Shape-Morphing Space Frame (SMSF) Using Linear Bistable Elements

Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqasimi ◽  
Craig Lusk

This paper presents a new concept: a Shape-Morphing Space Frame (SMSF), which is a novel application utilizing the Linear Bistable Compliant Crank-Slider Mechanism (LBCCSM). The frame’s initial shape is constructed from a single-layer grid of flexures, rigid links and LBCCSMs. The grid is bent into the space frame’s initial cylindrical shape, which can morph because of the inclusion of LBCCSMs in its structure. The design parameters consist of the frame’s initial height, its tessellation pattern (including bistable elements’ placement), its initial diameter, and the final desired shape. The method used in placing the bistable elements is a novel contribution to this work as it considers the principle stress trajectories. This paper will present two different examples of Shape-Morphing Space Frames, each starting from a cylindrical-shell space frame and morphing, one to a hyperbolic-shell space frame and the other to a spherical-shell space frame, both morphing by applying moments, which shear the cylindrical shell, and forces, which change the cylinder’s radius using Poisson’s effect.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqasimi ◽  
Craig Lusk ◽  
Jairo Chimento

This paper presents a new model for a linear bistable compliant mechanism and design guidelines for its use. The mechanism is based on the crank–slider mechanism. This model takes into account the first mode of buckling and postbuckling behavior of a compliant segment to describe the mechanism's bistable behavior. The kinetic and kinematic equations, derived from the pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM), were solved numerically and are represented in plots. This representation allows the generation of step-by-step design guidelines. The design parameters consist of maximum desired deflection, material selection, safety factor, compliant segments' widths, maximum force required for actuator selection, and maximum footprint (i.e., the maximum rectangular area that the mechanism can fit inside of and move freely without interfering with other components). Because different applications may have different input requirements, this paper describes two different design approaches with different parameters subsets as inputs. The linear bistable compliant crank–slider mechanism (LBCCSM) can be used in the shape-morphing space-frame (SMSF) as potential application. The frame's initial shape is constructed from a single-layer grid of flexures, rigid links, and LBCCSMs. The grid is bent into the space-frame's initial cylindrical shape, which can morph because of the inclusion of LBCCSMs in its structure.


2013 ◽  
Vol 842 ◽  
pp. 505-511
Author(s):  
Kok Keong Choong ◽  
Jae Yeol Kim

The regular arrangement of the plant organs is botanically known as phyllotaxis. Among the types of phyllotaxis found in nature, spiral phyllotaxis is the most frequently found pattern. The unique arrangement of this pattern in plants has benefited most of the plant structure as it enables them to grow more efficiently and compatible for physical constraints such as moisture and amount of light falls. In this research, the unique spiral phyllotaxis pattern has been adopted as idea for member arrangement pattern for structural space frame system. Two type of spiral phyllotaxis pattern and one regular model are generated. Analysis using finite element software LUSAS has been carried out in order to determine the effect of member arrangement following spiral phyllotaxis on stresses and displacement in the space frames.


Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqasimi ◽  
Craig Lusk

This paper presents a new concept: a Shape-Morphing Space Frame (SMSF) using quadrilateral bistable unit-cell elements. The unit-cells are composed of either eight-bar or seven-bar mechanisms in which design constraints, system of elimination and graph theory are used to design, as a proof of concept, a disk like structure with the ability to morph into a sphere. Or specifically, the circumference of a disk structure is approximated by a ten-sided polygon that would then morph into a hollow sphere structure that is approximated by 60-sided polyhedron. The disk-to-sphere structure is tessellated into ten sides for the latitudes circles and 12 sides for the longitude circles; the disk’s thickness and radius are chosen at the design stage. The strategy in morphing the initial shape of the structure (disk) into its final shape (sphere) is that the radial lines on the surface of the disk bend but do not stretch, whereas the circumferential lines compress. Moreover, the radial lines on the disk become longitude lines on the sphere and the circumferential lines become latitude lines on the sphere. The disk’s thickness splits in half, the upper half becomes the thickness of the upper hemisphere and the lower half becomes the thickness of the lower hemisphere. The concept was successfully prototyped and actuation forces were measured.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 414-430
Author(s):  
Chunwei Zhang ◽  
Qiao Jin ◽  
Yansheng Song ◽  
Jingli Wang ◽  
Li Sun ◽  
...  

Abstract The sandwich structures are three- or multilayered structures such that their mechanical properties are better than each single layer. In the current research, a three-layered cylindrical shell including a functionally graded porous core and two reinforced nanocomposite face sheets resting on the Pasternak foundation is used as model to provide a comprehensive understanding of vibrational behavior of such structures. The core is made of limestone, while the epoxy is utilized as the top and bottom layers’ matrix phase and also it is reinforced by the graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). The pattern of the GNPs dispersion and the pores distribution play a crucial role at the continuous change of the layers’ properties. The sinusoidal shear deformation shells theory and the Hamilton’s principle are employed to derive the equations of motion for the mentioned cylindrical sandwich shell. Ultimately, the impacts of the model’s geometry, foundation moduli, mode number, and deviatory radius on the vibrational behavior are investigated and discussed. It is revealed that the natural frequency and rotation angle of the sandwich shell are directly related. Moreover, mid-radius to thickness ratio enhancement results in the natural frequency reduction. The results of this study can be helpful for the future investigations in such a broad context. Furthermore, for the pipe factories current study can be effective at their designing procedure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Md Musabbir Adnan ◽  
Sagarvarma Sayyaparaju ◽  
Samuel D. Brown ◽  
Mst Shamim Ara Shawkat ◽  
Catherine D. Schuman ◽  
...  

Spiking neural networks (SNN) offer a power efficient, biologically plausible learning paradigm by encoding information into spikes. The discovery of the memristor has accelerated the progress of spiking neuromorphic systems, as the intrinsic plasticity of the device makes it an ideal candidate to mimic a biological synapse. Despite providing a nanoscale form factor, non-volatility, and low-power operation, memristors suffer from device-level non-idealities, which impact system-level performance. To address these issues, this article presents a memristive crossbar-based neuromorphic system using unsupervised learning with twin-memristor synapses, fully digital pulse width modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity, and homeostasis neurons. The implemented single-layer SNN was applied to a pattern-recognition task of classifying handwritten-digits. The performance of the system was analyzed by varying design parameters such as number of training epochs, neurons, and capacitors. Furthermore, the impact of memristor device non-idealities, such as device-switching mismatch, aging, failure, and process variations, were investigated and the resilience of the proposed system was demonstrated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-802
Author(s):  
Tri Hieu Le ◽  
Minh Tuan Pham ◽  
H Hadiyanto ◽  
Van Viet Pham ◽  
Anh Tuan Hoang

Passive solar still is the simplest design for distilling seawater by harnessing solar energy. Although it is undeniable that solar still is a promising device to provide an additional freshwater source for global increasing water demand, low thermal efficiency along with daily distillate yield are its major disadvantages. A conventional solar still can produced 2 to 5 L/m2day. Various studies have been carried out to improve passive solar stills in terms of daily productivity, thermal efficiency, and economic effectiveness. Most of the researches that relate to the daily output improvement of passive solar still concentrates on enhancing evaporation or/and condensation processes. While the condensation process is influenced by wind velocity and characteristics of the condensed surface, the evaporation process is mainly affected by the temperature of basin water. Different parameters affect the brackish water temperature such as solar radiation, design parameters (for example water depth, insulators, basin liner absorptivity, reflectors, sun tracking system, etc). The inclined angle of the top cover is suggested to equal the latitude of the experimental place. Moreover, the decrease of water depth was obtained as a good operational parameter, however, the shallow water depth is required additional feed water for ensuring no dry spot existence. Reflectors and sun-tracking systems help solar still absorb as much solar intensity as possible. The internal reflector can enhance daily yield and efficiency of stepped solar still up to 75% and 56% respectively, whereas, passive solar still with the support of a sun-tracking system improved daily yield up to 22%. Despite large efforts to investigate the impact of the different parameters on passive solar distillation, the effect of the basin liner (including appropriate shapes and type of material), needs to be analyzed for improvement in practical utilization. The present work has reviewed the investigation of the solar still performance with various types of basin liner. The review of solar stills has been conducted critically with rectangular basin, fins basin, corrugated basin, wick type, steps shape, and cylindrical shape basin with variety of top cover shapes. The findings from this work conclude that the basin liner with a cylindrical shape had better performance in comparison with other metal types and provides higher freshwater output. Stepped type, inclined, fin absorber, and corrugated shapes had the efficient performance.  Further exploration revealed that copper is the best-used material for the productivity of passive solar still.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Chiu-Fan Hsieh ◽  
You-Qing Zhu

<p class="1Body">This study analyzes the influence of design parameters on the dynamics of straight bevel gears by constructing a model that allows variation in the shaft angle, pressure angle, and backlash. According to the statistical analysis, the order of influence of these parameters on weight is shaft angle &gt; pressure angle &gt; backlash. When the shaft angle is 90°, the statistical results show the drive is stable and the stress fluctuation level is low. The pressure angle, on the other hand, can affect the gear’s dynamic property by influencing the driving component force on the gear and the component force on the shaft. The results for the shaft and pressure angles are used to determine the appropriate backlash. Overall, the analysis not only provides designers with an important reference but explains the dominance in the market of gear designs with a 90° shaft angle and a 20° pressure angle.</p>


2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murat Eyvaz ◽  
Hatice Deniz ◽  
Tuğrul S. Aktaş ◽  
Ebubekir Yüksel ◽  
Ahmet M. Saatçi

Abstract Pre-ozonation–coagulant interactions effects in relation to the coagulant type and dosage in direct filtration of surface waters were investigated. The performance of the process was evaluated by monitoring the effluent quality and head loss development through the filter bed. Two identical pilot scale filter columns filtering the same raw water were operated in parallel. The raw water was brought from Ömerli Reservoir in Istanbul. Before filtering, the raw water flow was split into two equal flows. One of the streams was pre-ozonated and the other was aerated using contact chambers with equal volumes equipped with same number and type of diffusers. In coagulation experiments, one of the filters was operated using aluminum sulfate as a coagulant while the other one was run with ferric chloride. For similar filter run times, the effluent quality was always better with pre-ozonation compared to aeration. It was also observed that, aluminum sulfate application gave more favorable results for both particle and turbidity removal compared to ferric chloride. Ives’ filterability index which incorporates the important filtration design parameters such as: effluent quality, the headloss and the velocity of filtration into a dimensionless number was used for the comparison of the experimental results.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 5734
Author(s):  
Sebastian Bürklein ◽  
Lennart Zupanc ◽  
David Donnermeyer ◽  
Karsten Tegtmeyer ◽  
Edgar Schäfer

Instrument failure during root canal preparation is still a concern among endodontists. However, it remains unclear whether the use of more martensitic alloys or the cross-sectional design parameters (i.e., core mass) significantly improve fracture resistance. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of core mass and alloy on dynamic cyclic fatigue resistance of nickel-titanium endodontic instruments in matching artificial canals at body temperature. Two groups were tested. (A) taper 0.04: F360 (Komet, Lemgo, Germany), Twisted file (Sybron Endo, Glendora, CA, USA) (=TF), JIZAI (Mani, Tochigi, Japan) (=J_04) (all size #25) and the variable tapered TruNatomy (Dentsply, Ballaigues, Switzerland) (size #26) (=TN). (B) size #25; taper 0.06: (Mtwo (VDW, Munich, Germany), JIZAI (Mani) (=J_06), and variable tapered Hyflex EDM OneFile (Coltene Whaledent, Altstätten, Switzerland) (=HF). Time, number of cycles to fracture (NCF), and number and length of fractured fragments were recorded and statistically analysed using ANOVA Student-Newman-Keuls, Kruskal–Wallis or Chi-square test (significance level = 0.05). (A) TN showed the significantly shortest time until fracture, followed by TF, F360 and J_04 which also differed significantly, while NCF showed the following order: F360 < TN < TF < J_04 (p < 0.05). Only one J_04 but all instruments of the other groups fractured within the test-limit of 10 min. (B) Mtwo was significantly inferior concerning time until fracture and NCF, compared to J_06 and HF (p < 0.05), which did not differ significantly (p > 0.05). While all Mtwo instruments fractured, only four instruments failed in the other groups (p < 0.05). Within the limitations of this study, alloy and cross-sectional design (i.e., core mass) were critical factors regarding instrument failure, but none of these factors could be determined as a main parameter for increased or decreased time, and cycles to fracture. Rather, it seemed to be the interaction of multiple factors (e.g., longitudinal and cross-sectional design, alloy, and rotational speed) that was responsible for differences in the time and cycles to fracture. Nonetheless, all instruments had lifetimes that allow safe clinical use. However, the superiority or inferiority of an instrument with regard to cyclic fatigue based on laboratory results—even when identical trajectories are guaranteed—may be considered questionable, as the characteristics and design parameters of the instruments vary considerably, and the experimental setups lack additional clinical parameters and thus clinical relevance.


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