A short but detailed introduction to the statistical theory of polymer network formation is given, including gel formation, gel structure, and sol fraction. Focus is put on the use of probability generating functions, and results that are of interest for polymer network elasticity are emphasized. Detailed derivations are supplied, and a simple 6-step procedure is provided, so that the reader is able to adapt and apply the theory to his own chemical systems, even if examples are given on polyurethanes essentially.

[The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com]; A quantitative estimate of the Mullins softening is proposed and tested on various carbon-black filled styrene-butadiene rubbers. In order to model the behaviour of elastomeric materials, some constitutive equations reported in the literature are based on the account of a strain amplification factor, which evolves with the maximum strain history. The amplification factor is grounded on the representation of filled rubbers as heterogeneous materials made of hard rigid domains and soft deformable domains. In the present work, this factor is splitted into two parts with opposite effects that account for the Mullins softening and for the filler reinforcement, respectively. Evolutions of both parts are obtained through a direct analysis of cyclic uniaxial tensile tests performed on a series of materials. The Mullins softening part is shown to linearly depend on the filler volume fraction and on the maximum strain applied, when defined as the first invariant of the Hencky tensor. Its changes with the gum crosslink density parameter are insignificant. The reinforcement part of the amplification factor shows quadratic dependence on the filler volume fraction.; ANR MATETPRO AMUFISE

The cavitating behavior of a four-blade inducer tested in the LML laboratory large test facility is considered in the present paper. Experimental investigations based on unsteady pressure measurements and records from a six-component balance mounted on the inducer shaft are performed. Spectral analysis of the signals enables to detect several characteristic frequencies related to unbalanced two-phase flow patterns. The objective of the present paper is the understanding of the physical phenomena associated to these frequencies. Therefore, wavelet decomposition, flow visualizations, and direct analysis of the high-frequency force, moment, and pressure signals are applied. Results at nominal flow rate only are considered. Not only classical unbalanced cavitation patterns, but also unexpected flow organizations are discussed.; industrie

Publisher version : http://rubberchemtechnol.org/doi/abs/10.5254/1.3592294?journalCode=rcat; Several carbon-black filled styrene-butadiene rubbers showed different sensibilities to the Mullins softening when submitted to cyclic uniaxial tension. In order to quantify this softening, a damage parameter was introduced. It is defined by using a classic damage approach and can be estimated by using either the strain amplification factor method or the tangent modulus at zero stress. The proposed parameter is used to study the effects of crosslink density and filler amount on the Mullins softening. The latter is shown to remain unaffected by a change of crosslink density and to increase with an increase of filler amount. The damage parameter exhibits mere linear dependences on the maximum Hencky strain applied and on the filler volume fraction. A simple linear expression is given finally to predict the Mullins softening of filled rubbers. The parameter also provides an objective analysis for the Mullins softening that supports comments on a better understanding of this effect.; ANR MATETPRO AMUFISE

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com : http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00396-009-2145-6?LI=true; Polyurethane networks have been prepared from a mix of tri- and quadriisocyanate and from two types of diols, polyether-based (with molar masses of 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 g/mol) and polyester-based (1,035 g/mol). The weight fraction of sol has been measured, as well as the elastic shear modulus of the gels. It has been found that the statistical theory of network formation predicts a weight fraction of sol in agreement with the experimental results, but its standard combination with the theory of rubber elasticity disagrees significantly with the elastic modulus measured. This suggests a discrepancy between theory and experiment in terms of elastically active chains. In contrast, the assumption that all nodes in the gel, or even in the system, are elastically active gives much better predictions for the system considered.; ANR JCJC MELAC

High pressure water jet assisted turning (HPWJAT) consists of projecting a high pressure water jet, up to several hundred bar, into the tool-workpiece interface. The water jet is directed between the chip and the tool affording greater protection of the cutting face and better chip breaking. Comparisons are made between assisted turning using several jet pressures and conventional turning with different cutting speeds on the duplex stainless steel, X2CrNiMo22-5. The results show good chip fragmentation and an improvement of tool life with high pressure water jet assistance (HPWJAT). The evolution of the roughness is also investigated. It is shown that it is possible to improve the productivity by using HPWJAT.; This study was undertaken by the Arts et Métiers ParisTech CER Angers in collaboration with two industrial partners: CETIM and Westafalia.

Sheet Metal 2011; This work deals a contribution to ductile damage of High-Strength Low-Alloy (HSLA) steel steels under low stress triaxiality. This work is based on micrographics observations and in situ shear tests to examine the evolution of microstructure in this kind of loading and to identify the damage process associated. Numerical simulations by finites elements has been performed to simulate the material behavior of nucleation mechanism and the interaction between cavities during the coalescence phase, as well as the effect of the relative position of the inclusions in the shear plane. The model used as a reference in this work is the Gurson-Tvergaard- Needleman (GTN) model. It has been recently improved in order to take into account the effects of low triaxiality during shearing. The implementation of this model in a finite element code is in progress.; Devillé SA

Fatigue phenomena, which appear generally below the yield stress, is the cause of more than 80 % of in-service mechanical failures. However, the optimization of the weight and cost when designing mechanical components or structures, linked to improved performance, leads to increasingly stressed components. Therefore a fatigue design approach must be done by the engineer. This paper shows the experience gained over five academic years of teaching fatigue the assessment of automotive components using a reliability approach to predict probability of failure, in the engineering school, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, in France. The choice was made to present a comprehensive fatigue assessment approach using a method, initially developed in the automotive industry and since extended to the aeronautical and mechanical industries. This method is known as the “Stress-Strength interference analysis”. The “Stress” represents the distribution of the driver severity, and the “Strength” represents the distribution of the fatigue strength of all the components. A suspension arm is used to illustrate the approach. The Dang Van multiaxial fatigue criterion is implemented in a Finite Elements Code and a danger coefficient is visualized on the meshed structure. The fatigue analysis is interpreted with respect to the target reliability sought by the car- manufacturer.

Effects of the blade number on the performance of a rocket engine turbopump inducer are investigated in the present paper. For that purpose, two inducers characterized by three blades and five blades, respectively, were manufactured and tested experimentally. The two inducers were designed on the basis of identical design flow rate and identical pressure elevation at nominal flow rate. The first part of the study focuses on the steady behavior of the inducers in cavitating conditions: evolutions of performance, torque, mass flow rate, and amplitude of radial forces on the shaft according to the inlet pressure are considered. Several flow rates and rotation speeds are investigated. Significant differences between the inducers are obtained concerning the critical cavitation number, the amplitude of the radial forces, and the organization of cavitation in the machinery. Cavitation instabilities are investigated in the second part of the study. Various flow patterns are detected accord- ing to the mass flow rate and the cavitation number.; industrie

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com; The whole stretch blow-moulding process of PET bottles is simulated at the usual process temperature in order to predict the elastic end-use properties of the bottles. An anisotropic viscoplastic constitutive law, coupled with microscopic variables, is dentified from uniaxial tensile tests performed at different strain rates and temperatures. The microstructure evolution is characterised by crystallinity measurements from interrupted tests and frozen samples. For each specimen tested, the Young modulus is measured at room temperature. Numerical simulations of the blow moulding process are run using the C-NEM method. A micromechanical modelling is post-processed after the simulation to predict the elastic properties. Predictions of Young modulus distributions in bottles are in agreement with the ones measured on blow-moulded bottles.

Modelling of a hydro-pneumatic energy storage system is presented in this paper. Hydro pneumatic storage aims to combine the good efficiency of hydraulic energy conversion and the space flexibility of pneumatic storage. The project aims to model a prototype which uses a rotodynamic multi-stage pump-turbine to displace a virtual liquid piston to compress air. To facilitate mass and heat transfers between both phases, there is no separation between the water and the air. A dynamic model of the storage system is developed using block diagram methodology. It takes into account characteristic curves of the pump-turbine and thermodynamic equations. Modelling results show that vapour diffusion contributes to reducing compression final temperature. This implies an increase of storage efficiency. A test rig construction will begin at the end of autumn 2011. It will be electrically connected to the “Distributed Energies” platform of ‘’Arts et Métiers Paristech’’ in Lille.; ademe

The paper reports combined experimental and numerical investigations of unforced un- steadiness in a vaneless radial diffuser. Experimental data were obtained within the diffuser using stereoscopic time resolved Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) recording three velocity components in a plane (2D/3C), coupled with unsteady pressure transducers. To characterize the inception and the evolution of the unsteady phenomena, spectral analyses of the pressure signals were carried out both in frequency and time-frequency domains and the PIV results were post processed by an original averaging method. Two partial flow rates were investigated in detail in this paper. A single unforced unsteadiness was identified for the lowest flow rate, whereas, two competitive intermittent modes were recognized for the higher mass flow. Numerical analyses were carried out on the same pump by the commercial code CFX. All the computations were performed using the unsteady transient model and the turbulence was modelled by the Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) model. Numerical pressure signals were compared with the experimental data to verify the development of the same pressure fluctua- tions.

The paper refers to the behavior of a radial flow pump vaneless diffuser during a starting period. Results obtained with a 1D numerical model are compared with some new experimental data which have been obtained using 2D/3C High repetition rate PIV within the diffuser coupled with unsteady pressure measurements. These tests have been performed on a test rig with a radial impeller matched with a vaneless diffuser. They have been made in air, on a test rig well adapted for studies on interactions between impeller and diffuser, as well as for the use of optical methods and especially Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) as there is no volute downstream of the diffuser. The present study refers to new experiments combining pressure measurements and 2D/3C High Speed PIV at partial flow rates within a vaneless diffuser with a large outlet radius. Four Brüel & Kjaer condenser microphones are used for the unsteady pressure measurements. They were flush mounted on the shroud side of the diffuser wall and on the suction pipe of the pump. The sampling frequency was 2048 Hz. For PIV measurements, the laser sheet was generated by a Darwin PIV ND:YLF Laser at three heights within the diffuser. PIV snapshots have been recorded by two identical CMOS cameras. A home made software has been used for the images treatment. The results consist in fields of 80 x 120 mm2 and 81 x 125 velocity vectors with a temporal resolution of 250 velocity maps per second. For each flow rate and each laser sheet height in the diffuser...

Version éditeur : http://jla.aip.org/resource/1/jlapen/v19/i3/p165_s1?isAuthorized=no; This article deals with the gas effect on percussion laser drilling in ms pulse duration range. On the one hand, the flow of assistance gas jet is investigated with and without a target using a strioscopy setup and Pitot’s tube. By this way, the position of shock waves in the supersonic jet and near the target surface is revealed. From this characterization, the distance between exit nozzle and target can be optimized to induce higher pressure on surface and protect optics from liquid ejection. On the other hand, metal liquid and vapor jets from irradiated target are observed with a high-speed camera (100 000 Img/sec). Without assistance gas, a surprising result on the video is a shock wave inside the metal vapor jet like a supersonic flow. The assistance gas limits the propagation of the vapor and facilitates the deposition of metallic liquid around the front surface holes.

Publisher version : http://iopscience.iop.org/0022-3727/41/15/155502/; Laser drilling in the percussion regime is commonly used in the aircraft industry to drill sub-millimetre holes in metallic targets. Characteristic laser intensities in the range of 10 MW cm−2 are typically employed for drilling metallic targets. With these intensities the temperature of the irradiated matter is above the vaporization temperature and the drilling process is led by hydrodynamic effects. Although the main physical processes involved are identified, this process is not correctly understood or completely controlled. A major characteristic coefficient of laser–matter interaction for this regime, which is the absorptivity of the laser on the irradiated surface, is still unknown, because of the perturbing effects due to laser beam geometrical trapping inside the drilled hole. So, by using time resolved experiments, this study deals with the direct measurement of the variation of the intrinsic absorption of aluminium, nickel and steel materials, as a function of the incident laser intensity up to 20 MW cm−2. We observe that for this incident intensity, the absorptivity can reach up to 80%. This very high and unexpected value is discussed by considering the microscopic behaviour of the heated matter near the vapour–liquid interface that undergoes possible Rayleigh–Taylor instability or volume absorption

Version éditeur : http://jla.aip.org/resource/1/jlapen/v22/i4/p127_s1?isAuthorized=no; This paper presents an original method for analyzing laser drilled holes. The so-called Direct Observation of Drilled hOle (DODO) method is introduced and its applications. The hole characterization that’s been made is compared with x-ray radiography and cross-section analysis. Direct Observation of Drilled hole provides instantaneously surface state, geometric shape, as well as recast layer structure, without additional operation. Since no mounting resin is used to embed the sample, the preparation for analysis is simplified and, gives access to a 3D analysis of hole morphology. The principle of this technique consists in positioning the drilling axis on the joint plane of a butt configuration. Surfaces of the two parts of the sample to be joined are polished beforehand, to increase the contact surface, and then holes are drilled in the joint plane. Once the sample is drilled, the two parts are split so that one half of the hole is in each part of the sample. The preparation time of DODO method samples is shorter than the polishing time of the classical method. Moreover the implementation of the DODO method is much easier, for quality control as well as process development in laser drilling.; This work has been supported by Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique

The Particle Image Velocimetry is undoubtedly one of the most important technique in Fluid-dynamics since it allows to obtain a direct and instantaneous visualization of the flow field in a non-intrusive way. This innovative technique spreads in a wide number of research fields, from aerodynamics to medicine, from biology to turbulence researches, from aerodynamics to combustion processes. The book is aimed at presenting the PIV technique and its wide range of possible applications so as to provide a reference for researchers who intended to exploit this innovative technique in their research fields. Several aspects and possible problems in the analysis of large- and micro-scale turbulent phenomena, two-phase flows and polymer melts, combustion processes and turbo-machinery flow fields, internal waves and river/ocean flows were considered.

Version éditeur : http://iopscience.iop.org/0022-3727/45/33/335304; Laser shock processing (LSP) is now a recognized surface treatment for improving fatigue or corrosion behaviour of metallic materials through the generation of a compressive stress field. In turn, the analysis of shock wave propagation is of primary importance to predict numerically morphological and mechanical surface modifications. Considering experimental and numerical analysis of shock wave propagation, and surface deformations induced by single impacts, a 2050 aluminium alloy having different microstructural was investigated under laser-shock loading. In a first step, the evolution of shock wave attenuation and elastic precursor amplitude was correctly reproduced by finite element simulations, and in a second step, surface deformations induced by 1 to 6 local impacts were also compared satisfactorily with experiments. This allowed us to validate mechanical loading and materials’ constitutive law, but did not allow determining accurately residual stress fields on a single impact.

Modelling of a hydro-pneumatic energy storage system is the main aim of this paper. The project aims to model a prototype that uses a rotodynamic multi-stage pump-turbine to displace a virtual liquid piston for air compression. A dynamic model of the storage system is developed using the block diagram methodology. Two driving strategies are also developed in order to manage the constant variation of operating point due to pressure variation: maximum efficiency strategy and power demand response strategy.; ADEME

To increase the believability and life-likeness of Embodied Conversational Agents, we introduce a behavior synthesis model for the generation of expressive gesturing. A small set of dimensions of expressivity is used to characterize individual variability of movement. We empirically evaluate our implementation in two separate user studies. The results suggest that our approach works well for a subset of expressive behavior. However, animation fidelity is not high enough to realize subtle changes. Interaction effects between different parameters need to be studied further.