In the sport of basketball, it is important to practice shooting the ball to develop the skill of making the shot in the basket at a high efficiency. Making shots at a high efficiency allows the player to succeed at a high level in the sport. The main focus of the paper describes the design and development of an automatic basketball rebound (ABR) system. The developed ABR provides a system that will launch the ball back to the player at any position on the court within a 50-foot radius. This is accomplished by a variable spring loaded launching mechanism that will compress a spring, depending on the players location, to generate the appropriate force required to launch the ball back to the player. The novel launching mechanism developed is mounted to a rotary table that ensures the launching mechanism is in the correct orientation with the player once the ball is launched. The player is outfitted with an inertial measurement unit to track their position using a method known as dead reckoning. This information is relayed back to a microcontroller that determines the system response. The ABR system is made from lightweight materials and is compact such that it is easy to move around compared to its predecessors.

Engineering decisions that have the greatest effect on worker and public safety occur early in the design process. During these decisions, engineers rely on their experience and intuition to estimate the severity and likelihood of undesired future events like failures, equipment damage, injuries, or environmental harm. These initial estimates can then form the basis of investment of limited project resources in mitigating those risks. Behavioral economics suggests that most people make significant and predictable errors when considering high consequence, low probability events. These biases have not previously been studied quantitatively in the context of engineering decisions, however. This paper describes preliminary results from a set of computerized experiments with engineering students estimating, prioritizing, and making design decisions related to risk. The undergraduate students included in this experiment were more likely to underestimate than overestimate the risk of failure. They were also more optimistic of the effects of efforts to mitigate risk than the evidence suggested. These results suggest that considerably more effort is needed to understand the characteristics and qualities of these biases in risk estimation, and understand what kinds of intervention might best ameliorate these biases and enable engineers to more effectively identify and manage the risks of technology.

Experimental toxicology studies for the purposes of setting occupational exposure limits for aerosols have drawbacks including excessive time and cost which could be overcome or limited by the development of computational approaches. A quantitative, analytical relationship between the characteristics of emerging nanomaterials and related toxicity is desired to better assist in the subsequent mitigation of toxicity by design. Quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR’s) and meta-analyses are popular methods used to develop predictive toxicity models. A meta-analysis for investigation of the dose-response and recovery relationship in a variety of engineered nanoparticles was performed using a clustering-based approach. The primary objective of the clustering is to categorize groups of similarly behaving nanoparticles leading to the identification of any physicochemical differences between the various clusters and evaluate their contributions to toxicity. The studies are grouped together based on their similarity of their dose-response and recovery relationship, the algorithm utilizes hierarchical clustering to classify the different nanoparticles. The algorithm uses the Akaike information criterion (AIC) as the performance metric to ensure there is no overfitting in the clusters. The results from the clustering analysis of 2 types of engineered nanoparticles namely Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and Metal oxide nanoparticles (MONPs) for 5 response variables revealed that there are at least 4 or more toxicologically distinct groups present among the nanoparticles on the basis of similarity of dose-response. Analysis of the attributes of the clusters reveals that they also differ on the basis of their length, diameter and impurity content. The analysis was further extended to derive no-observed-adverse-effect-levels (NOAEL’s) for the clusters. The NOAELs for the “Long and Thin” variety of CNTs were found to be the lowest, indicating that those CNTs showed the earliest signs of adverse effects.

Tensile residual stress (RS) peaks near the weld toe accelerate crack generation and propagation stages reducing dramatically the life of welded components. In order to relief RS, components are typically heat-treated. However, heat treatments can affect the microstructure compromising mechanical properties. In addition, their application in big structures is complex due to size limitations. As an alternative, mechanical treatments such as shot peening can be locally applied. Moreover, they generate local compressive stresses in the treated surfaces, which present beneficial effect in the fatigue strength of treated components. In the present work, the contribution of shot peening in the fatigue strength of multipass welded joints is numerically evaluated. For that purpose, first the RS stress pattern of a 3 pass butt weld of 10mm thick, 50mm length S275JR plates is calculated. Following, the application of shot peening in the tensile RS area is modelled and the evolution of RS pattern is analyzed. Finally, the fatigue strength of treated and non-treated butt welds is evaluated.

The mesh morphing method is widely applied in building subject-specific human finite element models. However, there are many problems yet to be resolved when applying the mesh morphing method in subject-specific modeling, such as calculation difficulties and low morphing accuracy. To solve these problems above, an efficient peak-selection RBF mesh morphing method is proposed in the paper. Firstly, by comparing different types of radial basis functions, an optimal kernel function is selected to improve morphing accuracy. Secondly, the landmarks are reduced by selecting multiple peak nodes from the object surfaces, so as to reduce iteration steps and improve the mesh generation efficiency. The proposed peak-selection Radial Basis Function (RBF) mesh morphing method is further demonstrated through a subject-specific child finite element modeling problem. This mesh morphing method has important significance for analyzing the occupant injury of different body features in motor vehicle crashes.

Metal-polymer hybrid (MPH) materials can integrate the excellent mechanical properties of metal and complex geometry formability of polymer into a single component, which has become an effective way of reducing the weight of automotive semi-structural components. For example, the hybrid steel/thermoplastic polymer has been applied in automotive front-end modules, bumper cross-beams and B-pillars due to its light weight, excellent strength and stiffness, good corrosion resistance and recycling, high integration and reasonable cost. These components are usually subjected to impact or crash loads and the strain rate effect should be taken into account. This paper aims to experimentally and numerically study the dynamic behavior of MPH materials at different strain rates and provide an accurate and efficient numerical model for crash simulation of vehicles with MPH components. Firstly, MPH specimens with high strength steel (HSS) and glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polymer (GFRTP) were fabricated by direct injection molding adhesion (DIMA) process. Then, the dynamic mechanical properties of MPH specimens under strain rates from 800 s −1 to 2000 s −1 were investigated by Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) experiments. Finally, a strain rate-dependent numerical model was established in ABAQUS software to simulate the dynamic behavior of MPH specimens and validated by experimental results. Three numerical approaches for modeling the interface between the two discrete material phases were considered and compared to examine the level of interaction between two constitute materials. Cohesive zone modeling technique at the interface which saved modeling and characterization time and showed adequate predictive capability proved to be generally applicable to the evaluation of structural concepts in an early vehicle development stage. This study provides a foundation for the future engineering application of HSS/GFRP hybrid materials and numerical models for automotive crash simulation.

This paper presents a novel design methodology, which combines topology and shape optimization to define material distribution in the structural design of a truss. Firstly, in order to identify the best layout, the topology optimization process in the design domain is carried out by applying the BESO (Bidirectional Evolutionary Structural Optimization) method. In this approach, the low energy elements are eliminated from an initial mesh, and a new geometry is constructed. This new geometry consists of a set of elements with a higher elastic energy. This results in a new division of material providing different zones, some subjected to higher stress and others containing less elastic energy. Moreover, the elements of the final mesh are re-arranged and modified, considering the distribution of tension. This new arrangement is constructed by aligning and rotating the original mesh elements coherently to the principal directions. In the Shape Optimization stage, the resulting TO (Topology Optimization) geometry is refined. A process of replacing the tabular mesh is performed by rearranging the remaining elements. The vertices of the mesh are set as control polygon vertices and used as reference to define the NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) curves. This provides a parametric representation of the boundaries, outlining the high elastic energy zones. The final stage is the optimization of the continuous and analytically defined NURBS curve outlining the solid material domain. The Shape Optimization is carried out applying a gradient-based optimization method.

Drum brakes have dominated the braking industry for many years due to their low cost and adequate operating performance. In this paper, the authors present the first example of studying the sensitivity analysis of a magnetorheological fluid (MRF) and a conventional frictional brake by using first order Tayler series expansion. Nondimensional analyses are carried out to generalize the analyses for every brake configuration. This paper seeks to step away from the complexity of the numerical models for these brakes. Taylor series expansion is used to examine the effects of perturbing dimensionless design parameters on the braking torque. In addition, Taguchi approach is applied for the brakes to study the contribution of the design parameters on the braking torque and to obtain the optimal design. It is shown in this paper that braking torque for magnetorheological fluid brake is dependent on seven dimensionless groups while the frictional brake is dependent upon only four dimensionless groups. Four groups of the MRF brake and two groups for the frictional brake dominate the physics of braking. The sensitivity analysis has identified the key parameters that must be adjusted in order to increase braking torque. Furthermore, Taguchi approach has showed the how the variations of input variables affect the variations of the output variable and stated the optimal levels of the design parameters that achieve the optimal design.

Rigid wet cooling media is a key component of direct and indirect evaporative cooling systems. Evaporation is the process of a substance in a liquid state changing to a gaseous state. When water evaporates only water molecules get evaporated and the other chemicals in the water are left behind on the surface as residue. Many studies have been conducted on how the change in air flow velocity, media depth, porosity and water distribution affect performance of the cooling system. The operational efficiency of the cooling media varies over its life cycle and depends primarily on temperature and speed of inlet air, water distribution system, type of pad and dimension of the pad. Although evaporative cooling when implemented with air-side economization enables efficiency gains, a trade-off between the system maintenance and its operational efficiency exists. In this study, the primary objective is to determine how calcium scale affects the overall performance of the cooling pad and the water system. Areas of the pad that are not wetted effectively allow air to pass through without being cooled and the edges between wetted and dry surface establish sites for scale formation. An Accelerated Degradation Testing (ADT) by rapid wetting and drying on the media pads at elevated levels of calcium is designed and conducted on the cellulose wet cooling media pad. This research focuses on monitoring the degradation that occurs over its usage and establish a key maintenance parameter for water used in media pad. As a novel study, preliminary tests were mandatory because there were no established standards for media pad degradation testing. Sump water conductivity is identified as the key maintenance parameter for monitoring sump replenishing and draining cycles which will result in reduced water usage. The average water conductivity in the sump during wetting cycles increases monotonically when ADT was performed on a new media pad. An empirical relationship between sump water conductivity and number of wetting cycles is proposed. This information will be very helpful for the manufacturers to guide their customers for maintenance of the media pad and sump water drain cycles.

Escalators are common mechanical vertical transportation systems that move an estimated 245 million people daily in the U.S. on the more than 33,000 escalators [1]. It has been estimated that about 10,000 escalator-related injuries per year result in an emergency department treatment in the U.S. [2]. A study of escalator injuries published in 2001 concluded that injuries were primarily the result of falls or entrapment at the bottom or top of an escalator or between a moving stair and escalator sidewall [3]. Regarding sidewall entrapment, the 2000 edition of the ASME A17.1, “Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators,” introduced periodic tests for both new and existing escalators to evaluate the potential for sidewall entrapment [4]. The development history of the step/skirt performance index is presented and current requirements in the ASME A17.1 and A17.2, “Guide for Inspection of Elevators, Escalators and Moving Walkways,” codes regarding the index are reviewed. Injury data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for escalator riders are analyzed from the timeframe of 1998 to 2017 to seek trends in escalator entrapments during the time period between the introduction of the index and the present.

The spindle system of machine tool produces a huge amounts of process data when it works. These data directly reflect the running state of spindle system but are seldom used to perform early fault warning. This paper proposes a novel early fault warning method adaptive weighted fuzzy Petri-net. Firstly, the long short-term memory (LSTM) is put forward to predict the time-series of future state for spindle system. Then, in order to design a reasoning framework for dynamic knowledge which can adapt to changes in the area of knowledge, an adaptive weighted fuzzy petri-net (AWFPN) is brought up to perform fault diagnosis. Finally, the effectiveness and feasibility of proposed method are verified by simulations and experiments. Results show that the proposed early fault warning method could effectively help to find potential fault information in the manufacturing process and provide the useful advice for maintenance.

Crash test results have shown that vehicles which receive good ratings in existing co-linear consumer information tests still may require structural modifications for good performance in NHTSA’s frontal oblique test procedure. The purpose of this study was to determine incremental vehicle structural change requirements and their associated mass and cost to significantly reduce occupant compartment intrusion. An available finite element model of a mid-size sedan was updated and validated using data from a 2015 Toyota Camry. The generated baseline model correlated well with the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) full overlap test, NHTSA’s left and right oblique impact tests, and with the IIHS small and moderate overlap crash configurations. An iterative optimization process was used to develop necessary countermeasures to reduce occupant compartment intrusion according to defined design goals for the left and right oblique impact configuration. No unintended consequences, i.e. no considerable increase of vehicle pulse for oblique and co-linear load cases were observed. The associated added mass was 10.8kg and the associated cost was $30. Occupant risk analysis was not part of this study. Additional research in concert with restraint systems and occupants would ensure that the optimized structure does not adversely affect the measured occupant injury predictions.

This work presents the novel design of a smart hydrodynamic journal bearing with adjustable radial clearance. The dynamic behavior of this bearing was mathematically modeled and examined. Finite Element Analyses were conducted to determine the effort needed to change and maintain a desired value for the radial clearance. First, the bearing set was modelled as a two-degrees-of-freedom dynamic system. For an initial value of a radial clearance of c = 0.0508 mm, the bearing set exhibited an unstable behavior under its postulated operating condition. A Generic Algorithm (GA) was used to define an objective function so that an optimum value of c could be determined in order to ring the bearing into a stable operating condition. The GA determined the value of radial clearance of c = 0.0051 mm for this purpose. Second, a Jeffcott rotor was modeled as an eight-degrees-of-freedom vibratory stem supported by two identical smart bearings. For an initial value of c = 0.025 mm, the disk’s peak-to-peak vibrations amplitude was determined to be 8 × 10 −5 meter and 8.5 × 10 −5 m along two orthogonal axes of a reference frame respectively. The GA was used to determine a new value for the radial clearance of the supporting bearings in order to reduce the disk’s vibration level. A new value of radial clearance c was determined to be 0.095 mm which in turn reduced the vibrations of the dick from 8 × 10 −5 and 8.5 × 10 −5 meter to 3.5 × 10 −5 and 2.5 × 10 −5 m respectively.

Pipe bends are critical components in piping systems where their failure modes are quite different from straight pipes. The objective of the present work is to investigate the limit loads of pipe bends with actual As-fabricated shape obtained from pipe bending process as compared to bends with Ideal and Assumed imperfect shapes. The present work is conducted by using nonlinear finite element analysis and is performed in two steps. The first step is achieved by simulating rotary pipe bending process with ball mandrel to obtain the actual as-fabricated shape of the 90° pipe bend. The process simulation was verified against published experimental data. In the second step, the pipe bend is subjected to different combinations of simultaneous loads consisting of internal pressure and In-plane closing bending moment. Results are provided for limit load curves for pipe bends with as-fabricated geometries and bends with ideal shape and assumed geometrical imperfections.

A nitinol-based arch wedge support (AWS) was designed using computational approach. Finite element analysis (FEA) was performed to on this design to assess the influence of loading, boundary conditions, and thickness on the mechanical response of the computer-aid design (CAD) model. Five loading conditions caused by different human movements, two boundary conditions, and three thicknesses are involved in this computational study. FEA results showed that the presented AWS design can resist forces caused by different human motions without generating any permanent deformation. The study features the first time to design and evaluate a thin-walled nitinol AWS model. The results of this study form the background of prototyping and experimental testing of the design in the next phase.

Even though the power transformers are electrical machines, their design includes several important steps with strong emphasis on mechanical engineering topics, such as the design of welded metallic structures. Indeed, the tank and its cover are typically manufactured from steel sheets or plates to which a group of stiffeners are added, with the objective of reducing the bending stress, transverse displacements and/or buckling. The current communication presents and discusses several incremental innovations in the structural design and simulation of tanks for Core type power transformers, including: (i) optimization of the stiffeners design and welding bead volume reduction; (ii) optimization of panels curvature; (iii) simulation of the transformer tank loaded by both hydrostatic pressure and vacuum conditions; and (iv) inclusion of non-linear behavior to more accurately simulate representative structures. Achieved numerical results are compared with obtained experimental data, to evaluate the design procedures and the potential of virtual testing of new solutions.

User-centered product design (UCPD) and especially its methods and tools offer a lot of benefits to product development. By using specific data of the user group or by including them into the design process, systems with better functionality and usability arise. However, including the users in an optimum manner means to include them over the whole product development process, which is costly and often too time-consuming regarding the ever shorter product life cycles. An extensive application of UCPD methods is therefore usually not practical for industry. In order to (1) support the user-centered development process in general and (2) support the selection of appropriate UCPD methods, a multi-channel human-system interaction framework is proposed. It is derived from existing human-computer and human-machine interaction models and further includes additional factors influencing the human-system interaction. However, the framework itself needs further and more detailed elaboration and discussion and currently lacks an allocation of UCPD methods.

In reliability-based mechanical design, reliability replaces the traditional factor of safety as the measurement index of the safety of mechanical components. More than 90% of metal components under cyclic fatigue loadings in industries fail because of fatigue. The P-S-N curve fatigue theory (Probability - Stress level - Number of cycles) is one of the current important fatigue theories. It is very important to know how to determine the reliability of components under different loading-induced cyclic stresses for reliability-based mechanical design. The Monte Carlo method is a powerful numerical simulation in almost every field such as optimization, numerical integration, and generating draws from a probability distribution. Literature reviews show the Monte Carlo method is successfully implemented to estimate the reliability of components under single loading-induced cyclic stress. However, there is little literature about implementing the Monte Carlo method to estimate the reliability of components under multiple loading-induced cyclic stress by using the P-S-N curve fatigue theory. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new Monte Carlo computational algorithm to calculate the reliability of components under several cyclic loadings using the P-S-N curve fatigue theory. Two key concepts in the widely-accepted Miner rule in fatigue theory are that fatigue damage is linear cumulative and the fatigue damage because of different cyclic stress is independent. Based on these two key concepts, this paper has successfully developed a new Monte Carlo computational algorithm to calculate the reliability of components under multiple loading-induced cyclic stresses using the P-S-N curve fatigue theory. The results obtained by the developed computational algorithm is validated by results obtained from two published methods. The results by the developed computational algorithm is again validated by the K-D probabilistic model. Based on validation studies, the relative differences in the results between the proposed method and the published methods are in the range of 0.66% to 2.98%. Therefore, the developed Monte Carlo computational algorithm is validated and can provide an acceptable estimation of the reliability of components under several cyclic fatigue loadings using the P-S-N curve fatigue theory.

With the degradation of metrorail facilities and the increase in network size, it is urgently needed to perform vulnerability assessment to ensure the safe operation of the metro system. In this paper, a link-weighted network model is proposed by considering the physical interval length between neighboring metro stations as link weight factor. Firstly, the metro network was essentially mapped into a bipartite topological diagram that consists of nodes denoting metro stations and links representing metro routes including any tunnels or bridges. After analyzing the network for its complexity level, it was revealed that the metro network topology can be appropriately constructed by using the Space L method. On this basis, multiple characteristic indexes of the network were calculated to characterize network topology structural features. We then tested the state of Shanghai metro network under different failure scenarios by removing a fraction of nodes from the network. Quantitative vulnerability analyses were conducted according to the change in the topological structure of Shanghai metro network and the change in the corresponding global network efficiency due to disruptions. Finally, both the network efficiency of link-weighted and unweighted Shanghai metro network topology were calculated and compared. This study has identified the vulnerable metro stations, which could provide support for the reasonable resource allocation of maintenance work and the decision-making in emergency treatment after failure. In order to increase the adaptability to emergencies and improve the operational efficiency, it was proposed that during the planning, construction, and operation of the metro system, the management and protection of the vulnerable stations should be given increased attention.

The effects of reduced kingpin offset distance at the ground (scrub radius) and speed were evaluated under controlled test conditions simulating front tire tread detachment drag. While driving in a straight line at target speeds of 50, 60, or 70 mph with the steering wheel locked, the drag of a tire tread detachment was simulated by applying the left front brake with a pneumatic actuator. The test vehicle was a 2001 dual rear wheel four-wheel-drive Ford F350 pickup truck with an 11,500 lb. GVWR. The scrub radius was tested at the OEM distance of 125 mm (Δ = 0) and at reduced distances of 49 mm (Δ = −76) and 11 mm (Δ = −114). The average steady state responses at 70 mph with the OEM scrub radius were: steering torque = −24.5 in-lb; slip angle = −3.8 deg; lateral acceleration = −0.47 g; yaw rate = −8.9 deg/sec; lateral displacement after 0.75 seconds = 3.1 ft and lateral displacement after 1.5 seconds = 13.1 ft. At the OEM scrub radius, responses that increased linearly with speed included: slip angle (R 2 = 0.84); lateral acceleration (R 2 = 0.93); yaw rate (R 2 = 0.73) and lateral displacement (R 2 = 0.59 and R 2 = 0.87, respectively). At the OEM scrub radius, steer torque decreased linearly with speed (R 2 = 0.76) and longitudinal acceleration had no linear relationship with speed (R 2 = 0.09). At 60 mph and 70 mph for both scrub radius reductions, statistically significant decreases (CI ≥ 95%) occurred in average responses of steer torque, slip angle, lateral acceleration, yaw rate, and lateral displacement. At 50 mph, reducing the OEM scrub radius to 11 mm resulted in statistically significant decreases (CI ≥ 95%) in average responses of steer torque, lateral acceleration, yaw rate and lateral displacement. At 50 mph the average slip angle response decreased (CI = 87%) when the OEM scrub radius was reduced to 11 mm.