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The purpose of this study concerns numerical studies and experimental validation of the mechanical behavior of hybrid specimens. These kinds of composite specimens are made up of thin carbon and glass substrates on which some Macro Fiber Composite^® (MFC) piezoelectric patches are glued. A proper design and manufacturing of the hybrid specimens as well as testing activities have been performed. The research activity has been carried out under the FutureWings project, funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework.

The paper describes the basic assumptions made to define specimen geometries and to carry out experimental tests. Finite element (FE) results and experimental data (laser technique measurements) have been compared: it shows very good agreement for the displacements’ distribution along the specimens.

Within the objectives of the project, the study of passive and active deformation characteristics of the hybrid composite material has provided reference technical data and has allowed for the correct adaptation of the FE models. More in particular, using the hybrid specimens, both the bending deformations and the torsion deformations have been studied.

The deformation capability of the hybrid specimens will be used in the development of prototypical three-dimensional structures, that, through the electrical control of the MFC patches, will be able to change the curvature of their cross section or will be able to change the angle of torsion along their longitudinal axis.

The design of nonstandard specimens and the tests executed represent a novelty in the field of structures using piezoelectric actuators. The numerical and experimental data of the present research constitute a small step forward in the field of smart materials technology.

In order to develop high-strength, high-toughness and high-wear-resistance rails suitable for the development and application of heavy-haul railways.

Based on the trial production of 60 kg·m⁻¹ bainite rails, the Zeiss inverted optical microscope, transmission electron microscope and static hydraulic universal tester were used to test the microstructure and property of rail base metal and welded joints. Meanwhile, a trial laying of rails, wing rails of frogs and switch rails for turnouts was performed to systematically analyze their strength, toughness and wear resistance.

The results show that the base metal of 60 kg·m⁻¹ bainite rail is of a uniform microstructure, with a carbide-free bainite matrix, a few of stable residual austenite and M/A islands, and it features high hardness, good wear resistance and good strength-toughness balance. The welded joint is of a uniform microstructure and has good properties.

A bainite rail, laid in a curve section of heavy-haul railway is able to serve for 48 months with a gross traffic tonnage of nearly 600 million tons, whose service life is more than one time longer than that of pearlite rail; the service life of the wing rail of frog and the switch rail for turnout with 60 kg·m⁻¹ bainite rails is 3–4 times longer than that with U75V rails, and no serious damage occurs. The bainite rails also have strong peeling and spalling resistance.

The aim of this paper is presenting a new application of material obtained from the acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) recycling process from electronic equipment housings. Elements of computer monitors were used to prepare re-granulate, which in turn was used to manufacture a filament for fused filament fabrication (FFF) additive manufacturing technology.

The geometry of test samples (i.e. dumbbell and bar) was obtained in accordance with the PN-EN standards. Samples made with the FFF technology were used to determine selected mechanical properties and to compare the results obtained with the properties of ABS re-granulate mould pieces made with the injection moulding technology. The GATE device manufactured by 3Novatica was used to make the prototypes with the FFF technology. Processing parameters were tested with the use of an Aflow extrusion plastometer manufactured by Zwick/Roell and other original testing facilities. Tests of mechanical properties were performed with a Z030 universal testing machine, a HIT 50P pendulum impact tester and a Z3106 hardness tester manufactured by Zwick/Roell.

The paper presents results of tests performed on a filament obtained from the ABS re-granulate and indicates characteristic processing properties of that material. The properties of the new secondary material were compared with the available original ABS materials that are commonly used in the additive technology of manufacturing geometrical objects. The study also presents selected results of tests of functional properties of ABS products made in the FFF technology.

The test results allowed authors to assess the possibility of a secondary application of used elements of electronic equipment housings in the FFF technology and to compare the strength properties of products obtained with similar products made with the standard injection moulding technology.

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) is an established process to print structural parts of metals, ceramic and polymers. Further, multi-material 3DP has the potentials to be a milestone in rapid manufacturing (RM), customized design and structural applications. Being compatible as functionally graded materials in a single structural form, multi-material-based 3D printed parts can be applied in structural applications to get the benefit of modified properties.

The fused deposition modelling (FDM) is one of the established low cost 3DP techniques which can be used for printing functional/ non-functional prototypes in civil engineering applications.

The present study is focused on multi-material printing of primary recycled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polylactic acid (PLA) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) in composite form. Thermal (glass transition temperature and heat capacity) and mechanical properties (break load, break strength, break elongation, percentage elongation at break and Young’s modulus) have been analysed to observe the behaviour of multi-material composites prepared by 3DP. This study also highlights the process parameters optimization of FDM supported with photomicrographs.

The present study is focused on multi-material printing of primary recycled ABS, PLA and HIPS in composite form.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a highly miniaturized wireless inertial sensor system based on a novel 3D packaging technique using a flexible printed circuit (FPC). The device is very suitable for wearable applications in which small size and lightweight are required such as body area network, medical, sports and entertainment applications.

Modern wireless inertial measurement units are typically implemented on a rigid 2D printed circuit board (PCB). The design concept presented here is based around the use of a novel planar, six‐faceted, crucifix or cross‐shaped FPC instead of a rigid PCB. A number of specific functional blocks (such as microelectromechanical systems gyroscope and accelerometer sensors, microcontroller (MCU), radio transceiver, antenna, etc.) are first assigned to each of the six faces which are each 1 cm² in area. The FPC cross is then developed into a 1 cm³, 3D configuration by folding the cross at each of five bend planes. The result is a low‐volume and lightweight, 1 cm³ wireless inertial sensor that can sense and send motion sensed data wirelessly to a base station. The wireless sensor device has been designed for low power operation both at the hardware and software levels. At the base station side, a radio receiver is connected to another MCU unit, which sends received data to a personal computer (PC) and graphical user interface. The industrial, scientific and medical band (2.45 GHz) is used to achieve half duplex communication between the two sides.

A complete wireless sensor system has been realized in a 3D cube form factor using an FPC. The packaging technique employed during the work is shown to be efficient in fabricating the final cubic system and resulted in a significant saving in the final size and weight of the system. A number of design issues are identified regarding the use of FPC for implementing the 3D structure and the chosen solutions are shown to be successful in dealing with these issues.

Currently, a limitation of the system is the need for an external battery to power the sensor system. A second phase of development would be required to investigate the possibility of the integration of a battery and charging system within the cube structure. In addition, the use of flexible substrate imposes a number of restrictions in terms of the ease of manufacturability of the final system due to the requirement of the required folding step.

The small size and weight of the developed system is found to be extremely useful in different deployments. It would be useful to further explore the system performance in different application scenarios such as wearable motion tracking applications. In terms of manufacturability, component placement needs to be carefully considered, ensuring that there is sufficient distance between the components, bend planes and board edges and this leads to a slightly reduced usable area on the printed circuit.

This paper provides a novel and useful method for realizing a wireless inertial sensor system in a 3D package. The value of the chosen approach is that a significant reduction in the required system volume is achieved. In particular, a 78.5 per cent saving in volume is obtained in decreasing the module size from a 25 to a 15 mm³ size.

Thermomechanical behavior of intermediate-size beam-to-wall assemblies including Glulam-beams connected to cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls with T-shape steel doweled connections was investigated at ambient temperature (AT) and after and during non-standard fire exposure.

Three AT tests were conducted to evaluate the load-carrying capacity and failure modes of the assembly at room temperature. Two post-fire performance (PFP) tests were performed to study the impact of 30-min (PFP30) and 60-min (PFP60) partial exposure to a non-standard fire on the residual strength of the assemblies. The assemblies were exposed to fire in a custom-designed frame, then cooled and loaded to failure. A fire performance (FP) test was conducted to study the fire resistance (FR) during non-standard fire exposure by simultaneously applying fire and a mechanical load equal to 65% of the AT load carrying capacity.

At AT, embedment failure of the dowels followed by splitting failure at the Glulam-beam and tensile failure of the epoxy between the layers of CLT-walls were the dominant failure modes. In both PFP tests, the plastic bending of the dowels was the only observed failure mode. The residual strength of the assembly was reduced 14% after 30 min and 37% after 60 min of fire exposure. During the FP test, embedment failure of timber in contact with the dowels was the only major failure mode, with the maximum rate of displacement at 51 min into the fire exposure.

This is the first time that the thermomechanical performance of such an assembly with a full-contact connection is presented.

3-ply cross-laminated timber (CLT) is used to investigate the thermo-mechanical performance of intermediate-size assemblies comprised of T-shaped welded slotted-in steel doweled connections and CLT beams at ambient temperature (AT), after and during non-standard fire exposure.

The first set of experiments was performed as a benchmark to find the load-carrying capacity of the assembly and investigate the failure modes at AT. The post-fire performance (PFP) test was performed to investigate the residual strength of the assembly after 30-min exposure to a non-standard fire. The fire-performance (FP) test was conducted to investigate the thermo-mechanical behavior of the loaded assembly during non-standard fire exposure. In this case, the assembly was loaded to 67% of AT load-carrying capacity and partially exposed to a non-standard fire for 75 min.

Embedment failure and plastic deformation of the dowels in the beam were the dominant failure modes at AT. The load-carrying capacity of the assembly was reduced to 45% of the ambient capacity after 30 min of fire exposure. Plastic bending of the dowels was the principal failure mode, with row shear in the mid-layer of the CLT beam and tear-out failure of the header sides also observed. During the FP test, ductile embedment failure of the timber in contact with the dowels was the major failure mode at elevated temperature.

This paper presents for the first time the thermo-mechanical performance of CLT beam-to-girder connections at three different thermal conditions. For this purpose, the outside layers of the CLT beams were aligned horizontally.

1. Load-carrying capacity and failure modes of CLT beam-to-girder assembly with T-shaped steel doweled connections at ambient temperature presented.

2. Residual strength and failure modes of the assembly after 30-min partially exposure to the non-standard fire provided throughout the post-fire performance test.

3. Fire resistance of the assembly partially exposed to the non-standard fire highlighted.

Load-carrying capacity and failure modes of CLT beam-to-girder assembly with T-shaped steel doweled connections at ambient temperature presented.

Residual strength and failure modes of the assembly after 30-min partially exposure to the non-standard fire provided throughout the post-fire performance test.

Fire resistance of the assembly partially exposed to the non-standard fire highlighted.

Laser sintering of polyamide lattice-based lightweight fairing components for subsequent racetrack testing requires a high quality and a reliable design. Hence, the purpose of this study was to develop a design methodology for such additively manufactured prototypes, considering efficient generation and structural simulation of boundary conformal non-periodic lattices, optimization of production parameters as well as experimental validation.

Multi-curved, sandwich structure-based demonstrators were designed, simulated and experimentally tested with boundary conformal lattice cells. The demonstrator’s non-periodic lattice cells were simplified by forward homogenization processes. To represent the stiffness of the top and bottom face sheet, constant isotropic and mapped transversely isotropic simulation approaches were compared. The dimensional accuracy of lattice cells and demonstrators were measured with a gauge caliper and a three-dimensional scanning system. The optimized process parameters for lattice structures were transferred onto a large volume laser sintering system. The stiffness of each finite element analysis was verified by an experimental test setup including a digital image correlation system.

The stiffness prediction of the mapped was superior to the constant approach and underestimated the test results with −6.5%. Using a full scale fairing the applicability of the development process was successfully demonstrated.

The design approach elaborated in this research covers aspects from efficient geometry generation over structural simulation to experimental testing of produced parts. This methodology is not only relevant in the context of motor sports but is transferrable for all additively manufactured large scale components featuring a complex lattice sub-structure and is, therefore, relevant across industries.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and exploit the combination of additive manufacturing polymeric technology and structural adhesives. The main advantage is to expand the maximum dimension of the 3D printed parts, which is typically limited, by joining the parts with structural adhesive, without losing strength and stiffness and keeping the major asset of polymeric 3 D printing: freedom of shape of the system and low cost of parts.

The materials used in the paper are the following. The adhesive considered is a commercial inexpensive acrylic, quite similar to superglue, applicable with almost no surface preparation and fast curing, as time constraint is one of the key problems that affects industrial adhesive applications. The 3D printed parts were in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), obtained with a Fortus 250mc FDM machine, from Stratasys. The work first compares flat overlap joint with joints designed to permit mechanical interlocking of the adherends and then to a monolithic component with the same geometry. Single lap, joggle lap and double lap joints are the configurations experimentally characterized following a design of experiment approach.

The results show a failure in the substrate, due to the low strength of the polymeric adherends for the first batch of typical bonded configurations, single lap, joggle lap and double lap. The central bonded area, with an increased global thickness, never does fail, and the adhesive is able to transfer the load both with and without mechanical interlocking. An additional set of scarf joints was also tested to promote adhesive failure as well as to retrieve the adhesive strength in this application. The results shows that bonding of polymeric AM parts is able to express its full potential compared with a monolithic solution even though the joint fails prematurely in the adherend due to the bending stresses and the notches present in the lap joints.

Because of the 3D printed polymeric material adopted, the results may be generalized only when the elastic properties of the adherends and of the adhesive are similar, so it is not possible to extend the findings of the work to metallic additive manufactured components.

The paper shows that the adhesives are feasible way to expand the potentiality of 3 D printed equipment to obtain larger parts with equivalent mechanical properties. The paper also shows that the scarf joint, which fails in the adhesive first, can be used to extract information about the adhesive strength, useful for the designers which have to combine adhesive and additive manufactured polymeric parts.

To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, there are scarce quantitative information in technical literature about the performance of additive manufactured parts in combination with structural adhesives and this work provides an insight on this interesting subject. This manuscript provides a feasible way of using rapid prototyping techniques in combination with adhesive bonding to fully exploit the additive manufacturing capability and to create large and cost-effective 3 D printed parts.