Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has been researched and developed for more than 20 years. Rather than removing materials, AM processes make three-dimensional parts directly from CAD models by adding materials layer by layer, offering the beneficial ability to build parts with geometric and material complexities that could not be produced by subtractive manufacturing processes. Through intensive research over the past two decades, significant progress has been made in the development and commercialization of new and innovative AM processes, as well as numerous practical applications in aerospace, automotive, biomedical, energy and other fields. This paper reviews the main processes, materials and applications of the current AM technology and presents future research needs for this technology.

In recently, finite elements method (FEM) has been used most popular for analysis of stress, vibration, heat flow and many other phenomena. Taking a rig shafting as an example, this paper studies the lateral vibration of the rig shafting with multi-degree-of-freedom by using FEM. The FEM model is created and the eigenvalues and eigenvectors are calculated and analyzed to find natural frequencies, critical speeds, mode shapes and unbalance responses. Then critical and mode shapes are determined. Finally, responses of unbalance force are analyzed in case of undamped and damped system, and peaks of response are compared.

The pose accuracy of a parallel robot is a function of the mobile platform posture. Thus, there is no a single value of the robot’s accuracy. In this paper, two novel methods for estimating the accuracy of parallel robots are presented. In the first method, the pose accuracy estimation is calculated by considering the propagation of each error, i.e., error variations are considered as a function of the actuator’s stroke. In the second method, it is considered that each actuator has a constant error at any stroke. Both methods can predict pose accuracy of precise robots at design stages, and/or can reduce calibration time of existing robots. An example of a six degree-of-freedom parallel manipulator is included to show the application of the proposed methods.

This paper describes an application study of Magneto-Rheological (MR) grease damper to a structure with three stories. MR fluid is known as one of successful smart materials whose rheological properties can be varied by magnetic field strength, and has been applied to various kinds of device such as dampers, clutches, engine mounts, etc. However, ferromagnetic particles dispersed in MR fluid settle out of the suspension after a certain interval due to the density difference between the particles and their career fluid. To overcome this defect, we have developed a new type of controllable working fluid using grease as the career of magnetic particles. Network of thickener in grease is expected to hold the magnetic particles and prevent them from settled down. No or little sedimentation was observed in MR grease whose characteristics could be controlled by the magnetic field strength. MR grease was introduced into a cylindrical damper and its performance was studied. As a result, it was confirmed that the damping force of MR grease damper could be controlled by the applied electric current to the coil in the cylinder of damper. Furthermore, vibration response of a three-story model structure equipped with MR grease damper was investigated experimentally, and it was shown that MR grease damper worked effectively as a semi-active damper.

In this paper, the morphing trailing edge is designed to achieve the up and down deflection under the aerodynamic load. After a detailed and accurate computational analysis to determine the SMA specifications and layout programs, a solid model is created in CATIA and the structures of the morphing wing trailing edge are produced by CNC machining. A set of DSP measurement and control system is designed to accomplish the controlling experiment of the morphing wing trailing edge. At last, via the force analysis, the trailing edge is fabricated with four sections of aluminum alloy, and the arrangement scheme of SMA wires is determined. Experiment of precise control integral has been performed to survey the control effect. The experiment consists of deflection angle tests of the third joint and the integral structure. Primarily, the ultimate deflection angle is tested in these two experiments. Therefore, the controlling experiment of different angles could be performed within this range. The results show that the deflection error is less than 4% and response time is less than 6.7 s, the precise controlling of the morphing trailing edge is preliminary realized.

Multi-cellular inflatable structures are ultra-light and robust against membrane damage such as pinholes caused by space debris. Due to their robustness, inflatable structures supported by inner gases can be applied as space structures. In the present study, shape control for a simple multi-cellular inflatable panel was achieved via a novel diaphragm mechanism. When the bending actuator in a center membrane bends, the inner pressures of sub-cells become different, and the diaphragm mechanism bends as a whole. Because a sliding component is not included, this deformable system is a reliable mechanism. In addition, the proposed mechanism has higher rigidity than that of a bending actuator used alone. In the present paper, we investigate the feasibility of a novel diaphragm mechanism and its characteristics using experimental and numerical results.

In this paper, the local fracture properties in a Alloy52M dissimilar metal welded joint (DMWJ) between A508 ferritic steel and 316 L stainless steel in nuclear power plants were investigated by using the single-edge notched bend (SENB) specimens, and their use in integrity assessment of DMWJ structures was analyzed. The results show that the local fracture resistance in the DMWJ is determined by local fracture mechanism, and which is mainly related to the microstructures and local strength mismatches of materials at the crack locations. The initial cracks always grow towards the materials with lower strength, and the crack path deviation is mainly controlled by the local strength mismatch. If the local fracture properties could not be used for cracks in the heat affected zones (HAZs), interface and near interface zones, the use of the fracture properties (J-resistance curves) of base metals or weld metals following present codes will unavoidably produce non-conservative (unsafe) or excessive conservative assessment results. In most cases, the assessment results will be potentially unsafe. Therefore, it is recommended to obtain and use local mechanical and fracture properties in the integrity assessment of DMWJs.

This work presents the existence of buckling mode switching with respect to the radius of concentric rigid ring support. The buckling mode may not be axisymmetric as previously assumed. In general, the plate may buckle in an axisymmetric mode but when the radius of the ring support becomes small, the plate may buckle in an asymmetric mode. The optimum radius of the concentric rigid ring support for maximum buckling load is also determined. Introducing internal rigid ring support, when placed at an optimal position increases the elastic buckling load capacity by 149.39 percent. The numerical results obtained are in good agreement with the previously published data.

The mechanical properties and fracture behavior of 304L austenitic stainless steel after cathodic hydrogen charging and hydrogen spontaneously releasing are investigated by tensile tests. Flat tensile specimens were cathodic hydrogen charged at various current densities. For each density, two specimens were charged at the same condition. When the charging process completed, one specimen was tensile immediately to fracture and the other was aged to release the hydrogen out of it and then was also tensile to fracture. The resulting tensile properties and micrographs of fracture surfaces of these specimens were evaluated and compared. The results show ductility loss occurred in the hydrogen-charged specimens and the loss increased as the current density increasing. After hydrogen releasing, the specimens recovered a certain extent but not all of its original ductility. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs of fracture surfaces reveal that irreversible damage had developed in the hydrogen-releasing specimens during the releasing process rather than the charging process. This consequence can be ascribed to the high tensile stress caused by non-uniform hydrogen distribution during hydrogen releasing.

A huge amount of information and identification accuracy in large civil engineering structural damage identification has not been addressed yet. To efficiently solve this problem, a new damage identification method based on rough set and integrated neural network is first proposed. In brief, rough set was used to reduce attributes so as to decrease spatial dimensions of data and extract effective features. And then the reduced attributes will be put into the sub-neural network. The sub-neural network can give the preliminary diagnosis from different aspects of damage. The decision fusion network will give the final damage identification results. The identification examples show that this method can simplify the redundant information to reduce the neural network model, making full use of the range of information to effectively improve the accuracy of structural damage identification.

Impedance pump is defined as a type of valveless pumping mechanism, where an elastic tube is joined with a tube of different impedance, a periodic asymmetrical compression on part of the elastic tube will produce a unidirectional flow. Numerical and experimental studies had been conducted in the past, but little experimental work was found to exploit the principle of multi-stage impedance pumping for fluid transportation. This paper concentrates on the fluid behavior for an open-loop two-stage system experimentally. The aim of this work is to have an insight on the deliverable head and pumping rate of an open-loop two-stage impedance pumping system. This paper generally investigates the effect of different parameters towards the generation of unidirectional flows and composite flow of two opposite directions. Results obtained are of significant values.

The effective study of hybrid machining processes (HMPs), in terms of modeling and optimization has always been a challenge to the researchers. The combined approach of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) has attracted attention of researchers for modeling and optimization of the complex machining processes. In this paper, a hybrid machining process of Electrical Discharge Face Grinding (EDFG) and Diamond Face Grinding (DFG) named as Electrical Discharge Diamond face Grinding (EDDFG) have been studied using a hybrid methodology of ANN-NSGA-II. In this study, ANN has been used for modeling while NSGA-II is used to optimize the control parameters of the EDDFG process. For observations of input-output relations, the experiments were conducted on a self developed face grinding setup, which is attached with the ram of EDM machine. During experimentation, the wheel speed, pulse current, pulse on-time and duty factor are taken as input parameters while output parameters are material removal rate (MRR) and average surface roughness (R_a). The results have shown that the developed ANN model is capable to predict the output responses within the acceptable limit for a given set of input parameters. It has also been found that hybrid approach of ANN-NSGA-II gives a set of optimal solutions for getting appropriate value of outputs with multiple objectives.