In the present study, samples of aluminium alloy 6060 were coated by cold spraying with a powder of brazing alloy Al12Si. The influence of the process gas temperature on particle velocities and coating build-up was investigated. The coated samples were heat-treated in air and under argon atmosphere to investigate the wetting behaviour of the deposited Al12Si and the diffusion processes between Al12Si coatings and substrates. Coated samples were brazed flux-free under argon atmosphere by an induction heating system. The microstructure of the coated, heat-treated, and brazed samples was investigated. The shear strength of the brazed joints was determined. The results show that the brazing alloy Al12Si could be very well deposited on the substrate by cold spraying. The particle velocity increased with increasing process temperature. Correspondingly, the thickness of Al12Si coatings increased with increasing process temperature. The heat treatments showed that a very good metallurgical bond between the Al12Si coatings and the substrate could be realized by the deposition using cold spraying. The coated samples could be well brazed without fluxes. The coating thickness and overlap width influenced the shear strength of the brazed joints. The highest shear strength of brazed joints amounts to 80 MPa.

Microgears are increasingly important in industry. Compared to normal gears, the quality assurance of microgears needs more accurately measured data and simple but feasible measurement methods because of their dimension particula

This paper addresses the problem of a numerical evaluation of the stiffness performance for multibody robotic systems. An overview is presented with basic formulation concerning indices that are proposed in literature. New indices are also outlined. Stiffness indices are computed and compared for a case study. Results are used for comparing the effectiveness of the stiffness indices. The main goal is to propose a performance index describing synthetically the elastostatic response of a multibody robotic system and also for design purposes.

This work synthesizes the structures of the foot-operated silk-reeling mechanism, which was vaguely depicted in many literatures in ancient China. Based on the analysis of the mechanism, the structural characteristics and design constraints of the mechanism with indeterminate links and joints are concluded. Then, according to the concepts of generalization and specialization subject to the concluded design constraints, all feasible structures of the mechanism that met the technological standards of the subject’s time period are reconstructed. This reconstruction process provides a logical foundation to better understanding, clarification, and suggestions for the issue of ancient mechanical drawings with indeterminate links and joints.

According to the established rules for testing ceramic’s bending strength, the falling velocity of the pressure head of the machine should be more than 0.5 mm/min. For the machine of testing the ceramic’s bending strength properties, most designs adopt the lowest falling velocity as 0.5 mm/min. In the fields such as aerospace and deep-ocean exploration, the utilization of ceramic materials that work at normal temperature, low temperature, or even high temperature and bend at an ultra-low velocity is increasing; thus, the intense requirements for the machine of testing the ceramic’s bending strength properties at high temperature and ultra-low speed (MTCBSP) and its experimental basis are put forward. This research developed an MTCBSP suitable for normal temperature and high temperature with the lowest falling velocity of 0.05 mm/min, and manufactured a drive reducer for ultra-low speed and high-temperature working condition. In the test, equipment includes a high-temperature furnace, bending die for four-point bending, and protection system of inert gas, which was placed in the high-temperature furnace to prevent the ceramic sample from being oxidized to diminish its effects. The results show that the lowest falling velocity of the pressure head of this new machine is 0.05 mm/min, and the mechanical properties of silica glasses are noticeably different at the same high temperature and the different falling velocities of 0.5 mm/min and 0.05 mm/min.

The traditional pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM) has one degree of freedom (DOF) and performs a good simulation to the tip locus of flexible links for compliant mechanisms on the basis of a parametric approximation method. In this study, a new approach of a two-DOF PRBM is proposed to simulate both the tip locus and tip deflection angle of large-deflection links for compliant mechanisms on the basis of the angular deflection approximation technique. A linear regression for the spring stiffness coefficient of the 2R PRBM using the optimization technique is presented. The advantage of the new model is well illustrated through a numerical comparison between the 1R and the 2R PRBM.

This paper presents a calculation method for radial stress distribution and deformation on conic threaded connections with interference fit. Based on elastic mechanics, a new calculation model is established using the thick-walled-cylindrical theory. A sample calculation for API 88.9 mm conic threaded connection indicates that the method proposed in this paper is reasonable, and the finite element analysis (FEA) method is used to validate the proposed method. The results obtained by the proposed method and FEA method are identical. The model offers a new way of calculating the radial stress and deformation on conic thread connections with interference fit.

This paper investigates the impact spreading of a droplet on a solid substrate using numerical simulation on the basis of a volume-of-fluid (VOF) model. The process of droplet spreading is described, the analysis of low speed and high speed droplet spreading, and more than one droplet spreading simultaneously is performed. The pressure, velocity, and spreading factor during the droplet spreading are reported. According to the spreading factor’s evolvement, the process of droplet spreading can be classified into spreading phase and recoiling phase. The spreading factors are almost the same at the low speed droplet spreading; however, the pressures on the substrate are quite different and air entrainment may be found as the impact speeds in a certain range. The impact speed impacts on the spreading factors in high speed droplet spreading. The spreading factor obviously increases with increasing impact speed; however, splashing will appear in the status when the speed is high enough in the high speed droplet spreading. The distance between the neighbor droplets affects the film’s quality, and only the distance between the static diameter and the maximum diameter can ensure the film’s quality. The results could help in understanding the process of droplet spreading and provide advice on the operation of a spray coating process.

According to the deficiencies of remote calibration mode based on material object reference, a new model of a remote calibration system for frequency based on in-place benchmark is introduced, which is made of a calibration subsystem on the spot and a remote management subsystem. The key technology of some key problems for the remote calibration system is particularly discussed, including the time and frequency benchmark receiving module based on global positioning system (GPS), frequency comparison based on a phase method, frequency division based on dual high-frequency phase locked loop (PLL), and remote calibration based on the web. The results show that the system possesses some characteristics, such as high precision, good versatility, and no limitation of time and place.

Wheel speed is one of the key parameters of vehicle operating attitude. To solve the problems in traditional wheel speed measuring methods, such as low measurement precision and the lack of real-time monitoring of the vehicle’s operating attitude, a wheel embedded intelligent sensors (WEIS) wheel speed measuring method for vehicle operating safety states monitoring (VOSM) is innovatively proposed. Radial acceleration signal is obtained through a WEIS module embedded in the hub. Using wavelet packet to implement wavelet de-noising for the non-stationary acceleration signals, and adopting short-time Fourier transform (STFT) algorithm to extract the signal characteristics, the wheel speed measurement can be achieved. The experimental result shows that under experimental conditions the speed measurement error is −2.05%, and the speed measuring response time is 0.45 s.

Patient-specific models are widely used in hemodynamic simulations. The flow in the boundary layer changes so strongly that fine meshes in the boundary layer are required in numerical simulations, especially for the calculation of wall shear stress and its gradient. To precisely analyze hemodynamics, it is necessary to investigate the approaches to the reconstruction of a numerical simulation-oriented patient-specific model for aortic arch aneurysm that can perform particular meshing in the boundary layer. Based on a surface model of aortic arch aneurysm in STL format, reverse engineering concept was applied to reconstruct a solid model using CAD software Geomagic and Pro/E, and a simplified model of stent for the intervention of aortic arch aneurysm was also created. After these models were imported to ANSYS, a block modeling approach was employed to divide the whole model into several domain blocks to adopt different meshing strategies. Particular meshing was performed especially in the boundary layer and around the stents. The finite element model particularly suitable for numerical simulation of hemodynamics was obtained. Hemodynamic simulation was performed, using the constructed finite element model to verify its applicability. The results indicate that reverse engineering concept and the proposed block modeling approach can be used to divide the solid model of aortic arch aneurysm into multiple volumes, which can be meshed according to particular requirements in each volume; the finite element model of stented aortic arch aneurysm can be employed to simulate hemodynamics. The approaches of modeling were applicable not only for aortic arch aneurysm, but also for similar model reconstruction as a reference in hemodynamic simulation investigations.

A mathematical model for a bladder-urethra system can provide basic analysis for the disabled urethra closure of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) patients in a clinic. Based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), we developed a three-dimensional urodynamic bladder-urethra system, which includes bladder, bladder neck, prostate, and urethra. The realistic recirculation process of the urinary bladder during the physiologic voiding process in conjunction with a flow simulation through the female urinary bladder and urethra is presented. The computational results show that a dead-water zone and the zone of secondary flow occur, independent of the shape of the prostatic urethra. For the pathological prostata, the extreme constriction of the prostatic urethra results in an additional wide-stretched dead-water zone. The simulation results does not only improve urinary incontinence surgery for clinicians, but can also provide a basis for theoretical analysis.

This paper presents experimental and modeling study of creep and recovery behaviors of magneto-rheological elastomers (MREs) under constant stresses. Experimental study was accomplished using a rheometer with parallel-plate geometry. Under constant stresses ranging from a small value to a large one, the resultant strains were recorded. The experimental results demonstrated that MREs behave as linear visocleastic properties. The effects of the magnetic field and stress on MRE creep behaviors were discussed. Moreover, a four-parameter viscoelastic model was developed to describe MRE creep behaviors. The comparison between the experimental results and the modeling predictions indicates that the model can predict MRE creep behaviors very well.

A unit cell approach is employed to predict the effective moisture diffusion property in fiber-reinforced biopolymer. The permeable fibers distributed in the matrix are taken as inclusion phases in the system. Based on a unit cell model, the calculation method for moisture diffusion coefficients is developed in this paper. Moisture diffusion property and effective diffusion coefficients are numerically investigated under different temperature and volume fractions of fibers. The calculated results agree well with Gueribiz’s solutions. Therefore, it is reliable in predicting moisture diffusion property of composite using the unit cell model. The present result shows that the effective diffusion coefficient of a composite depends on both temperature and volume fraction of fibers. The effective diffusion coefficient of regular hexagon pattern composite is larger than that of square pattern at the same temperature and volume fraction.

According to the characteristics of the movement of a special-purpose three-axis servo platform, this paper presents an improved grey prediction proportional integral derivative (PID) control algorithm. Different weights at different time are given to different sampling moments in the algorithm, and the time meanings of the sample data are paid more attention. Simulation results show that the performance of response and stability of the platform of the improved algorithm is better than that of the traditional one. The control algorithm meets all requirements of the control system of the special-purpose three-axis servo platform.