Minimizing Shrinkage Porosity by Optimizing Some Parameters of Al Alloy (6061T6) Using DOE

Response surface methodology is an efficient and powerful tool which is widely applied for casting optimization. In this research aluminum alloy wheel hub casting is done by using BOXBEHNKEN design, three level of each parameter were taken. Solid modeling of casting and gating system is done by CAD. Simulation of Aluminium Alloy (6061 T6) casting were perform in PRO-cast (2009.1) the simulation result indicates that selected parameters significantly affect the quality of casting. ANOVA is employed to examine the relationship between the factors. Input parameter namely flow rate, pouring temperature and runner size were taken to reduce the volume of shrinkage porosity. Experimental Design consist 15 experimental trials and output data obtained from simulation will be optimized through minitab-18. Result indicates that selected independent variables are significantly influence the response. ANOVA gives the optimized value of selected factors which reduces the porosity volume up to 30cm³. Keywords: Sand casting, Shrinkage porosity, Simulation, DOE, Response surface method.

Sensitivity and Efficiency of the Frequency Shift Coefficient Based on the Damage Identification Algorithm: Modeling Uncertainty on Natural Frequencies

Health surveillance in industries is an important prospect to ensure safety and prevent sudden collapses. Vibration Based Structure Health Monitoring (VBSHM) is being used continuously for structures and machine diagnostics in industry. Changes in natural frequencies are frequently used as an input parameter for VBSHM. In this paper, the Frequency Shift Coefficient (FSC) is used for the assessment of various numerical damaged cases. An FSC-based algorithm is employed in order to estimate the positions and severity of damages using only the natural frequencies of healthy and unknown (damaged) structures. The study focuses on cantilever beams. By considering the minimization of FSC, damage positions and severity are obtained. Artificially damaged cases are assessed by changes in its positions, the number of damages and the size of damages along with the various parts of the cantilever beam. The study is further investigated by considering the effect of uncertainty on natural frequencies (0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%) in damaged cases, and the algorithm is used to estimate the position and severity of the damage. The outcomes and efficiency of the proposed FSC based method are evaluated in order to locate and quantify damages. The efficiency of the algorithm is demonstrated by locating and quantifying double damages in a real cantilever steel beam using vibration measurements.

Characterization of ultra-intense laser in radiation damping regime using ponderomotive scattering

We present a novel approach to analyzing phase-space distributions of electrons ponderomotively scattered off an ultra-intense laser pulse and comment on implications for thus conceivable in-situ laser-characterization schemes. To this end, we present fully relativistic test particle simulations of electrons scattered from an ultra-intense, counter-propagating laser pulse. The simulations unveil non-trivial scalings of the scattered electron distribution with the laser intensity, pulse duration, beam waist, and energy of the electron bunch. We quantify the found scalings by means of an analytical expression for the scattering angle of an electron bunch ponderomotively scattered from a counter-propagating, ultra-intense laser pulse, also accounting for radiation reaction (RR) through the Landau-Lifshitz (LL) model. For various laser and bunch parameters, the derived formula is in excellent quantitative agreement with the simulations. We also demonstrate how in the radiation-dominated regime a simple re-scaling of our model's input parameter yields quantitative agreement with numerical simulations based on the LL model.

Estimation of Fracture Properties by Combining DAS and DTS Measurements

Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) measurements during hydraulic fracturing treatments are used to estimate fluid volume distribution among perforation clusters. DAS is sensitive to the acoustic signal induced by fluid flow in the near-well region during pumping a stage, while DTS is sensitive to temperature variation caused by fluid flow inside the wellbore and in the reservoir. Raw acoustic signal has to be transferred to frequency band energy (FBE) which is defined as the integration of the squared raw measurements in each DAS channel location for a fixed period of time. In order to be used in further interpretation, FBE has to be averaged between several fiber-optic channels for each cluster on each time step. Based on this input, DAS allows us to consider fluid flow through perforation stage by stage during an injection period, and to evaluate the volume of fluid pumped in each cluster location as a function of time, and therefore to estimate the cumulative volume of fluid injected into each cluster. This procedure is based on a lab-derived and computational dynamics model confirmed correlation between the acoustic signal and the flow rate. At each time step, we apply the perforation/fracture noise correlation to determine the flow rate into each cluster, constrained by the requirement that the sum of the flow rates into individual clusters must equal the total injection rate at that time. On the other hand, the DTS interpretation method is based on the transient temperature behavior during the fracturing stimulation. During injection, the temperature of the reservoir surrounding the well is cooled by the injection fluid inside the well. After shut-in of stage pumping, temperature recovers at a rate depending on the injected volume of fluid at the location. The interpretation procedure is based on the temperature behavior during the warm-back period. This temperature distribution is obtained by solution of a coupled 3-D reservoir thermal model with 1-D wellbore thermal model iteratively. Once we confirm that the DAS and DTS interpretation methods provide comparable results of the fluid volume distribution, either of the interpretation results can be used as a known input parameter for the other interpretation method to estimate additional unknown such as one of the fracture properties. In this work, the injected fluid volume distribution obtained by the DAS interpretation is used as an input parameter for a forward model which computes the temperature profile in the reservoir. By conducting temperature inversion to reproduce the temperature profile that matches the measured temperature with the fixed injection rate for each cluster, we can predict distribution of injected fluid for hydraulic fractures along a wellbore. The temperature inversion shows that multiple fractures are created in a swarm pattern from each perforation cluster with a much tighter spacing than the cluster spacing. The field data from MIP-3H provided by the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environmental Laboratory is used to demonstrate the DAS/DTS integrated interpretation method. This approach can be a valuable means to evaluate the fracturing treatment design and further understand the field observation of hydraulic fractures.

Reconstruction of 3D Porous Geometry for Coupled FEM-CFD Simulation

Porous materials can be found in numerous areas of life (e. g., applied science, material science), however, the simulation of the fluid flow and transport phenomena through porous media is a significant challenge nowadays. Numerical simulations can help to analyze and understand physical processes and different phenomena in the porous structure, as well as to determine certain parameters that are difficult or impossible to measure directly or can only be determined by expensive and time-consuming experiments. The basic condition for the numerical simulations is the 3D geometric model of the porous material sample, which is the input parameter of the simulation. For this reason, geometry reconstruction is highly critical for pore-scale analysis. This paper introduces a complex process for the preparation of the microstructure's geometry in connection with a coupled FEM-CFD two-way fluid-structure interaction simulation. Micro-CT has been successfully applied to reconstruct both the fluid and solid phases of the used porous material.

Should rapid antigen tests be government funded in Australia? An economic evaluation

Objective: Easy and equitable access to testing is a cornerstone of the public health response to COVID-19. Currently in Australia, testing using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests for COVID-19 is free-to-the-user, but the public purchase their own Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs). We conduct an economic analysis of government-funded RATs in Australia. Design: An interactive decision tree model was developed to compare one policy in which government-funded RATs are free-to-the-user, and one in which individuals purchase their own RATs. The decision tree represents RAT and PCR testing pathways for a cohort of individuals without COVID-19-like symptoms, to estimate the likelihood of COVID-19 positive individuals isolating prior to developing symptoms and the associated costs of testing, from a government perspective. Data sources: Test costs and detection rates were informed by published studies, other input parameter values are unobservable and uncertain, for which a range of scenario analyses are presented. Data synthesis: Assuming 10% prevalence of COVID-19 in a cohort of 10,000 individuals who would use government-funded RATs, the model estimates an additional 464 individuals would isolate early at a cost to the government of around $52,000. Scenario analyses indicate that the incremental cost per additional COVID-19 positive individual isolating with no symptoms remains at a few hundred dollars at 5% prevalence, rising to $2,052 at 1% prevalence. Conclusions: Based on the presented decision tree model, even only minor reductions in COVID-19 transmission rates due to early isolation would justify the additional costs associated with a policy of government-funded RATs.

Use of Physiologically-Based Kinetics Modelling to Reliably Predict Internal Concentrations of the UV Filter, Homosalate, After Repeated Oral and Topical Application

Ethical and legal considerations have led to increased use of non-animal methods to evaluate the safety of chemicals for human use. We describe the development and qualification of a physiologically-based kinetics (PBK) model for the cosmetic UV filter ingredient, homosalate, to support its safety without the need of generating further animal data. The intravenous (IV) rat PBK model, using PK-Sim®, was developed and validated using legacy in vivo data generated prior to the 2013 EU animal-testing ban. Input data included literature or predicted physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties. The refined IV rat PBK model was subject to sensitivity analysis to identify homosalate-specific sensitive parameters impacting the prediction of Cmax (more sensitive than AUC(0-∞)). These were then considered, together with population modeling, to calculate the confidence interval (CI) 95% Cmax and AUC(0-∞). Final model parameters were established by visual inspection of the simulations and biological plausibility. The IV rat model was extrapolated to oral administration, and used to estimate internal exposures to doses tested in an oral repeated dose toxicity study. Next, a human PBK dermal model was developed using measured human in vitro ADME data and a module to represent the dermal route. Model performance was confirmed by comparing predicted and measured values from a US-FDA clinical trial (Identifier: NCT03582215, https://clinicaltrials.gov/). Final exposure estimations were obtained in a virtual population and considering the in vitro and input parameter uncertainty. This model was then used to estimate the Cmax and AUC(0–24 h) of homosalate according to consumer use in a sunscreen. The developed rat and human PBK models had a good biological basis and reproduced in vivo legacy rat and human clinical kinetics data. They also complied with the most recent WHO and OECD recommendations for assessing the confidence level. In conclusion, we have developed a PBK model which predicted reasonably well the internal exposure of homosalate according to different exposure scenarios with a medium to high level of confidence. In the absence of in vivo data, such human PBK models will be the heart of future completely non-animal risk assessments; therefore, valid approaches will be key in gaining their regulatory acceptance.Clinical Trial Registration: https://clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier, NCT03582215

Validation Of A New Method For Determining The Remaining Service Life Of Rigid Pavements

About a half of the Austrian highways are rigid pavement constructions, and increasingly more money has to be invested in their renovation and redevelopment. However, there are different approaches for the evaluation of the condition assessment of concrete pavements. The aim of the research presented in this paper is a concept for assessing the condition of a road section in rigid pavement. This consists of a structural and a visual assessment scheme for selecting appropriate maintenance actions. For the verification of this new method of assessment of the structural condition of concrete pavements, several field tests were examined. Furthermore, a case study was carried out to examine the level of influence of several input parameter. This analysis shows that the influence of the layer thickness is very high, while the influence of the modulus of elasticity of the existing concrete is significant lower. The FWD measurements were carried out radial (instead of linear) for the first time. The results show possible inhomogeneities in the subgrade or in the bedding, which would not be recognized by the standard linear measurements. With the results from the already mentioned measurements, the remaining service life of the test tracks could be calculated.