The purpose of this work is the optimal conception of a wing built using fused deposition modeling (FDM), which is one of the main additive manufacturing (AM) process.PLA reinforced with carbon fiber was selected for the filament as we have defined their mechanical properties in previous work.The optimization approach use hybrid strategy based on surface response method with kriging model and a heuristic method to avoid to be trapped in local minimization/maximization.The objective functions for this optimization are the weight, the drag (functions to minimize) and the lift (function to maximize) with respect to the failure criteria of the composite material used to build the fuselage.The challenge for this kind of optimization is the multilevel aspect, as it requires firstly to get the optimal parameters of the model before getting the optimal distribution of thicknesses.
The NUMEN project aims at accessing experimentally driven information on Nuclear Matrix Elements (NME) involved in the half-life of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0v beta beta), by high-accuracy measurements of Heavy Ion (HI) induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reaction cross sections. In particular, the (O-18,Ne-18) and (Ne-20, O-20) reactions are used as tools for beta(+)beta(+) and beta(-)beta(-) decays, respectively. In the experiments, performed at INFN - Laboratory Nazionali del Sud (LNS) in Catania, the beams are accelerated by the Superconducting Cyclotron (CS) and the reaction ejectiles are detected the MAGNEX magnetic spectrometer. The measured cross sections are challengingly low (a few nb), being the total reaction cross section much larger (a few b), thus a high sensitivity and a large rejection capability are demanded to the experimental set-up. This limits the present exploration to few selected isotopes of interest in the context of typically low-yield experimental runs. A major upgrade of the LNS facility is foreseen in order to increase the experimental yield of at least two orders of magnitude, still keeping the high sensitivity of the present set-up, making it feasible a systematic study of all the cases of interest. Frontiers technologies are going to be developed, to this purpose, for the accelerator and the detection systems. In parallel, advanced theoretical models are being developed in order to extract the nuclear structure information from the measured cross sections.
Bio materials have seen an increase of interest from the scientific community and the industry as a possible future generation of mass produced materials, some of the main arguments being their renewability, low production costs and recyclability.The current work is focused on the experimental data required for the viscoelastic characterization of a composite material. Similar work has been conducted on different types of composite materials by Tuttle and Brinson [1] who verified for a carbon epoxy laminate the possibility of long term predicament of creep. Nordin et al [2] studied paper impregnated with phenol-formaldehyde under compression. Muliana [3] conducted experiments on E-glass/vinyl ester materials. Behavior characterization was based on a model presented by Schapery [4]. The main objective of this work is to understand the mechanical behaviors of bio-laminates structures subjected to long and severe operating conditions.The studied material is a bio composite laminate consisting in long flax fibers embedded in an epoxy resin system. The laminates were obtained from pre-impregnated unidirectional fibers, which were cured though a thermo-compression cycle followed by a post curing cycle. Test specimens were cut down to sizes, with the help of an electric saw. The concerned fiber direction was 0° with sample dimensions of 250x25x2 mm.First, testing consisted in quasi static mechanical tests. Second, to characterize linear viscoelastic behavior of the bio-laminates, creep – recovery tests with multiple load levels have been performed for the chosen fiber direction.
Several procedures in medicine (such as anesthesia, injections, biopsies and percutaneous treatments) involve a needle insertion. Such procedures operate without vision of the internal involved areas. Physicians and anesthetists rely on manual (force and tactile) feedback to guide their movements, so a number of medical practice is strongly based on manual skill. In order to be expert in the execution of such procedures the medical students must practice a number of times, but before practice in a real patient they must be trained in some place and a virtual environment, using Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) is the best possible solution for such training. In a virtual environment the success of user practices is improved by the addition of force output using haptic device to improve the manual sensations in the interactions between user and computer. Haptic devices enable simulate the physical restriction of the diverse tissues and force reactions to movements of operator hands. The trainees can effectively "feel" the reactions to theirs movements and receive immediate feedback from the actions executed by them in the implemented environment. However, in order to implement such systems, the tissue reaction to penetration and cutting must be modeled. A proper model must emulate the physical sensations of the needle action in the skin, fat, muscle, and so one, as if it really done in a patient that is as they are holding a real needle and feeling each tissue resistance when inserting it through the body. For example an average force value for human skin puncture is 6.0 N, it is 2.0 N for subcutaneous fat tissue and 4.4 N for muscles: this difference of sensations to penetration of each layers trespassed by the needle makes possible to suppose the correct position inside the body. This work presents a model for tissues before and after the cutting that with proper assumptions of proprieties can model any part of human body. It was based on experiments and used in embryonic system for epidural anesthesia having good evaluation as presented in the last section "Preliminary Results".
In this paper, we introduce a new accumulation process, the Semi-Markov Accumulation Process (SMAP). This class of processes extends the framework of continuous-time Markov Additive Processes (MAPs) by allowing the underlying environmental component to be a semi-Markov process instead of a Markov process. Next, we follow an analytic approach to derive a Master Equation formula of the Renewal type that describes the evolution of SMAPs in time. We show that under exponential holding times, a matrix exponential form analogous to the matrix exponent of a MAP is attained. Finally, we consider an application of our results where closed-form solutions are rather easy to achieve.
