Effect of Carbon Nanofiber Clustering on the Micromechanical Properties of a Cement Paste

The use of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) in cement systems has received significant interest over the last decade due to their nanoscale reinforcing potential. However, despite many reports on the formation of localized CNF clusters, their effect on the cement paste micromechanical properties and relation to the mechanical response at the macroscopic scale are still not fully understood. In this study, grid nanoindentation coupled with scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy was used to determine the local elastic indentation modulus and hardness of a portland cement paste containing 0.2% CNFs with sub-micro and microscale CNF clusters. The presence of low stiffness and porous assemblage of phases (modulus of 15–25 GPa) was identified in the cement paste with CNFs and was attributed primarily to the interfacial zone surrounding the CNF clusters. The CNFs favored the formation of higher modulus C–S–H phases (>30 GPa) in the bulk paste at the expense of the lower stiffness C–S–H. Nanoindentation results combined with a microscale–macroscale upscaling homogenization method further revealed an elastic modulus of the CNF clusters in the range from 18 to 21 GPa, indicating that the CNF clusters acted as compliant inclusions relative to the cement paste.

Vibration Isolation System with Kalman Filter Estimated Acceleration Feedback: An Approach of Negative Stiffness Control

This paper presents the isolation of vibration through the acceleration feedback of the Kalman filter. In this paper, vibration isolation was analyzed both analytically and experimentally through the estimation of the Kalman filter (KF). A negative stiffness mechanism was used to reduce the level of vibration for the developed dynamic system. The technique of negative stiffness can provide stiffness of infinite level to low stiffness as well as disturbance generated by the ground vibration directly. The performance of an isolation system through a mechanism of negative stiffness was improved by the addition of acceleration feedback. Acceleration was measured using a microelectromechanical (MEMS) type accelerometer instead of traditional servo type accelerometers due to lower cost. However, the output of a microelectromechanical (MEMS) type accelerometer is usually noisy. To avoid this difficulty, an acceleration that was estimated by a Kalman filter was considered in the acceleration feedback instead of directly measured acceleration. The dynamic behaviors of the system were compared for both the Kalman-filtered acceleration and the directly measured acceleration feedback. It is observed that the former has a significant effect on the improvement of the characteristics of the vibration isolation systems than later.

Novel Design and Finite Element Analysis of Diamond-like Porous Implants with Low Stiffness

The purpose of this study was to design porous implants with low stiffness and evaluate their biomechanical behavior. Thus, two types of porous implants were designed (Type I: a combined structure of diamond-like porous scaffold and traditional tapered thread. Type II: a cylindrical porous scaffold filled by arrayed basic diamond-like pore units). Three implant-supported prosthesis models were constructed from Type I, Type II and commercial implants (control group) and were evaluated by finite element analysis (FEA). The stress distribution pattern of the porous implants were assessed and compared with the control group. In addition, the stiffness of the cylindrical specimens simplified from three types of implants was calculated. The Type I implant exhibited better stress distribution than the Type II implant. The maximum stress between the cortical bone–Type I implant interface was 12.9 and 19.0% lower than the other two groups. The peak stress at the cancellous bone–Type I implant interface was also reduced by 16.8 and 38.7%. Compared with the solid cylinder, the stiffness of diamond-like pore cylinders simplified from the two porous implants geometry was reduced by 61.5 to 76.1%. This construction method of porous implant can effectively lower its stiffness and optimize the stress distribution at the implant–bone interface.

Investigation of Gas Nitriding Effect on Damping Ratio of Steel 1.7225 and Cutting Vibration of Indexable End Mill Made from It During the Straight Groove

End-milling is a cutting technology that removes material from machined workpieces by end mill and is widely used to manufacture parts. Moreover, this process is prone to vibration due to low stiffness. Also, nitriding is a surface hardening process with lots of effects on mechanical properties. This study investigated the effect of gas nitriding on a nitrided end mill in comparison with an unnitrided end mill and showed significant improvement in vibration peak and RMS during end milling. To clarify the reason for this improvement this article carried out a modal test to show how nitriding affected the natural frequency and damping ratio of the nitrided and unnitrided samples and showed that tool rigidity remained the same while damping ratio increased so we claimed nitriding improved damping ratio without change of tool rigidity. For verifying this claim we modeled, meshed, and analyzed for obtaining tool natural frequency both for nitrided and unnitrided tool and compared with extracted natural frequencies from each tool FFT diagram during straight grooving. We showed that the natural frequencies were the same with less than 3 percent change so we concluded that nitriding led to better tool performance by increasing the damping ratio without any significant change in the tool stiffness.

Transparent and Flexible Vibration Sensor Based on a Wheel-Shaped Hybrid Thin Membrane

With the advent of human–machine interaction and the Internet of Things, wearable and flexible vibration sensors have been developed to detect human voices and surrounding vibrations transmitted to humans. However, previous wearable vibration sensors have limitations in the sensing performance, such as frequency response, linearity of sensitivity, and esthetics. In this study, a transparent and flexible vibration sensor was developed by incorporating organic/inorganic hybrid materials into ultrathin membranes. The sensor exhibited a linear and high sensitivity (20 mV/g) and a flat frequency response (80–3000 Hz), which are attributed to the wheel-shaped capacitive diaphragm structure fabricated by exploiting the high processability and low stiffness of the organic material SU-8 and the high conductivity of the inorganic material ITO. The sensor also has sufficient esthetics as a wearable device because of the high transparency of SU-8 and ITO. In addition, the temperature of the post-annealing process after ITO sputtering was optimized for the high transparency and conductivity. The fabricated sensor showed significant potential for use in transparent healthcare devices to monitor the vibrations transmitted from hand-held vibration tools and in a skin-attachable vocal sensor.

Evaluation of a Novel Dorsal-Cemented Technique for Atlantoaxial Stabilisation in 12 Dogs

Dorsal atlantoaxial stabilisation (DAAS) has mostly been described to treat atlantoaxial instability using low stiffness constructs in dogs. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and surgical outcome of a rigid cemented DAAS technique using bone corridors that have not previously been reported. The medical records of 12 consecutive dogs treated with DAAS were retrospectively reviewed. The method involved bi-cortical screws placed in at least four of eight available bone corridors, embedded in polymethylmethacrylate. Screw placement was graded according to their position and the degree of the breach from the intended bone corridor. All DAAS procedures were completed successfully. A total of 72 atlantoaxial screws were placed: of those, 51 (70.8%) were optimal, 17 (23.6%) were suboptimal, and 4 (5.6%) were graded as hazardous (including 2 minor breaches of the vertebral canal). Surgical outcome was assessed via a review of client questionnaires, neurological examination, and postoperative CT images. The clinical outcome was considered good to excellent in all but one case that displayed episodic discomfort despite the appropriate atlantoaxial reduction. A single construct failure was identified despite a positive clinical outcome. This study suggests the proposed DAAS is a viable alternative to ventral techniques. Prospective studies are required to accurately compare the complication and success rate of both approaches.