Material Transformation Processes Research Articles

Testing of a Novel Induction Heat Treated Steel Brace with Enhanced Buckling Behaviour

AbstractSteel braces are widely used to stabilize steel structures forming horizontal or vertical truss structures; however, their relatively poor buckling behaviour is often lead to overdesigned structures. Induction Heat (IH) treatment technology is a novel contactless material transformation process to effectively strengthen local areas of steel sections. Utilizing IH to increase the strength of the middle length of steel brace sections, buckling behaviour can be improved. The present study experimentally investigates the compression behaviour of the novel braces fabricated by IH‐treated circular hollow steel sections. A Digital Image Correlation (DIC) system is used to measure the experimental deformation quantities, such as axial displacements, out‐of‐plane deformations, and strain distributions along the brace length. Four specimens were tested with two set of different slenderness ratios (λ). Each set includes one conventional steel brace (CSB) and one IH‐treated steel brace (IHSB) with a stronger section at its mid‐length. The specimens were subjected to a monotonic displacement‐controlled loading history until reaching an axial compressive strain of 2.5%. It was found that buckling load can increase up to 20% in IHSBs. IH treatment was also beneficial in improving the post‐buckling behaviour of the brace. The compression strength was found to be more than double in IHSBs than in CSBs at a ductility level of 5 (ductility is defined as the ratio of the target axial displacement to the yielding axial displacement). Moreover, out‐of‐plane displacements were reduced by 28% for the IHSBs at an axial strain of 1% showing a more evenly distribution of strain demands along the brace length.

Acoustic Tectonics

This paper presents the idea, investigation, and proposition of acoustic tectonics in architecture. The research is based on biogenic material dynamic processes, focusing on the two opposing natural cycles of growth and decay. The results of these processes are studied and it is argued that they enable a theoretical and practical basis for acoustic tectonics in architecture. The theoretical and experimental studies present novel auditory and visual characteristics from the material transformation process instrumental for architectural tectonic articulation. The academic research is based on literary studies and case studies. The experimental research is based on material, prototyping, observational, and acoustic measurement studies focused on poplar wood’s natural decay and mycelium composites’ growth. The research findings have philosophical and practical consequences for how tectonics can be understood and developed in current and future research and practice by focusing on temporal material phenomena, leading to new synergies between material characteristics, formation processes, assembly logic, and architectural sound experiences. This research opens new pathways for tectonics as a theoretical and practical trajectory that engages with sustainable biogenic material and environmental agency, empowering architects to find new approaches to construction and address urgent questions of material scarcity and climatic problems.

Soft Control

Intertwining the work of designer Ana Piñeyro and anthropologist Joffrey Becker, this video.able essay presents an archeology of the processes involved in the transformation of matter and the manifestation of its behavior. Renewed attitudes toward matter, as framed within the philosophical stances of the new materialisms (e.g., De Landa 1997; Braidotti 2000; Barad 2003), have prompted researchers and designers to explore the performance and behavior of materials by tapping into their inherent morphogenetic and self-organizing capacities (Leach 2017; Menges 2006). Designer Ana Piñeyro follows this path. Building on the introduction of heat-responsive, twisted, and coiled polymeric actuators in the field of material science (Haines et al. 2014), her research explores the emergence of filament forms and their associated shape-change behavior in response to heat, with the aim of broadening available opportunities to design with active flexible materials in the field of textiles (Piñeyro 2020). Engaging in spontaneous, hands-on dialogue with the material as a means to expand the creative space (Piñeyro 2019) calls for a subsequent formalization of arising material transformations in order to enable their further application, thus raising the epistemological issue of the replicability of results (Popper 1959). As a condition of scientific knowledge, replicability invites the consideration of the performative aspects of practice and thus addresses its contingency in a reflexive manner (Pickering 1995). To this end, we provide insights on the search for replicable outcomes by bringing together the fields of arts and design with that of the anthropology of techniques. The reflexive work we present raises questions on least at two levels traditionally linked to two very distinct epistemic cultures (Knorr-Cetina 1999). Arts and social anthropology have an ambiguous relationship with replication, a notion that has raised issues in both arts (Debord 1994; Benjamin 1969) and sciences (Baker 2016). The scope of our contribution goes beyond this ambiguity. It extends to the search for the very conditions of replicability by paying particular attention to the parameters that can make it operational in a given context by considering the various operations required in its achievement in a reflexive manner. In doing so, we reflect on the role of the formal diversity that arises from variations that permeate the making process, identifying their influence on the material's aesthetic and expressive qualities. What steps are required to achieve replicable results? What forms of tinkering and what means are used to learn about and document processes that reveal the aesthetic and expressive potentials of materials? How does the milieu influence the outcomes of practice? A multidisciplinary dialogue between textile and material design practice and the anthropology of techniques contextualizes prerecorded visuals to reflect on the influence of the flowing negotiation between material, environment, and practitioner on the outcomes of material transformation processes. This is what we regard as a soft form of control. Setting off from the notion of the recipe, we consider the chains of operation and sequences of actions (Leroi-Gourhan 1993; Lemonnier 1992; Sellet 1993; Coupaye 2009) involved in understanding material behavior, focusing on the ways in which the former are shaped through the sensory experience of matter.

Mapping Art in the Industrial North Periphery of Beirut

Since 2005, the areas surrounding Nahr Beirut—the river that cuts through the northeastern border of Lebanon’s capital city—became subject to the development of “art worlds” (Becker). Specifically, the neighborhood of Corniche el-Nahr became host to art-related activities in museums, galleries, studios, artist residencies, and interdisciplinary spaces. At the same time, real estate developments began to transform the urban landscapes of the areas surrounding Nahr Beirut, especially in terms of housing and architecture. In this article, I aim to untangle the interconnections between artistic activities and real estate development around Nahr Beirut in the northeastern periphery of Lebanon’s capital. First, I examine the underlying conditions that led to the establishment of art institutions in the periphery. Second, by focusing on the rebranding campaign of Corniche el-Nahr, on the construction of mixed-use buildings and on the impact of these projects on local economies, I analyze the way arts worlds are embedded in the material and non-material transformation processes in these peripheral areas. Finally, I study the connections between art worlds and urban transformation, which led art professionals to question their practices within this urban context.

A Practical Approach for Uncertainty Management in Rubber Manufacturing Processes Using Physics-Informed Real-Time Models.

Industrial manufacturing management can benefit from the use of modeling. For a correct representation of the manufacturing process and the subsequent management, the models must incorporate the effect of the uncertainty propagation throughout the stages considered. In this paper, the proposed methodology for uncertainty management uses a nonintrusive method that is based on building a deterministic physics-informed real-time model for the a posteriori computation of output uncertainties. This model is built using tensor factorization as the Model Order Reduction technique. It includes as model parameters: material properties, process operations, and those random and epistemic uncertainties of known variables. The resulting model is used off-line to identify sensitivities and therefore to unify uncertainty management across the material transformation process. This method is presented by its direct application to an automotive door seal manufactured by continuous co-extrusion of several rubbers and reinforcement (metal strip and glass fiber thread).

General Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Method for Actively Capturing Target Molecules in Small Gaps.

Over the past decade, many efforts have been devoted to designing and fabricating substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with abundant hot spots to improve the sensitivity of detection. However, there have been many difficulties involved in causing molecules to enter hot spots actively or effectively. Here, we report a general SERS method for actively capturing target molecules in small gaps (hot spots) by constructing a nanocapillary pumping model. The ubiquity of hot spots and the inevitability of molecules entering them lights up all the hot spots and makes them effective. This general method can realize the highly sensitive detection of different types of molecules, including organic pollutants, drugs, poisons, toxins, pesticide residues, dyes, antibiotics, amino acids, antitumor drugs, explosives, and plasticizers. Additionally, in the dynamic detection process, an efficient and stable signal can be maintained for 1-2 min, which increases the practicality and operability of this method. Moreover, a dynamic detection process like this corresponds to the processes of material transformation in some organisms, so the method can be used to monitor transformation processes such as the death of a single cell caused by photothermal stimulation. Our method provides a novel pathway for generating hot spots that actively attract target molecules, and it can achieve general ultratrace detection of diverse substances and be applied to the study of cell behaviors in biological systems.

Cellular Automata Simulations of Random Pitting Process on Steel Reinforcement Surface

The corrosion of reinforcement in the concrete will cause the effective cross-sectional area of reinforcement to be weakened and the performance of reinforcement to change and lead to the degradation of the bond behavior between reinforcement and concrete, which can seriously affect the mechanical properties of the structural elements. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to accurately simulate the corrosion morphology and the corrosion products of reinforcement. This paper improves the previous cellular automata models and establishes a new cellular automata model framework for simulating the random pitting corrosion process of reinforcement in concrete. This model defines the detailed local evolution laws of material transformation, penetration and diffusion processes during the corrosion. Meanwhile, based on the spatial inhomogeneity of corrosion, three parameters are introduced into the model: The dissolution probability parameter p, the local corrosion space parameter <i>λ</i> and the local corrosion probability parameter <i>ɛ</i>, which establishes a parameterized model of corrosion probability. The research results show that the common steel reinforcement corrosion morphology can be obtained by adjusting the parameters. The volume expansion rate of the corrosion products is about 2, which is consistent with the relevant experimental research results. The cellular automata model in this paper can simulate the common steel reinforcement corrosion morphology and corrosion products in engineering.

Ordering of adsorbed rigid rods mediated by the Boussinesq interaction on a soft substrate.

Orientational ordering driven by mechanical distortion of soft substrates plays a major role in material transformation processes such as elastocapillarity and surface anchoring. We present a theoretical model of the orientational response of anisotropic rods deposited onto a surface of a soft, elastic substrate of finite thickness. We show that anisotropic rods exhibit a continuous isotropic-nematic phase transition, driven by orientational interactions between surface deposited rods. This interaction is mediated by the deformation of the underlying elastic substrate and is quantified by the Boussinesq solution adapted to the case of slender, surface deposited rods. From the microscopic rod-rod interactions, we derive the appropriate Maier-Saupe mean-field description, which includes the Boussinesq elastic free energy contribution due to the substrate elasticity, derive the conditions for the existence of a continuous orientational ordering transition, and discuss the implication of results in the soft (bio)system context.

Environmental impact of methane released from coal mines

Methane gas accompanying coal deposits was formed as a result of successive stages of the anaerobic process of vegetal material transformation into coal, at high temperatures and pressures, without external oxygen supply. During the metamorphism process, the content of C, H and O is modified, meaning an increase in carbon content, a decrease in hydrogen and oxygen, the nitrogen and sulphur content remaining constant. During this process, water and carbon dioxide is generated, the water being generated in the first transformation phases. Within the slow oxidation process, gas products result by using the oxygen content in plants, especially methane and carbon dioxide due to the fermentation stimulated by bacteria. Methane released into the atmosphere following the mining of coal have double ecological impact, participating in the destruction of the ozone layer and at the same time contributing to the enhancement of the greenhouse effect. At the same time, methane gas released into the atmosphere during coal mining may be used by mining operators as primary power resource for covering the power requirements of the mine or it can be used for commercial purposes.

Citizen of Empire: A Transnational Archaeology of James William Robertson

Transnational mobility of people, goods, ideas, and capital was a key feature of the British Empire in the long nineteenth century, as millions of migrants created new colonial societies at the expense of Indigenous peoples. Archaeological biographies of individuals provide crucial insight into these wider processes of social, material and environmental transformation. James William Robertson (1823–76) was an agent of change in this imperial-colonial domain. In 1852 he migrated from his birthplace of New Brunswick, Canada to the gold rush colony of Victoria, Australia where he developed interests in mining, water control and sawmilling. A decade later Robertson departed for the mining boom in Otago, New Zealand, where he expanded his business interests and entered public service as mayor of Queenstown and a provincial legislator. This paper uses the archaeology and history of Robertson’s life to trace his role as an agent of change at local, regional and international scales. His story links distant corners of the British Empire into a global story of colonialism, capitalism, and environmental change.

Simulation model of a stop production line: the relationship between financial return and productivity

Making innovations to become competitive is not always an easy task, and in the industrial sphere, this thinking becomes even more complex. In this sense, proper use in raw material transformation processes becomes very challenging for managers, since improving processes is a condition where more can be done with less. Thus, many organizations seek to develop improvements through existing activities using a variety of techniques that are addressed in the literature, such as value flow mapping, lean production, simulations, among others. Therefore, this article aims to study and apply the computational simulation, through the use of Tecnomatix Plant Simulation © software, to obtain the best relation between financial return and productivity of a upholstery production line. In the methodology of this work was carried out the structural proposition of five scenarios. For the construction of these, a current scenario of the production line was carried out and for each new scenario, operators were added with new tasks to be performed. Although the final results show a better financial return for scenario three, the results obtained in scenario five are significant in terms of productivity indicators, although the cost with extra operators is much higher than in the other scenarios. Thus, it was clear the relevance of applying simulation in the production line, since the model assisted the managers in the decision making.

Sprawczość w fabryce porcelany

Ethnography of a porcelain factory is one of the main components of a research project called “People from the porcelain factory”. The project is carried out in the porcelain factory in Ćmielów, Poland, owned by PolskieFabrykiPorcelany “Ćmielów” i “Chodzież” S.A. The project consists of anthropological research (design anthropology and workplace anthropology) and an artistic intervention in the field. The intervention entails manufacturing Human Trace tableware set and exhibiting it both in the factory and outside, to the audience interested in design. The fieldwork in the factory allowed the author to interact with various actors of manufacturing process – both in a more observational mode of ethnography and a more participatory one during the tableware production. Witnessing the process of material transformation of raw material into a porcelain vessel was also fascinating. The article points at the role of different modes of knowing and various skills necessary for porcelain ware production and focuses on evaluation of different ways of knowing, skills and cognition.

Interaction mechanism among material flows, energy flows and environment and generalized thermodynamic optimizations for iron and steel production processes

Combining modern thermodynamic theories, including finite time thermodynamics, constructal theory and entransy theory, with metallurgical process engineering, a generalized thermodynamic optimization theory for iron and steel production processes is proposed. The simulation platform for the energy consumption and emissions of the iron and steel production process is built, and the evaluation method of the material flows, energy flows and environment combining exergy analysis with life cycle assessment is established. On the basis of the new theory, simulation platform and evaluation method, interaction mechanism investigations for the material flows, energy flows and environment of the elemental packages, working procedure modules, functional subsystems and whole process of the iron and steel production processes are conducted, and multi-disciplinary and multi-objective generalized thermodynamic optimizations of them are also implemented. After optimizations, the selections of the processes and technologies, the distributions of the materials and energies as well as the utilizations of the residual energies and heats are more reasonable. The systems of the whole process are integrated, and the material flows, energy flows and environment are synthetically coordinated. Finally, the efficient allocation of the energies and the cascade utilization of the residual energies are realized, and the energy consumption and emissions of the whole system are significantly decreased. This paper can provide theoretical supports for the designs and operations of the energy and environmental protection center of the iron and steel enterprises by exploring the efficient, energy-saving and low emission technologies of the iron and steel production processes. It also can provide research platforms and lay science and technology bases for solving the common efficient energy-saving problems of the general material transformation processes.

Manufacturing and Machining Challenges of Hybrid Aluminium Metal Matix Composites

Manufacturing which involves material removal processes or material addition processes or material transformation processes. One or all the processes to obtain the final desired properties for a material with desired shape which meets the required precision and accuracy values for the expected service life of a material in working conditions. Researchers found the utility of aluminium to be the second largest after steel. Aluminium and its metal matrix composite possess wide applications in various applications in aerospace industry, automobile industry, Constructions and even in kitchen utensils. Hybrid Al-MMCconsist of two different materials, and one will be from organic origin along with the base material. In this paper an attempt is made to bring out the importance of utilization of aluminium and the challenges concerned in manufacturing and machining of hybrid aluminium MMC.

Animating geographies of making: Embodied slow scholarship for participant‐researchers of maker cultures and material work

AbstractAccounts of making as a social and economic practice, and as a process of material transformation, are accumulating both within and beyond geography. In this article, we turn our attention to how geographers have engaged viscerally with the labour process of making, by putting their own bodies to work, as makers themselves, or alongside those of research participants. Such embodied interventions extend academic understandings of the everyday, embodied accumulation of skill and tacit knowledge, as well as offering an alternative, methodologically transparent approach to nonrepresentational modes of writing. We review how geographers interested in making have found ways in which to deeply engage the field, often building on longstanding personal interests and auto‐ethnographic methods, in the face of pragmatic concerns for safety and security in the workplace, as well as the time constraints of the neoliberal academy. We conclude that the flourishing slow scholarship on geographies of making has opened up a productive portal through which to re‐connect work and the body. Deeper insights arise from implicating our labouring selves in both the making, as well as writing about making.

Calculating the pre-consumer waste footprint: A screening study of 10 selected products.

Knowledge about the total waste generated by the production of consumer goods can help raise awareness among policy-makers, producers and consumers of the benefits of closing loops in a future circular economy, avoiding unnecessary production and production steps and associated generation of large amounts of waste. In strict life cycle assessment practice, information on waste outputs from intermediate industrial processes of material and energy transformation is translated into and declared as potential environmental impacts, which are often not reported in the final results. In this study, a procedure to extract available intermediate data and perform a systematic pre-consumer waste footprint analysis was developed. The pre-consumer waste footprint concept was tested to analyse 10 generic products, which provided some novel and interesting results for the different product categories and identified a number of challenges that need to be resolved in development of the waste footprint concept. These challenges include standardised data declaration on waste in life cycle assessment, with a separation into waste categories illustrating the implicit environmental and scale of significance of waste types and quantities (e.g. hazardous waste, inert waste, waste for recycling/incineration) and establishment of a common definition of waste throughout sectors and nations.

Science, value and material decay in the conservation of historic environments

The historic environment undergoes cycles of material deterioration, and these processes have a powerful impact on the meanings and values associated with it. In particular, decay informs the experience of authenticity, as a tangible mark of age and ‘the real’. This article examines the intersection between material transformation, scientific intervention and cultural value. Drawing on qualitative social research at three Scottish historic buildings, we show that there are a complex range of cultural values and qualities associated with material transformation. Furthermore, we highlight how the use of science-based conservation to characterise, and intervene in, processes of material transformation can affect these values and qualities. We argue that it is necessary and important to consider the cultural ramifications of such interventions alongside their material effects. This requires a case-by-case approach, because the cultural values and qualities associated with material transformation are context-specific and vary with different kinds of monuments and materials. We conclude with a series of recommendations aimed at integrating humanities and science-based approaches to transformation in the historic environment.

X-Ray Diffraction Application for the Study of the Fine Structure of Carbon Fibers

The fine structure of carbon fibers, obtained according to specific preparation techniques, has been studied. It has been shown that the fiber material is heterogeneous, its component composition is determined by thermomechanical treatment conditions and addition of boron; also it depends on the angle φ of coherent scattering domain orientation relative to the thread axis. The mean coherent scattering domain sizes increase in transition to the components corresponding to smaller d002 values. Increase in temperature and duration of heat treatment, as well as the presence of a boron-containing additive, ensures formation of the components corresponding to smaller interplanar spacing d002 values in the carbon material. The observed influence of temperature and duration of heat treatment, as well as the angle of coherent scattering domain orientation relative to the thread axis, upon the component composition makes it possible to assume that the process of carbon fiber material transformation into a state of greater stability presumably develops through a number of metastable stages.

BIODIVERSITY OF FUNGI FROM SILVER ORE WITH REFERENCE TO THE PRODUCTION OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES

Micro organisms take part in soil material transformation process and play an important role in soil formation, fertility evolution, plant nutrient in effect, soil structure formation and improvement and degradation and purifi cation of toxic substances. As an important component of soil micro organism, fungi take a very important position in structure and function of ecosystem. The soil samples were collected and dilution technique and direct plating technique was used to deter mine the number of fungal CFU in soil samples and to isolate pure cultures. Fungi were identified according to their macrosco pic and microscopic features. During the study the identified fungus are Aspergillus japonicus , Aspergillus tereus, Aspergillus ni dulans , Aspergillus flavus , Bortyodiplodia , Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma, Monilia. The statistical report was done for the serial dilution techique to find out the maximum fungal growth and it was found to be Hypomycetes. As fungi thrive in competitive e nvironments, it is hypothesized that their metabolic compatibility has been strongly influenced by natural selection. The most abundantly grown fungi were found to be Aspergillus niger and it is tested for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles.

TRIP钢在高速应变率下动态响应机制研究

本文分析了TRIP钢在应变率1~4000 S−1之间动态力学行为，以及材料在高变形速率下的相变过程和机理，应变率1500~2500 S−1之间，是TRIP效应发生的明显阶段，在此应变率下TRIP钢充分的发挥了的应变强化、应变硬化、相变强化效应，TRIP钢在2000 S−1应变率下动态屈服强度明显、动态强塑积最高，具有较高的吸能效应。经过研究分析，不同应变率下残余奥氏体的转变量和形态机理是影响动态强度的主要因素之一。 In this paper, the dynamic mechanics property of TRIP steel in the strain rate range of 1 - 4000 S−1 was carried out. The material transformation process and mechanism in the high strain rate were analyzed. The TRIP effect was obvious in the strain rate range of 1500 - 2500 S−1. The excellent strain strengthening, strain hardening, and transformation strengthening were shown in the strain rate range of 1500 - 2500 S−1. TRIP steel has high dynamic yield strength, dynamic response and energy-absorbing capacity under the strain rate of 2000 S−1. The transformed amount and behavior of residual austenite affect the dynamic strength in different strain rates.