Primary Study on Crop Wet Biomass Measuring with Dielectric Spectroscopy

2012 ◽  
Vol 443-444 ◽  
pp. 277-281
Author(s):  
Hua Zhang ◽  
Bai Yu Wu ◽  
Rui Feng Hou ◽  
Da Zhou Zhu ◽  
Da Yu Pan ◽  
...  

Crop wet biomass measuring with dielectric spectroscopy is a non-destructive method to quickly and accurately estimate plant biomass in situ. It optimizes the management of agronomists. An electrostatic free-space system was designed and tested to estimate crop wet biomass in situ. It acts as a parallel plate capacitor. The appropriate size of plate of the system is determined through Finite element analysis (FEA). Water is used to make the exclusion of interference at the earlier stage of the experiment, and Wheat is the experiment material. Results from the measuring system showed The Susceptance through the system was strongly correlated with wet biomass. The coefficient of determination (r2) is greater than 0.9.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Supakorn Harnsoongnoen ◽  
Nuananong Jaroensuk

AbstractThe water displacement and flotation are two of the most accurate and rapid methods for grading and assessing freshness of agricultural products based on density determination. However, these techniques are still not suitable for use in agricultural inspections of products such as eggs that absorb water which can be considered intrusive or destructive and can affect the result of measurements. Here we present a novel proposal for a method of non-destructive, non-invasive, low cost, simple and real—time monitoring of the grading and freshness assessment of eggs based on density detection using machine vision and a weighing sensor. This is the first proposal that divides egg freshness into intervals through density measurements. The machine vision system was developed for the measurement of external physical characteristics (length and breadth) of eggs for evaluating their volume. The weighing system was developed for the measurement of the weight of the egg. Egg weight and volume were used to calculate density for grading and egg freshness assessment. The proposed system could measure the weight, volume and density with an accuracy of 99.88%, 98.26% and 99.02%, respectively. The results showed that the weight and freshness of eggs stored at room temperature decreased with storage time. The relationship between density and percentage of freshness was linear for the all sizes of eggs, the coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.9982, 0.9999, 0.9996, 0.9996 and 0.9994 for classified egg size classified 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. This study shows that egg freshness can be determined through density without using water to test for water displacement or egg flotation which has future potential as a measuring system important for the poultry industry.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4788
Author(s):  
Elisa Mammoliti ◽  
Antonio Ferretti ◽  
Michele Malavolta ◽  
Riccardo Teloni ◽  
Paolo Ruggeri ◽  
...  

The determination of mechanical parameters of historical mortars is a crucial aspect in the analysis of masonry in ancient buildings, especially for evaluating their quality and planning the appropriate restoration interventions. Due to conservation reasons, creating a comprehensive database is generally not possible because cutting out masonry specimens relates to damaging historical structures. This study starts with the need to characterize the mortar quality of different buildings in the town of Camerino (Central Italy) which has been strongly damaged by the 2016–2017 seismic sequence. A non-destructive collecting data strategy based on the use of the Equotip hardness tester (EQ) has been set up by evaluating the most appropriates impact strategy (single or repeated) and the range of measurements to calculate the basic statistics. The seismic damage suffered by the buildings allowed the rare opportunity to take samples from several walls and carry out laboratory tests to determine their Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS). The comparison between the results of the two types of tests made it possible to calibrate a relationship between the EQ values and the UCS. The Pearson’s coefficient of determination derived from an exponential interpolation (R2 = 0.81) confirmed a strong relationship between the EQ values derived from the tests on the specimens and the UCS. Moreover, comparing the in situ EQ measurements with the ones performed on the specimens prepared for the compressive tests, a general underestimation of the in situ EQ values has been observed, possibly due to the presence of a superficial alteration layer of the exposed mortar. From these results, we propose a correction of the in situ measurements able to obtain a more appropriate strength estimate of the historical mortars.


Arthroplasty ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Toni Wendler ◽  
Torsten Prietzel ◽  
Robert Möbius ◽  
Jean-Pierre Fischer ◽  
Andreas Roth ◽  
...  

Abstract Background All current total hip arthroplasty (THA) systems are modular in design. Only during the operation femoral head and stem get connected by a Morse taper junction. The junction is realized by hammer blows from the surgeon. Decisive for the junction strength is the maximum force acting once in the direction of the neck axis, which is mainly influenced by the applied impulse and surrounding soft tissues. This leads to large differences in assembly forces between the surgeries. This study aimed to quantify the assembly forces of different surgeons under influence of surrounding soft tissue. Methods First, a measuring system, consisting of a prosthesis and a hammer, was developed. Both components are equipped with a piezoelectric force sensor. Initially, in situ experiments on human cadavers were carried out using this system in order to determine the actual assembly forces and to characterize the influence of human soft tissues. Afterwards, an in vitro model in the form of an artificial femur (Sawbones Europe AB, Malmo, Sweden) with implanted measuring stem embedded in gelatine was developed. The gelatine mixture was chosen in such a way that assembly forces applied to the model corresponded to those in situ. A study involving 31 surgeons was carried out on the aforementioned in vitro model, in which the assembly forces were determined. Results A model was developed, with the influence of human soft tissues being taken into account. The assembly forces measured on the in vitro model were, on average, 2037.2 N ± 724.9 N, ranging from 822.5 N to 3835.2 N. The comparison among the surgeons showed no significant differences in sex (P = 0.09), work experience (P = 0.71) and number of THAs performed per year (P = 0.69). Conclusions All measured assembly forces were below 4 kN, which is recommended in the literature. This could lead to increased corrosion following fretting in the head-neck interface. In addition, there was a very wide range of assembly forces among the surgeons, although other influencing factors such as different implant sizes or materials were not taken into account. To ensure optimal assembly force, the impaction should be standardized, e.g., by using an appropriate surgical instrument.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Thelen ◽  
Nicolas Bochud ◽  
Manuel Brinker ◽  
Claire Prada ◽  
Patrick Huber

AbstractNanoporosity in silicon leads to completely new functionalities of this mainstream semiconductor. A difficult to assess mechanics has however significantly limited its application in fields ranging from nanofluidics and biosensorics to drug delivery, energy storage and photonics. Here, we present a study on laser-excited elastic guided waves detected contactless and non-destructively in dry and liquid-infused single-crystalline porous silicon. These experiments reveal that the self-organised formation of 100 billions of parallel nanopores per square centimetre cross section results in a nearly isotropic elasticity perpendicular to the pore axes and an 80% effective stiffness reduction, altogether leading to significant deviations from the cubic anisotropy observed in bulk silicon. Our thorough assessment of the wafer-scale mechanics of nanoporous silicon provides the base for predictive applications in robust on-chip devices and evidences that recent breakthroughs in laser ultrasonics open up entirely new frontiers for in-situ, non-destructive mechanical characterisation of dry and liquid-functionalised porous materials.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 446
Author(s):  
Ioannis Spanos ◽  
Zacharias Vangelatos ◽  
Costas Grigoropoulos ◽  
Maria Farsari

The need for control of the elastic properties of architected materials has been accentuated due to the advances in modelling and characterization. Among the plethora of unconventional mechanical responses, controlled anisotropy and auxeticity have been promulgated as a new avenue in bioengineering applications. This paper aims to delineate the mechanical performance of characteristic auxetic and anisotropic designs fabricated by multiphoton lithography. Through finite element analysis the distinct responses of representative topologies are conveyed. In addition, nanoindentation experiments observed in-situ through scanning electron microscopy enable the validation of the modeling and the observation of the anisotropic or auxetic phenomena. Our results herald how these categories of architected materials can be investigated at the microscale.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Pol ◽  
Fabio Gabrieli ◽  
Lorenzo Brezzi

AbstractIn this work, the mechanical response of a steel wire mesh panel against a punching load is studied starting from laboratory test conditions and extending the results to field applications. Wire meshes anchored with bolts and steel plates are extensively used in rockfall protection and slope stabilization. Their performances are evaluated through laboratory tests, but the mechanical constraints, the geometry and the loading conditions may strongly differ from the in situ conditions leading to incorrect estimations of the strength of the mesh. In this work, the discrete element method is used to simulate a wire mesh. After validation of the numerical mesh model against experimental data, the punching behaviour of an anchored mesh panel is investigated in order to obtain a more realistic characterization of the mesh mechanical response in field conditions. The dimension of the punching element, its position, the anchor plate size and the anchor spacing are varied, providing analytical relationships able to predict the panel response in different loading conditions. Furthermore, the mesh panel aspect ratio is analysed showing the existence of an optimal value. The results of this study can provide useful information to practitioners for designing secured drapery systems, as well as for the assessment of their safety conditions.


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