Modares Mechanical Engineering
Year:2022 | Volume:22 | Issue:2|Papers Count:6

In the present study, the effect of natural microfibers (cork particles) on the mode I fracture toughness of plain-woven laminated composites has been investigated. For this purpose, double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens were manufactured using the hand lay-up method with a stacking sequence of [0]28. To investigate the effect of cork particles on fracture toughness, samples with two different weight percentages (1% by weight and 3% by weight) were manufactured and the experimental results were compared with one obtained from a sample with pure epoxy resin. Experimental results show that as the amount of cork particles increases, the onset of crack growth requires more energy. The amount of improvement in initiation fracture toughness for the DCB sample with 1% and 3% cork weight has been increased by 67. 15% and 71. 96%, respectively which is due to the role of the cork in the resin-rich area near the crack tip that arrested the delamination growth. Unlike the initiation fracture toughness, the propagation value is reduced by adding cork particles to the resin. During delamination growth, due to the agglomeration of microfiber at delamination interface and the role of stress concentration of these particles, hence, micro-cork fibers have not been able to increase the propagation fracture toughness and in some cases have slightly reduced the propagation fracture toughness of the delamination. Also, in order to investigate the mechanisms of damage, the fracture surfaces of the samples were scanned using scanning electron microscopy.

A significant portion of world energy consumption belongs to building sector, And HVAC systems have an important share in building energy usage. In this research, a novel HVAC system has been proposed which is based on three technologies of combined heating and power, ice thermal energy storage, and solar heating. The system is named CCHP-ITESS as an abbreviation of previously mentioned technologies. This system was modeled on a case study building in Tehran, to obtain energy consumption, costs, and payback results in comparison with conventional HVAC systems. In order to realize the effect of energy prices on the economical results, the same system and building were simulated for the city of Los Angeles, California, US. The results showed that both scenarios will lead to significant reduction in net source energy consumption, which is 36. 87% reduction in Tehran and 40. 28% reduction in Los Angeles. However, the system is not economically reasonable in Tehran because of the low energy prices and has a 39 years of payback period, but is absolutely feasible in Los Angeles with ab payback period of less than 3. 5 years. As a result, application of this system is feasible in Los Angeles and not feasible in Tehran.

Today, the application of ultrasonic tools in various processes such as machining, welding, homogenizing, etc., has become widespread. One of the most important and key components in the transfer of acoustic energy in emulsion homogenization applications is the ultrasonic horn. This part is stable from the point of view of energy, but the amount of vibration amplitude can be changed by changing the shape and material. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the multistage ultrasonic horn to achieve the desired vibration amplitude in various applications. Optimal horn design has been done with the aim of increasing the amplitude of vibration, increasing and distributing the wave transmission surface and considering the strength of the horn, the appropriate length to diameter ratio to achieve uniform cavitation in the emulsion. The goal is to achieve a horn with a high amplification factor and a larger and wider radiation area at the end and lateral area of the horn. The high vibration amplitude and wave propagation area at the tip and the lateral area of the horn increase the amount of cavitation in the emulsion process, and the wider the wave propagation regions, the more efficient the homogenization process will be.

Numerous studies on using light fuels in compression ignition engines to reduce emission and increase efficiency have been done. The Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition engines are one of these studies. Nevertheless, using heavy fuels vapor for achieving partially premixed combustion is not investigated. Using diesel fume (to upgrade conventional combustion to premixed combustion) resolves the need for a secondary fuel tank in a car. However, diesel fuel has heavy hydrocarbons and is a high reactivity fuel. So in this study, diesel has evaporated in a tank, and its vapor has injected into the intake air for studying a semi homogeneous combustion. The tests have performed at 2000 rpm (the speed of maximum torque). According to the achieved results, although diesel has heavy hydrocarbons and is a high reactivity fuel, adding diesel fumigation can reduce soot and NOx emissions up to 20% and 50%, respectively. Increasing load reduces the positive impact of adding diesel fumigation on soot and NOx emission reduction. However, the positive impact of adding diesel fumigation continues up to 80% of the full load. Adding diesel fumigation has no impact on cyclic variation and ringing intensity, but increases CO and HC emission. The evaporation of diesel averagely consumes 15% of brake power. Also on average, 5% of diesel evaporation energy can be supplied by recovering heat energy from the exhaust gas (warming up diesel from ambient temperature to the exhaust gas temperature).

Incremental sheet forming is a flexible forming technology in which the sheet metal is gradually formed by the movement of tools in specified path. Due to the progressively localized deformation of the sheet and concentration of the forces on contact area of tool and sheet metal, the formability of the sheet increases compared with other common forming methods. In this study, numerical simulation of the incremental forming of AA3105-St12 twolayer sheet has been performed to calculate forming force and final thicknesses of the layers. The validity of the simulation results is evaluated by comparing them with those obtained from experiments. Numerical models for estimating the vertical force applied on the tool and the final thicknesses of the layers in terms of the process variables have been obtained using artificial neural network. Multi-objective optimization has been conducted to achieve the minimum force and the minimum thickness reduction of layers using obtained numerical models based on genetic algorithm method. Optimum thickness of the two-layer sheet and the thickness ratio the layers in different states of contact of the aluminum or the steel layers with the forming tool have been determined.

The defectless microstructure of metal matrix composites, the uniform distribution of particles, and their good properties are determined by the production parameters and their material. In this study, Al6063-SiC composite powder was fabricated by a high-energy planetary ball mill. Aluminum chips were milled at different times and ball to powder weight ratio (BPR) in a high-energy planetary ball mill. The resulting powder was mechanically alloyed by adding different weight percentages of silicon carbide (SiC) under different BPRs and times. During the milling process under argon atmosphere, stearic acid was used as a process control agent (PCA) to prevent excessive cold welding and powder agglomeration. After mechanical alloying, the effect of alloying time, BPR, and weight percentage of silicon carbide on the powder morphology were studied by particle size analysis (PSA), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), and the fuzzy compounds were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). According to the X-ray diffraction patterns, the grain size was calculated using the Williamson-Hall model. The results of mechanical milling and alloying have shown that in short milling times with high BPRs, composite powder with finer particle size could be achieved. Also, the presence of reinforcement particles accelerates the process of mechanical alloying and further reduces the particle size.