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This study aimed to determine the peak impact force and force attenuation capacity of weft-knitted spacer fabrics intended for padding that can be used for human body protection against impact.

A total of five weft-knitted spacer fabrics were fabricated with four different diameters of nylon monofilament yarns and one doubled monofilament yarns, respectively. The impact performances of the weft-knitted spacer fabrics were tested using a drop test method with a customized test rig to simulate falling. Impact tests were conducted on single- and multilayered experimental spacer fabrics to investigate the peak impact force and force attenuation capacity.

It was found that weft-knitted spacer fabric with a coarser or larger diameter of monofilament spacer yarn generated lower impact force and higher force attenuation capacity, thus resulting in better impact performance. Greater force attenuation can be achieved by utilizing a higher number of spacer fabric layers. However, the increase in thickness must be considered with the spacer fabric end use.

This study employed relatively coarse nylon monofilament yarn as spacer yarns to gain knowledge on the impact performance of weft-knitted spacer fabrics compared to warp-knitted spacer fabrics which are more common. The results showed that the diameter of spacer yarn significantly influenced the impact performance of the experimental weft-knitted spacer fabrics. These results could be useful for designing and engineering textile-based impact protectors.

The purpose of this paper is a description of DITCI, its drop loads and sensors, the impact tools, the robot dynamic impact safety artifacts, data analysis, and modeling of test results. The dynamic impact testing and calibration instrument (DITCI) is a simple instrument with a significant data collection and analysis capability that is used for the testing and calibration of biosimulant human tissue artifacts. These artifacts may be used to measure the severity of injuries caused in the case of a robot impact with a human.

In this paper, we describe the DITCI adjustable impact and flexible foundation mechanism, which allows the selection of a variety of impact force levels and foundation stiffness. The instrument can accommodate arrays of a variety of sensors and impact tools, simulating both real manufacturing tools and the testing requirements of standards setting organizations.

A computer data acquisition system may collect a variety of impact motion, force and torque data, which are used to develop a variety of mathematical model representations of the artifacts. Finally, we describe the fabrication and testing of human abdomen soft tissue artifacts with embedded markers, used to display the severity of impact injury tissue deformation.

DITCI and the use of biosimulant human tissue artifacts will permit a better understanding of the severity of injury, which will be caused in the case of a robot impact with a human, without the use of expensive cadaver parts. The limitations are set by the ability to build artifacts with material properties similar to those of various parts of the human body.

This technology will be particularly useful for small manufacturing companies that cannot afford the use of expensive instrumentation and technical consultants.

Impact tests were performed at maximum impact force and average pressure levels that are below, at and above the levels recommended by a proposed International Organization for Standardization standard. These test results will be used to verify whether the adopted safety standards will protect interactive robots human operators for various robot tools and control modes.

Various research groups have used human subjects to collect data on pain induced by industrial robots. Unfortunately, human safety testing is not an option for human–robot collaboration in industrial applications every time there is a change of a tool or control program, so the use of biosimulant artifacts is expected to be a good alternative.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a robot constant grinding force control algorithm for the impact stage and processing stage of robotic grinding.

The robot constant grinding force control algorithm is based on a grinding model and iterative algorithm. During the impact stage, active disturbance rejection control is used to plan the robotic reference contact force, and the robot speed is adjusted according to the error between the robot’s real contact force and the robot’s reference contact force. In the processing stage, an RBF neural network is used to construct a model with the robot's position offset displacement and controlled output, and the increment of control parameters is estimated according to the RBF neural network model. The error of contact force and expected force converges gradually by iterating the control parameters online continuously.

The experimental results show that the normal force overshoot of the robot based on the grinding model and iterative algorithm is small, and the processing convergence speed is fast. The error between the normal force and the expected force is mostly within ±3 N. The normal force based on the force control algorithm is more stable than the normal force based on position control, and the surface roughness of the processed workpiece has also been improved, the Ra value compared with position control has been reduced by 24.2%.

As the proposed approach obtains a constant effect in the impact stage and processing stage of robot grinding and verified by the experiment, this approach can be used for robot grinding for improved machining accuracy.

The supercritical design of tail rotor drive shaft has attracted more attention in helicopter design due to its high power–weight ratio and low maintenance cost. However, there exists excessive vibration when the shaft passes through the critical frequency. Dry friction damper is the equipment applied to the drive shaft to suppress the excessive vibration. In order to figure out the damping mechanism of the dry friction damper and improve the damping efficiency, the dynamic model of the shaft/damper system is established based on the Jeffcott rotor model.

The typical frequency response of the system is studied through bifurcation diagrams, amplitude-frequency characteristic curves and waterfall frequency response spectrum. The typical transient responses under frequency sweeps are also obtained.

The results show that the response of the system changes from periodic no-rub motion to quasi-periodic rub-impact motion, and then to synchronous full annular rub-impact, and finally, back to periodic no-rub motion. The slip of the rub-impact ring improves the stability of the system. Besides, the effects of the system parameters including critical dry friction force, rub-impact friction coefficient, initial clearance on the stability and the vibration damping capacity are studied. It is observed that the stability changes significantly varying the three parameters respectively. The vibration damping capacity is mainly affected by the critical dry friction force and the initial clearance.

Presented results provide guidance for the design of the dry friction damper.

The purpose of this study is a numerical simulation and an analytical analysis about the low-velocity impact on a functionally graded porous plate with porosity distribution in the thickness direction. In this article, polymethyl methacrylate is used for matrix, and single-walled carbon nanotube (CNTs) (10,10) with consideration agglomeration sizes and lumping of CNT inside the agglomerations is applied for reinforcement.

In analytical formulation, the non-linear Hertz contact law is applied for interaction between projectile and plate surface. High-order shear deformation plate theory is developed, and energy of the system for impactor and plate is written. The governing equations are derived using Ritz method and Lagrange equations and are solved using the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. Also, ABAQUS finite element model of functionally graded porous plate with all edges simply supported and reinforced by CNT under low-velocity impact is simulated and is compared with those is achieved in the present analytical approach.

In parametric studies, the influence of porosity distribution patterns include uniform, non-uniform symmetric and non-uniform asymmetric on the histories of contact force and impactor displacement of simply supported plate reinforced by CNT are presented. Eventually, the effects of porosity coefficient, impactor initial velocity, impactor radius and CNTs lumping inside agglomerations for non-uniform symmetric distribution patterns are discussed in impact event in detail.

In this paper, the effect of combination of polymethyl methacrylate and CNTs with consideration agglomeration sizes and lumping of CNTs inside the agglomerations in the form of a functionally graded porous plate is studied in the problem of low-velocity impact analysis.

The objective of this work is to introduce a new method to carry out design optimization of a mechanical system for vibration and shock isolation, in particular, the viscous spring isolator mounting system for a forging hammer.

The system dynamics model for an isolated foundation and solution technique for obtaining system response under impact loads is introduced. A design optimization problem is formulated to minimize the maximum impact force transmissibility under design constraints, using stiffness and damping coefficients of the isolator, mass of the foundation block and support area of soil as design variables. A dedicated simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is applied to solve the optimization problem.

Viscous spring isolator mounting system, if properly designed, can considerably reduce shock and vibration transmission and the size of the foundation. The optimization leads to a mounting system with superior impact and vibration isolation capability over conventional designs. Sensitivity study and design optimization on a typical 3‐ton forging hammer has demonstrated the advantages of the new design method.

To further improve the accuracy of the design optimization, a more detailed system dynamics model might be introduced.

The work leads to a better design method for viscous spring isolator foundation systems.

This study forms the foundation for further research on design optimization of viscous spring isolator foundation systems, and contributes to the application of SA optimization technique to engineering design.

This paper extends the linear complementarity problem formulation of [7] and [8] for normal impact of planar deformable bodies in multibody systems. In the kinematics of impact we consider the normal gaps between the impacting bodies in terms of the generalized coordinates. Then, the generalized coordinate’s vector is formulated in terms of the impact forces using the 5th order implicit Runge‐Kutta approach RADAU5. Substituting the generalized coordinates in the relation of normal gaps together with the complementarity relations of unilateral contact constraints leads to a linear complementarity problem where its solution results in the solution of the impact problem including impact forces and normal gaps. Then, alternatively another formulation on velocity level based on the 4th order explicit Runge‐Kutta is presented. In the presented approach no coefficient of restitution is used for treatment of energy loss during impact and, instead, the material damping is responsible for energy loss. A good agreement between the results of our approach with the results of FEM for soft planar deformable bodies was shown in [7]. Here, we improve the results for stiff planar deformable bodies and show that with a proper selection of eigenmodes, the results on both position and velocity level approach the precise results of FEM provided that an optimal time step of the integration is chosen. We also investigate the effect of considering material damping and some higher eigenfrequencies on the amount of energy which is dissipated during impact based on our approach.

The purpose of this paper is to present an applied method to design the low-speed contact between a mass and surface of a beam using an analytical solution based on the first-order shear deformation beam theory. Also, a simulation of impact process is carried out by ABAQUS finite element (FE) code.

In theoretical formulation, first strains and stresses are obtained, then kinetic and potential energies are written, and using a combination of Ritz and Lagrange methods, a set of system of motion equations in the form of mass, stiffness and force matrices is obtained. Finally, the motion equations are solved using Runge–Kutta fourth order method.

The von Mises stress contours at the impact point and contact force from the ABAQUS simulation are illustrated and it is revealed that the theoretical solution is in good agreement with the FE code. The effect of changes in projectile speed, projectile diameter and projectile mass on the results is carefully examined with particular attention to evaluate histories of the impact force and beam recess. One of the important results is that changes in projectile speed have a greater effect on the results than changes in projectile diameter, and also changes in projectile mass have the least effect.

This paper presents a combination of methods of energy, Ritz and Lagrange and also FE code to simulate the problem of sandwich beams under low velocity impact.

The authors analyse how the receipt of a wealth transfer (inheritance or gift) affects labour force participation in 14 EU countries. They compare the effect of receiving an inheritance or a gift and investigate different behaviours at the gender level and educational level and for elderly individuals.

The authors use data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey for 14 European countries and adopt an instrumental variable approach. They use information on the type of donor (family and nonfamily) to infer the degree of anticipation of a wealth transfer.

The authors find that unexpected wealth transfers have a negative impact on labour force participation, with a stronger impact for gifts than for inheritances. For gender, they find larger negative impacts for females than for males, which is in line with a weaker attachment to the labour market. Receiving an unexpected wealth transfer may also result in early retirement.

The paper offers a novel comparison of the effect of receiving an inheritance or a gift on labour force participation using a unique European dataset. The authors investigate whether males and females react differently to the receipt of a wealth transfer and the existence of different responses at the educational level and for elderly individuals.

Consumer engagement has been designated as an approach to describing online interactions that more comprehensively reflects the nature of consumers’ interactive relationships in online brand communities. This paper aims to explore consumers’ brand community engagement in the context of Facebook brand pages. This research puts forth the hypothesis that consumers’ brand community engagement on Facebook is dependent upon two overarching themes: external social forces and internal personal forces.

Based on social impact theory, social identity theory and social exchange theory, a conceptual research model is developed and empirically tested through structural equation modelling using cross-sectional data of 460 Facebook brand fans.

The empirical results suggest that internal personal forces primarily positively influence brand community engagement, while external social forces can even impact consumers’ brand community engagement negatively.

Future research should test and validate the proposed model for specific categories and brands.

This paper offers help to online brand marketers to trigger meaningful engagement of consumers in a brand community on Facebook.

This paper examines the consumer engagement construct from a behavioural perspective in a defined social media context and highlights the peculiarities of online brand communities on Facebook that distinguish them from traditional brand communities. The research uses a strong theoretical foundation to develop a model that investigates the prevalent variables that influence consumers’ brand community engagement on Facebook.