Institution Of Mechanical Engineers Research Articles

Special Issue: Composite Materials

First, the Guest Editors are grateful to all authors for their effort in writing the papers in time and acknowledge the outstanding work of all reviewers, allowing this Special Issue to be published as planned. The Guest Editors would like to thank Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part L: Journal of Materials: Design and Applications (JMDA) for the opportunity to produce this Special Issue related to the BCCM 5 – 5th Brazilian Conference on Composite Materials, which took place in virtual format from January18th to 22nd 2021, in Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Automation of the technology of connecting parts in the manufacture of aerospace products

The paper describes the improvement of the technology of manufacturing parts and components of aerospace production using computer-aided design and technological process control. The theoretical foundations and algorithms for constructing the technological process of manufacturing parts and components of the aerospace industry using various methods of joining heat-resistant materials, for example, by diffusion welding, are designed on the basis of theoretical and experimental studies proposed by the author of the patented connection method «Method for joining a heat-resistant cobalt-based alloy with silicon nitride-based ceramics» and technological equipment «Installation for obtaining metal-ceramic products», as well as «Attribute database for creating technological processes for obtaining parts of aerospace production by diffusion welding» and «Attribute database of technological equipment, tools and devices for mechanical processing of aerospace production parts», registered in the register of databases of the Russian Federation. The research is conducted at the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics of the Siberian State University of Science and Technology named after academician M.F. Reshetnev.

In Memory of Professor Wilfred Iwan

Wilfred D (Bill) Iwan, professor of Civil Engineering, emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology, passed away on 29 October 2020, at the age of 85 years, in Pasadena, California. Iwan received his bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees from Caltech, in 1957, 1958, and 1961, respectively. He did his dissertation work under Prof. Donald Hudson. In 1961, he and his wife and young son, moved to the newly opened United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, where he taught engineering. By the time he left the service he had been trained as a flight pilot and had attained the rank of captain. In 1964, Bill returned to Caltech as an Associate Professor, and settled with his growing family in Sierra Madre, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1970, he became a tenured full professor at Caltech, and focused his research on seismic structural engineering. During his 40 years at Caltech, Iwan served as the Executive Officer for Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science from 1980–86 and became professor emeritus in 2004. Iwan's research focused on fundamental areas of mechanics, including work to understand and characterize strong earthquake ground motion and the analysis and monitoring of the response of structural systems subjected to extreme events; he also was involved in the development of public policy regarding natural disasters. His research achievements include the development of methods to represent complex nonlinear structures with simpler linear systems, the development of practical methods for earthquake-resistant design, and the development of simplified methods for the analysis of seismic isolation systems for critical equipment. In 1979, he proposed an earthquake early-warning system for urban regions. Iwan was very active in many national and international organizations, notable among them the International Association for Structural Control and Monitoring (IASCM), the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS), in each of which he held leadership positions and served for many years. In 1982 he was appointed by then-Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the California State Seismic Safety Commission, which recommends seismic standards and guidelines for earthquake safety in California. He was re-appointed to the Commission by Governor George Deukmejian, and again by Governor Pete Wilson, during which time he became the chairman of the Commission. Iwan was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1999 “for research on seismic performance of structures, and for leadership in earthquake hazard mitigation and improvement of public safety.” He was a Distinguished Member and Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which awarded him the Nathan M. Newmark Medal (1997), the William H. Wisely Award (2006), and the Theodore von Kármán Medal (2013). In 2002, the California Earthquake Safety Foundation awarded him the 2002 Alfred E. Alquist Medal “for his lifetime of service to the profession of structural engineering and its application to the safety of the people of California and the world.”

DEVELOPING FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS WITHIN UNIVERSITY EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

The topic of the study is the analysis of forms of extracurricular work that contribute to the formation of foreign language communication competence among engineering students. The main tasks of the research are to identify the levels of formation of components of foreign language communicative competence among engineering students, the desire to work on self-improvement outside the classroom workload. Theoretical, empirical, statistical and mathematical methods have been used to conduct the empirical study. The participants were 64 students of the Educational-Scientific Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Technology and Transport of Chernihiv National University of Technology. The most popular language for learning among students is English. The majority of respondents (52%) have a medium level of foreign language proficiency; almost half of the students (43%) stated elementary level and only 5% of respondents have a high level of foreign language knowledge. However, the cultural component of students' foreign language communication competence is even less developed. The results obtained have given the ground for searching new forms of extracurricular work with engineering students. The authors identified the prospect forms of extracurricular work with such category of students, particularly: English cinema club, English Board Games Club, student Cultural Center, student culinary studio, hand-made studio, theatre studio, art studio, studio of additive technologies, student international fraternity, etc. Further study requires experimental verification of the effectiveness of the suggested forms of extracurricular work.

EFFICIENCY OF TEACHING ENGLISH MONOLOGUE PRODUCTION TO FUTURE MECHANICAL ENGINEERS BY MEANS OF PODCASTING

The purpose of the given article is to prove the efficiency of teaching ESP monologue production to students majoring in mechanical engineering by means of podcasting. The efficiency of the methodology devised was verified in the process of an experiment conducted at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in the academic year 2018 – 2019, from September to December. Three experimental groups, thirty-four students in total, studying in their final year of Bachelor’s studies, participated in the methodological experiment. The main stages of any methodological experiment that comprise its “nucleus” are: pre-experimental assessment; experimental teaching and post-experimental assessment. The obtained results of the pre-experimental assessment indicated an insufficient level of the participants’ communicative competence formation in monologue production, thus proving the significance of developing new teaching methodologies for the future mechanical engineers. The experimental teaching lasted for 28 hours and took place in three experimental groups on the basis of the suggested set of tasks. The set of tasks inferred implementation of information and communication technology and was performed both in class and out of class. Working out-of-class, students performed tasks on the podcasting terminal, arranged by the experimenter on the Internet on a special educational platform called Canvas. The purpose of the post-experimental assessment was to evaluate the participants’ communicative competence formation in monologue production after the experimental teaching, thus, verifying the efficiency of the methodology devised. The methodological experiment performed and the data processed by methods of mathematical statistics with its further qualitative and quantitative analysis have confirmed that the process of teaching ESP monologue production to future mechanical engineers is effective on condition that the set of tasks that envisages podcasting implementation is used.

Foreword

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 11th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems, in City, University of London from 9th - 11th September 2019. The conference is organised in collaboration with our esteemed partners; Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), Institute of Refrigeration (IOR) and International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) and on behalf of the Organising Committee I would like to thank them for supporting and promoting this event.

From the Chief Executive and News

From the Chief Executive and News

IMechE report says P2G could boost UK renewable energy

A new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers says that government and industry in the UK should boost investment in technology to promote the use of hydrogen as a way of storing energy, which would make the nation's energy system greener and more efficient.

Formation of research competence in university project-oriented training

The aim of the study was to investigate the efficiency of research competence formation of aerospace university students in conditions of project-oriented training. The technology of project-oriented training of students in the form of a unique project for the development and creation of a series of student scientific-educational small satellites was implemented. To assess the effectiveness of the system of formation of research competencies a set of criterion-oriented test tasks was developed. In the experiment was attended by 130 students of the Institute of mechanical engineering and mechatronics, consisting of three control and three experimental training groups. The experiment was carried out step by step monitoring of the process of formation of research competence at the end of the third and fourth years of study. Comparative analysis of the results showed a positive trend in all indicators in the structure of research skills.

Note

Vineet Sahoo and Rathindranath Maiti Static load sharing by tooth pairs in contact in internal involute spur gearing with thin rimmed pinion. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science. 2016, Vol 230 No 4, pp 485–499. This article was inadvertently published early. It was intended for publication in the Special Issue ‘Power Transmissions with Gears’ edited by TC Lim, S Theodossiades and P Velex, Vol 230 No 7–8, published April 2016, where it is reprinted for the convenience of print readers only. Online readers please access this article as above at DOI 10.1177/0954406215618424 .

Note

Luca Susmel Nominal stresses and Modified Wöhler Curve Method to perform the fatigue assessment of uniaxially loaded inclined welds. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 2014, Vol 228 No 16, pp 2871–2880. This article was inadvertently published early. It was intended for publication in the Special Issue ‘Fatigue Design and Analysis in Transportation Engineering’ edited by V Crupi, W Fricke and E Guglielmino, Vol 229 No 7, published May 2015, where it is reprinted for the convenience of print readers only. Online readers please access this article as above at DOI 10.1177/0954406214522991 .

Corrigendum

Corrigendum to “N Li, R Zhou and XZ Zhao (2011) Mechanical faulty signal denoising using a redundant non-linear second-generation wavelet transform. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 225 (4): 799–808. Original DOI: 10.1243/09544062JMES2410 .” This corrigendum is offered as a means to correct following errors.

Simulation of Local Blood Flow Gain

A device for studying the pulsation wave and vibration signals produced by the cardiovascular system was developed at the Blagonravov Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, for cardiac rhythm research. A model of cardiac rhythm and pulsation wave was constructed based on the concept of pulse consumers. Low-frequency modulation of cardiac rhythm was suggested as the key factor of the pulsation (address blood supply).

Born in Europe, the Gas Turbine Launched a Global Industry 75 Years Ago

This article discusses the developments taken place in the gas turbine global industry in nearly 75 years. Several significant events for both the industrial and aviation gas turbine industry occurred as the dark clouds of WWII gathered. The first utility gas turbine to generate electricity was developed by Brown Boveri and installed in the town of Neuchâtel, Switzerland 75 years ago. On 7th July 1939, it was full power tested at 4 MW in Baden, Switzerland. In terms of energy conversion, the gas turbine is relatively new from a historic perspective, being only 75 years young. The potential of the gas turbine was presented in a technical paper in February 1939, by Dr. Adolf Meyer, former Director of BBC Brown Boveri, at a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London. The modern Combined Cycle Plant achieves better than 60% efficiency and possibilities of 65% are foreseen as cycle improvements will improve incrementally.

Formula student as part of a mechanical engineering curriculum

Formula Student (FS) is a multi-university student design competition managed by the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Students are required to demonstrate and prove their creativity and engineering skills through the design, manufacture and financing of a small formula style race car. This paper seeks to explore the educational value that derives from the FS activity through a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. Through the analysis of the interview data, it was found that the FS activity supported development of student skills and competencies in the following areas: use of engineering knowledge to support the application of existing and emerging technology; application of theoretical and practical knowledge to the solution of engineering problems; development of technical and commercial management skills; development of effective interpersonal skills, including communication skills; and demonstration of personal commitment to professional development. In addition, a number of areas for implementing ‘good practise’ have been identified. The information herein supports educators in their responsibility to help meet the needs of the engineering industry for high quality graduates.

Special Section on Mechanics of Nanocomposites and Nanostructures

This special section includes a selection of original research papers focused on the mechanics of nanocomposites and nanostructures. The September issue includes the first set of papers on the subject. Most of the papers were also presented at the Nanomechanics and Nanocomposites Symposium at the 2012 Conference of the Engineering Mechanics Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers held at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. The Nanomechanics and Nanocomposites Symposium provided a unique venue for researchers exploring the intersections of applied and computational mechanics within the field of materials science at the nanoscale. In this area, there are both tremendous challenges and opportunities. It is humbling to consider the limitations of our current knowledge about the structures and properties of materials at the smaller scales. On the other hand, it is bewildering to consider all of the possibilities for breakthroughs in the engineering disciplines that might be achieved by understanding our world and employing that knowledge to make advances in the materials we use. Although this symposium featured papers on a wide variety of topics, mechanics of materials at the nanoscale was a dominant theme discussed. Indeed, four of the five papers in this first series were devoted entirely to nanomechanical behavior of materials, and a majority of the remaining papers also focused, at least in part, on aspects of nanomechanics. Accordingly, we are pleased to publish this collection of papers in the similarly themed Journal of Nanomechanics and Micromechanics. We believe these papers represent some of the wide scope seen in the field.

Special Issue on Stability of Composite Structures

The increased use of composites in aerospace and civil engineering has resulted in growing demand for engineers versed in the advanced design of composite structures. Composite structures are understood in the wide sense, including microstructured materials, composite structural shapes, composite members built up by subelements of various materials, laminate or sandwich members, small-scale composite structures, etc. Compositelike structural elements are increasingly used in traditional engineeringfields, such as civil engineering, mechanical engineering, or aeronautical engineering, and they have also found some new applications with some recent developments, such as biomedical engineering or biomechanics, nanotechnology, etc. This special issue is primarily based on the presentations given in the symposium on the stability of composite structures organized by the EngineeringMechanics Institute (EMI) Stability Committee during the ASCE EMI Annual Conference held in Boston on June 2–4, 2011. This symposium has provided a forum to discuss recent advances and address the future prospects in the area of the stability of composite structures. The symposium has covered a large number of topics related to the stability of composite structures including the following: • Buckling of composite members; • Plate buckling; • Buckling and vibration of thin-walled structures; • Shear and large displacement analysis; • Interactive buckling and nonlocal mechanics; • Shear effects for in-plane and out-of-plane analyses; • Inelastic buckling; • Anisotropic effects, microstructured materials, and stability problems; • Buckling of sandwich structures; • Stability of partially composite members and delamination effects; • Postbuckling; and • Dynamic buckling. After going through an external review process, the following papers have been accepted and are included in this special issue on the stability of composite structures. As indicated by the title of this special issue, most of the presented papers uniquely deal with the challenges in stability analysis brought by the complexity of composite materials and structures. Their specific advances by these contributions are briefly summarized as follows: 1. In “Local Buckling Analysis of Restrained Orthotropic Plates under Generic In-Plane Loading,” Qiao et al. investigated analytically and numerically the local buckling of composite orthotropic plates under generic in-plane loading and with rotationally restrained boundary conditions. They used both semianalytical and finite-element method (FEM) numerical approaches to characterize the stability behavior of laminated plates or panels of fiber-reinforced plastic structural shapes. The approximated semianalytical solution is obtained from the variationally based Rayleigh-Ritz method, and it is successively compared with available results published in the literature. 2. In “Modeling of Interactive Buckling in Sandwich Struts with Functionally Graded Cores,” Yiatros et al. studied the interactive buckling in sandwich struts with functionally graded cores. The postbuckling behavior is analyzed for this sandwich column composed of two Euler-Bernoulli extensible columns connected with a shear functionally graded core. Linearized and nonlinear analyses are presented for this nonlinear elastic structural problem, and the possibility of capturing secondary bifurcations for such nonlinear systems is numerically shown. This nonlinear model is compared successively to some FEM results based on two-dimensional analyses for the core behavior. 3. In “Buckling Loads of Two-Layer Composite Columns with Interlayer Slip and Stochastic Material Properties,” Schnabl et al. presented an efficient stochastic buckling model for studying the structural reliability of layered composite columns with interlayer slip between the layers and random material and loading parameters. The deterministic model is composed of two connected elastic columns with the shear effect neglected for each column. The nonderterministic approach is based on the exact buckling model, response surface method, and Monte Carlo simulations. The probability of failure for this stochastic buckling problem is computed, and it is shown to be very sensitive to loading and material distribution parameters. 4. In “Effect of Fiber Orientation on Buckling and First-Ply Failures of Cylindrical Shear-Deformable Laminates,” Cagdas and Adali investigated the effect of fiber orientation on buckling and first-ply failures of cylindrical shear-deformable laminates using an 8-node shell finite element (FE). The best ply angle is optimized for each stacking sequence to maximize the failure load. They identified that the rotational restraints at the curved edges have a pronounced effect on the failure load. 5. In “Thermal Postbuckling of Shear Deformable FGM Cylindrical Shells Surrounded by an Elastic Medium,” Shen incorporated the additional effect of an elastic medium on the thermal postbuckling of shear deformable functionally graded material (FGM) cylindrical shells. The surrounding elastic medium is modeled as a Pasternak foundation. The nonlinear governing equations are solved using a singular perturbation technique. The numerical results show that in some cases the FGM cylindrical shell with an intermediate volume fraction index does not have an intermediate buckling temperature and thermal postbuckling strength. In the case of heat conduction, the nonlinear equilibrium path for geometrically perfect FGM shells with simply supported boundary conditions is no longer of the bifurcation type. 6. In “Generalized Beam Theory to Analyze the Vibration of Open-Section Thin-Walled Composite Members,” Silvestre

Special Issue on Dynamics and Analysis of Large-Scale Structures

With this special issue, the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute wishes to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of the late Professor AhmedM. Abdel-Ghaffar to the field of structural and earthquake engineering. It is a tribute to his memory by his students, colleagues, and friends who were fortunate to cross paths with him during his outstanding career. We all share with him the passion and love for long-span bridges and dams and we feel that the best way to commemorate him is through our work. With an undergraduate degree from Cairo University and a Ph.D. from Caltech, Ahmed did seminal work on dynamics and identification of long-span bridges and dams during his academic career at the University of Illinois, Princeton University, and finally at the University of Southern California. He was a pioneer for his time: he was among the first engineers to recognize the importance of monitoring structural vibrations and to use them to learn more about the structural conditions, planting the seeds forwhat would become, in modern times, structural health monitoring. He was among the first to understand the importance of nonlinear dynamics andmechanics when dealing with long, slender structures or with complex materials such as soil. For his students, he was always an example to emulate: his enthusiasm in his work, in both research and teaching, instilled in many of us a passion for academia that has changed our lives. For his colleagues, Ahmed was an unlimited source of ideas, never afraid to try new directions and always ready for new challenges. Ahmed was a scholar in the true sense of the word.

Bridging the gap of history

The movers and shakers in UK engineering have voiced concern that heritage sites are too dependent on the skills of a voluntary and largely ageing workforce. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is concerned that: This has the potential to significantly compromise our ability to preserve our industrial heritage in the future. Knowledge transfer is key to working towards a more sustainable and self-sufficient solution. We need to take action now to help transfer skills, so that vital techniques and practices to maintain these precious links to our past aren't lost forever.

Roberto Ballarini Coeditor for the Journal of Engineering Mechanics

At its recent meeting, the Board of Governors of the Engineering Mechanics Institute approved the appointment of Roberto Ballarini as coeditor of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics, joining Kaspar Willam at the helm of the Journal. Ballarini, ASCE Fellow and a current member of the Board of Governors of EMI, is the James L. Record Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. at Northwestern University. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, he had also served on the faculties of Civil Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and Olin College. Ballarini is an expert in damage and fracture mechanics, which he has applied widely to materials including concrete, steel, sea shells, collagenous tissues, and microelectromechanical systems. His exploration ofmaterial characteristics relevant to these phenomena includes behaviors over a multitude of spatial scales, including nanoscales and chemistry. In addition to having served as associate editor of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics and chairman of the Elasticity Committee of EMD, Ballarini is the present chair of EMI’s Biomechanics Committee. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and the Journal of Nano Research. Ballarini’s appointment to join the Journal of Engineering Mechanics leadership reflects the EMI’s initiatives to cast a wider net in mechanics, transforming its journal in the process. Welcome Roberto, and best wishes for success.