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The purpose of this paper is to present a numerical investigation on pulsating heat pipe (PHP) to study the slug velocities as a function of various parameters.

The governing equation of PHP is solved using explicit embedded Runge‐Kutta method, the Dormand–Prince pair in conjunction with MATLAB with the nomenclature 45 for the determination of displacement and the velocity of the slug.

The results show that lower fill ratio, higher diameter, higher operating temperature and higher temperature difference between evaporator and condenser for a given working fluid results in higher slug velocities, indicating higher momentum transfer and hence better heat transport.

Under steady state conditions, the design of a PHP is facilitated through the introduction of non‐dimensional numbers.

The displacement and slug velocities for additional working fluids, namely ethanol and methanol, are determined for the first time. The behaviour of non‐dimensional numbers, i.e. Poiseuille number, capillary number and Eckert number in a PHP as a function of various parameters have been studied for the first time.

This chapter studies the negative signals associated with nonpromotion. I first show theoretically that, when workers' productivity rises little with additional years on the same job level, the negative signal associated with nonpromotion leads to wage decreases. On the other hand, when additional job-level tenure leads to a sizable increase in productivity, workers' wages increase. I then test my model's predictions using the personnel records from a large US firm from 1970–1988. I find a clear hump-shaped wage-job-tenure profile for workers who stay at the same job level, which supports my model's prediction.

This paper aims to explore the variable properties of a flow inside the thin film of a unsteady Maxwell fluid and to analyze the effects of shrinking and stretching sheet.

The governing mathematical model has been developed by considering the boundary layer limitations. As a result of boundary layer assumption, a nonlinear partial differential equation is obtained. Later on, similarity transformations have been adopted to convert partial differential equation into an ordinary differential equation. A well-known homotopy analysis method is implemented to solve the problem. MATHEMATICA software has been used to visualize the flow behavior.

It is observed that variable viscosity does not have a significant effect on velocity field and temperature distribution either in shrinking or stretching case. It is noticed that Maxwell parameter has no dramatic effect on the flow of thin liquid fluid. It has been seen that heat flow increases by increasing the conductivity with temperature in both cases (shrinking/stretching). As a result, fluid temperature goes down when than delta = 0.05 than delta = 0.2.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, nobody has conducted earlier thin film flow of unsteady Maxwell fluid with variable fluid properties and comparison of shrinking and stretching sheet.

This paper aims to study and compare the friction stability of wet paper-based clutches with regard to the radial grooves (RG) and waffle grooves (WG).

This paper presents an experimental study of a wet clutch concerning the effect of groove patterns on the friction torque and surface temperature. The friction stabilities of RG and WG are investigated with the applied pressure, rotating speed and automatic transmission fluid (ATF) temperature taken into consideration.

The friction torque and surface temperature of WG are larger than those of RG under the same operating condition. The friction torque difference between RG and WG grows with the increase of applied pressure and narrows with the increase of ATF temperature. Additionally, their temperature difference expands via increasing the rotating speed and ATF temperature or reducing the applied pressure; in this way, not only the variable coefficient difference between RG and WG can be narrowed, but also the friction stability of the clutch can be improved dramatically.

This paper explains the thermodynamic differences between RG and WG; moreover, it is verified experimentally that WG has a better friction stability than RG.

An indirect electrochemical reduction and dyeing with indigo were carried out here to solve problems of low dye reduction rate and poor dyeing depth in the current electrochemical dyeing process.

Response surface analysis tests were performed to evaluate the effects of ferrous sulfate concentration, medium concentration, sodium hydroxide concentration and reduction time on the reduction efficiency of indirect electrochemical reduction of indigo.

The conditions obtained by design-expert optimization showed that the concentration of FeSO₄·7H₂O has the most significant effect on the reduction performance of dye liquor. Under the optimized electrochemical reduction dyeing process, the rate of dye reduction could be reached 91.21 per cent and the K/S value of indirect electrochemical dyeing of indigo can be achieved to 12.96, which is increased by about 9.56 per cent compared with that of Na₂S₂O₄ dyeing with the same color fastness basically.

The recyclability and biodegradability of the dye remain to be explored.

The strategy presented here can be developed to replace a substantial part of electrochemical dyeing with optimized product quality and reduced environmental pollution in denim production.

The strategy presented here can be developed to replace a substantial part of electrochemical dyeing with optimized product quality and reduced environmental pollution in denim production.

Application of the Fe(II)-DGS-Abal B complex media system in the indirect electrochemical reduction of indigo.

It is very important to create a useful cyclic symmetric model for the investigation of the vibration reduction effect of hard-coating blisk. This study aims to develop a cyclic symmetry algorithm which can determine the mode of blisk in the sector coordinate system directly.

Using the exponential and real quasi-equivalent Fourier matrices, the formulas for solving the sector mode were derived, and the relationship between the two kinds of sector modes was also discussed. Based on the proposed cyclic symmetry algorithm, the vibration characteristics of an academic blisk were solved, and the formulas for solving the natural characteristics and vibration responses of the coated blisk were given.

A blisk with NiCrAlCoY+YSZ hard coating on both sides of each blade was chosen as a case to demonstrate the presented method. Based on the verification analysis model, the influences of coating thickness on the vibration reduction effect of the blisk were discussed. The results show that the hard coating has good vibration reduction effect on the blisk even the coating thickness is very thin and the vibration reduction effect of hard coating in the high frequency range is obviously better than that in the low frequency range.

As a large number of reduced order modeling methods of blisk are implemented based on the sector modes, the proposed method which can obtain the sector modes directly will significantly improve the efficiency of dynamic modeling and analysis of the coated blisk structure.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the keyhole geometry and acoustic signatures from the backside of a workpiece. It lays a solid foundation for monitoring the penetration state in variable polarity keyhole plasma arc welding.

The experiment system is conducted on 6-mm-thick aluminum alloy plates based on a dual-sensor system including a sound sensor and a charge coupled device (CCD) camera. The first step is to extract the keyhole boundary from the acquired keyhole images based on median filtering and edge extraction. The second step is to process the acquired acoustic signal to obtain some typical time domain features. Finally, a prediction model based on the extreme learning machine (ELM) technique is built to recognize different keyhole geometries through the acoustic signatures and then identify the welding penetration status according to the recognition results.

The keyhole geometry and acoustic features after processing can be closely related to dynamic change information of keyhole. These acoustic features can predict the keyhole geometry accurately based on the ELM model. Meanwhile, the predict results also can identify different welding penetration status.

This paper tries to make a foundation work to achieve the monitoring of keyhole condition and penetration status through image and acoustic signals. A useful model, ELM, is built based on these features for predicting the keyhole geometry. Compared with back-propagating neural network and support vector machine, this proposed model is faster and has better generalization performance in the case studied in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to present a finite element formulation of enhanced two‐node parabolic cable element for the static analysis of cable structures.

Unlike the assumed polynomial displacement interpolation functions, the present approach uses the analytical cable dynamic stiffness matrix to obtain the explicit expression of the static stiffness matrix of an inclined sagging cable by setting the frequency at zero. The Newton‐Raphson‐based iterative method is used to obtain the solution.

It is demonstrated that the present results agree well with those obtained from the nonlinear analytical theory of a parabolic cable and previous reported methods in the literature.

This paper proposes a two‐node parabolic cable element. For comparable accuracy with the truss element method, fewer numbers of such cable elements are needed.

This paper aims to develop a robotic mirror therapy system for lower limb rehabilitation, which is applicable for different patients with individual movement disability levels.

This paper puts forward a novel system that includes a four-degree-of-freedom sitting/lying lower limb rehabilitation robot and a wireless motion data acquisition system based on mirror therapy principle. The magnetorheological (MR) actuators are designed and manufactured, whose characteristics are detected theoretically and experimentally. The passive training control strategy is proposed, and the trajectory tracking experiments verify its feasibility. Also, the active training controller that is adapt to the human motor ability is designed and evaluated by the comparison experiments.

The MR actuators produce continuously variable and compliant torque for robotic joints by adjusting excitation current. The reference limb joint position data collected by the wireless motion data acquisition system can be used as the motion trajectory of the robot to drive the affected limb. The passive training strategy based on proportional-integral control proves to have great trajectory tracking performance through experiments. In the active training mode, by comparing the real-time parameters adjustment in two phases, it is certified that the proposed fuzzy-based regulated impedance controller can adjust assistance torque according to the motor ability of the affected limb.

The system developed in this paper fulfills the needs of robot-assisted mirror therapy for hemiplegic patients.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the morphology evolution and the composition transformation of Au-Sn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) of the new Au/Sn-5Sb-1Cu-0.1Ni-0.1Ag/(Au)Ni solder joint during the high temperature aging.

Sn-5Sb-1Cu-0.1Ni-0.1Ag solder balls (500 µm in diameter), heat sink with structure of 7.4 µm Au layer on 5 µm Ni-plated Cu alloy and Si chip with 5.16 µm plated Au were used to fabricate micro-solder joints. The joints were performed in a furnace at 150°C for 150, 250 and 350 h aging. The samples were polished and deep etched before analyzed by metallographic microscope and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy was used to identify the composition of the IMCs.

ß-(Au,Ni,Cu)₁₀Sn phase is formed during the soldering process. The IMCs evolution has two periods during the aging. The first is the ξ-(Au,Ni,Cu)₅Sn, ξ-(Au,Cu)₅Sn and δ-AuSn were formed and grew to form a full-compound joint after about 150 h aging. The second is the conversion of the full-compound joint. The IMCs converted to ξ′ phase when the aging time extends to 250 h, and transformed to ε-(Au,Ni,Cu)Sn₂ and η-(Au,Ni,Cu)Sn₄ after 350 h aging. The thicker gold layer and thinner solder joint can promote the growth of the IMCs. ß-(Au,Ni,Cu)₁₀Sn emerged in Au/SnSb-CuNiAg/(Au)Ni in this research, which is not usually found.

The results in this study have a significant meaning for the application of the new Sn-5Sb-1Cu-0.1Ni-0.1Ag in harsh conditions.