart Rate Power Spectral Density during Head-up Tilt Test

To study the role of autonomic nervous system in the period of developing syncope induced by head-up tilt test(HUT), we analysed the changes of heart rate power spectral density(HRPSD) in 50 patients with unexplained syncope, including 15 positive patients (Group 1) and 35 negative patients(Group 2), and 15 negative healthy persons(Group 3) in 5 minute periods before and after tilting and 5 minutes before the end of test. HRPSD and their changes in total(T), very low-frequence(VLF), low-frequence(LF), high-frequence(HF) and the ratio of low/high frequence(LF/HF) were similar (P>0.05) 5 minutes before and after tilting among three groups. Five minutes before the end of test, Group 1 had obvious increase of T, VLF, LF and LF/HF while Group 2 and 3 had not such significant changes. There was significant difference(P<0.01) compared Group 1 with Group 2, 3. The results showed that the abnormal regulatory function of autonomic nervous system played an important role in the mechanism of symcope induced by HUT, the positive group had abnormal increase of sympathetic tone and imbalance of sympathetic/parasympathetic neural tone before syncope appeared.

Effect of Flaky Plastic Particle Size and Volume Used as Partial Replacement of Gravel on Compressive Strength and Density of Concrete Mix

Common ways of disposing waste plastic such as incineration and landfilling have negative impacts on the environment. Partial replacement of natural aggregate in concrete with waste plastic including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is more environmental friendly and sustainable. The effect of adding 5% to 20% waste plastic by volume of natural coarse aggregate (“gravel”) and plastic particle size (3 to 7 mm) on the density and compressive strength of plastic-concrete mix after 28 days of curing was studied. The results showed that density of the concrete decreased from 2406.7 to 2286.7 kg/m3 as waste plastic increased from 5% to 20% v/v compared with 2443.3 kg/m3 recorded by concrete without waste plastic. Change in particle size from 3 to 7 mm has no significant effect on the density of the plastic-concrete mix. The compressive strength decreased as the volume and particle size of waste plastic increased. When waste plastic volume changed from 5% to 20% v/v, the compressive strength decreased from 20.5 to 15 MPa, 18.6 to 14.3 MPa and 17.2 to 13.8 MPa for 3, 5 and 7 mm waste plastic particle size respectively while the concrete without plastic has 21.33 MPa. Therefore, the addition of 5% (v/v gravel) of flaky waste plastic in the concrete produces a lightweight concrete which could offer economic benefit without substantially reducing the compressive strength of the plastic-concrete mix.

GPR Tomographic Imaging of Concrete Tubes and Steel/Plastic Tanks Buried in IAG/USP Geophysical Test Site, Brazil

In this paper, the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method was used to characterize concrete tubes and steel/plastic tanks buried in IAG/USP test site. The microwave tomography was used to improve the GPR images, aiming to retrieve the geometry of the targets. The numerical modeling studies also were done in order to predict the GPR results of the buried targets and to give more reliability to the results interpretation. The targets were installed in the first shallow geophysical test site of the Brazil located at Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics, and Atmospheric Science (IAG) of the University of S?o Paulo (USP). GPR profiles of 200 MHz (shielded bistatic antennas) were acquired along three lines containing concrete tubes and steel/plastic tanks buried in subsoil. The concrete tubes show a hyperbolic reflector for the top, and the vertical tube also presented a reflection on its bottom. The horizontal steel tanks were characterized by a strong GPR reflection on their top. The empty plastic tank shows a strong reflector for the top with normal polarity. On the other hand, the plastic tank filled with water shows a weaker reflector for its top characterized by the inverted polarity of GPR signal when compared with empty plastic tank. The plastic tank filled with water also went characterized by the strong reflection to its bottom, being a good indicative to interpret GPR data on target in subsoil with some types of fluid inside of tank. The results of polarity difference for the top of tank can be used as guide pattern to identify buried tank empty or filled with water. The application of microwave tomography to the GPR data permitted to determine the position and get a good identification of the edges of the targets studied. The numeric modeling presented a good accordance with real data reducing the ambiguities in interpretation of results. These results can be used as a reference, and they can be extrapolated for areas where there is no subsurface information.

A new two-part test based on density ratio model for zero-inflated continuous distributions

In this paper,we consider testing the hypothesis concerning the means of two independent semicontinuous distributions whose observations are zero-inflated,characterized by a sizable number of zeros and positive observations from a continuous distribution.The continuous parts of the two semicontinuous distributions are assumed to follow a density ratio model.A new two-part test is developed for this kind of data.The proposed test takes the sum of one test for equality of proportions of zero values and one conditional test for the continuous distribution.The test is proved to follow a 2 distribution with two degrees of freedom.Simulation studies show that the proposed test controls the type I error rates at the desired level,and is competitive to,and most of the time more powerful than two popular tests.A real data example from a dietary intervention study is used to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed test.

Finite Element Implementation of the Exponential Drucker-Prager Plasticity Model for Adhesive Joints

This paper deals with the numerical implementation of the exponential Drucker-Parger plasticitymodel in the commercial finite element software,ABAQUS,via user subroutine UMAT for adhesive joint simulations.The influence of hydrostatic pressure on adhesive strength was investigated by a modified Arcan fixture designed particularly to induce a different state of hydrostatic pressure within an adhesive layer.The developed user subroutine UMAT,which utilizes an associated plastic flow during a plastic deformation,can provide a good agreement between the simulations and the experimental data.Better numerical stability at highly positive hydrostatic pressure loads for a very high order of exponential function can also be achieved compared to when a non-associated flow is used.

Determination of the Plasticity Index of Soils with Fine-Grained Soils Using Methylene Blue Test

The amount of fine material available in the soil is significant in Atterberg limits and methylene blue tests. In the context of Atterberg limits, increased amount of clay minerals contained in the soil increases liquid and plastic limit values;however, increasing sand content reduces the moisture content reducing the water retention capacity of the soil which in return reduces the plasticity index (PI) value. In the case of methylene blue test, which is used to specify the quality of the amount of fine material, existence of clay in the medium increases the pollution level of the sand and the amount of methylene solution (V1) used. In this study, soil classes were determined and pollution rates were identified with Atterberg limits, pycnometer, sieve analysis, hydrometer analysis and methylene blue tests conducted on 11 different natural soil samples collected from different regions. From the data obtained, first the relationship between PI and methylene blue (MB) was examined and was evaluated according to the results of the “single regression” method. Furthermore, the other coefficient of uniformity (Cu), coefficient of graduation (Cc), unit weight of soils (γs) parameters obtained from experimental studies were also subjected to “multiple regression analysis” in order to reveal their impact on the MB and this impact was confirmed taking both statistical analyses into account.

Shaking table test and cumulative deformation evaluation analysis of a tunnel across the hauling sliding surface

To explore the cumulative deformation effect of the dynamic response of a tunnel crossing the hauling sliding surface under earthquakes,the shaking table test was conducted in this study.Combined with the numerical calculations,this study proposed magnification of the Arias intensity(MIa)to characterize the overall local deformation damage of the tunnel lining in terms of the deformation characteristics,frequency domain,and energy.Using the time‐domain analysis method,the plastic effect coefficient(PEC)was proposed to characterize the degree of plastic deformation,and the applicability of the seismic cumulative failure effect(SCFE)was discussed.The results show that the low‐frequency component(f1 and f2≤10 Hz)and the high‐frequency component(f3 and f4>10 Hz)acceleration mainly cause global and local deformation of the tunnel lining.The local deformation caused by the high‐frequency wave has an important effect on the seismic damage of the lining.The physical meaning of PEC is more clearly defined than that of the residual strain,and the SCFE of the tunnel lining can also be defined.The SCFE of the tunnel lining includes the elastic deformation effect stage(<0.15g),the elastic–plastic deformation effect stage(0.15g–0.30g),and the plastic deformation effect stage(0.30g–0.40g).This study can provide valuable theoretical and technical support for the construction of traffic tunnels in high‐intensity earthquake areas.

Physicomechanical Properties of Sustainable Wood Plastic Composites of Tropical Sawdust and Thermoplastic Waste for Possible Utilization in the Wood Industry

This work investigated and quantified the physicomechanical properties of flat-pressed wood plastic composites produced with recycled polyethylene terephthalate, recycled polyethylene and sawdust derived from selected tropical timbers, namely, Nauclea diderrichii, Brachystegia eurycoma, Erythrophleum suaveolens and Prosopis africana, for possible utilization in the wood industry. The compounding of the polymer blends of the precursor plastics, namely recycled PET (rPET) and recycled PE (rPE) with the sawdust (SD) from the selected timbers to produce the desired wood rPET/rPE composites was carried out via the flat press method. The characterization of the physicomechanical properties of the wood plastic composites (WPCs) produced, such as the density, hardness, flexural strength, ultimate tensile strength, elongation %, thickness swelling and water absorption capacity was carried out using methods based mainly on the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) standards. The results of the investigation on the resultant composites indicated that changes in the SD content affected the density of flat-pressed WPCs in line with literature. Generally, it was observed that as wood dust increased and PET content decreased, the density of composites decreased with some deviations as expected probably due to the anisotropic nature of the wood fillers. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that there was a statistically significant variation in the wood composites of Nuclea diderichii based on the physicomechanical values as the p-value (0.020) obtained was less than the critical level of α = 0.05. It was also observed that the composite, Wood 1 Sample 5 (W1S5) which was composed of 40% rPE, 40% rPET and 20% SD (derived from Nuclea diderichii), had the highest percentage elongation (26.84%);the highest flexural strength (14.995 N/mm2) and possibly the least carbon footprint in the environment. These properties of W1S5 suggest that it could therefore be the best option for the production of building materials like ceiling boards or floor skirting in the wood plastic composite industry. The results of these investigations have therefore indicated that the fabrication of WPCs from sawdust and rPET/rPE was technically feasible and had prospects for large scale production in the wood industry.

一种虚拟试验架构下的舱段结构建模与承载破坏模拟技术

在一种面向产品的飞行器结构强度虚拟试验架构下,发展经典材料弹塑性损伤本构和通用有限元技术,并基于Abaqus内置Python软件开发虚拟试验插件工具,创建飞行器舱段结构人机交互虚拟试验平台,形成了对舱段结构承载破坏过程进行高逼真度模拟的虚拟试验能力。采取逐级验模的精度确认技术,开展从试棒到舱段壳体的虚/实试验对比,验证舱段结构虚拟试验的可行性,结果显示:虚拟试验能对舱段结构的承载破坏情况做高逼真度的模拟,对极限承载能力的预示精度达到4.6%。

基于匝道合流数据的自动驾驶汽车安全性测试评价方法

针对自动驾驶汽车测试场景不明确、评价模型主观性强等问题,研究了高速匝道汇入场景下的典型测试场景提取方法和自动驾驶汽车匝道汇入安全性客观评价方法。深入分析了匝道汇入功能场景下的逻辑场景要素,对自然驾驶数据中的自车速度、车间距离、前车车速等逻辑场景要素进行聚类,得到两类典型的匝道汇入测试场景用于自动驾驶汽车的仿真测试。构建多层次自动驾驶汽车评价体系,引入基于自然驾驶数据的核密度估计模型来获取指标最优阈值,建立以最优阈值为参考序列、以层次分析法(AHP)和客观赋权法(CRITIC)为权重输入的灰色关联理评价模型,对自动驾驶汽车在汇入过程中的安全性进行客观评价。评价结果表明:基于核密度估计的灰色关联理论模型评价结果与主观模糊综合分析模型的评价结果相似率达98.01%,验证了客观模型的有效性。