The authors studied the fracture mechanical properties under half-symmetric loading in this paper. The stress distribution around the crack tip and the stress intensity factor of three kinds of notched specimens under half symmetric loading were compared. The maximum tensile stress σ_max of double notch specimens was much greater than that of single notch specimens and the maximum shear stress τ_max was almost equal, which means that the single notch specimens were more prone to Mode II fractures. The intensity factors K_II of central notch specimens were very small compared with other specimens and they induced Mode I fractures. For both double notch and single notch specimens, K_II was kept at a constant level and did not change with the change of a/h, and K_II was much larger than K_I. K_II has the potential to reach its fracture toughness K_IIC before K_I and Mode II fractures occurred. Rock-like materials were introduced to produce single notch specimens. Test results show that the crack had been initiated at the crack tip and propagated along the original notch face, and a Mode II fracture occurred. There was no relationship between the peak load and the original notch length. The average value of K_IIC was about 0.602 MPa×m^1/2, and KIIC was about 3.8 times K_IC. The half symmetric loading test of single notch specimens was one of the most effective methods to obtain a true Mode II fracture and determine Mode fracture toughness.

The idea of adopting the space domain as the next frontier for optical communication has received increasing attention in the last few years. Optical devices are the integral parts of a mode division multiplexing (MDM) transmission. Therefore, conducting an intensive study on the devices is paramount to the successful realization of the overall system. This paper presents a review of the recent advances in the inline components of an MDM system, consisting of mode converters, spatial (de) multiplexers, optical amplifiers, and few-mode fibers (FMFs). Also presented are different mode conversion and multiplexing schemes. Recent techniques of minimizing differential mode gain (DMG) in the optical amplifiers are also reviewed. The review covers other types of amplification schemes and their current standing in the MDM system. These include optical semiconductor amplifiers (OSAs), and the Raman amplifiers (RAs). Finally, the review also highlights the role of FMF, multicore fiber and their relationship with fan-in/fan-out devices.

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

One-dimensional experimental modal analysis of an unvarnished trapezoidal violin built after the description of F. Savart and an anonymous trapezoidal violin on display in the Music Instrument Museum of Brussels is described. The analysis has revealed ten prominent modes. A mode that may potentially play a role of the “tonal barometer” of the instrument is pointed out. The mode shapes are symmetric and of high amplitude, due to the construction of the instrument. Subjective evaluation of the sound quality demonstrated no pronounced difference between the trapezoidal violin and normal violin.

In this paper, the second-generation CMOS currentcontrolled- current-conveyor based on differential pair of operational transconductance amplifier has been researched and presented. Since the major improvement of its parasitic resistance at x-port can be linearly controlled by an input bias current, the proposed building block is then called “The Second-Generation Electronically-tunable Current-controlled Current Conveyor” (ECCCI). The applications are demonstrated in form of both 2 quadrant and 4 quadrant current-mode signal multiplier circuits. Characteristics of the proposed ECCCII and its application are simulated by the PSPICE program from which the results are proved to be in agreement with the theory.

The central theme of this work was to analyze high aspect ratio structure having structural nonlinearity in low subsonic flow and to model nonlinear stiffness by finite element-modal approach. Total stiffness of high aspect ratio wing can be decomposed to linear and nonlinear stiffnesses. Linear stiffness is modeled by its eigenvalues and eigenvectors, while nonlinear stiffness is calculated by the method of combined Finite Element-Modal approach. The nonlinear modal stiffness is calculated by defining nonlinear static load cases first. The nonlinear stiffness in the present work is modeled in two ways, i.e., based on bending modes only and based on bending and torsion modes both. Doublet lattice method (DLM) is used for dynamic analysis which accounts for the dependency of aerodynamic forces and moments on the frequency content of dynamic motion. Minimum state rational fraction approximation (RFA) of the aerodynamic influence coefficient (AIC) matrix is used to formulate full aeroelastic state-space time domain equation. Time domain dynamics analyses show that structure behavior becomes exponentially growing at speed above the flutter speed when linear stiffness is considered, however, Limit Cycle Oscillations (LCO) is observed when linear stiffness along with nonlinear stiffness, modeled by FE-Modal approach is considered. The amplitude of LCO increases with the increase in the speed. This method is based on cantilevered configuration. Nonlinear static tests are generated while wing root chord is fixed in all degrees of freedom and it needs modification if one requires considering full aircraft. It uses dedicated commercial finite element package in conjunction with commercial aeroelastic package making the method very attractive for quick nonlinear aeroelastic analysis. It is the extension of M.Y. Harmin and J.E. Cooper method in which they used the same equations of motion and modeled geometrical nonlinearity in bending modes only. In the current work, geometrical nonlinearities in bending and in torsion modes have been considered.

Wave motion in pipe bends is much more complicated than that in straight pipes, thereby changing considerably the propagation characteristics of guided waves in pipes with bends. Therefore, a better understanding of how guided waves propagate in pipe bends is essential for inspecting pipelines with bends. The interaction between a pipe bend and the most used non-dispersive torsional mode at low frequency in a small-bore pipe is studied in this paper. Experiments are conducted on a magnetostrictive system, and it is observed that T(0,1) bend reflections and mode conversions from T(0,1) to F(1,1) and F(2,1) occur in the pipe bend. The magnitude of the T(0,1) bend reflections increases with increasing propagation distance and excitation frequency. The amplitude of the mode-converted signals also increases with increasing propagation distance, but it decreases with increasing excitation frequency. Because of their longer bent path, the test signals for a pipe bend with a bending angle of 180X are much more complicated than those for one with a bending angle of 90X. Therefore, it is even more difficult to scan a bent pipe with a large bending angle. The present findings provide some insights into how guided waves behave in pipe bends, and they generalize the application of guided-wave inspection in pipelines.

In this study a metal clad waveguide sensor with a metamaterial guiding layer is analyzed. Sensitivity of the proposed sensor is derived using dispersion and Fresenal’s equations for waveguiding mode and reflection mode. While efficiently analyzing and comparing the results with the existing one, some interesting findings are achieved. It is observed that the proposed sensor shows larger cover layer sensitivity and larger adlayer sensitivity compared to the dielectric guiding layer sensor due to adsorbtive properties of metamaterial. Henceforth, it concludes that the proposed sensor shows sensitivity improvement over a dielectric guiding layer sensor.

Adopting mode division multiplex (MDM) technology as the next frontier for optical fiber communication and on-chip optical interconnection systems is becoming very promising because of those remarkable experimental results based on MDM technology to enhance capacity of optical transmission and, hence, making MDM technology an attractive research field. Consequently, in recent years the large number of new optical devices used to control modes, for example, mode converters, mode filters, mode (de)multiplexers, and mode-selective switches, have been developed for MDM applications. This paper presents a review on the recent advances on mode converters, a key component usually used to convert a fundamental mode into a selected high-order mode, and vice versa, at the transmitting and receiving ends in the MDM transmission system. This review focuses on the mode converters based on planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology and various PLC-based mode converters applied to the above two systems and realized with different materials, structures, and technologies. The basic principles and performances of these mode converters are summarized.

The model of the equations of generalized thermoelasticity in a semi-conducting medium with two-temperature is established. The entire elastic medium is rotated with a uniform angular velocity. The formulation is applied under Lord-Schulman theory with one relaxation time. The normal mode analysis is used to obtain the expressions for the considered variables. Also some particular cases are discussed in the context of the problem. Numerical results for the considered variables are obtained and illustrated graphically. Comparisons are also made with the results predicted in the absence and presence of rotation as well as two-temperature parameter.

The normal modes cannot be extracted even in the Pekeris waveguide when the source-receiver distance is very close. This paper introduces a normal mode extraction method based on a dedispersion transform (DDT) to solve this problem. The method presented here takes advantage of DDT, which is based on the waveguide invariant such that the dispersion associated with all of the normal modes is removed at the same time. After performing DDT on a signal received in the Pekeris waveguide, the waveform of resulting normal modes is very close to the source signal, each with different position and amplitude. Each normal mode can be extracted by determining its position and amplitude parameters by applying particle swarm optimization (PSO). The waveform of the extracted normal mode is simply the waveform of the source signal; the real waveform of the received normal mode can then be recovered by applying dispersion compensation to the source signal. The method presented needs only one receiver and is verified with experimental data

There has been considerable research done on multi-chamber mufflers used in the elimination of industrial venting noise. However, most research has been restricted to lower frequencies using the plane wave theory. This has led to underestimating acoustical performances at higher frequencies. Additionally, because of the space-constrained problem in most plants, the need for optimization of a compact muffler seems obvious. Therefore, a muffler composed of multiple rectangular fin-shaped chambers is proposed. Based on the eigenfunction theory, a four-pole matrix used to evaluate the acoustic performance of mufflers will be deduced. A numerical case for eliminating pure tones using a three-fin-chamber muffler will also be examined. To delineate the best acoustical performance of a space-constrained muffler, a numerical assessment using the Differential Evolution (DE) method is adopted. Before the DE operation for pure tone elimination can be carried out, the accuracy of the mathematical model must be checked using experimental data. The results reveal that the broadband noise has been efficiently reduced using the three-fin-chamber muffler. Consequently, a successful approach in eliminating a pure tone using optimally shaped three-fin-chamber mufflers and a differential evolution method within a constrained space has been demonstrated.

This paper presents the measurement of vibrational properties of sundatang soundboard. Sundatang is a plucked stringed traditional musical instrument that is popular among the Kadazandusun communities in Sabah, Malaysia. The vibrational properties of the soundboard are measured using CADA-X impact hammering system in a condition where the instrument is without any string. There are two types of sundatang used in this study; one made from acacia and the other from vitex wood. In this measurement, frequency response functions (FRFs) and modal parameters of the top plate and back plate of this instrument are obtained. It is found that in free edge, fundamental frequency of both plates of acacia sundatang is greater than the vitex sundatang in a range of 112 Hz to 230 Hz. However, in clamped edge (attached to its ribs), it was modified to a lower frequency and closer to each other in the range of 55 Hz to 59 Hz. Another finding is the detection of the excitation of similar mode shape at different resonance frequencies. This phenomenon is termed as Different State of Mode (DSM) which is observed may be because the number of testing points is not enough. Findings of this study provide important information to the study of quality development of this instrument

This paper investigates the possibility of exciting high quality trapped resonant modes on frequency selective surfaces consisting of identical sub-wavelength metallic inclusions (symmetrically split rings) with no structural asymmetry but exhibitting electrical asymmetry. The electrical symmetry is broken by using different dielectric substrates. The existence of such anti-symmetric trapped mode on geometrical symmetric structure is demonstrated through numerical simulation. Numerical results suggest that the high quality factor observed for these resonant modes is achieved via weak coupling between the "trapped modes" and free space which enables the excitation of these modes.

The matrix rectifier modulated by the classical space vector modulation (SVM) strategy generates common-mode voltage (CMV). The high magnitude and high du/dt of the CMV causes serious problems such as motor damage, electromagnetic noise and many others. In this paper, an improved SVM strategy is proposed by replacing the zero vectors with suitable couple of active ones that substantially eliminate the CMV. Theoretical analysis proves that the proposed strategy can reduce the amplitude of the CMV to half of the original value. In addition, the quality of the input and output waveforms is not affected by extra active vectors. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy are shown.

Effects of charge composition on microstructure, mechanical and fatigue properties of nodular cast irons have been studied. For experiments, five melts of nodular cast iron were used – three types of unalloyed nodular cast irons (with different ratio of steel and pig iron in a charge and different additives for regulation of the chemical composition) and two types of alloyed nodular cast irons (SiMo- and SiCu- nodular cast iron). The microstructure of the specimens was evaluated according to a norm and by automatic image analysis. The mechanical properties were investigated by the tensile test, impact bending test and Brinell hardness test. The fatigue tests were carried out at sinusoidal cyclic push-pull loading at ambient temperature. The best mechanical properties were reached in the nodular cast iron alloyed by Si and Cu, what is related to its microstructure.

The aim of this study was to assess the innovation risk for an additive manufacturing process. The analysis was based on the results of static tensile tests obtained for specimens made of photocured resin. The assessment involved analyzing the measurement uncertainty by applying the FMEA method. The structure of the causes and effects of the discrepancies was illustrated using the Ishikawa diagram. The risk priority numbers were calculated. The uncertainty of the tensile test measurement was determined for three printing orientations. The results suggest that the material used to fabricate the tensile specimens shows clear anisotropy of the properties in relation to the printing direction.

In this paper, the usage of graphene transistors is introduced to be a suitable solution for extending low power designs. Static and current mode logic (CML) styles on both nanoscale graphene and silicon FINFET technologies are compared. Results show that power in CML styles approximately are independent of frequency and the graphene-based CML (GCML) designs are more power-efficient as the frequency and complexity increase. Compared to silicon-based CML (Si-CML) standard cells, there is 94% reduction in power consumption for G-CML counterparts. Furthermore, a G-CML 4-bit adder respectively offers 8.9 and 1.7 times less power and delay than the Si-CML adder.

The chaotic phenomena of coronary artery systems are hazardous to health and may induce illness development. From the perspective of engineering, the potential harm can be eliminated by synchronizing chaotic coronary artery systems with a normal one. This paper investigates the chaos synchronization problem in light of the methodology of sliding mode control (SMC). Firstly, the nonlinear dynamics of coronary artery systems are presented. Since the coronary artery systems suffer from uncertainties, the technique of derivative-integral terminal SMC is employed to achieve the chaos synchronization task. The stability of such a control system is proven in the sense of Lyapunov. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, some simulation results are illustrated in comparison with a benchmark.

The examination of a smart beam is presented in the paper. Experimental investigations were carried out for flexible beam with one fixed end and free opposite end. Piezoelectric strips were glued on both sides of the beam. One strip works as a sensor, and the second one as an actuator. It is a single input and single output system. The study focuses on the analysis of natural frequencies and modes of the beam in the relation to the position of the piezo-elements. The natural frequencies, mode shapes, generated control forces, and levels of the measured signals are considered and calculated as a functions of the piezo-element locations. We have found correlations between mode shapes, changes of natural frequencies, control forces and measured signals for the lowest four modes. In this way, we can find the optimal localization of the distributed sensors and actuator on the mechanical structure directly by the using of the finite elements method (FEM).

Gas-liquid flows abound in a great variety of industrial processes. Correct recognition of the regimes of a gasliquid flow is one of the most formidable challenges in multiphase flow measurement. Here we put forward a novel approach to the classification of gas-liquid flow patterns. In this method a flow-pattern map is constructed based on the average energy of intrinsic mode function and the volumetric void fraction of gas-liquid mixture. The intrinsic mode function is extracted from the pressure fluctuation across a bluff body using the empirical mode decomposition technique. Experiments adopting air and water as the working fluids are conducted in the bubble, plug, slug, and annular flow patterns at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure. Verification tests indicate that the identification rate of the flow-pattern map developed exceeds 90%. This approach is appropriate for the gas-liquid flow pattern identification in practical applications.

Many real-time systems can be described as cascade space-state models of different orders. In this paper, a new predefined controller is designed using a Strongly Predefined Time Sliding Mode Control (SPSMC) scheme for a cascade high-order nonlinear system. The proposed control scheme based-on SMC methodology is designed such that the system states reach zero within a determined time prior to performing numerical simulation. Moreover, Fixed Time Sliding Mode Control (FSMC) and Terminal Sliding Mode Control (TSMC) schemes are presented and simulated to provide a comparison with the proposed predefined time scheme. The numerical simulation is performed in Simulink/MATLAB for the proposed SPSMC and the other two existing methods on two examples: second and of third order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SPSMC method. The trajectory tracking of the ship course system is addressed as an example of a second-order system. Synchronization of two chaotic systems, Genesio Tesi and Coullet, is considered as an example of a third-order system. Also, by using two performance criteria, a thorough comparison is made between the proposed predefined time scheme, SPSMC, and the two no predefined time schemes, FSMC and TSMC.

The main concern of the present paper is to determine which types of linguistic descriptions are fit to properly express a complex reality such as developed in Jaina theory of universals and particulars presented in the Jaina Literature of the Classical Period (5th–10th c. CE) in order to demonstrate a way in which the Jaina theory of universals and particulars has an impact upon the way we describe reality through language. I take into consideration the fact that, according to the Jaina philosophy, reality is not describable in the complete way and that there is always – in any linguistic act of picturing the world – the margin of non-cognizance and non-expressiveness. The Jaina philosophy of language offers the original solutions, different from those given by other Indian thinkers, to the abovementioned problems.

The most challenging in speech enhancement technique is tracking non-stationary noises for long speech segments and low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Different speech enhancement techniques have been proposed but, those techniques were inaccurate in tracking highly non-stationary noises. As a result, Empirical Mode Decomposition and Hurst-based (EMDH) approach is proposed to enhance the signals corrupted by non-stationary acoustic noises. Hurst exponent statistics was adopted for identifying and selecting the set of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF) that are most affected by the noise components. Moreover, the speech signal was reconstructed by considering the least corrupted IMF. Though it increases SNR, the time and resource consumption were high. Also, it requires a significant improvement under nonstationary noise scenario. Hence, in this article, EMDH approach is enhanced by using Sliding Window (SW) technique. In this SWEMDH approach, the computation of EMD is performed based on the small and sliding window along with the time axis. The sliding window depends on the signal frequency band. The possible discontinuities in IMF between windows are prevented by the total number of modes and the number of sifting iterations that should be set a priori. For each module, the number of sifting iterations is determined by decomposition of many signal windows by standard algorithm and calculating the average number of sifting steps for each module. Based on this approach, the time complexity is reduced significantly with suitable quality of decomposition. Finally, the experimental results show the considerable improvements in speech enhancement under non-stationary noise environments.