Test Arrangement Research Articles

THE DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHY APPLICATION EXPERIENCE AT WORLDSKILLS KAZAN 2019 CHAMPIONSHIP

The 45 World championship WORLDSKILLS KAZAN 2019 took place this summer in Kazan. The competition of welders was a part of the championship. The quality of welded joints produced by participants was inspected using digital and computed radiography. These technologies deeply reduced time of radiographic inspection. The quality of radiographs corresponded to improved techniques – class B according to ISO 17636-2 standard. Test arrangements used, resulted images and the role of digital radiography software were described inside the article. Several ways to improve productivity of testing were proposed. It was concluded that digital radiography is applicable for wide range of tasks; the preferred method is dependent on task and testing object.

Polarization Stark spectroscopy for spatially resolved measurements of electric fields in the sheaths of ICRF antenna.

A multichannel spectroscopic diagnostic based on the Stark effect on helium lines was developed and implemented in IShTAR (Ion Cyclotron Sheath Test ARrangement) to measure the spatial distribution of electric fields across the radio frequency sheaths of the ion cyclotron antenna. Direct measurements of the DC electric fields in the antenna sheaths are an important missing component in understanding the antenna-plasma edge interactions in magnetically confined fusion plasmas since they will be used to benchmark theoretical models against real antenna operation. Along with the high-resolution Czerny-Turner monochromator and a detector with an intensifier, the hardware relies on the 2 chained set of linear-to-linear fiber bundles that provide seven optical channels capable of resolving an 8.4 mm region in the vicinity of the antenna's box. The diagnostic is supported with local helium gas puff, enabling it to operate in nonhelium plasmas. Spatially resolved electric field was measured for two discharge configurations, one with and one without the ICRF antenna. The results show a clear difference in the shape of the DC electric field's spatial profile for the two cases studied, with the elevated values when the ICRF antenna was operating. This demonstrates the ability of the diagnostic to measure even small relative changes in the intensity of the electric field.

Stress–strain response and practical design expressions for FRP-confined recycled tyre rubber concrete

This paper presents an experimental programme on the response of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) confined circular rubberised concrete (RuC) members in compression. After describing the constituent materials and testing arrangement, a detailed account of the complete stress–strain response of FRP-confined high strength conventional concrete materials (CCM) and RuC in uniaxial compression is provided. The parameters directly investigated through experimental assessment are the rubber content, namely 30% and 60% by volume of both fine and coarse aggregates, and the number of confinement layers which varies from 0 to 4. Experimental observations indicate that the confined compressive strength typically increases in a largely proportional manner with the unconfined compressive strength, whilst the confined axial strain at ultimate tends to increase with the rubber content. Confined-to-unconfined strength ratios above 9 and confined ultimate strain-to-unconfined crushing strain ratios above 40, are obtained for concrete with 60% rubber and four layers of confinement. These values are higher by factors of about 3.2 and 4.5 in comparison to the conventional reference concrete, respectively. The test results and observations enable the development of a series of design expressions to estimate the stress–strain response of circular RuC specimens passively confined with FRP sheets, with due account for the influence of rubber content. Validations performed against the material tests carried out in this paper, as well as those from previous studies on RuC and CCM with FRP confinement, indicate that the proposed expressions offer reliable predictions of the mechanical properties of FRP-confined members.

Specimen representation on the prediction of artificial test lightning plasma, resulting specimen loading and subsequent composite material damage

Preceding work has established that artificial test lightning plasma and composite test specimen damage can be modelled. However, no work has studied the impact of specimen representation in the modelling of the plasma and the resulting impact on specimen composite damage. Herein four distinct specimen designs have been modelled, with a magnetohydrodynamic FE multiphysics model employed to simulate the plasma and a FE thermal-electric modelling approach used to predict composite material damage. For the test arrangements modelled herein it has been found that specimen representation has limited impact on plasma global structure, even with significant change in specimen properties (e.g. from copper to epoxy). However, noteworthy variation in the local specimen surface loading is witnessed with specimen property change (e.g. epoxy to carbon reinforced epoxy), with peak magnitudes for surface pressure, velocity, current density and temperature changing by up to 88%. Such variation in local specimen surface loading does significantly vary the prediction of composite material thermal damage depth (up to 1200%) and surface damage area (up to 1314%). Moreover, this work, for the first time, provides predictions for the thermal damage suffered by both protected and unprotected composite specimens exposed to test standard Waveform B.

Testing setup to examine punching shear strength in Self-Compacting Fibre Reinforced Concrete (SCFRC) ribbed slabs

The punching shear resistance and behaviour of self-compacting fibre reinforced concrete (SCFRC) of flat slab were studied in the previous research. Currently, there is limited information available on the ribbed slab, without conventional reinforcement, and using SCFRC as the main material. The extensive convolution of the punching shear behaviour within the concrete and structure itself, and insufficient appropriate test method ascribed to the conventional reinforcement are being used. Hence, the testing setup, to examine the punching shear resistance and behaviour of the ribbed slabs by using SCFRC, was carried out. The substantial experiment on the SCFRC ribbed slabs, prone to punching shear failure, with the designed test arrangement was employed. The association between the punching shear load and the angle of the shear plane, the critical value of the basic control perimeter and the failure mode were studied and analysed from the results obtained. This research gives insight into the punching shear capacity of SCFRC ribbed slabs. The results exemplify and accentuate the advantages of using SCFRC, compared to the normal concrete in structural designs. The punching shear test presented here has established itself as a suitable procedure for testing SCFRC, and potentially, other fibre reinforcement composites.

Robust Spectral Features for Emotion Recognition using GMM and SVM with PCA

In this paper, the research work investigated on various spectral accents, for example, M.F.C.C, pitch-chroma, skew-ness, and centroid for feeling acknowledgment. For the test arrangement, the feelings considered in this investigation are Fear, Anger, Neutral, and Happy. The framework is assessed for different blends of spectral accents. At last, it makes sense of the blend of MFCC and skewness gave a superior acknowledgment execution when contrasted with different mixes. The previously mentioned accents are inspected utilizing Gaussian Mixture models (G.M.M.s) and Support Vector Machines (S.V.M.s). To expand the framework execution and evacuate insignificant data shape the recently produced vigorous accents, in this paper investigated an approach, namely Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is utilized to expel high dimensional information. It was set up that the acknowledgment execution for include sets in the wake of applying PCA got expanded in both grouping models utilizing GMMs and SVMs. The general framework is perceived 35% preceding PCA 58.3% later than PCA utilizing GMMs, and 28% preceding PCA, 50.5% later than PCA utilizing SVMs. The database utilized as a part of this examination is Telugu feeling speech corpus (IIT-KGP)

Object Tracking using Supervised Level_Set Model (SLSM)

An item discovery framework discovers objects in this present reality in an advanced picture or video, in which the article can have a place with any of articles to be specific people, vehicles, and so on. So as to distinguish an article in a picture or video the frameworkneeds couple of parts so as to finish the errand of recognizing an item, an element finder, a theorem and theorem checker.In this work survey of different strategies which are utilized to distinguish an article, limit an item, order an item, extricate highlights, appearance data in pictures and recordings. The remarks are dependent on the considered writing and major problems are likewise recognized significant to the item location. A thought regarding the conceivable answer for multiple class_object identification is likewise exhibited. This work is appropriate for specialists who are learners in this area.. We initially portray the proposed system of two-stage supervised level set model in target following, at that point give summed up multi-stage adaptation for managing multiple-target . Positive decline is utilized to modify the learning after some time, empowering following to proceed under fractional and add up to impediment. Test results in various testing arrangements approve the viability inproposed strategy

Object Tracking using Supervised Level_Set Model (Slsm)

An item discovery framework discovers objects in this present reality in an advanced picture or video, in which the article can have a place with any of articles to be specific people, vehicles, and so on. So as to distinguish an article in a picture or video the framework needs couple of parts so as to finish the errand of recognizing an item, an element finder, a theorem and theorem checker.In this work survey of different strategies which are utilized to distinguish an article, limit an item, order an item, extricate highlights, appearance data in pictures and recordings. The remarks are dependent on the considered writing and major problems are likewise recognized significant to the item location. A thought regarding the conceivable answer for multiple class_object identification is likewise exhibited. This work is appropriate for specialists who are learners in this area.. We initially portray the proposed system of two-stage supervised level set model in target following, at that point give summed up multi-stage adaptation for managing multiple-target . Positive decline is utilized to modify the learning after some time, empowering following to proceed under fractional and add up to impediment. Test results in various testing arrangements approve the viability in proposed strategy.

Lateral load analysis of Retrofitted Masonry wall using Steel strips and Poly Propylene fiber

Masonry is widely used type of construction in the world. But these walls are built with no seismic loading requirements and they are not capable of dissipating energy through inelastic deformation during earthquake. Recent earthquakes have shown that many such buildings are seismically vulnerable and should be considered for retrofitting. To prove the efficiency of retrofitting of masonry structures, this thesis deals with an Experimental programme to ascertain the compressive and shear strength enhancement of masonry wall panels using steel strips and polypropylene fibre. The study includes six wall panels, three each for compressive and shear strength evaluation. In each of three walls, one wall is unreinforced masonry wall, the second is reinforced on both sides with diagonal steel strips and the third is reinforced with closely spaced polypropylene mesh. Separate testing arrangements we made for compressive and shear strength tests. During compressive testing only vertical load is applied and for shear strength determination, lateral load with vertical pre-compression is applied. During the test, observations we recorded covering all important parameters like ultimate compressive load, shear strength, deflection due to compressive and lateral loads and behaviour of steel strips under vertical and horizontal loading. Load carrying mechanisms are observed, varying from the initial, uncracked state, to the final, fully cracked state. The results demonstrate that a significant increase in compressive and shear strength can be achieved by anchoring strips and polypropylene fibre to the surface of masonry wall.

Novel test system and test procedure for fatigue crack growth testing with cracked round bar (CRB) specimens

Abstract A novel test system for fatigue crack growth (FCG) testing with cracked round bar (CRB) specimens was developed and implemented, utilizing a commercially available linear-torsion electro-dynamic test machine, several specifically designed test fixtures and devices, and a unique test and data reduction procedure. The test arrangement includes two different cyclic testing devices, which allow for tests at adjustable test temperatures and under predefined environmental conditions with variable gaseous or liquid environmental media. The test system and procedure allow for a quasi-automatic determination of crack growth rates via a self-designed optical crack length measurement device and tests air or other transparent gaseous or liquid environmental media. To account for the frequently observed asymmetric crack growth in CRB specimens, a special technique has been established, in which the entire CRB specimen is rotated in the test machine to enable measurements of crack lengths at various circumferential positions. To demonstrate the potential of the test system, high-density polyethylene (PE-HD) was investigated at an elevated temperature of 80 °C and in different environmental media (air, non-chlorinated water and chlorinated water with 5 mg/l free chlorine). When using the crack length mean value derived from crack length measurements from various circumferential positions, the fatigue crack growth (FCG) resistance of PE-HD at 80 °C in air was found to be independent of the degree of crack growth asymmetry. As to the environmental influence, chlorinated water with a chlorine content of 5 mg/l free chlorine was found to represent a more critical environmental condition than non-chlorinated water. Fatigue crack growth curves in air exhibited a significantly slower slope than the other two environments, leading to a crossover of the FCG curves with a tendency for higher and lower crack growth rates, respectively, at low and high stress intensity factor levels.

Assessment of VINO filters for correcting red-green Color Vision Deficiency.

In our ongoing research on the effectiveness of different passive tools for aiding Color Vision Deficiency (CVD) subjects, we have analyzed the VINO 02 Amp Oxy-Iso glasses using two strategies: 1) 52 observers were studied using four color tests (recognition, arrangement, discrimination, and color-naming); 2) the spectral transmittance of the lenses were used to model the color appearance of natural scenes for different simulated CVD subjects. We have also compared VINO and EnChroma glasses. The spectral transmission of the VINO glasses significantly changed color appearance. This change would allow some CVD subjects, above all the deutan ones, to be able to pass recognition tests but not the arrangement tests. To sum up, our results support the hypothesis that glasses with filters are unable to effectively resolve the problems related to color vision deficiency.

Visualization and measurement of load transmission in granular assemblies using mechanoluminescent-coated particles

Glass beads were coated with a mixture of mechanoluminescent (ML) paint and epoxy resin in order to visualize particle-level force distribution through an analog granular material. SEM observation and X-ray CT scanning was used to verify that the application of the ML coating on the glass beads was uniform. Load tests were conducted on single columns of coated glass particles to equate luminance to diametrical forces transmitted through the particles and particle contacts. The relationship between loading (force) rate during elastic loading of the coated particles and luminance was determined using a column of beads placed in an axial loading device. Coated glass particles were placed in a transparent plane strain container and subjected to biaxial loading to visualize the load transmission through the analog granular material placed in a regular packing. The anisotropy of chains of load transmission during loading was detectable using this test arrangement. The sum of contact forces at the top container boundary deduced from particle luminance is shown to be in agreement with applied boundary loads. This novel technique holds promise as an alternative approach to visualize and measure load transmission through idealized 2D assemblies of granular material.

Relationships among stress, emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence, and cytokines.

The brain has multiple functions, and its structures are very closely related to one another. Thus, the brain areas associated with stress, emotion, and intelligence are closely connected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the multiple associations between stress and emotional intelligence (EI), between EI and intelligence quotient (IQ), between cytokines and stress, and between cytokines and IQ. We measured the stress, EI, cognitive intelligence using IQ, and cytokine levels of 70 healthy subjects. We also analyzed the association of cytokines with IQ according to hemispheric dominance using the brain preference indicator (BPI). We found significant negative correlations between stress and the components of EI, such as emotional awareness and expression, emotional thinking, and emotional regulation. High levels of anger, which is a component of stress, were significantly related to poor emotional regulation. Additionally, emotional application was positively correlated with full-scale IQ scores and scores on the vocabulary, picture arrangement, and block design subtests of the IQ test. High IL-10 levels were significantly associated with low stress levels only in the right-brain-dominant group. High IL-10 and IFN-gamma levels have been associated with high scores of arithmetic intelligence. TNF-alpha and IL-6 were negatively associated with vocabulary scores and full-scale IQ, but IL-10 and IFN-gamma were positively associated with scores on the arithmetic subtest in left-brain-dominant subjects. On the other hand, IL-10 showed positive correlations with scores for vocabulary and for vocabulary and arithmetic in right-brain-dominant subjects. Furthermore, we found significant linear regression models which can show integrative associations and contribution on emotional and cognitive intelligence. Thus, we demonstrated that cytokines, stress, and emotional and cognitive intelligence are closely connected one another related to brain structure and functions. Also, the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha and IL-6 had negative effects, whereas the anti-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., IL-10 and IFN-gamma) showed beneficial effects, on stress levels, and multiple dimensions of emotional and cognitive intelligence. Additionally, these relationships among cytokines, stress, and emotional and cognitive intelligence differed depending on right and left hemispheric dominance.

Sub‐assembly experiments to determine PWM supply‐induced losses in electric machines

This paper presents a low-cost approach to experimentally characterise the effect of the inverter supply on the losses in an electrical machine. The set-up comprises of representative subassemblies of the stator and winding, referred to as ‘motorettes’, and a single phase, fast switching silicon-carbide-based converter. The sub-assembly-based thermal analysis has been shown to be a time and cost-effective method to examine winding loss, over a range of operating conditions. In addition to the slot to stator thermal resistance and capacitance. This provides critical information for thermal model calibration and produces more accurate thermal and loss predictions of the full machine behaviour. A test arrangement has been devised to replicate the magnetic excitation of the electrical machine stator during normal operation. This builds upon previous techniques, to allow iron loss to be investigated. Through multiple tests using DC, AC, and PWM-AC supplies, a 20% increase in iron loss is observed due to PWM effects.

Characterization of irradiation crosslinked polyamides for solar thermal applications – Fatigue properties

In this research, the influence of electronic beam irradiation on the fatigue crack growth (FCG) behavior of unreinforced polyamide 66 (PA 66) and two glass fiber reinforced PA 66 (30 w% glass fiber content, 35 w% glass fiber content) was investigated. In total, five different doses in the range of 0 kGy and 200 kGy were applied. While previous research covered the influence of irradiation on basic thermo-analytical characteristics and thermo-mechanical properties of these PA material grades, the present paper deals with the effect of irradiation crosslinking on the FCG performance. To cover the relevant range of service environmental conditions, the FCG investigations were performed for two different application near material states “as-received” and “water saturated” at 23 °C and 80 °C, respectively. For the water saturated material states, the tests were conducted with specimens under simultaneous water immersion. For this purpose, specific test devices and test arrangements were designed, built and implemented on an electro-dynamic test machine. In general, a change in the material state and test conditions from 23 °C in air with as-received specimens (fatigue testing occurs below the materials glass transition temperature TG) to 80 °C in water with water saturated specimens (fatigue testing occurs above the materials TG) led to a significant reduction in the FCG resistance. Furthermore, while for unreinforced PA 66 no significant effect of irradiation on FCG kinetics was detected for the as-received state at 23 °C (i.e., below TG), irradiation had a detrimental influence on the fatigue behavior at 80 °C for the water saturated material state (i.e., above TG). Interestingly, quite the opposite effect of irradiation on FCG resistance was found for glass fiber reinforced Pas. The irradiation caused a reduction in the FCG resistance for as-received material states at 23 °C, while hardly any effect of irradiation was detected for the water saturated materials at 80 °C.

The scheme and implementation of vessel hydrostatic test in cpr1000 nuclear power plant

Nuclear vessels hydrostatic test involves many important systems and key equipment in CPR1000 models nuclear power plant. This paper introduces how to make the nuclear vessel hydrostatic test scheme and the implementation of vessel hydrostatic test. The scheme of nuclear vessel hydrostatic test contains hydrostatic test plan scheduling, hydrostatic test Isolation Boundary, cutting and welding of hydrostatic test aspect, The implementation of nuclear vessel hydrostatic test contains instrument of hydrostatic test, working file of hydrostatic test, manpower arrangement of hydrostatic test, actual execution of hydrostatic test and technical difficulties of vessel hydrostatic test. This paper mainly discusses the scheme and implementation of nuclear vessel hydrostatic test.

Composite Roofing of PIR Sandwich Panels: Numerical and Experimental Approach

The PIR panels are composite elements made of an inner core of poly-iso-cyanurate (PIR) solid foam injected between two external sheets of fabric or polypropylene. When testing composite samples having such structure the obtained results (in terms of compression and bending resistances) usually reach relatively high levels. This suggests a possible use of panels in applications under distributed loading and not only as simple thermos-insulating layers. A large range of applications thus derives, i.e. cladding of timber roofing, sloping support for hydro-insulation in flat concrete roofs, or hydro-insulation support for trapezoidal sheeting for flat or even curved roofs. The paper presents an experimental and numerical study on two practical cases, i.e. flat concrete roofs and trapezoidal sheets roofs respectively. Standard testing of samples, taken from the composite core and from the membrane, have been performed in the frame of present investigation together with testing of some composite samples in compression and bending. Typical roof loading as gravity (dead + snow) load or wind suction have been analysed in the numerical simulation (reproducing the test arrangement) in order to assess panel response and to evaluate the practical applicability of these composites. Conclusions on stress distribution and deflections both under gravity and uplift load are presented. The high resistance of PIR composite panels (well beyond design loads calculated by the code) is confirmed, clearly indicating their practical applicability in the cases under study. This also meets the producer requirements who intends to obtain in the future an official agreement allowing to supply these particular composite solutions using PIR on the market.

Statistical modelling comparison of wearable UWB signal propagation in antithetical corridor environments

We explore the potential of mathematically modelling the ultra-wideband (3.1-6.3 GHz) off-body radio channel using the same statistical distribution for corridor environments. Radio channel descriptive parameters of received signal strength, mean excess delay ( τ mean ) and root mean square (RMS) delay spread ( τ RMS ) are presented, modelled and compared for five indoor corridor environments. Statistical distributions for these corridors exhibit strong similarities despite each possessing starkly different geometrical and physical characteristics, and test arrangements. Each of the corridor environments was best modelled by the Rician distribution for the line-of-sight (LOS) received power and the Lognormal distribution for the non-LOS (NLOS) received power. Distribution of tmean was best modelled by the normal distribution for both LOS and NLOS scenarios. The distribution of τ RMS was likewise best modelled by the normal distribution for both LOS and NLOS arrangements. For corridors 1 and 2 (considered to exhibit the greatest differences), a finite element study was conducted to substantiate that the results cannot be dismissed as statistical anomalies created by the averaging effect over long journey paths. This work is relevant for the mathematical modelling of UWB off-body channel sounding in interior corridors and may reduce efforts required to model future indoor corridor variants.

Calculation method to determine capillary properties of building materials with automatic free water intake test

The water absorption coefficient and capillary saturation water content are common building physical material properties. This paper presents a calculation method to determine these values with an automated free water intake test arrangement. Buoyancy affects weighing results in the automatic measurement and it is recommended to take these factors into account when deriving the real water intake of a specimen. A new mathematical method is presented and trial experiments have been conducted. The method is proven to work with the polymer modified plaster, concrete, autoclaved aerated concrete and lightweight aggregate concrete, which represent materials from both extremes of capillary activity. The functionality and advantages of the test arrangement for both low and high suction materials are presented.

Thermal and moisture properties of calcium silicate insulation boards

The purpose of this research was to determine thermal and moisture properties of calcium silicate insulation boards available on the Finnish market. Ruggedness testing and test arrangement development were done related to the pressure plate test, which was used to measure desorption isotherms in capillary range. Four calcium silicate and one calcium hydroxide board were examined. The determined material properties are water vapour permeability, water absorption coefficient, capillary saturation water content, moisture sorption isotherm in hygroscopic and capillary range, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity. Ruggedness tests and development were done to the pressure plate measurement method. Capacitance needles were tested as a method to evaluate the state of equilibrium and different vacuum saturation methods were tested.