Homogeneous and Isotropic Materials Failure Theory: A Critical Appraisal

The historical status of failure theory is surveyed and found to be close to chaotic. Abandoning that source, the constructive associations and operations that must be required in order to form a viable theory of materials failure are examined in critical detail. The consequent failure theory has been established and its future is discussed.

The Refraction Indices and Brewster Law in Stressed Isotropic Materials and Cubic Crystals

We study the elasto-optic behavior of stressed cubic crystals (all classes) and isotropic materials (like e.g., glasses). We obtain the explicit dependence of the refraction indices on the stress (either applied or residual), as well as a mild generalization of the Brewster law for cubic crystals. We show also that the optic indicatrix and the stress ellipsoid are coaxial only in the isotropic case. This theory allows the improvement of the measurement techniques, as photoelasticity, on cubic crystals and optically isotropic materials.

How small-scale variation in mineral wool products effect random incidence sound absorption

Mineral wool products are produced by creating a spray of fibres, that is collected and made into slabs. This randomized spray can lead to small variations across a slab. Nevertheless, mineral wool slabs are often treated in acoustics as locally reacting perfectly homogeneous, isotropic materials. This means that small-scale characterisations are extrapolated to large-scale without considering the impact from possible variations in a large-scale setup. The question is how the small-scale characterisations should be used for large-scale setups with this in mind. Three products with the same thickness and density, but with significantly different specific airflow resistances were selected for random incidence sound absorption tests. The products were all specially made ceiling tiles and measurements were conducted in E200 setup according to ISO 354:2003. The tiles were gradually exchanged in a random fashion, so measurement results were obtained using a combination of tiles with different specific airflow resistances. Results showed a surprisingly linear relation between the sound absorption and the average specific airflow resistance of tiles used in the measurements. The results point to that variations in products must be observed, but also that small variations in specific airflow resistance in standardized products are insignificant.