Design and Measurement of a Dual FBG High-Precision Shape Sensor for Wing Shape Reconstruction

FBG shape sensors based on soft substrates are currently one of the research focuses of wing shape reconstruction, where soft substrates and torque are two important factors affecting the performance of shape sensors, but the related analysis is not common. A high-precision soft substrates shape sensor based on dual FBGs is designed. First, the FBG soft substrate shape sensor model is established to optimize the sensor size parameters and get the optimal solution. The two FBG cross-laying method is adopted to effectively reduce the influence of torque, the crossover angle between the FBGs is 2α, and α = 30° is selected as the most sensitive angle to the torquer response. Second, the calibration test platform of this shape sensor is built to obtain the linear relationship among the FBG wavelength drift and curvature, rotation radian loaded vertical force and torque. Finally, by using the test specimen shape reconstruction test, it is verified that this shape sensor can improve the shape reconstruction accuracy, and that its reconstruction error is 6.13%, which greatly improves the fit of shape reconstruction. The research results show that the dual FBG high-precision shape sensor successfully achieves high accuracy and reliability in shape reconstruction.

A novel specimen shape for measurement of linear strain fields by means of digital image correlation

Strains on the surface of engineering structures or biological tissues are non-homogeneous. These strain fields can be captured by means of Digital Image Correlation (DIC). However, DIC strain field measurements are prone to noise and filtering of these fields influences measured strain gradients. This study aims to design a novel tensile test specimen showing two linear gradients, to measure full-field linear strain measurements on the surface of test specimens, and to investigate the accuracy of DIC strain measurements globally (full-field) and locally (strain gauges’ positions), with and without filtering of the DIC strain fields. Three materials were employed for this study: aluminium, polymer, and bovine bone. Normalized strain gradients were introduced that are load independent and evaluated at two local positions showing 3.6 and 6.9% strain change per mm. Such levels are typically found in human bones. At these two positions, two strain gauges were applied to check the experimental strain magnitudes. A third strain gauge was applied to measure the strain in a neutral position showing no gradient. The accuracy of the DIC field measurement was evaluated at two deformation stages (at $$\approx $$ ≈ 500 and 1750 μstrain) using the root mean square error (RMSE). The RMSE over the two linear strain fields was less than 500 μstrain for both deformation stages and all materials. Gaussian low-pass filter (LPF) reduced the DIC noise between 25% and 64% on average. As well, filtering improved the accuracy of the local normalized strain gradients measurements with relative difference less than 20% and 12% for the high- and low-gradient, respectively. In summary, a novel specimen shape and methodological approach are presented which are useful for evaluating and improving the accuracy of the DIC measurement where non-homogeneous strain fields are expected such as on bone tissue due to their hierarchical structure.

Developing of the optimal shape and reinforcement structure of the specimen for adequate determination of the tensile strength in unidirectional composites

Unidirectional composites exhibit the highest strength when stretched along the fibers. However, the proper determination of the strength faces great methodological difficulties. The main problems of tensile testing of polymer composites consisted in developing of the specimen shape and the method of specimen fixation which ensure the minimum impact of the stress concentration near the grips on the strength measurements. A conventional shape of the specimen with fillets is unsuitable for unidirectional polymers due to the splitting occurred in the fillet zones upon loading. Therefore, the specimens are usually standardized in the form of rectangular strips fixed using pads or special grips which provide constant transverse forces. However, with such a specimen shape, a significant stress concentration inevitably occurs at the edge of grips and the lower the ratio of the interlayer shear modulus to the longitudinal Young’s modulus, the greater the stress concentration impact. For the purpose of the most correct determination of the strength we propose to use specimens with smoothly varying dimensions at the same cross-sectional area which ensures keeping the total number of unbroken fibers in each section. The specimen thickness decreases when moving from the working part of the specimen to the gripping part, whereas the width (while maintaining the section area) grows to prevent the specimen collapsing resulting from transverse forces in standard self-tightening grips. Analytical and FEM modeling is performed to select a rational contour shape. Technological equipment has been developed and a procedure of manufacturing testing specimens has been worked out. The tensile test of specially manufactured curvilinear reinforced specimens showed higher strength values compared to standard rectangular strips or specimens with semicircular fillets.

Experimental method and evaluation for interlaminar shear properties of randomly oriented strand thermoplastic composites based on modified double-notch specimen and two dimensional digital image correlation

A new interlaminar shear test method has been proposed based on the double-notch compression test method, in which the test specimen shape with a modified overlap length of the notches is proposed, and the interlaminar shear strain is measured by two-dimensional digital image correlation (2D-DIC) analysis. In order to obtain the interlaminar shear properties in the elastic and non-linear regions of randomly oriented strand thermoplastic composites, we adopted a 2D-DIC analysis system using a bi-telecentric lens, which can accurately measure the strain in a small field of view, and a test system including an interlaminar shear test jig, which can apply a compressive load to the end face of the specimen at high perpendicularity. It is necessary to provide an overlap of the double-notch of 1 mm or more in order to simultaneously obtain the strain in the elastic region and the non-linear region from the actual test results. When numerical analysis by finite element method (FEM) was carried out on four types of test specimen with different shapes used in this research, by using the interlaminar shear property data obtained from actual tests on the optimum test specimen, there was a high level of agreement with the 2D-DIC analysis results for the shear stress – strain diagrams and the interlaminar shear strain distribution. Therefore, the benefits of the test specimen shape and dimensions in the new test method and the validity of the interlaminar shear property values that can be obtained using this method have been confirmed.

Modified Formula for Designing Ultra-High-Performance Concrete with Experimental Verification

The main purpose of the study was to propose a modification of Larrard’s formula for both the design and compressive-strength evaluation of ultra-high-performance concrete. The proposed modification consisted of the introduction of new parameters into the original formula that allowed it to consider the amount of binders and fine-grained aggregates, the amount of reinforcing fibers, the specimen shape and size, the curing time, and a reinterpretation of the water/cement ratio. The proposed modification was verified based on comparative analysis with the results of our own experimental studies and results taken from the literature. A very good convergence of these results was demonstrated, indicating the validity of the proposed modification.

Effect of Specimen Geometry on Selected Physical and Mechanical Properties of Epoxy-Based Building Materials

The paper deals with problematics of the influence of size and shape of test specimens prepared according to the valid standard procedures in comparison to specimens prepared according to the standards used for different types of materials (grouts, coatings). The aim of this paper is to verify the possibility of using non-standard specimen sizes to reduce the economic demands of the development of building materials. The issue is tested on the polymer composites prepared in three different amounts of the filler. The polymer composite based on epoxy resin serves as a representative and homogenous material which achieves the same results under various curing temperatures and humidity. The porous structure of prepared samples was also studied and its effect on the selected mechanical properties was observed. It was shown that the specimen shape and size had impact on the mechanical properties of epoxy-based composites.

Experimental Study on the Influence of Specimen Shape on Rockburst Proneness of Red Sandstone

To investigate the specimen shape effect on rockburst proneness of rock materials, a string of conventional and single-cycle loading-unloading uniaxial compression tests was performed with cylindrical and cuboid red sandstone specimens. Despite similar development paths on stress-strain curves for the specimens with two shapes, the cuboid specimens generally show a higher uniaxial compressive strength than the cylindrical specimens. The energy evolution laws inside the two shaped specimens were explored. The results show that the input energy density (IED), elastic energy density (EED), and dissipated energy density (DED) of the two shaped specimens increased in a quadratic relationship with the increment of unloading level. Moreover, the linear relationships between the EED, DED, and IED were further confirmed for two shaped specimens, which were defined as the linear energy storage and dissipation laws, respectively. The energy storage coefficients and energy dissipation coefficients (the slopes of the linear relationships between the EED, DED, and IED, respectively) are almost independent of the specimen shape. According to the linear energy storage and dissipation laws, the peak EED and peak DED of every specimen can be calculated accurately. Finally, combining the failure process of rock specimens recorded by a high-speed camera, the elastic energy index (WET), the residual elastic energy index (AEF), and the far-field ejection mass ratio (MF) of each specimen were adopted to assess the rockburst proneness of the red sandstone sampled in cylindrical and cuboid. The results show that cuboid specimens exhibited stronger rockburst proneness than cylindrical ones, which favorably agreed with the actual failure phenomena.