Edinburgh Napier University

About: Edinburgh Napier University is a education organization based out in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 2665 authors who have published 6859 publications receiving 175272 citations.

The influence of particle geometry and the intermediate stress ratio on the shear behavior of granular materials

Abstract: The behavior of granular materials is very complex in nature and depends on particle shape, stress path, fabric, density, particle size distribution, amongst others. This paper presents a study of the effect of particle geometry (aspect ratio) on the mechanical behaviour of granular materials using the discrete element method (DEM). This study discusses 3D DEM simulations of conventional triaxial and true triaxial tests. The numerical experiments employ samples with different particle aspect ratios and a unique particle size distribution (PSD). Test results show that both particle aspect ratio (AR) and intermediate stress ratio $$(b=({\upsigma }_{2}'-{\upsigma }_{3}')/({\upsigma }_{1}'-{\upsigma }_{3}'))$$ affect the macro- and micro-scale responses. At the macro-scale, the shear strength decreases with an increase in both aspect ratio and intermediate stress ratio b values. At the micro-scale level, the fabric evolution is also affected by both AR and b. The results from DEM analyses qualitatively agree with available experimental data. The critical state behaviour and failure states are also discussed. It is observed that the position of the critical state loci in the compression $$(e-p')$$ space is only slightly affected by aspect ratio (AR) while the critical stress ratio is dependent on both AR and b. It is also demonstrated that the influence of the aspect ratio and the intermediate stress can be captured by micro-scale fabric evolutions that can be well understood within the framework of existing critical state theories. It is also found that for a given stress path, a unique critical state fabric norm is dependent on the particle shape but is independent of critical state void ratio.

Structural Health Monitoring Using Textile Reinforcement Structures with Integrated Optical Fiber Sensors.

Abstract: Optical fiber-based sensors "embedded" in functionalized carbon structures (FCSs) and textile net structures (TNSs) based on alkaline-resistant glass are introduced for the purpose of structural health monitoring (SHM) of concrete-based structures. The design aims to monitor common SHM parameters such as strain and cracks while at the same time acting as a structural strengthening mechanism. The sensor performances of the two systems are characterized in situ using Mach-Zehnder interferometric (MZI) and optical attenuation measurement techniques, respectively. For this purpose, different FCS samples were subjected to varying elongation using a tensile testing machine by carefully incrementing the applied force, and good correlation between the applied force and measured length change was observed. For crack detection, the functionalized TNSs were embedded into a concrete block which was then exposed to varying load using the three-point flexural test until destruction. Promising results were observed, identifying that the location of the crack can be determined using the conventional optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) technique. The embedded sensors thus evaluated show the value of the dual achievement of the schemes proposed in obtaining strain/crack measurement while being utilized as strengthening agents as well.

Metaheuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands

Abstract: In the vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands a vehicle has to serve a set of customers whose exact demand is known only upon arrival at the customer’s location. The objective is to find a permutation of the customers (an a priori tour) that minimizes the expected distance traveled by the vehicle. Since the objective function is computationally demanding, effective approximations of it could improve the algorithms’ performance. We show that a good choice is using the length of the a priori tour as a fast approximation of the objective, to be used in the local search of the several metaheuristics analyzed. We also show that for the instances tested, our metaheuristics find better solutions with respect to a known effective heuristic and with respect to solving the problem as two related deterministic problems.