Two-dimensional crystals have emerged as a class of materials that may impact future electronic technologies. Experimentally identifying and characterizing new functional two-dimensional materials is challenging, but also potentially rewarding. Here, we fabricate field-effect transistors based on few-layer black phosphorus crystals with thickness down to a few nanometres. Reliable transistor performance is achieved at room temperature in samples thinner than 7.5 nm, with drain current modulation on the order of 10(5) and well-developed current saturation in the I-V characteristics. The charge-carrier mobility is found to be thickness-dependent, with the highest values up to ∼ 1,000 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) obtained for a thickness of ∼ 10 nm. Our results demonstrate the potential of black phosphorus thin crystals as a new two-dimensional material for applications in nanoelectronic devices.

http://absimage.aps.org/image/MAR14/MWS_MAR14-2013-005031.pdf

Black Phosphorus Field-effect Transistors

Auxetic materials and structures have attracted increasing attention because of their extraordinary mechanical properties. Various types of auxetic tubular structures have been designed and studied in diverse fields, including mechanical and medical engineering. In this paper, design methods and advanced manufacturing technologies of auxetic tubular structures are extensively reviewed, including various types of cellular auxetic tubes, nonporous and porous auxetic tubes, macro and micro auxetic tubes. Furthermore, auxetic behaviour, mechanical properties and potential applications of auxetic tubular structures are elaborated. Finally, the challenges and opportunities on the auxetic tubes are discussed to inspire future research work.

Design, manufacturing and applications of auxetic tubular structures: A review

Recent advances in lithography technology and the spread of 3D printers allow us a facile fabrication of special materials with complicated microstructures. The materials are called "designed materials" or "architectured materials" and provide new opportunities for material development. These materials, which owing to their rationally designed architectures exhibit unusual properties at the micro- and nano-scales, are being widely exploited in the development of modern materials with customized and improved performance. Meta-materials are found to possess superior and unusual properties as regards static modulus (axial stress divided by axial strain), density, energy absorption, smart functionality, and negative Poisson's ratio (NPR). However, in spite of recent developments, it has only been feasible to fabricate a few such meta-materials and to implement them in practical applications. Against such a backdrop, a broad review of the wide range of cellular auxetic structures for mechanical metamaterials available at our disposal and their potential application areas is important. Classified according to their geometrical configuration, this paper provides a review of cellular auxetic structures. The structures are presented with a view to tap into their potential abilities and leverage multidimensional fabrication advances to facilitate their application in industry. In this review, there is a special emphasis on state-of-the-art applications of these structures in important domains such as sensors and actuators, the medical industry, and defense while touching upon ways to accelerate the material development process.

Cellular Auxetic Structures for Mechanical Metamaterials: A Review.

This paper introduces two deep learning approaches to localize acoustic emissions (AE) sources within metallic plates with geometric features, such as rivet-connected stiffeners. In particular, a stack of autoencoders and a convolutional neural network are used. The idea is to leverage the reflection and reverberation patterns of AE waveforms as well as their dispersive and multimodal characteristics to localize their sources with only one sensor. Specifically, this paper divides the structure into multiple zones and finds the zone in which each source occurs. To train, validate, and test the deep learning networks, fatigue cracks were experimentally simulated by Hsu–Nielsen pencil lead break tests. The pencil lead breaks were carried out on the surface and at the edges of the plate. The results show that both deep learning networks can learn to map AE signals to their sources. These results demonstrate that the reverberation patterns of AE sources contain pertinent information to the location of their sources.

https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/5/2/50/pdf

Single-Sensor Acoustic Emission Source Localization in Plate-Like Structures Using Deep Learning

This paper presents a comprehensive review on different theoretical elastic and viscoelastic foundation models in oscillatory systems. The review covers the simplest foundation models to the most complicated one and fully tracks the recent theories on the topic of mechanical foundations. It is fully discussed why each theory has been developed, what limitations each one contains, and which approaches have been applied to remove these limitations. Moreover, corresponding theories about structures supported by such foundations are briefly reviewed. Subsequently, an introduction to popular solution methods is presented. Finally, several important practical applications related to the linear and nonlinear foundations are reviewed. This paper provides a detailed theoretical background and also physical understanding from different types of foundations with applications in structural mechanics, nanosystems, bio-devices, composite structures, and aerospace-based mechanical systems. The presented information of this review article can be used by researchers to select an appropriate kind of foundation/structure for their dynamical systems. The paper ends with a new idea of intelligent foundations based on nanogenerators, which can be exploited in future smart cities for both energy harvesting and self-powered sensing applications.

Elastic and viscoelastic foundations: a review on linear and nonlinear vibration modeling and applications

Graphene-like BC6N nanosheets are potential candidates for detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human breath: A DFT study

Enhancement of the low-frequency acoustic energy harvesting with auxetic resonators

Enhancement of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting with auxetic boosters

Kirigami auxetic structure for high efficiency power harvesting in self-powered and wireless structural health monitoring systems

Structural cables are susceptible to the effects of high stress concentrations, corrosion, and wind-induced and other vibrations. Cables are normally the most critical elements in a cable-supported structure and their well-being is very important in the health of the structure. The laser-based vibration technique discussed in this paper is a means for health monitoring of cables and therefore the entire cable-supported structure. This technique uses a noncontact remote sensing laser vibrometer for collecting cable vibration data from distances of up to several hundreds of feet and determines its dynamic characteristics including vibration frequencies and damping ratios. A formulation specifically developed for structural cables capable of accounting for important cable parameters is then used to calculate the cable force. Estimated forces in the cables are compared to previously measured forces or designer’s prediction to detect patterns associated with damage to the cable itself and/or changes to the structure elsewhere. The estimated damping ratios are also compared against predefined criteria to infer about susceptibility against wind-induced vibrations and other vibrations. The technique provides rapid, effective, and accurate means for health monitoring of cable-supported structures. It determines the locations and elements with potential damage and the need for detailed and hands on inspection. To date, the technique has been used successfully for evaluation of twenty-five major bridges in the US and abroad. Though originally devised for condition assessment of stay cables, it has been developed further to include a variety of systems and conditions among them structural hanger ropes in suspension, truss, and arch supported bridges, ungrouted stay cables, cables with cross-ties, and external posttensioning tendons in segmental bridge construction. It has also found a valuable place in construction-phase activities for verification of forces in tension elements with minimal efforts. Future endeavors for automation and aerial delivery are being considered for this technique.

/pdf/a-laser-based-noncontact-vibration-technique-for-health-xfmk9wmq0g.pdf

Saman Farhangdoust

Papers

Graphene-like BC6N nanosheets are potential candidates for detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human breath: A DFT study

Enhancement of the low-frequency acoustic energy harvesting with auxetic resonators

Enhancement of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting with auxetic boosters

Kirigami auxetic structure for high efficiency power harvesting in self-powered and wireless structural health monitoring systems

A Laser-Based Noncontact Vibration Technique for Health Monitoring of Structural Cables: Background, Success, and New Developments