Width Design of Small Coal Pillar of Gob-Side Entry Driving in Soft Rock Working Face and Its Application of Zaoquan Coal Mine

Reasonable width of gob-side coal pillar can reduce the waste of coal resources and is conducive to roadway stability. According to the distribution of internal and external stress fields at the working face, a method for determining the width of gob-side coal pillar was proposed. The coal pillar and roadway should be set within the internal stress field, and support is provided through the anchored part and the intact part of the coal pillar. The method was used in the design of the coal pillar at No. 130205 working face of Zaoquan Coal Mine. The calculation results indicated that the width of a coal pillar suitable for gob-side entry is 6.0 m. It is reasonable to arrange the roadway and coal pillar in the low-stress zone with a width of 11 m. During tunnelling of roadway and stoping of the working face, the deformation of the roadway increased with a reduction in the distance from the working face. Even during stoping of the working face, there was an approximately 1.5 m intact zone in the coal pillar. This indicates that the proposed method of designing small coal pillar of gob-side entry driving is reliable.

A computational and experimental assessment of the pipeline stress state under bending load and internal pressure

Main pipelines are subjected to a complex of loads during operation. Monitoring of the stress state of the pipeline wall is necessary for performing strength calculations and evaluating the pipeline reliability.The article is devoted to the method of computational and experimental study of the stress state of a pipe under a bending load and combined action of a bending load and internal pressure.The experiments have been carried out on a laboratory bench. The object of the study is a pipe that has the following characteristics: an outer diameter of 325 mm, a wall thickness of 8.5 mm and steel grade of "14XGS". Electrical resistance strain gages were used to measure the strain of the pipe wall. Formulas for calculating the stress state components of the pipe wall in the elastic-plastic deformation stage are proposed. It is given formulas for calculating the stress state components of the pipe wall in the elastic-plastic deformation stage. Plots of hoop and longitudinal stresses as well as von Mises stress are obtained for the case of bending load on the pipe and the case of combined loading under bending and internal pressure. The areas of maximum values of von Mises stress where the transition to the limiting state is most likely have been determined.When only the bending load is applied, the maximum von Mises stress zone is observed on the lower area of the pipe in its central region. When combined loading under bending and internal pressure, the maximum von Mises stress zone is observed on the lateral area of the pipe in its central region.

Numerical simulation of pulsatile blood flow characteristics in multi stenosed coronary artery

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is reported as one of the most common sources of death all over the world. The presence of stenosis (plaque) in the coronary arteries results in the restriction of blood supply, which leads to myocardial infarction. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of multi stenosis on hemodynamics parameters in idealized coronary artery models with varying degrees of stenosis and interspace distance between the stenosis. METHODS: A finite volume-based software package (ANSYS CFX 17.2) was employed to model the blood flow. The hemodynamic stenosis parameters of blood, such as the pressure, velocity, and wall shear stress were obtained. RESULTS: The computed results showed that the pressure drop is maximum across the 90% area stenosis (AS). The pressure drop is increased as the distance between the proximal and distal stenosis is decreased across the proximal stenosis for the model P70_D70 durign the systolic period of the cardiac cycle. A recirculation zone is formed behind the stenosis and is restricted by the occurrence of distal stenosis as the interspacing distance decreases, which could lead to further progression of stenosis in the flow-disturbed area. The wall shear stress was found to increase as the distance between the proximal and distal stenosis is increased across the distal stenosis. The maximum wall shear stress was found at the 90% AS. CONCLUSIONS: In the clinical diagnosis an overestimation of distal stenosis severity could be possible. Furthermore, the low wall shear stress zone in between the proximal and distal stenosis may help atherosclerotic growth or merging of adjacent stenosis.

Plant hormesis and Shelford’s tolerance law curve

Shelford's law of tolerance is illustrated by a bell-shaped curve depicting the relationship between environmental factor/factors’ intensity and its favorability for species or populations. It is a fundamental basis of ecology when considering the regularities of environment impacts on living systems, and applies in plant biology, agriculture and forestry to manage resistance to environmental limiting factors and to enhance productivity. In recent years, the concept of hormesis has been increasingly used to study the dose–response relationships in living organisms of different complexities, including plants. This requires the need for an analysis of the relationships between the hormetic dose–response model and the classical understanding of plant reactions to environments in terms of Shelford's law of tolerance. This paper analyses various dimensions of the relationships between the hormetic model and Shelford’s tolerance law curve under the influence of natural environmental factors on plants, which are limiting for plants both in deficiency and excess. The analysis has shown that Shelford’s curve and hormetic model do not contradict but instead complement each other. The hormetic response of plants is localized in the stress zone of the Shelford’s curve when adaptive mechanisms are disabled within the ecological optimum. At the same time, in a species range, the ecological optimum is the most favorable combination of all or at least the most important environmental factors, each of which usually deviates slightly from its optimal value. Adaptive mechanisms cannot be completely disabled in the optimum, and hormesis covers optimum and stress zones. Hormesis can modify the plant tolerance range to environmental factors by preconditioning and makes limits of plant tolerance to environmental factors flexible to a certain extent. In turn, as a result of tolerance range evolution, quantitative characteristics of hormesis (width and magnitude of hormetic zone) as well as the range of stimulating doses, may significantly differ in various plant species and even populations and intra-population groups, including plants at different development stages. Using hormetic preconditioning for managing plant resistance to environmental limiting factors provides an important perspective for increasing the productivity of woody plants in forestry.

Stress Distribution and Gas Concentration Evolution during Protective Coal Seam Mining

Coal and gas burst is one of the significant and catastrophic hazards in underground longwall operations. To date, the protective coal seam mining has been recognized as the most effective mining method for minimizing or even avoiding the effect of the coal and gas burst. In this paper, numerical modelling and field test were carried out for the longwall operation in Qidong Coal Mine in order to investigate the induced stress and coal seam gas drainage performance in the protected coal seam after the complete extraction of the protective coal seam. It was found that four stress zones can be classified in the protected coal seam being the original stress zone, stress concentration zone, stress relief zone, and recompaction zone. In addition, the monitoring data of gas concentration and volume change in the field agree well with the numerical modelling results.

Effect of Residual Stresses on the Fatigue Behaviour of Torsion Bars

This article deals with the effect of residual stresses on the fatigue behaviour of torsion bars exposed to cyclic torsional loading with different effective loading ratios, R. The residual compressive stresses on the surface were induced during technological processes by cold surface rolling and torsional overloading (presetting) into the plastic region due to the increase in the elastic linear range for torque. In the paper, we consider two different technological processes for introducing compressive residual stress on the surface of same material. We analysed the stress states affected by different residual and applied stress using the Drucker-Prager criterion in order to determine the actual stress state. Results show that the fatigue limit can be achieved if the maximum principal stresses (combined from residual and applied stresses) do not overcome the safe stress zone. As soon as the maximum principal stress reaches the edge of the safe zone, the number of cycles to failure rapidly reduces. Experimental results show that the effective loading ratio Reff, and consequently the stress amplitude, varies through the cross section of the bar. This initiates the fatigue crack under the surface, in the highest amplitude stress zone, independent of the effective loading ratio Reff. Consequently, increasing the compressive residual stresses on the surface by a second technological process has no significant effect on fatigue crack initiation in situ far from the surface. Increasing the plastic torsional prestress can shift the maximum stress amplitude far from the surface, but a significant volume of material should remain elastically loaded in order to ensure balance with compressive stresses from the surface of the solid bar section.

A Simulation Study on the Crack Propagation Behavior of Nanostructured Thermal Barrier Coatings with Tailored Microstructure

The initiation and propagation of cracks are crucial to the reliability and stability of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). It is important and necessary to develop an effective method for the prediction of the crack propagation behavior of TBCs. In this study, an extended finite element model (XFEM) based on the real microstructure of nanostructured TBCs was built and employed to elucidate the correlation between the microstructure and crack propagation behavior. Results showed that the unmelted nano-particles (UNPs) that were distributed in the nanostructured coating had an obvious “capture effect” on the cracks, which means that many cracks easily accumulated in the tensile stress zone of the adjacent UNPs and a complex microcrack network formed at their periphery. Arbitrarily oriented cracks mainly propagated parallel to the x-axis at the final stage of thermal cycles and the tensile stress was the main driving force for the spallation failure of TBCs. Correspondingly, I and I–II mixed types of cracks are the major cracking patterns.

Influence of Fluid on Seal and Assembly of Pipeline Fittings Based on the Multiscale Finite Element Model

Pipeline fittings with ferrules are applied to connect sections of hydraulic pipelines in aircraft, and their reliability and stability are essential. This paper aims at investigating the influence of internal fluid on the sealing characteristics of pipeline fittings by employing the multiscale model. Changes in the sealing characteristics induced by the fluid pressure switch are studied, and the assembly method under the internal fluid is also explored. The calculated results show that the multiscale model can accurately reflect the changes in the sealing area, and the high-pressure fluid can enhance the sealing reliability. Compared with the contact area, the fluid pressure exerts a greater influence on the change in the area of the high-stress zone. Furthermore, the unrestored sealing area enlarges with the increased maximum fluid pressure, and the change in the area of the high-stress zone is significantly larger than that in the contact area. Moreover, the optimum assembly position of ferrule decreases with the increase in fluid pressure, thus achieving the excellent sealing characteristics.