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The purpose of this paper is to study the damage induced in “green” and synthetic composites under impact loading.

The study was focussed on epoxy-based composites reinforced with woven hemp or glass fibres. Six assessment techniques were employed in order to analyse and compare impact damages: eye observation, back face relief, terahertz spectroscopy, laser vibrometry, x-ray micro-tomography and microscopic observations.

Different damage detection thresholds for each material and technique were obtained. Damage induced by mechanical and laser impacts showed relevant differences, but the damage mechanisms are similar in both types of impact: matrix cracks, fibre failure, debonding at the fibres/matrix interface and delamination. Damage shape on back surfaces is similar after mechanical or laser impacts, but differences were detected inside samples.

The combination of these six diagnoses provides complementary information on the damage induced by mechanical or laser impacts in the studied green and synthetic composites.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a laser shock adhesion test (LASAT) and evaluate its ability to reveal various bond qualities of stuck carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) industrial assemblies.

Four grades of adhesion were prepared by release agent contamination of CFRP prior to assembly. Laser shots were performed at different intensities on these samples.

To characterize and quantify the damage created by the propagation of shock waves in the bonded material, several diagnoses were used (confocal microscopy, ultra-sound inspection and cross-sections microscopy). These three post-mortem techniques are complementary and provide consistent results.

The combination of these diagnoses along with the LASAT technique provides relevant information on the bond quality in agreement with GIC values measured by the University of Patras.

This paper aims to study the effect of elevated temperature on the compression behaviour of carbon fibre polyphenylene sulphide (CF/PPS) laminates notched and unnotched specimens made by film stacking method (FSM).

The surface of CF was coated with a silane coupling agent to form an effective transition layer with PPS, so as to enhance the interfacial interaction between CF and PPS. Considering the influence of fabrication pressure, forming temperature and cooling rate on the properties of laminates to obtain a reasonable preparation process. Conducting a compressive experiment of notched and unnotched specimens at different temperatures, which failure modes were examined by scanning electron microscope and stereo microscope.

The experimental observations highlight that with the increase of temperature, the transition failure mode from fibre broken to kink-band appeared in unnotched specimens, which were closely attributed to the matrix state. The notched specimens appeared more complex failure mode, which can be attributed to the joint effect of temperature and opening hole.

A simple way of FSM for composite material laminates has been developed by using woven CF and PPS films.

The outcome of this study will help to understand the compression response mechanism of composite materials made by FSM at different temperature.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the application of THz spectroscopy for the inspection and evaluation of the internal structure of complex samples with honeycomb fillers.

Three complex samples with honeycomb fillers are investigated using THz spectrometer in order to determine the applicability of chosen non-destructive method for the analysis of internal structure of structural components. The first analysed sample has aluminium honeycomb filler with some cells filled with water. The aim of the analysis is to distinguish empty and full cells. The other two sandwich samples are made of different non-metallic components and for them the possibility of THz spectroscopy application is analysed.

The empty and full cells in metal honeycomb filler were easily distinguished due to different absorption coefficients of electromagnetic waves in THz range for air and water. It was especially visible for frequency domain. The THz spectroscopy was able to inspect the non-metallic samples internal structures and distinguish skins (with layers), honeycomb fillers and adhesive layers between them. It was also possible to detect, localise and determine the size of a local damage of honeycomb walls due to impact influence.

The present study is an original research work. There are very limited literature papers which present analyses of internal structures of sandwich elements using THz spectroscopy and investigate utility of the method for mechanical damage and contamination (water) detection and localisation.

The mechanical and tribological properties of polymers and polymer composites vary with different environmental conditions. This paper aims to review the influence of humidity/water conditions on various polymers and polymer composites' mechanical properties and tribological behaviors.

The influence of humidity and water absorption on mechanical and tribological properties of various polymers, fillers and composites has been discussed in this paper. Tensile strength, modulus, yield strength, impact strength, COF and wear rates of polymer composites are compared for different environmental conditions. The interaction between the water molecules and hydrophobic polymers is also represented.

Pure polymer matrices show somewhat mixed behavior in humid environments. Absorbed moisture generally plasticizes the epoxies and polyamides and lowers the tensile strength, yield strength and modulus. Wear rates of PVC generally decrease in humid environments, while for polyamides, it increases. Fillers like graphite and boron-based compounds exhibit low COF, while MoS2 particulate fillers exhibit higher COF at high humidity and water conditions. The mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced polymer composites tend to decrease as the rate of humidity increases while the wear rates of fiber-reinforced polymer composites show somewhat mixed behavior. Particulate fillers like metals and advanced ceramics reinforced polymer composites exhibit low COF and wear rates as the rate of humidity increases.

The mechanical and tribological properties of polymers and polymer composites vary with the humidity value present in the environment. In dry conditions, wear loss is determined by the hardness of the contacting surfaces, which may not effectively work for high humid environments. The tribological performance of composite constituents, i.e. matrix and fillers in humid environments, defines the overall performance of polymer composite in said environments.

Additive manufacturing is a recent technology used in the production of composite materials. The use of continuous fibres as reinforcement is necessary to achieve high mechanical performance. However, making these materials more environmentally friendly is still challenging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of 3D printing a composite made of continuous regenerated cellulose fibres using a standard 3D printer generally used for printing polymers.

The production process was based on a pre-impregnated filament made from a tape containing continuous cellulose fibres and Pebax^® matrix. 3D printed composite samples were fabricated using fused deposition modelling. The tape, filament and 3D printed composites were first analysed by means of modulated differential scanning calorimetry and micrography. Tensile tests were then performed, and the mechanical characteristics were determined at each step of the production process. Fracture surfaces were investigated by field-emission gun–scanning electron microscopy.

Results showed that the mechanical behaviour of the material was maintained throughout the production process, and the 3D printed biocomposites had a stiffness equivalent to that of traditionally manufactured continuous cellulose fibre composites. The obtained 3D printed composites showed an increase in strength value by a factor of 4 and in tensile modulus by a factor of 20 compared to those of unreinforced Pebax^® polymer.

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of 3D printing composites based on continuous cellulose fibres, paving the way for new biocomposites made by additive manufacturing.

The QUALCAT project at the University of Bradford attempted to apply automated quality control to databases of bibliographic records. Sets of records, putative duplicates, that appeared to be for the same monograph were grouped together and an expert system used to determine whether they were in fact duplicates, and if so which were the best records. This paper outlines the expert system used and discusses problems and further developments in automated examination of bibliographic records.

Studies of marketplace cultures emphasize the benefits of communal consumption and explain the ways that brand managers can leverage subcultures and brand communities. The ephemeral and often non‐commercial nature of consumer tribes means that they are more difficult to manage. This paper, aims to suggest that a necessary pre‐requisite for understanding how to engage with consumer tribes is to identify how consumers become members of tribes.

Data are drawn from a five‐year ethnographic study of the archetypical club culture tribe that utilized a variety of data collection methods including participant observation and in‐depth interviewing.

The paper identifies “learning to be tribal” as a communal practice that occurs through three interconnected processes of engagement, imagination and alignment.

This paper makes three contributions: it clearly distinguishes between the three main forms of communal consumption found in the marketing literature; it identifies how consumer tribes are formed; and it questions received wisdom and shows how tribal theory can guide managers to offer products and services as learning resources that facilitate tribal practices.

In this article, the author discusses the influence of technological development on the survival of European parties since the Second World War.

The database comprises more than 200 parties and the political forces observed in 20 countries.

The author find that Internet users as a proportion of the population and a higher value of secure servers in an economy tend to strengthen the duration of parties since their first electoral participation.

This is the first paper discussing parties' survival in democratic regimens as depending on the technological development.

Education of the surgeon and development of surgical expertise have been debated for centuries. Today, research in surgical education applies terms and methods from other performance domains such as sport and music. However, there still seems to be a lack of consensus as to how talent may be brought into the discourse about surgical education. Especially, when it comes to identifying and developing trainees who in the future will perform better than the average surgeon.

This five-step scoping study aims to map existing literature about talent identification, talent development and development of expertise in the domains of surgery, sport and music in the period of 1985-2014.

A total of 242 studies, divided in the four domains of surgery (69 studies), sport (115 studies), music (34 studies) and cross-disciplinary studies (24 studies) published in the period 1985-2014 were included.

Informed by the performance domains of sports and music and their inclusion of a holistic, ecological approach to research, this study suggests that research in surgical education may benefit from broadening its view on talent by including psychosocial variables and environmental, demographic and structural influencers when considering how surgical talent may be identified and developed.