Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/poly(caprolactone) (PCL) and two types of organoclay (OMMT) including a fatty amide and ocatdecylamine montmorillonite (FA-MMT and ODA-MMT) were employed to produce polymer nanocomposites by melt blending. Materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Mechanical properties were also investigated for these nanocomposites. The nanocomposites showed increasing mechanical properties and thermal stability. XRD results indicated that the materials formed nanocomposites. SEM morphology showed that increasing content of OMMT reduc

The focus of this work is on systematically understanding the effects of packing density of the sand grains on both the internal and bulk mechanical properties for strip footing interacting with granular soil. The studies are based on particle image velocimetry (PIV) method, coupled with a high resolution imaging camera. This provides valuable new insights on the evolution of slip planes at grain-scale under different fractions of the ultimate load. Furthermore, the PIV based results are compared with finite element method simulations in which the experimentally characterised parameters and constitutive behaviour are fed as an input, and a good level of agreements are obtained. The reported results would serve to the practicing engineers, r

Buckling analysis of composite laminates for critical thermal (uniform and linear) and mechanical loads is reported here. The objective of this work is to carry out theoretical investigation of buckling analysis of composite plates under thermomechanical loads, and experimental investigation under mechanical loads. The analytical investigation involved certain mathematical preliminaries, a study of equations of orthotropic elasticity for classical laminated plate theory (CLPT), higher order shear deformation plate theory (HSDT) , and numerical analysis (Finite element method), then the equation of motion are derived and solved using Navier method and Levy method for symmetric and anti-symmetric cross-ply and angle-ply laminated plates t

The present study focused mainly on the vibration analysis of composite laminated plates subjected to
thermal and mechanical loads or without any load (free vibration). Natural frequency and dynamic
response are analyzed by analytical, numerical and experimental analysis (by using impact hammer) for
different cases. The experimental investigation is to manufacture the laminates and to find mechanical
and thermal properties of glass-polyester such as longitudinal, transverse young modulus, shear modulus,
longitudinal and transverse thermal expansion and thermal conductivity. The vibration test carried to
find the three natural frequencies of plate. The design parameters of the laminates such as aspect ratio,
thickness

The ceramic composite with different proportions of clay and silica was prepared with a grain size of 70 μm and the weight percentage was selected for four groups (clayx silica100-x) were x q15, 25, 30 and 50. In this manuscript, for each pressured sample, a sintering procedure was carried out for 3 hours under static air and at various sintering temperatures (1000, 1100, 1200, 1400)°C. After sintering, the density, porosity, water absorption, compression strength and thermal conductivity were measured. The best results were obtained using a mixture of 15% clay and 85% silica which were sintering at 1400°C for three hours under air.

A precise evaluation of caries excavation endpoint is essential in clinical and laboratory investigations. Caries invasion differentiates dentin into structurally altered layers. This study assessed these changes using Raman spectroscopy and Vickers microhardness. Ten permanent molars with occlusal and proximal carious lesions were assessed and compared at 130 points utilizing four Raman spectroscopic peaks: phosphate v1 at 960 cm−1, amide I (1650 cm−1), amide III (1235 cm−1) and the C-H bond of the pyrrolidine ring (1450 cm−1). The phosphate-to-amide I peak ratio and collagen integrity peak ratio (amide III: C-H bond) of carious zones were calculated and compared in both lesions. The former ratio was correlated to 130 Vicke

In the present paper a low cost mechanical vibration shaker of rotating unbalanced type with uniaxial shaking table was designed and constructed in an attempt to provide opportunities for experimental testing and application of vibration in experimental modal analysis, stress relief of weldments, effect of vibration on heat transfer and seismic testing of civil engineering structures. Also, it provides unexpressive solution to enhance the knowledge and technical skills of students in mechanical vibration laboratory. The shaker consists of a five main parts shaker frame, shaker table, flexible support, drive motor, and eccentricity mechanism. The experimental results show that the amplitude of the shaker is increased with increasing the f

In the last years, the self-balancing platform has become one of the most common candidates to use in many applications such as flight, biomedical fields, industry. This paper introduced the simulated model of a proposed self-balancing platform that described the self–balancing attitude in (X-axis, Y-axis, or both axis) under the influence of road disturbance. To simulate the self-balanced platform's performance during the tilt, an integration between Solidworks, Simscape, and Simulink toolboxes in MATLAB was used. The platform's dynamic model was drawn in SolidWorks and exported as a STEP file used in the Simscape Multibody environment. The system is controlled using the proportional-integral-deriva

This study uses the performance of the discretionary estimation models by using a sample of listed companies in the Netherlands and Germany. The actual accounting framework provides a wide opportunity for managers to influence data in financial reporting. The corporate reporting strategy, the way managers use their discretionary accounting, has a significant effect on the company's financial reporting. The authors contribute to the literature through enhancement to these models to accomplish better effects of identifying earnings management as well as to present evidence that is particular to the Dutch and German setting.

For this, we followed the methodology of Dechow, Sloan, and Sweeney (1995) and Chan