Large Joint Angle Research Articles

Dynamic mechanical behavior of sandstone with filled joints at varying angles under coupled triaxial static and dynamic loading

Natural or artificially formed rock composite structures with consecutively filled joints at varying angles are frequently disturbed by coupled static and dynamic loads. Understanding the impacts of the confining pressure and joint angle on the dynamic mechanical behavior of rocks is important for the stability of rock mass engineering structures. In this study, seven joint angles and four confining pressures were considered. Dynamic triaxial compressive tests of sandstone with consecutively filled joints were conducted using a split Hopkinson bar (SHPB) apparatus. The test results showed that varying degrees of “strain rebound” phenomena were observed in the stress–strain curves, implying that the jointed samples in the failure stage could still store more elastic energy, which may trigger rock burst accidents in practical engineering. Moreover, the dynamic compressive strength and elastic deformation modulus were proportional to the confining pressure, but showed a trend of slight decrease followed by a noticeable increase with an increase in the joint angle from 0° to 90°. The combined effects of axial pre-stress and confining pressure resulted in different trends in the dynamic peak strain. The plastic deformation moduli of samples with smaller joint angles were insensitive to changes in the confining pressure and smaller joint angles, whereas those of samples with larger joint angles were sensitive to changes in the confining pressure and larger joint angles. In addition, the experimental tendency of the dynamic compressive strength under coupled triaxial static and dynamic loading was in good agreement with the theoretical derivation.

An experimental study on fracture evolution mechanism of a non-persistent jointed rock mass with various anchorage effects by DSCM, AE and X-ray CT observations

Bolt shows the obvious anchorage effect on jointed rock mass and has become an irreplaceable reinforcement method in all kinds of rock engineering. The influence of bolt support structure on the fracture evolution behavior of rock is an important source of reinforcement effect. Therefore in this research, a series of experiments are conducted to reveal the influence of anchorage method on the fracture evolution mechanism of a non-persistent jointed rock mass. Firstly, the relations between AE and the evolution of the strain field of non-persistent jointed rock specimen are constructed, which illustrates a distinct effect of the joint angle and the anchorage method on the AE characteristics and the evolution of strain field. And then, the effect of the joint angle and the pre-tightening force on internal surface cracks and three-dimensional fracture modes obtained by X-ray CT observation is analyzed in detail. The results demonstrate that for anchorage specimens with smaller joint angles, tensile wing cracks are usually dominated; whereas for anchorage specimens with larger joint angles, tensile wing cracks are difficult to initiate and the shear cracks are usually dominated during the loading. For the same joint angle, the propagating path of cracks in the non-persistent jointed specimens can deflect more and the propagating length will decrease more with the increase of the pre-tightening force. Furthermore, the tensile cracks can transform the secondary shear cracks under higher pre-tightening force. Finally, the evolution of bolt axial force in the non-persistent anchorage jointed specimens is discussed in detail, which further reveals the effect mechanism of the joint angle and the pre-tightening force on the fracture characteristic of jointed rock mass.

Contribution of muscle short-range stiffness to initial changes in joint kinetics and kinematics during perturbations to standing balance: A simulation study

Simulating realistic musculoskeletal dynamics is critical to understanding neural control of muscle activity evoked in sensorimotor feedback responses that have inherent neural transmission delays. Thus, the initial mechanical response of muscles to perturbations in the absence of any change in muscle activity determines which corrective neural responses are required to stabilize body posture. Muscle short-range stiffness, a history-dependent property of muscle that causes a rapid and transient rise in muscle force upon stretch, likely affects musculoskeletal dynamics in the initial mechanical response to perturbations. Here we identified the contributions of short-range stiffness to joint torques and angles in the initial mechanical response to support surface translations using dynamic simulation. We developed a dynamic model of muscle short-range stiffness to augment a Hill-type muscle model. Our simulations show that short-range stiffness can provide stability against external perturbations during the neuromechanical response delay. Assuming constant muscle activation during the initial mechanical response, including muscle short-range stiffness was necessary to account for the rapid rise in experimental sagittal plane knee and hip joint torques that occurs simultaneously with very small changes in joint angles and reduced root mean square errors between simulated and experimental torques by 56% and 47%, respectively. Moreover, forward simulations lacking short-range stiffness produced unreasonably large joint angle changes during the initial response. Using muscle models accounting for short-range stiffness along with other aspects of history-dependent muscle dynamics may be important to advance our ability to simulate inherently unstable human movements based on principles of neural control and biomechanics.

Quality Assessment of Scarf Joints Considering the Acoustic Parameters: A Nondestructive Approach

The present research studied the acoustic properties of 40 oak timber samples (Quercus castaneifolia): the acoustic coefficient (K) and acoustic conversion efficiency (ACE) in free vibration mode, using the free-free bar method with different planes of vibration, i.e., tangential (LT) and radial (LR). These acoustic parameters were considered for both primary virgin wooden beams and modified beams carrying a single scarf joint in four different bonding angles (60°, 65°, 70°, and 75°), individually glued with two different adhesives (isocyanate and polyvinyl acetate). Comparing the acoustic properties of primary solid beams with scarf jointed beams of oak wood in LT and LR planes, the steeper joint angles of 70° and 75° did not result in any serious changes with polyvinyl acetate adhesive. Scarf-jointed beams with smaller joint angles (60° and 65°) had significant effect on the acoustic properties relative to larger angles. Thus, beams having larger joint angles and beams glued using polyvinyl acetate may have enhanced acoustic properties.

MACCEPA 2.0: compliant actuator used for energy efficient hopping robot Chobino1D

The MACCEPA (Mechanically Adjustable Compliance and Controllable Equilibrium Position Actuator) is an electric actuator of which the compliance and equilibrium position are fully independently controllable and both are set by two dedicated servomotor. In this paper an improvement of the actuator is proposed where the torque-angle curve and consequently the stiffness-angle curve can be modified by choosing an appropriate shape of a profile disk, which replaces the lever arm of the original design. The actuator has a large joint angle, torque and stiffness range and these properties can be made beneficial for safe human robot interaction and the construction of energy efficient walking, hopping and running robots. The benefit of the ability to store and release energy is shown by the 1DOF hopping robot Chobino1D. The achieved hopping height is much higher compared to a configuration in which the same motor is used without a series elastic element. The stiffness of the actuator increases with deflection, more closely resembling the properties shown by elastic tissue in humans.

Can stooped posture explain multidirectional postural instability in patients with Parkinson’s disease?

To determine the effects of the stooped posture of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) on postural stability, we compared the kinetic, kinematic, and electromyographic responses of seven subjects with PD and 11 control subjects to eight directions of surface translations. Control subjects were studied in an upright posture and in a stooped posture that mimicked the posture of the PD subjects. When control subjects adopted a stooped posture, peak center of pressure displacements slowed and decreased, reducing stability margins toward values observed in PD subjects. Stooped control subjects, however, responded to translations with large joint angle displacements, whereas PD subjects exhibited small joint angle displacements. Stooping in control subjects did not lead to abnormally directed horizontal forces under each foot or antagonistic muscle co-activation at the hip and trunk, as seen in PD subjects. Upright and stooped control subjects never fell during the trials, whereas PD subjects fell in 16% of the trials. We conclude that stooped posture is a destabilizing posture, but it does not account for abnormal postural responses in PD.

Hysteresis reduction in proprioception using presynaptic shunting inhibition

1. The tonic responses of angular-position-sensitive afferents in the metathoracic chordotonal organ of the locust leg exhibit much hysteresis. For a given joint angle, the ratio of an afferent's tonic firing rate after extension to its firing rate after flexion (or vice versa) is typically between 1.2:1 and 3:1 but can be as large as 10:1. Spiking local interneurons, that receive direct inputs from these afferents, can, by contrast, exhibit much less hysteresis (between 1.1:1 and 1.2:1). We tested the hypothesis that presynaptic inhibitory interactions between afferent axons reduces the hysteresis of postsynaptic interneurons by acting as an automatic gain control mechanism. 2. We used two kinds of neural models to test this hypothesis: 1) an abstract nonspiking neural model in which a multiplicative, shunting term reduced the "firing rate" of the afferent and 2) a more realistic compartmental model in which shunting inhibition presynaptically attenuated the amplitude of the action potentials reaching the afferent terminals. 3. The abstract neural model demonstrated the automatic gain control capability of a network of laterally inhibited afferent units. A postsynaptic unit, which was connected to the competitive network of afferents, coded for joint angle without saturating as the strength of the afferent input increased by two orders of magnitude. This was possible because shunting inhibition exactly balanced the increase in the excitatory input. This compensatory mechanism required the sum of the excitatory and inhibitory conductances to be much larger than the leak conductance. This requirement suggested a graded weighting scheme in which the afferent recruited first (i.e., at a small joint angle) received the largest inhibition from each of the other afferents because of the lack of active neighbors, and the afferent recruited last (i.e., at a large joint angle) received the least inhibition because all the other afferents were active. 4. The compartmental model demonstrated that presynaptic shunting inhibition between afferents could decrease the average synaptic conductance caused by the afferents onto the spiking interneuron, thereby counterbalancing the afferents' large average firing rates after movements in the preferred direction. Therefore the total postsynaptic input per unit time did not differ much between the preferred and nonpreferred directions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Modelling and dynamic analysis of a two-link manipulator with both joint and link flexibilities

This paper investigates the dynamic characteristics of a two-link planar flexible manipulator with large joint angle motions. Both the links and the joints of the manipulator are considered to be very flexible. A comprehensive dynamic model for the manipulator is derived with the assumed modes approach and the Lagrangian formulation. The dynamics of the arms internal structural damping, dry friction at the joints, and backlash between driving gears are all considered. The derived dynamic equations are verified with experiments and a reasonable agreement is found. Parametric studies are conducted through numerical simulations and the effects of the parameters on the system dynamics are examined.