Smart Monitoring of a Full-scale Composite Hydrofoil Manufactured using Automated Fibre Placement under High Cycle Fatigue

Fibre reinforced composites materials offer a pathway to produce passive shape adaptive smart marine propellers, which have improved performance characteristics over traditional metallic alloys. Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) technology can provide a leap forward in Cyber-Physical automated manufacturing, which is essential for the implementation and operation of smart factories in the marine propeller industry towards Industry 4.0 readiness. In this paper, a comprehensive structural health monitoring (SHM) routine was performed on an AFP full-scale composite hydrofoil to gain confidence in its dynamic and structural performances through a number of active and passive sensors. The hydrofoil was subjected to constant amplitude flexural fatigue loading in a purpose-built test rig for 105 cycles. The hydrofoil was embedded with distributed optical fibre sensors (DOFS), traditional electrical strain gauges and linear variable displacement transducers (LVDTs). Both microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and piezoelectric (PZT) accelerometers were used to conduct experimental modal analyses (EMA) to observe changes in the modal response of the hydrofoil at regular intervals throughout the fatigue program. The hydrofoils modal response, as well as the stiffness measured using both displacements and strains, remained unchanged over the fatigue loading regime demonstrating the structural integrity of the hydrofoil. The optical fibre sensors endured the fatigue test cycles showing their robustness under fatigue loads. Furthermore, the sensing systems demonstrated the potential of being utilised as a useful maintenance tool combining their adaptability with automated manufacturing during manufacturing through integration within the hydrofoil, a structural test framework for performance measurement, data acquisition and analytics for visualization, and the prospect of decision making for maintenance requirement during any onset in structural performance.

Dynamic Behavior Analysis of the Sandwich Beam Structure with Magnetorheological Honeycomb Core under Different Magnetic Intensities: A Numerical Approach

In this article a sandwich beam structure with honeycomb core filled of MRE (magnetorheological elastomer) with different ratios of Elastomer and iron particles is proposed. Modal response for structures with Nylon and Resin8000 honeycomb core filled with MRE and sandwiched between aluminum face sheets were analyzed and compared for two different ratios of MRE by placing magnets at free end and center of the structure. The force generated by magnets on the sandwich beam structure was calculated using ANSYS EDT and the modal response of the structure was then observed under generated magnetic force using ANSYS Workbench. The results showed that the resonance frequency of the structure decreased as the magnetic intensity was increased for all the cases specially for the first mode. Secondly structure with Nylon honeycomb core showed lower frequency drop and higher deformation than the structure with Resin8000 honeycomb core.

Strain Response and Aerodynamic Damping of a Swirl Distortion Generator Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Boundary layer ingestion (BLI) concepts have become a prominent topic in research and development due to their increase in fuel efficiency for aircraft. Virginia Tech has developed the StreamVane™, a secondary flow distortion generator, which can be used to efficiently test BLI and its aeromechanical effects on turbomachinery. To ensure the safety of this system, the complex vanes within StreamVanes must be further analyzed structurally and aerodynamically. In this paper, the induced strain of two common vane shapes at three different operating conditions is computationally determined. Along with these predictions, the aerodynamic damping of the vanes is calculated to predict flutter conditions at the same three operating points. To achieve this, steady CFD calculations are done to acquire the aerodynamic pressure loading on the vanes. Finite element analysis (FEA) is performed to obtain the strain and modal response of the StreamVane structure. The mode shapes and steady CFD are used to initialize an unsteady CFD analysis which acquires the aerodynamic damping results of the vanes. The testcase used for this evaluation was specifically designed to overstep the structural limits of a StreamVane, and the results provide an efficient computational method to observe flutter conditions of stationary systems.

A hybrid method for broadband vibroacoustic simulations

Many methods for simulating acoustic responses of vibrating systems are only suitable for limited frequency ranges, providing either an accurate low frequency or high frequency response. A hybrid method is presented to combine a low frequency modal response and a high frequency statistical energy response to obtain a unified broadband response. The method is designed to produce an auralizable response. An experimental setup is used to validate the method. Listening tests are conducted to assess the realism of the auralizations compared to measurements. The listening tests confirm that the method is able to produce realistic auralizations, subject to a few limitations.

Polarization-dependent mode coupling in hyperbolic nanospheres

Hyperbolic materials offer much wider freedom in designing optical properties of nanostructures than ones with isotropic and elliptical dispersion, both metallic or dielectric. Here, we present a detailed theoretical and numerical study on the unique optical properties of spherical nanoantennas composed of such materials. Hyperbolic nanospheres exhibit a rich modal structure that, depending on the polarization and direction of incident light, can exhibit either a full plasmonic-like response with multiple electric resonances, a single, dominant electric dipole or one with mixed magnetic and electric modes with an atypical reversed modal order. We derive conditions for observing these resonances in the dipolar approximation and offer insight into how the modal response evolves with the size, material composition, and illumination. Specifically, the origin of the magnetic dipole mode lies in the hyperbolic dispersion and its existence is determined by two diagonal permittivity components of different sign. Our analysis shows that the origin of this unusual behavior stems from complex coupling between electric and magnetic multipoles, which leads to very strong scattering or absorbing modes. These observations assert that hyperbolic nanoantennas offer a promising route towards novel light–matter interaction regimes.

A study on earthquake performances of reinforced concrete buildings with various number of stories

Seismic codes generally require that the Equivalent Seismic Load Method or the Modal Response Spectrum Method is adopted in the design of buildings. In the equivalent seismic load method, the equivalent seismic static force applied to the building is determined depending on the seismicity of the region where the building is located, the usage class of the building, the fundamental period of the building and the building mass. Later, this equivalent seismic load is reduced by the seismic load reduction factor to take into account the increase in the capacity of the system and the decrease in the seismic demand due to the nonlinear and inelastic behavior of the system, i.e., by accepting limited inelastic deformations in the building subjected to the design earthquake. Then, structural system of the building is analyzed under the reduced seismic forces in addition to the vertical loads by using the load combinations given in the design codes. The process is completed by designing the sections and the structural elements of the building. Similar processes can be implemented by using the modal response spectrum method. The difference between these two methods is consideration of the higher modes of the building instead of the first mode only and the use of the modal masses of the building for each mode, instead of the total mass of the building. In the latter method, the contributions of the higher mode are combined by using specific superposition rules. The codes assume that the structural systems designed in this way will exhibit the almost same level of inelastic deformation, i.e., the controlled damage state, regardless of the building parameters, such as the number of stories. In this study, an attempt is made to investigate the validity of this implicit acceptance. For this purpose, the buildings with a various number of stories are designed by satisfying the bare minimum requirements of the code only, as much as possible. The seismic behavior and the lateral load capacity of these buildings are examined by the static and dynamic nonlinear analyses. The ratio of the nonlinear load capacity to the reduced equivalent seismic load is evaluated depending on the number of the stories of the buildings. The results which are presented in detail yield that the buildings with a low number of stories have relatively larger nonlinear lateral load capacity-to-the reduced elastic seismic load ratio, which is not compatible with the general implicit assumption made in the seismic codes.