Normal Impact Research Articles

Influence of thickness of hydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coatings on cavitation erosion of hydro-machinery steel SS410

Hydrophobic materials have the potential to replace the existing surface modification materials to combat the problem of cavitation erosion (CE), owing to their various capabilities like self-cleaning, anti-corrosion, anti-fogging, anti-icing, anti-fouling, and drag-reduction. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as a hydrophobic material exhibits specific combination of properties such as low friction coefficient, chemically neutral, good impact strength and considerable thermal firmness, that allow PTFE to be used in a wide range of applications. Therefore, in this work, an effort has been made to explore the effect of thickness of hydrophobic PTFE coatings on CE of the hydro-machinery SS410 steel. Hydrophobic PTFE coatings with three variable thicknesses have been prepared on the hydro-machinery SS410 steel using sintering process. Using high-velocity submerged water jet cavitation erosion test rig, CE behaviour of PTFE coated and bare SS410 steel was evaluated under various combinations of operating parameters: namely jet velocity, stand-off distance (SOD), and impact angle. Contact angle was reported to be increased with the decrease in the thickness of PTFE layer, which may be due to the increased surface roughness of PTFE layer with decrease in thickness. CE resistance of PTFE coated material with a maximum thickness of 121 μm, was found to be highest for all the combinations of operating parameters, which may be attributed to its lowest fracture toughness and better cushioning effect. Further, it was observed that CE of the coated and SS410 steel was found to be maximum at the chosen maximum velocity, normal impact angle, and intermediate SOD. The signatures of pits with circular and elongated morphology were observed for normal and shallow impact angles, respectively. In case of lowest PTFE layer thickness, overlapped pits with relatively higher depth were observed, which might be responsible for higher CE of the same amongst all the PTFE coatings.

Elevated Temperature Erosion of Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coating

Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is used extensively as a ceramic top coat of thermal barrier coating (TBC) system in land-based gas turbines and aero engines. TBC enables modern engines to operate at significantly higher gas temperatures. TBCs are subjected to solid particle erosion at elevated temperature, especially during the operation of aero engines in sandy terrain. Thus, the objective of the present investigation is to evaluate the impact erosion response of these coatings as a function of various eroding conditions. Toward that purpose, YSZ TBC was deposited on Ni base alloy using air plasma spraying technique. The microstructural features of the coating are evaluated, and coated samples are subjected to erosion test employing a high temperature air jet erosion testing machine at various temperatures, different impact velocities, and at different impact angles. The results show a brittle erosion response of TBC at all temperatures. The erosion rate of TBC is generally independent of temperature under the normal impact, and it increases with temperature under oblique impact at high impact velocity. Intersplat adhesion governs the erosion mechanism.

Experimental approach to probe into mechanisms of high‐temperature erosion of NbB2‐ZrO2

AbstractIn the backdrop of potential applications of boride‐based materials in high‐speed supersonic aircrafts, the present investigation probes in comprehending the mechanisms of high‐temperature erosive wear of spark plasma sintered NbB2‐ZrO2 composite. The solid particle erosion experiments were performed at different temperatures starting from room temperature (25°C) to 800°C using Al2O3 particles (50 μm). The air‐erodent particle mixture was impinged toward the target surface at normal impact with a velocity of 50 m/s. The detailed microstructural analysis using HRTEM reveals the generation and accumulation of a large number of dislocations within NbB2 and ZrO2 grains of the eroded surfaces. Such observations indicate the activation of dislocation plasticity during erosion at 800°C. XRD‐based analyses provided residual stress‐based interpretation for the enhancement of erosion resistance at high temperatures. In contrast, substantial material loss via brittle failure, involving the generation and intersection of the lateral/radial cracks, was recorded after room temperature erosion. In case of erosion at 400°C and 800°C, the residual stress relaxes as a consequence of high‐temperature exposure prior to erosion. The accumulation of dislocations near the crater region and shot peening phenomena play a dominant role in decreasing erosion rate with increasing erosion test temperature.

The effect of incident angle on the rebound behavior of micro-particle impacts

Particle deposition exists widely in life and industrial production. The particle-particle or particle-wall impact is the fundamental problem to exact description of particle deposition process. In this paper, the processes of SiO2 micro-particles impacting onto a flat SUS316 stainless steel with different incident angles under different incident velocities were experimentally studied under normal temperature and pressure. The normal and tangential coefficient of restitution is obtained through the experiments. Then the effect of incident angle on the rebound characteristics is studied by using dynamic model. The results show that the critical capture velocity is 0.809 m/s for normal impact. From the perspective of energy loss, particles are more likely to be captured by the surface at a high incidence angle. The dynamic friction coefficient between SiO2 particles impact with the stainless steel surface in present experiments is determined to be 0.435. The measured tangential rebound velocities are also predicted by two different dynamic models in the following work. To better predicting the rebound behaviors of the oblique impact, it is necessary to obtain the relationship of normal restitution coefficient and normal velocity by experiments.

Combinatorial Normalization of Liver-Derived Cytokine Pathways Alleviates Hepatic Tumor-Associated Cachexia in Zebrafish.

The role and significance of liver-derived cytokines in cancer-associated cachexia syndrome remain elusive. Here we report that combinatorial counterbalances of the leptin and Igf1 signaling pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) models significantly relieves cachexia. Double transgenic zebrafish models of HCC that stably displayed focal lesions, anorexia, and wasting of adipose and muscle tissues were first generated. Knockout of lepr or mc4r from these zebrafish partially restored appetite and exerted moderate or no effect on tissue wasting. However, genetic replenishment of Igf1 in a lepr-mutant background effectively relieved the cachexia-like phenotype without affecting tumor growth. Similarly, administration of napabucasin, a Stat3/Socs3 inhibitor, on the zebrafish HCC model, mammalian cell lines with exogenous IGF1, and two mouse xenograft models restored insulin sensitivity and rescued the wasting of nontumor tissues. Together, these results describe the synergistic impact of leptin and Igf1 normalization in treating certain HCC-associated cachexia as a practical strategy. SIGNIFICANCE: Disruption of leptin signaling with normalized Igf1 expression significantly rescues anorexia, muscle wasting, and adipose wasting in Ras- and Myc-driven zebrafish models of HCC.

Solid particle erosion of graphene-based coatings

Solid particle erosion experiments have been conducted to study the erosion behavior of multiple graphene-based coatings. In this paper, the effects of three factors on the erosion resistance have been investigated: (1) The effect of using graphene-based coatings (2) The effect of using single and multilayer coatings with alternating graphene and polyurethane layers, (3) The effects of angles of attack and erosion duration on the single and multilayer graphene coatings. The investigation also explored the coating surface quality, adhesion, and coating hardness. Finally, two parameters were used to evaluate the efficiency of the coating systems: Material removal and the depth of the erosion scar. It has been found that a single layer of graphene coating, H-146, provided the highest erosion resistance with improvements in material removal and maximum depth up to 19% and 8%, respectively. On the other hand, two layers of polyurethane provided material removal improvements up to 38%, while a combination of polyurethane layer on top of IA-700 (graphene coating) showed the best erosion resistance behavior at normal impact with improvements reaching 15%.

Spreading and rebound dynamics of sub-millimetre urea-water-solution droplets impinging on substrates of varying wettability

The interaction of droplets consisting of urea-water solution (UWS) with a wall is of interest for automotive exhaust gas after-treatment of Diesel engines by selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Since the impingement of tiny UWS droplets on the solid substrate is difficult to examine experimentally, little is known about the detailed dynamics of this process. In the present study, the normal impact of single UWS droplets impinging on dry solid substrates of greatly differing wettability is investigated numerically under axisymmetric conditions. Simulations are performed by a diffuse interface phase-field solver developed by the authors where the coupled Cahn–Hilliard Navier–Stokes equations are solved using OpenFOAM. The code is thoroughly validated against a number of experiments from literature considering the rebound of millimetre-sized water droplets from hydrophobic substrates.The numerical simulations on the impact dynamics of UWS droplets cover wide ranges of sub-millimetre droplet sizes and impact velocities that are relevant in technical SCR systems. A strong influence of substrate wettability on droplet dynamics is identified. Reducing wettability from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic conditions reduces spreading and enables drop rebound with reduced drop-surface contact time. The effects of drop diameter, drop impact velocity and equilibrium contact angle on the maximum spreading ratio are quantified, and regime maps on rebound versus non-rebound (deposition) impact outcomes are provided. The results of the present interface-resolving numerical simulations may be useful for development of more advanced drop-wall interaction models as they are required in CFD codes relying on the Euler–Lagrange approach for large-scale computations of UWS sprays.

Effect of rebar spacing on the behavior of concrete slabs under projectile impact

In this paper, the effect of different steel bar configurations on the quasi-static punching and impact response of concrete slabs was studied. A total of forty RC square slab specimens were cast in two groups of concrete strengths of 40 and 63 MPa. In each group of twenty specimens, ten specimens were reinforced at the back face (singly reinforced), and the remaining specimens were reinforced on both faces of the slab (doubly reinforced). Two rebar spacing of 25 and 100 mm, with constant reinforcement ratio and effective depth, were used in both singly and doubly reinforced slab specimens. The specimens were tested against the normal impact of cylindrical projectiles of hemispherical nose shape. Slabs were also quasi-statically tested in punching using the same projectile, which was employed for the impact testing. The experimental response illustrates that 25 mm spaced rebars are effective in (I) decreasing the local damage and overall penetration depth, (II) increasing the absorption of impact energy, and (III) enhancing the ballistic limit of RC slabs. The ballistic limit was predicted using the quasi-static punching test results of slab specimens showing a strong correlation between the dynamic perforation energy and the energy required for quasi-static perforation of slabs.

Development of a viscoelastoplastic contact model for the size- and velocity-dependent normal restitution coefficient of a rock sphere upon impact

Improved knowledge of the size and velocity dependences of the normal restitution coefficient (NCOR) is necessary for extending the NCOR laboratory results to practical rockfall trajectory analysis. Hence, a new normal impact device was developed for conducting laboratory impact tests of marble spheres under a wide range of impact velocities. Compression tests of marble spheres were also conducted. A new viscoelastoplastic contact model was proposed, and the size- and rate-dependent contact yield strength was considered for the first time. The results of compression tests demonstrate that the contact yield strength is strongly size-dependent. The size effect of the NCOR at low impact velocities is opposite that at higher impact velocities. The theoretical NCOR that was obtained from the proposed model with size- and rate-dependent strength shows satisfactory agreement with the experimental results. The complex size and velocity dependences of the NCOR are well captured by the proposed model. The theoretical results clearly demonstrate that the influence of the size on the NCOR substantially exceeds that of the impact velocity. The viscosity determines the NCOR for small marble spheres at low impact velocities, and plasticity is the dominant factor that determines the NCOR of large marble spheres at high impact velocities.

High velocity measurements of particle rebound characteristics under erosive conditions of high pressure compressors

Ingested sand particles may lead to severe erosion in aero engine compressors resulting in performance deterioration. Predicting particle trajectories through a turbo machine requires accurate estimation of the particle rebound. The experimental investigation of particle impact is a challenging task with high demands on measurement equipment due to the combination of small particle sizes with high impact velocities. Therefore high velocity impacts with a realistic combination of both, impact velocity and particle size, have not been investigated experimentally yet. In this work high velocity impacts have been measured for 60 μm sized quartz particles impacting stainless steel (1.4301) and Ti6Al4V targets. The experiments were conducted in a sand-blast type erosion test rig designed to meet compressor specific boundary conditions representative for a third stage axial compressor of civil jet engines. Particle Shadow Velocimetry is used to measure the particle velocities in the test rig. A dimensional analysis of normal impact is presented to discuss the effect of particle size and impact velocity on the rebound characteristics. It was found that the widely used approach to implement the energy loss via a simple curve-fit that solely depends on the impact angle is not valid throughout the broad range of possible impact events in aero engine compressors. In addition, for a realistic combination of particle size and impact velocity, particle fracture was observed. The fracture alters the Stokes Number of the particles and with that the particle trajectory after first impact. Hence the accurate prediction of the particle-wall interaction includes not only the change of particle direction and velocity upon impact but the treatment of the particle fracture. This is especially relevant for high impact velocities and high normal impact velocities.

Effect of eccentricity and obliquity on the ballistic performance and energy dissipation of hemispherical shell subjected to ogive nosed

A numerical study was undertaken to investigate the effect of projectile eccentricity and obliquity impact on the ballistic performance of the Aluminium 1100-H12 1 mm thick hemispherical shell against ogive nose projectile. The projectile eccentric distance was taken with respect to the radius of the shell such as 0th, R/4th, 2R/4th and 3R/4th whereas, the incidence angle of the projectile as 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, and 60° for each shell (68, 100, 150 and 200 mm diameter). The projectile was impacted at different velocities for each incidence angle and eccentric distance and ballistic limit obtained. Three-dimensional finite element simulations were carried out by using the Abaqus/explicit solver. Johnson cook material model was used to simulate the behaviour of a hemispherical shell. The results of the numerical study were elucidated through the experimental result conducted for normal impact. Moreover, user-defined coding written in python was used to obtain the energy dissipation in different stretching mode. The result showed that the ballistic performance of the target was influenced by both the eccentricity and obliquity. Also, the target was failed in ductile hole enlargement with petals formation however, the number of petals form was depended upon the eccentricity and obliquity.

P-wave diffraction by three collinear griffith cracks under normal impact

The boundary value problem of P-wave diffraction by three collinear Griffith cracks under normal impact has been considered. Laplace and Fourier transforms have been applied to convert the problem to a Fredholm integral equation of second kind in the Laplace transform plane. Stress Intensity Factor has been computed numerically by Laplace inversion using Zakian's Algorithm and plotted graphically against time for orthotropic material.

The importance of modeling the human cerebral vasculature in blunt trauma

BackgroundMultiple studies describing human head finite element (FE) models have established the importance of including the major cerebral vasculature to improve the accuracy of the model predictions. However, a more detailed network of cerebral vasculature, including the major veins and arteries as well as their branch vessels, can further enhance the model-predicted biomechanical responses and help identify correlates to observed blunt-induced brain injury.MethodsWe used an anatomically accurate three-dimensional geometry of a 50th percentile U.S. male head that included the skin, eyes, sinuses, spine, skull, brain, meninges, and a detailed network of cerebral vasculature to develop a high-fidelity model. We performed blunt trauma simulations and determined the intracranial pressure (ICP), the relative displacement (RD), the von Mises stress, and the maximum principal strain. We validated our detailed-vasculature model by comparing the model-predicted ICP and RD values with experimental measurements. To quantify the influence of including a more comprehensive network of brain vessels, we compared the biomechanical responses of our detailed-vasculature model with those of a reduced-vasculature model and a no-vasculature model.ResultsFor an inclined frontal impact, the predicted ICP matched well with the experimental results in the fossa, frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, with peak-pressure differences ranging from 2.4% to 9.4%. For a normal frontal impact, the predicted ICP matched the experimental results in the frontal lobe and lateral ventricle, with peak-pressure discrepancies equivalent to 1.9% and 22.3%, respectively. For an offset parietal impact, the model-predicted RD matched well with the experimental measurements, with peak RD differences of 27% and 24% in the right and left cerebral hemispheres, respectively. Incorporating the detailed cerebral vasculature did not influence the ICP but redistributed the brain-tissue stresses and strains by as much as 30%. In addition, our detailed-vasculature model predicted strain reductions by as much as 28% when compared to current reduced-vasculature FE models that only include the major cerebral vessels.ConclusionsOur study highlights the importance of including a detailed representation of the cerebral vasculature in FE models to more accurately estimate the biomechanical responses of the human brain to blunt impact.

Effect of Different Cryogenic Rolling Strains on the Impact Properties of 6082 Aluminum Alloy

The demand for light-weight materials, exhibiting superior strength and higher toughness, has increased attention to cryogenic temperature rolling as it produces bi-modal microstructures with improved mechanical properties. The samples were cryorolled to a final thickness of 1 mm after thickness reductions of 50%, 66.66%, 75%, and 80%. The ballistic behavior of cryorolled AA 6082 aluminum alloy with different rolling strains/thickness reductions was investigated in this study. The cryorolled Al alloys were subjected to normal high-speed impact using dome-shaped projectiles at velocities between 50 and 250 m/s. The 66.66% thickness reduced samples exhibited higher impact resistance, especially at higher impact velocities. The maximum energy absorption of 106.43 J was observed for 66.66% thickness reduced sample at an impact velocity of 234.38 m/s. This study suggests the existence of an optimal value of cryogenic rolling strain for superior impact resistance, possibly due to an ideal combination of coarse and fine grains in the resulting bimodal microstructure.

Image Contrast, Image Pre-Processing, and T1 Mapping Affect MRI Radiomic Feature Repeatability in Patients with Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases.

Simple SummaryMedical images are data. They contain more information than is routinely identified by radiologists reading scans. Many scientists are investigating if extracting shape and grey-scale features from images can predict which oncology patients will respond to therapy. This approach, termed ‘radiomics’, must be validated before being ready for clinical use. One step is to determine measurement repeatability to ensure that radiomic features are robust, and that changes in features reflect genuine changes in tumours. In this study patients had two repeated sets of magnetic resonance imaging scans. We found that radiomic feature repeatability varied depending on scan acquisition parameters and the use of an administered contrast agent. We also compared how different repeatability assessment methods can best reveal these findings. We conclude that measuring radiomic feature repeatability is essential, but is also complex and prone to pitfalls. Overall, our study provides several insights into how radiomic feature repeatability is best assessed.Imaging biomarkers require technical, biological, and clinical validation to be translated into robust tools in research or clinical settings. This study contributes to the technical validation of radiomic features from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by evaluating the repeatability of features from four MR sequences: pre-contrast T- and T-weighted images, pre-contrast quantitative T maps (qT), and contrast-enhanced T-weighted images. Fifty-one patients with colorectal cancer liver metastases were scanned twice, up to 7 days apart. Repeatability was quantified using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and repeatability coefficient (RC), and the impact of non-Gaussian feature distributions and image normalisation was evaluated. Most radiomic features had non-Gaussian distributions, but Box–Cox transformations enabled ICCs and RCs to be calculated appropriately for an average of 97% of features across sequences. ICCs ranged from to , with volume and other shape features tending to be most repeatable; volume ICC > 0.98 for all sequences. 19% of features from non-normalised images exhibited significantly different ICCs in pair-wise sequence comparisons. Normalisation tended to increase ICCs for pre-contrast T- and T-weighted images, and decrease ICCs for qT maps. RCs tended to vary more between sequences than ICCs, showing that evaluations of feature performance depend on the chosen metric. This work suggests that feature-specific repeatability, from specific combinations of MR sequence and pre-processing steps, should be evaluated to select robust radiomic features as biomarkers in specific studies. In addition, as different repeatability metrics can provide different insights into a specific feature, consideration of the appropriate metric should be taken in a study-specific context.

Honeycomb core failure mechanism of CFRP/Nomex sandwich panel under multi-angle impact of hail ice

The rudder of an airplane is fabricated as a sandwich panel and can potentially be damaged by hail ice. The dynamic responses of a CFRP/Nomex sandwich panel with barely any visible core damage under multi-angle impact of an ice sphere at various velocities are researched experimentally and by using numerical simulations at the mesoscale. The results show that the honeycomb core represents three types of failure modes: wrinkling, fracture of cell walls, and debonding of cell walls at the interface of two-glued-paper-walls (TGPW) due to resin failure. These failure modes exist at specific impact velocities and angles. This paper proposes a mesoscale numerical modeling method of a honeycomb structure to represent the debonding failure at the TGPW interface. In addition, the mechanical properties of these failures are revealed, as the wrinkling of the cell walls are caused by buckling and the fracture of the cell walls and debonding of the TGPW interface are caused by out-plane and in-plane shearing of cell walls. The results showed that the relationship between the denting and impact kinetic energy under multi-angle impact is linear with respect to the impact angle. The effects of impact angles on the contacting forces on a rigid wall and sandwich panel are presented as the amount of peak impact forces affected by the target material type. However, the intensity of the peak impact forces is rarely affected by the type of the target material. The peak impact force of nonvertical impact is greater than that of the normal impact when the normal components of the impact velocities are the same. This is because the impact angle affects the distribution of ice scatter fragments during the impact, and this generates different pressure distributions on the face sheet of the panel.

Study of post-impact behaviour of thin carbon/epoxy laminates subject to fatigue tensile loading

This article concerns the experimental and numerical study of post-impact damage propagation in thin carbon/epoxy woven composite laminates loaded in fatigue tension. Low velocity normal drop weight impact tests are first performed. Post-impact fatigue tensile tests are then carried out. They are controlled in displacement. The monitoring is based on Digital Image Correlation and RX tomography. The influence of the impact energy and the tensile fatigue loading on the post-impact damage propagation is studied. The damage propagation is governed by matrix damage, with the emergence of tows/resin splittings and intra-tows crackings as well as delamination when the plies have different orientations. When the impact energy or the displacement level increases, the post-impact damage initiates sooner and propagate faster. In some cases, that can lead to a quasi-instantaneous failure identical to that observed for quasi-static tensile loading. The FEM based semi-continuous approach, initialy developped for the modelling of impact damage, is extended to fatigue loading for carbon/epoxy woven laminates. Fatigue damage laws, based on experimental observations are implemented. The modelling well correlates the experimental results in terms of damage propagation scenario and speed depending on the number of cycles for laminates made up of plies with the same orientation.

On the influence of non-individual binaural cues and the impact of level normalization on auditory distance estimation of nearby sound sources

Nearby sound sources provide distinct binaural cues, mainly in the form of interaural level differences, which vary with respect to distance and azimuth. However, there is a long-standing controversy regarding whether humans can actually utilize binaural cues for distance estimation of nearby sources. Therefore, we conducted three experiments using non-individual binaural synthesis. In Experiment 1, subjects had to estimate the relative distance of loudness-normalized and non-normalized nearby sources in static and dynamic binaural rendering in a multi-stimulus comparison task under anechoic conditions. Loudness normalization was used as a plausible method to compensate for noticeable intensity differences between stimuli. With the employed loudness normalization, nominal distance did not significantly affect distance ratings for most conditions despite the presence of non-individual binaural distance cues. In Experiment 2, subjects had to judge the relative distance between loudness-normalized sources in dynamic binaural rendering in a forced-choice task. Below chance performance in this more sensitive task revealed that the employed loudness normalization strongly affected distance estimation. As this finding indicated a general issue with loudness normalization for studies on relative distance estimation, Experiment 3 directly tested the validity of loudness normalization and a frequently used amplitude normalization. Results showed that both normalization methods lead to remaining (incorrect) intensity cues, which subjects most likely used for relative distance estimation. The experiments revealed that both examined normalization methods have consequential drawbacks. These drawbacks might in parts explain conflicting findings regarding the effectiveness of binaural cues for relative distance estimation in the literature.

Impact of stain normalization and patch selection on the performance of convolutional neural networks in histological breast and prostate cancer classification

BackgroundRecently, deep learning has rapidly become the methodology of choice in digital pathology image analysis. However, due to the current challenges of digital pathology (color stain variability, large images, etc.), specific pre-processing steps are required to train a reliable deep learning model. MethodIn this work, there are two main goals: i) present a fully automated pre-processing algorithm for a smart patch selection within histopathological images, and ii) evaluate the impact of the proposed strategy within a deep learning framework for the detection of prostate and breast cancer. The proposed algorithm is specifically designed to extract patches only on informative regions (i.e., high density of nuclei), most likely representative of where cancer can be detected. ResultsOur strategy was developed and tested on 1000 hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained images of prostate and breast tissue. By combining a stain normalization step and a segmentation-driven patch extraction, the proposed approach is capable of increasing the performance of a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for the detection of prostate cancer (18.61% accuracy improvement) and breast cancer (17.72% accuracy improvement). ConclusionWe strongly believe that the integration of the proposed pre-processing steps within deep learning frameworks will allow the achievement of robust and reliable CAD systems. Being based on nuclei detection, this strategy can be easily extended to other glandular tissues (e.g., colon, thyroid, pancreas, etc.) or staining methods (e.g., PAS).

Classification of Hematoxylin and Eosin-Stained Breast Cancer Histology Microscopy Images Using Transfer Learning with EfficientNets.

Breast cancer is a fatal disease and is a leading cause of death in women worldwide. The process of diagnosis based on biopsy tissue is nontrivial, time-consuming, and prone to human error, and there may be conflict about the final diagnosis due to interobserver variability. Computer-aided diagnosis systems have been designed and implemented to combat these issues. These systems contribute significantly to increasing the efficiency and accuracy and reducing the cost of diagnosis. Moreover, these systems must perform better so that their determined diagnosis can be more reliable. This research investigates the application of the EfficientNet architecture for the classification of hematoxylin and eosin-stained breast cancer histology images provided by the ICIAR2018 dataset. Specifically, seven EfficientNets were fine-tuned and evaluated on their ability to classify images into four classes: normal, benign, in situ carcinoma, and invasive carcinoma. Moreover, two standard stain normalization techniques, Reinhard and Macenko, were observed to measure the impact of stain normalization on performance. The outcome of this approach reveals that the EfficientNet-B2 model yielded an accuracy and sensitivity of 98.33% using Reinhard stain normalization method on the training images and an accuracy and sensitivity of 96.67% using the Macenko stain normalization method. These satisfactory results indicate that transferring generic features from natural images to medical images through fine-tuning on EfficientNets can achieve satisfactory results.