Internal Wire Research Articles

Performance of Environmentally Friendly Concrete Containing Fly-Ash and Waste Face Mask Fibers

This work was carried out to explore the potential use of used face masks in concrete to develop sustainable green concrete. In this experimental study, used face masks were cut up, removing the ear stripes and internal nose steel wire, to prepare elongated fibers. These fibers were incorporated in cement fly ash mixtures as an additive to determine the response of M20-grade concrete. The Class F fly ash (FA) was employed as a fractional substitute of cement up to 25% by weight, whereas the addition of face masks occurred at 0%, 0.125%, and 0.25% by volume of concrete. The testing scheme focused on the mechanical and durability characteristics of the cement FA mixtures carried out after 3, 28, and 60 days of curing. The inclusion of FA and face mask fibers reduced the density of concrete specimens. The compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths of mixes were also reduced at an early age; however, the strength characteristics improved at later ages, compared to the control mix. The combination of both materials in concrete mixtures resulted in lower water absorption, lower bulk water sorption, and lower mass loss values against acid attack at later ages. Similarly, the electrical resistance of concrete substantially enhanced by increasing the percentage of both materials. The experimental results demonstrated that processed face masks can be utilized in cement fly ash mixes without significantly compromising the resultant concrete characteristics.

Tracing Root Causes of Electric Vehicle Fires

As electric vehicles (EVs) emerge as the backbone of modern transportation, the concurrent uptick in battery fire incidents presents a disconcerting challenge. To tackle this issue effectively, it is imperative to pierce beyond the superficial causes of lithium‐ion battery (LIB) failures—such as equipment malfunctions or physical damage—and to excavate the underlying triggers. This nuanced approach is pivotal to refining EV quality, diminishing fire incidents, and bolstering consumer trust. While issues that are readily apparent to consumers, like spontaneous battery degradation, vehicular collisions, or submersion, may seem like the primary culprits, they merely scratch the surface of a more complex problem. The true mechanisms behind these fires involve internal and external short circuits, yet these explanations fall short in providing actionable guidance for manufacturers or end‐users to enhance LIB safety. The heart of the issue is identifying the root causes that bridge failure triggers and resulting fires. A total of 20 root causes are identified, linking them to real‐world scenarios like overcharging causing internal shorts or wire harness issues leading to external shorts. With this insight, stakeholders can more effectively investigate and understand EV LIB fire incidents, bolstering EV safety and reliability, and promoting consumer confidence.

Effect of current probe location on response law of shielded multi-core wire

Abstract Bulk current injection (BCI) is a commonly used method in electromagnetic compatibility testing. In order to enhance the injection efficiency of the current probe, the interference process into the internal core wire is analyzed. Theoretical calculations indicate that the shielded multi-core wire exhibits a frequency selective response under BCI conditions. The-peak of the terminal load response voltage occurs at frequencies corresponding to the integral multiples of half the relative length of the cable. The position of the current probe along the cable only affects the amplitude of the distributed current on the shielding layer, but not its distribution pattern. The response of the internal core wire at the resonant frequencies is positively correlated with the distribution pattern of the distributed current on the shielding layer. The probe position has a significant effect on the magnitude of the wire-to-terminal response. Placing the current probe at both ends of the cable results in high injection efficiency and significant power savings.

Combined Threshold Implementation

Physical security is an important aspect of devices for which an adversary can manipulate the physical execution environment. Recently, more and more attention has been directed towards a security model that combines the capabilities of passive and active physical attacks, i.e., an adversary that performs fault-injection and side-channel analysis at the same time. Implementing countermeasures against such a powerful adversary is not only costly but also requires the skillful combination of masking and redundancy to counteract all reciprocal effects.In this work, we propose a new methodology to generate combined-secure circuits. We show how to transform Threshold Implementation (TI)-like constructions to resist any adversary with the capability to tamper with internal gates and probe internal wires. For the resulting protection scheme, we can prove the combined security in a well-established theoretical security model.Since the transformation preserves the advantages of TI-like structures, the resulting circuits prove to be more efficient in the number of required bits of randomness (up to 100%), the latency in clock cycles (up to 40%), and even the area for pipelined designs (up to 40%) than the state of the art for an adversary restricted to manipulating a single gate and probing a single wire.

A 16-channel Si probe monolithically integrated with CMOS chips for neural recording

Multi-channel neural electrodes as a crucial means are of great significance for information exchange between the brain and computers. Herein, we present a 16-channel Si-based active neural probe system that achieves a monolithic integration between the electrodes and circuits in a single probe, making it a standalone integrated electrophysiology recording system. The ASIC prepared on a base (2×2mm2) is a 16-channel analog frontend (AFE) for neural recording, and each channel has a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a bandpass filter (BPF), a buffer and a current bias circuit. The 258 neural signal recording electrodes (22×24μm2) are densely packed on a 50 μm thick, 100 μm wide, and 3 mm long shank. The ASIC of neural probe, internal interconnecting wires are all implemented in commercial SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The neural probe system achieves a 3.6 μVrms input-referred noise (IRN) in a bandwidth of 1.1Hz-10 kHz, 70.8 μW power consumption, 0.0785 mm2 area per channel, as well as an AFE gain of 58.1 dB Furthermore, the impedances of the Au electrodes can be obtained as 0.5–2.1 MΩ at a frequency of 1 kHz. The functionality of a 16-channel silicon-based neural probe is validated in an in-vivo experiment on lab rats.

High-Performance Wave Union Time-to-Digital Converter Implementation Based on Routing Path Delays of FPGA

Time-to-digital converters (TDCs) with superior performance are in high demand in application domains like light detection and ranging (LIDAR), nuclear physics, and time interval counters. One of the interesting architectures for field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based TDCs is the tapped delay line (TDL) approach with carry chains as delay elements. However, the resolution of TDL-TDCs is limited, and linearity is weakened by the ultra-wide bins that correspond to the FPGA’s long routing wires crossing into another clock area. This paper presents wave union TDC using FPGA internal routing wires as delay elements to subdivide ultra-wide bins. The Zynq Evaluation and Development (ZED) board is used to implement and test the wave union types: A (WU-A) and B (WU-B) TDCs. According to experimental data, the WU-A TDC based on an 8 × 128 matrix of counters has a resolution of 5.7 ps, an integral nonlinearity (INL) of 1.1170 LSB (RMS), and a differential nonlinearity of 0.329 LSB (RMS). WU-A TDC improves DNL and INL by 19% and 57%, respectively, over ordinary TDC. The WU-B TDC uses an average of sixteen different time measurements, resulting in an effective resolution of up to 0.356 ps, a DNL of 0.60 LSB (RMS), and an INL of 1.04 LSB (RMS). These characteristics make the TDC suitable for time-of-flight applications such as LIDAR and for other general-purpose scientific instruments.

Research on Intelligent Identification Algorithm for Steel Wire Rope Damage Based on Residual Network

As a load-bearing tool, steel wire rope plays an important role in industrial production. Therefore, diagnosing the fracture and damage of steel wire ropes is of great significance for ensuring their safe operation. However, the detection and identification of wire rope breakage damage mainly focus on identifying external damage characteristics, while research on inspecting internal breakage damage is still relatively limited. To address the challenge, an intelligent detecting method is proposed in this paper for diagnosing internal wire breakage damage, and it introduces residual modules to enhance the network’s feature extraction ability. Firstly, time–frequency analysis techniques are used to convert the extracted one-dimensional magnetic flux leakage (MFL) signal into a two-dimensional time–frequency map. Secondly, the focus of this article is on constructing a residual network to identify the internal damage accurately with the features of the time–frequency map of the MFL signal being automatically extracted. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method in identifying broken wires is verified through comparative experiments on detecting broken wires in steel wire ropes. Three common recognition methods, the backpropagation (BP) neural network, the support vector machine (SVM), and the convolutional neural network (CNN), are used as comparisons. The experimental results show that the residual network recognition method can effectively identify internal and external wire breakage faults in steel wire ropes, which is of great significance for achieving quantitative detection of steel wire ropes.

Functional Outcome and Range of Motion Between Internal Plate Fixation Versus Kirschner Wire for Management of Distal Radius Fracture: A Meta-Analysis

Introduction: A significant percentage of fractures treated in clinical practice are distal radius fractures, which are among the most common orthopaedics injuries. Distal radius fractures are common and can affect wrist function and general quality of life, thus they need to be addressed carefully. This research aims to assess the evidence supporting VLP and K-wire fixation procedures in the treatment of distal radius fractures. Methods: According to PRISMA guideline statement, the research was conducted. A systematic search was conducted in past 10 years. This research will include English-language, randomized, controlled studies that compare VLP with K-wire fixation for the management of distal radius fracture and have full-text. Data collection included functional outcome measures, specifically the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH), wrist Range of Motion, and clinical complication, which have been recommended as the best available patient-reported outcome measurement instruments for distal radius fractures. Result: The plate group had a higher DASH score with a difference of 1.46 but this result was not statistically significant (95% CI=3.09-(-0.16), p=0.08). Based on grip strength, it was found that the grip strength was greater in the wire group although there was no statistically significant difference (2.28; 95%CI=-0.13-4.70, p=0.06). There were fewer complications when using the plate with an Odd Ratio of 0.31 (95% CI=0.22-0.43, p<0.00001). Discussion: Plate fixation is still valuable because of its stability, brief period of immobility, and rapid return to an active life. The usage of locking plate fixations in the treatment of distal radius fractures has increased recently. Anatomical repair of the articular surface and fragment alignment promotes functional rehabilitation and delays the onset of osteoarthritis. K-wires are commonly used because they are easy to implant, don't injure tissue much, have an atraumatic insertion, and result in less stiffness and edema. Two other advantages are reduced risk of infection and enhanced fracture healing. Their disadvantages include wire migration, peripheral neurovascular injury, and less firm fixation. There was no difference between the two groups DASH scores or grip strengths according to the forest plot results. After a year, the study of wrist range of motion revealed no appreciable variations in flexion, extension, or pronation. It was discovered that treating distal radius fractures with plates had fewer difficulties than treating them with wires, based on the patient's issues. Keywords: Distal Radius Fracture, Fracture, Kirschner Wire, Plate Screw.

Preparation and performance analysis of integrated electric heating hydrogen production foam catalyst

Transitioning from fossil fuels to electricity as an energy source for industrial production is a crucial step toward future decarbonization. This study proposes a novel integrated electric heating hydrogen production foam catalyst and systematically investigates the influence of slurry composition and sintering temperature on the carrier strength. The research successfully obtains a catalyst with the required strength and significantly enhances the catalyst loading capacity. The findings indicate that: 1) Increasing the calcination temperature above 1200 °C can enhance foam strength and reduce cracks and voids in foam structure and joints. 2) Ceramics are more advantageous for the coating of the catalyst, enabling a catalyst loading of up to 152.11 g/L, which is 2.98 times higher than the maximum reported loading for electrically heated catalysts, the shedding rate is only 1.86 %. 3) The integrated foam catalyst is heated by an internal heating wire through in-situ Joule heating, reaching 650 °C in just 83 s. This approach, when compared to an external heating furnace, results in a 96.8 % reduction in start-up time, a 91 % reduction in total energy consumption. The integrated electrically heated foam enables a straightforward high-temperature insulation seal, making it suitable for various reactor materials and providing valuable insights for the broader application of electric heating.

Characterising the Pelletron beam at the University of Melbourne

The Pelletron at the University of Melbourne is a DC particle accelerator that has been used for materials analysis and ion implantation since its installation in the 1970s. Today, it is primarily used to produce proton and helium beams up to 3.5 MeV and 1.5 MeV respectively, for three beamlines with a range of different experiments. The beam stability and fundamental beam parameters such as the transverse phase space distribution and emittance have not been previously investigated in detail. We have performed systematic measurements to determine the beam current variation, finding persistent fluctuations: our study determined that internal wire scanners used for monitoring the beam profile contribute to a periodic current drop. We also found that large terminal voltage oscillations reduce the average current. In addition, the phase space has been measured using a custom-built slit-grid apparatus. We found that the Courant–Snyder (Twiss) parameters are a function of the operational characteristics of the Pelletron, with the emittance more than doubling between measurements. To parametrise the beam despite the fluctuations, we introduce a ‘minimum bounding ellipse’ described by a set of Courant–Snyder parameters that is representative of the beam characteristics for all the measurements: for our data, this has β= 8.2(5)m, α=-5.2(3), and an emittance of 0.34(3)mmmrad. These parameters will enable future beamline design in Melbourne, and give an indication for the requirements at other Pelletron facilities. Our characterisation techniques can provide a low-cost method to probe beam parameters for improvements in the operation and efficiency of similar DC accelerators, allowing for more accurate measurements and reduced data acquisition times.

Numerical prediction of fretting fatigue life for cold-drawn eutectoid carbon steel wire using continuum damage mechanics and effective slip amplitude

The effective and safe use of wire ropes in various applications relies on a comprehensive understanding of the fretting fatigue phenomena that occur between internal wires. Estimating the fatigue life of steel wires subjected to fretting loading through numerical simulation techniques requires significant computational capacity and time, especially when considering wear process. In this study, a more straightforward and practical approach for predicting fretting fatigue life is developed using Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM). This involves introducing damage stresses that account for relative slip amplitude and modified maximum principal stresses into the CDM framework. Additionally, the Effective Slip Amplitude (ESA) approach is utilized, incorporating relative slip amplitude and Walker effective stress, to evaluate fretting fatigue lifetime. A finite element model is replicated to obtain the relative slippages and stresses at the contact region. The accuracy of the CDM approach and the ESA approach is individually validated and verified by comparing them to experimental data and simulation results including the wear process from published literature. The results indicate that the CDM and ESA approaches, which combine relative slip amplitude and Walker effective stress, effectively predict the fretting fatigue lifetime of cold-drawn eutectoid carbon steel wires.

Detection of Internal Wire Broken in Mining Wire Ropes Based on WOA–VMD and PSO–LSSVM Algorithms

To quantitatively identify internal wire breakage damage in mining wire ropes, a wire rope internal wire breakage signal identification method is proposed. First, the whale optimization algorithm is used to find the optimal value of the variational mode decomposition parameter [K,α] to obtain the optimal combination of the parameters, which reduces the signal noise with a signal-to-noise ratio of 29.29 dB. Second, the minimum envelope entropy of the noise reduction signal is extracted and combined with the time-domain features (maximum and minimum) and frequency-domain features (frequency–amplitude average, average frequency, average power) to form a fusion feature set. Finally, we use a particle swarm optimization–least squares support vector machine model to identify the internal wire breakage of wire ropes. The experimental results show that the method can effectively identify the internal wire rope breakage damage, and the average recognition rate is as high as 99.32%, so the algorithm can greatly reduce the system noise and effectively identify the internal damage signal of the wire rope, which is superior to a certain extent.

Model-Based Optimization of Spiral Coils for Improving Wireless Power Transfer

Inductive wireless power transfer is a promising technology for powering smart wearable devices. The spiral coil shape is widely used in wireless power transfer applications. Nevertheless, during the coil design process, there are many challenges to overcome considering all the design constraints. The most important is to determine the optimal coil parameters (internal radius, external radius, spacing, wire width, and conductive wire) with the aim of obtaining the highest coil quality factor. Coil modeling is very important for the wireless power transfer system’s efficiency. Indeed, it is challenging because it requires a high computational effort and has convergence problems. In this paper, we propose a new approach for the approximation of spiral coils through concentric circular turns to reduce the computational effort. The mathematical model determines the optimal coil parameters to obtain the highest coil quality factor. We have chosen the smart textile as an application. The system operates at a frequency of 100 Khz considering the Qi guidelines. To validate this approach, we compared the approximated circular coil model with the spiral coil model through a finite element method simulation using the COMSOL software. The obtained results show that the proposed approximation reduces the complexity of the coil design process and performs well compared to the model corresponding to the spiral shape, without significantly modifying the coil inductance. For a wire width smaller than 1 mm, the total deviation is around 4% in terms of the coil quality factor in a predetermined domain of its parameters.

Combinatorial optimization of rotating matrix in centrifugal high gradient magnetic separation

Centrifugal high gradient magnetic separation (CHGMS) produces higher selectivity than conventional HGMS in concentrating weakly magnetic minerals owing to the use of rotating matrix, so its separation performance is closely related to the configuration of the matrix. In this work, the magnetic capture characteristics of the rotating matrices with different configurations to magnetic particles were described using a simulation model, and a combinative rotating matrix was proposed on the basis of the simulation results. The CHGMS performances of the combinative and conventional rotating matrices were then comparatively investigated for the separation of a fine ilmenite ore. From the simulation results, the increase in the spacing between magnetic wires and wire diameter decreases the mass weight of magnetic particles captured onto the internal wires of rotating matrix, improving its capture selectivity; whereas, the increase in the layer spacing of magnetic wires increases their capture mass weight, enhancing the capture capability of the matrix. For comparison, the combinative matrix achieves significantly superior performance to that of the conventional one for separating fine ilmenite, which is consistent with the simulation results. This investigation provides an important reference for the optimization and development of rotating matrix in CHGMS technology.

Differences in Carrying Angle, Baumann’s Angle, Anterior Humeral Line and Dash Score between Children in the Age Group of Less than 5 Years and over 5 Years at 3 Months Post Open Reduction Internal Fixation Criss-Cross Wire Fracture Supracondylar Humerus Gartland Type III

Introduction: Supracondylar humerus fracture is one of the most found fractures in children. In addition to adequate fixation, the role of age differences in the clinical outcomes of operative treatment of supracondylar humeral fractures is still a matter of debate. This study aimed to compare the clinical and radiological outcome of surgery in cases of Gartland type III supracondylar humerus fracture. Materials and Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design on the population of patient with Gartland type III supracondylar fracture. Patients were divided into 2 groups: age <5 years old (Group 1) and >5 years old (Group 2). The evaluation was carried out 3 months after surgery with open reduction internal fixation crisscross wire. The parameters assessed were Baumann’s angle, carrying angle, and anterior humeral line, and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) Score. Difference between group were analyzed using the chi-square test. Results: There were a total of 34 patients included in this study. Patients >5 years old had a 1.85 times greater chance to have a post-operative carrying angle of >15o (95% CI 0.993-3.474; p = 0.037) and 2.75 times greater chance to result in post-operative Baumann’s angle >80o (95% CI 1,089-6,943, p=0.037). There were no significant differences in anterior humeral line (p=1) and DASH score (p=0.244) between groups. Conclusion: The result of surgery in supracondylar fracture of the humerus over 5 years old tend to have worse radiological outcome (carrying angle and Baumann’s angle) than patient younger than 5 years old. Thus, treatment of supracondylar fractures of the humerus aged more than 5 years requires more attention with adequate reduction and vigilance against complications that can affect the bone growth of pediatric patients.

Mechanical and experimental analysis of steel wire rope during torsion

During actual operation, a steel wire rope is deformed due to stress interaction between its internal steel wires. In this article a finite element approach is employed to simulate the interaction of steel wire under practical working conditions. In addition, according to the amount of fatigue broken wire under experimental conditions, corresponding parameters are put forward to estimate the service life of steel rope. In this article, the effect of various conditions on service life of steel wire rope is analyzed, and approaches are put forward to improve its service life. The results show that the total stress in straight strand is larger than side strand stress, while the stress increases from inside to outside while increasing from inside to outside. The bigger the pulley diameter, the more steel wire breaks inside the wire rope.

Low-cycle tensile fatigue performance of a wire rope strand with an internal flaw in varied position and direction

Taking into account the effects of mean stress, elastic-plasticity and nonlinear contact, the finite element model of the tensile fatigue performance of an internal flawed wire rope strand is built by using the local stress strain method in the present study. A mesh model of the strand with a high-precision feature is established through a block-based method and refinement in the flaw region. The strand with a flaw is investigated to explore its fatigue life distribution, and the effects of the flaw’s position and direction on the strand’s fatigue and bearing performances are analyzed. The numerical results demonstrate that the low-cycle fatigue life zone occurs at the interwire contact region of the intact wire rope strand, while is located at the flaw region of the wire rope strand with an internally flawed wire. The minimum fatigue life of the wire rope strand decreases due to the occurrence of the internal flaw. Moreover, as the internal flaw’s direction angle decreases, the strand’s minimum fatigue life is reduced, and the internal flaw with the major axis perpendicular to the strand axis is the most dangerous. The internal flaw in the outer wire has a more severe influence on the fatigue property of the wire rope strand than a core wire flaw with the same dimension and direction. The wire rope strand is more prone to stress yielding due to the internal flaw, and the effect is getting more significant as the internal flaw’s direction angle decreases.

Cable bacteria with electric connection to oxygen attract flocks of diverse bacteria

Cable bacteria are centimeter-long filamentous bacteria that conduct electrons via internal wires, thus coupling sulfide oxidation in deeper, anoxic sediment with oxygen reduction in surface sediment. This activity induces geochemical changes in the sediment, and other bacterial groups appear to benefit from the electrical connection to oxygen. Here, we report that diverse bacteria swim in a tight flock around the anoxic part of oxygen-respiring cable bacteria and disperse immediately when the connection to oxygen is disrupted (by cutting the cable bacteria with a laser). Raman microscopy shows that flocking bacteria are more oxidized when closer to the cable bacteria, but physical contact seems to be rare and brief, which suggests potential transfer of electrons via unidentified soluble intermediates. Metagenomic analysis indicates that most of the flocking bacteria appear to be aerobes, including organotrophs, sulfide oxidizers, and possibly iron oxidizers, which might transfer electrons to cable bacteria for respiration. The association and close interaction with such diverse partners might explain how oxygen via cable bacteria can affect microbial communities and processes far into anoxic environments.

Investigation into Friction and Wear Characteristics of 316L Stainless-Steel Wire at High Temperature

The damping performance of metal rubber is highly correlated with the tribological properties of the internal metal wires. In this paper, the friction and wear characteristics of 316L stainless-steel wire are investigated under different temperatures, loads, crossing angles, and working strokes. Results show that the friction coefficient increases from 0.415 to 0.635 and the wear depth increases from 34 μm to 51 μm, with the temperature rising from 20 °C to 400 °C. High temperature will soften metal materials and promote the oxidation of metal. Softened materials can be easily sheared and removed under friction action, resulting in high wear depth. However, when a continuous oxide film with high hardness is formed under higher temperature, the oxide film can work as a wear-resisting layer to prevent further wear of the wire to a certain degree. At the same temperature, the loads, crossing angles, and working strokes change the wear resistance by affecting the surface stress, debris removal efficiency, etc., and high temperature will aggravate this change. The results pave the way for the design and selection of materials for high-temperature metal rubber components.

A comparative study of RF heating of deep brain stimulation devices in vertical vs. horizontal MRI systems.

The majority of studies that assess magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) induced radiofrequency (RF) heating of the tissue when active electronic implants are present have been performed in horizontal, closed-bore MRI systems. Vertical, open-bore MRI systems have a 90° rotated magnet and a fundamentally different RF coil geometry, thus generating a substantially different RF field distribution inside the body. Little is known about the RF heating of elongated implants such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) devices in this class of scanners. Here, we conducted the first large-scale experimental study investigating whether RF heating was significantly different in a 1.2 T vertical field MRI scanner (Oasis, Fujifilm Healthcare) compared to a 1.5 T horizontal field MRI scanner (Aera, Siemens Healthineers). A commercial DBS device mimicking 30 realistic patient-derived lead trajectories extracted from postoperative computed tomography images of patients who underwent DBS surgery at our institution was implanted in a multi-material, anthropomorphic phantom. RF heating around the DBS lead was measured during four minutes of high-SAR RF exposure. Additionally, we performed electromagnetic simulations with leads of various internal structures to examine this effect on RF heating. When controlling for RMS B1+, the temperature increase around the DBS lead-tip was significantly lower in the vertical scanner compared to the horizontal scanner (0.33 ± 0.24°C vs. 4.19 ± 2.29°C). Electromagnetic simulations demonstrated up to a 17-fold reduction in the maximum of 0.1g-averaged SAR in the tissue surrounding the lead-tip in the vertical scanner compared to the horizontal scanner. Results were consistent across leads with straight and helical internal wires. Radiofrequency heating and power deposition around the DBS lead-tip were substantially lower in the 1.2 T vertical scanner compared to the 1.5 T horizontal scanner. Simulations with different lead structures suggest that the results may extend to leads from other manufacturers.