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- Thermal Residual Stresses in Functionally Graded Structures: a Didactic Case StudyPublication . Silva, Tiago A. N.; Loja, AméliaManufacturing processes which involve plastic deformations or abrupt temperature gradients often leads thermal residual stresses to arise on materials. This fact can thus result in stress states that remain within a structural member in the absence of external loads, being desirable to obtain, as long as possible, a minimum level of residual stresses as well as smoother stresses transitions in the materials interfaces. Dual-phase functionally graded materials can be used with the purpose to mitigate stress concentrations by gradually varying the microstructure and/or composition of materials in a gradient structure. The current work presents part of a remote educational platform developed to promote and motivate mechanical engineering students to gain a broader insight of a common drawback in mechanical design. Here MATLAB and LabVIEW are used to set up an integrated tool fir engineering education and research, by taking as demonstration the problem of thermal residual stresses in functionally graded structures. The educational platform empowers students to understand the influence, on thermal residual stresses, of different design parameters. This pilot project is entering on its implementation phase, wherein students are required to explore the multiple potentialities of this platform to support their learning process.
- Toward variability characterization and statistic models' constitution for the prediction of exponentially graded plates' static responsePublication . Rosa, Rafael da Silva Batista; Loja, M.A.R.; Carvalho, AldaFunctionally graded composite materials may constitute an advantageous alternative to engineering applications, allying a customized tailoring capability to its inherent continuous properties transition. However, these attractive characteristics must account for the uncertainty that affects these materials and their structures' physical quantities. Therefore, it is important to analyze how this uncertainty will modify the foreseen deterministic response of a structure that is built with these materials, identifying which of the parameters are responsible for a greater impact. To pursue this main objective, the material and geometrical parameters that characterize a plate made of an exponentially graded material are generated according to a random multivariate normal distribution, using the Latin hypercube sampling technique. Then, a set of finite element analyses based on the first-order shear deformation theory are performed to characterize the linear static responses of these plates, which are further correlated to the input parameters. This work also considers the constitution of statistic models in order to allow their use as alternative prediction models. The results show that for the plates that were analyzed, the uncertainty associated with the elasticity modulus of both phases is mainly responsible for the maximum transverse deflection variability. The effectiveness of the statistical models that are built are also shown.
- A comprehensive review on analysis of nanocomposites: from manufacturing to properties characterizationPublication . M, Vinyas; Athul, S. J.; Harursampath, D.; Loja, Amélia; Trung, Nguyen ThoiThe study of nanocomposites in its diverse scientific fields has increased dramatically over the years with numerous theoretical and experimental techniques emerging and redefining the process of synthesis, analysis and cost control methodologies of nanocomposites. The present review is an attempt to identify the various methodologies, techniques, theories and formulations that are used in nanocomposite technology. As an overall qualitative appreciation it is possible to conclude that the diversity of processes involved in the manufacture and analysis of nanocomposites, impacts them differently, influencing their physical nature, chemical behaviour, biological interactions, optical properties and production costs which consequently may introduce some constraints to their application. Hence, a critical review on the best methodology would remain inconclusive. This work intends to collect and relate publications on different fields of the nanocomposites technology and application fields, aiming at contributing to achieve a wide perspective of different aspects of the nanocomposites processes and theories and with this, being an aid to ease and raise the production and analysis of nanocomposites to a higher level.
- Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) stiffness design for mitigation of ankle inversion injuryPublication . Teixeira, D.; Milho, João; Carvalho, M. S.; Loja, AméliaModelling and simulation of human movement has the potential to improve the design of medical devices and rehabilitation process by enabling the identification of cause-effect relationships in individuals suffering from neurological and musculoskeletal issues. The main goal of this work was to provide a simulation-based stiffness design for an Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) that can help to mitigate the risk of a sprain by ankle inversion during the landing in freefall which is known to occur for subtalar angles higher than 25 degrees. Computational simulations were performed using human movement models with and without a passive AFO, to access the AFO sensitivity for the translational stiffness that prevents the cuff from translating with respect to the footplate. The Design of Experiments (DoE) methodology was used to access sensitivities between the three principal directions of the AFO stiffness. Results revealed that the ankle inversion angle was less than 25 degrees when increasingly larger values of translational stiffness were used, although a nonlinear behaviour was observed between the three principal directions of the AFO stiffness, for which injury safe design configurations were obtained.
- A study on the modeling of sandwich functionally graded particulate compositesPublication . Loja, Amélia; Barbosa, Joaquim; Soares, C. M. MotaDual-phase functionally graded materials are a particular type of composite materials whose properties are tailored to vary continuously, depending on its two constituent's composition distribution, and which use is increasing on the most diverse application fields. These materials are known to provide superior thermal and mechanical performances when compared to the traditional laminated composites, exactly because of this continuous properties variation characteristic, which enables among other advantages smoother stresses distribution profile. In this paper we study the influence of different homogenization schemes, namely the schemes due to Voigt, Hashin-Shtrikman and Mod-Tanaka, which can be used to obtain bounds estimates for the material properties of particulate composite structures. To achieve this goal we also use a set of finite element models based on higher order shear deformation theories and also on first order theory. From the studies carried out, on linear static analyses and on free vibration analyses, it is shown that the bounds estimates are as important as the deformation kinematics basis assumed to analyse these types of multifunctional structures. Concerning to the homogenization schemes studied, it is shown that Mori-Tanaka and Hashin-Shtrikman estimates lead to less conservative results when compared to Voigt rule of mixtures.
- Reconstruction of surfaces from unstructured points clouds, using compactly-supported radial basis functionsPublication . Bernardo, G. M. S.; Loja, AméliaThe need for a relevant viable approach to fit point clouds obtained by 3D laser scanning, to a desirable surface, has been object ofa substantial research effort and progresso in the past two decades in a wide range of scientific and technological fields. However, this task is far from being a trivial task. First, because of the randomness of the sampled points obtained, which in most cases count with additional noise points. Secondly, in point clouds it is frequent to find lacks ofdata, leading to the existence ofholes in the surface. As far as it is possible to know, all the methods used to achieve the fitting surfaces, present diferente undesirable behaviours, under different conditions. In the present work we present a hybrid method to reconstruct the surfaces associated to synthetic point clouds randomly generated. Parametric studies are carried out to illustrate and characterize the performance ofthe different techniques implemented..
- Radiotherapy-customized head immobilization masks: from modeling and analysis to 3D printingPublication . Loja, Amélia; Craveiro, D. S.; Vieira, Lina Oliveira; Sousa, Eva; Rodrigues, J. A.; Portal, R. J. F.Immobilization devices may be a valuable aid to ensure the improved effectiveness of radiotherapy treatments where constraining the movements of specific anatomical segments is crucial. This need is also present in other situations, specifically when the superposition of various medical images is required for fine identification and characterization of some pathologies. Because of their structural characteristics, existing head immobilization systems may be claustrophobic and very uncomfortable for patients, during both the modeling and usage stages. Because of this, it is important to minimize all the discomforts related to the mask to alleviate patients’ distress and to simultaneously guarantee and maximize the restraint effectiveness of the mask. In the present work, various head immobilization mask models are proposed based on geometrical information extracted from computerized tomography images and from 3D laser scanning point clouds. These models also consider the corresponding connection to a radiotherapy table, as this connection is easily altered to accommodate various manufacturers’ solutions. A set of materials used in the radiotherapy field is considered to allow the assessment of the stiffness and strength of the masks when submitted to typical loadings.
- On the use of particle swarm optimization to maximize bending stiffness of functionally graded structuresPublication . Loja, AméliaFunctionally graded materials are a type of composite materials which are tailored to provide continuously varying properties, according to specific constituent's mixing distributions. These materials are known to provide superior thermal and mechanical performances when compared to the traditional laminated composites, because of this continuous properties variation characteristic, which enables among other advantages, smoother stresses distribution profiles. Therefore the growing trend on the use of these materials brings together the interest and the need for getting optimum configurations concerning to each specific application. In this work it is studied the use of particle swarm optimization technique for the maximization of a functionally graded sandwich beam bending stiffness. For this purpose, a set of case studies is analyzed, in order to enable to understand in a detailed way, how the different optimization parameters tuning can influence the whole process. It is also considered a re-initialization strategy, which is not a common approach in particle swarm optimization as far as it was possible to conclude from the published research works. As it will be shown, this strategy can provide good results and also present some advantages in some conditions. This work was developed and programmed on symbolic computation platform Maple 14. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
- Using 3D anthropometric data for the modelling of customised head immobilisation masksPublication . Loja, Amélia; Sousa, E.; Vieira, Lina Oliveira; Craveiro, D.S.; Parafita, Rui; C. Costa, Durval; Costa, DMSHead immobilization thermoplastic masks for radiotherapy purposes involve a distressful modelling procedure for the patient. To assess the possibility of using different acquisition and reconstruction methods to obtain a 3Dskin surface model of PIXY-phantom-head and to present a proposal of an alternative head immobilisation mask prototype. Phantom head geometry acquisitions using: computed tomography (reconstructed with ImageJ and Osirix); and 3DLaserScanner (reconstructed with SolidWorks). From these reconstructed surface models a set of landmarks was measured and subsequently compared with physical measurements obtained with a Rosscraft-Calliper. For statistical evaluation, relative deviations graphics and Friedman-test for non-parametrical paired samples were used, with a significance level of 5%. For a first assessment of the proposed mask performance, a radiotransparent material was considered, the strength and stiffness evaluation being performed using the finite element method. There are small differences between all the acquisitions and reconstructions methods and the physical measurements, statistically significant differences (X2F(6)) = 6.863, p=0.334) were not found. The proposed mask performed well from the strength and stiffness perspectives, leading to the desired immobilisation aim. The immobilisation mask design proposal may be an effective alternative to the present completely hand-made situation, which presents a high-degree of discomfort and stress to the patients.
- Nonlocal free vibrations of metallic FGM beamsPublication . Loja, M.A.R.; Rzeszut, Katarzyna; Barbosa, JoaquimThis work aims to analyse the free-vibration response of functionally graded, simply supported beams with different gradient directions, taking into account nonlocal effects. To this purpose, the first-order shear deformation theory and the nonlocal elasticity theory of Eringen are used, in order to assess the influence of size dependency effects on the free-vibration responses of those beams. The influence of other factors such as the aspect ratio of the beams and the evolution of the constituents’ mixture through the beam thickness and along its length is also considered. In this last case, a mixture distribution is proposed, accounting for the boundary conditions’ characteristics. The finite element model is first verified against existing alternative solutions, to assess and illustrate its performance. Based on the conclusions achieved, a set of parametric studies is then developed. The results are discussed considering the material distribution profiles, and conclusions are drawn with respect to their relative performance under the analysed conditions.