| ====================================================================== ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF E-Mail Newsletter No.91 Issued by the Asian TOP Panel, June 2009 The Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES) The Institution of Engineers, Indonesia (PII) The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers (KSME) ====================================================================== According to the agreement made in the 2nd Asian TOP Panel Meeting, the ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF (E-mail newsletter) has now been edited by the JSME for the year 2009. ====================================================================== [Contents] 1) Material Microstructure Design by Phase-Field Method and Finite Element Method (Source: JSME) 2) Development of Micro-structure Prediction System in FE Analysis (Source: JSME) 3) Knotting Manipulation Performed by Mechanical Systems (Source: JSME) 4) “UD-Space" for Tokyu Corporation Series 7000 (Source: JSME) 5) Numerical analysis of flow characteristics of fire extinguishing agents in aircraft fire extinguishing systems (Source: KSME) 6) Investigation of penetration force of living cell using an atomic force microscope (Source: KMES) 7) Nanomechanics of biomolecules: focus on DNA (Source: KMES) ======================================================================== 1) Material Microstructure Design by Phase-Field Method and Finite Element Method Tomohiro Takaki, Kyoto Institute of Technology Material microstructure design is very important,
because macroscopic properties of metallic
materials are largely dependent on
the material
microstructure. However, the prediction
of
the microstructure is very difficult,
because
the microstructures are formed throughout
many working processes such as solidification,
hot rolling, cold rolling, heat treatment
and plastic working. Recently CAE(computer aided engineering)
has been spreaded widely in metal forming.Large model calculation and remeshing in
heavy deformation by FE analysis become
possible
because of the improvements of hardware
and
software. Hidefumi Wakamatsu, Osaka University Nowadays, we use several types of knots,
to fasten clothes or shoes, to wrap
gifts,
for sewing, camping, angling, and climbing.
In the apparel industry, knots are
used to
attach buttons onto clothes. In the
medical
field, they are essential for suturing
or
ligating tissues. Thus, knots are “tied”
closely to our life. So, a nursing-care
robot,
for example, may be required to perform
knotting
manipulation. In this article, some
methods
and devices for knotting manipulation
performed
by mechanical systems are introduced.
For
process planning, “knot theory” can
be
applied. Possible knotting processes
can
be generated by a computer once a knot
to
be tied is given. For operation planning,
probabilistic roadmap was applied to
generate
trajectory of the end of a rope for
knotting.
Tying an overhand knot was performed
by one
high-speed multifingered robot hand
with
tactile sensors. As another approach
which
does not need manipulators with multi-degree
of freedom, a fixture for knotting
was proposed.
A rope is tied by inserting it into
the fixture,
and it can be pulled out from the fixture
keeping its tied state. Toshie Hirai, Tokyu Car Corporation Sharing place for wheelchair passenger and
passenger with baby-carriage is provided
to Series 7000 of Tokyu Corporation.
This
place was designed based on the results
of
our joint research with Railway Technical
Research Institute in terms of Universal
Design. The place is called “UD-Space”
and composed of wheelchair space with
two
different height handrails and 3-person
facing
seat in vehicle end.
If fire breaks out on an airplane, a large
amount of fire extinguishing agents
should
be discharged within a very short time.
For
effective fire extinguishing, increased
discharge
velocity of the fire extinguishing
agents
is required. This can be achieved by
using
a large-sized vessel in which the fire
extinguishing
agents are highly pressurized by noncombustible
gases. It is important to understand
the
flow characteristics of a fire extinguishing
system for optimal system design. This
study
reports a numerical analysis of the
flow
characteristics of an airplane fire
extinguishing
system using halon-1301 as a fire extinguishing
agent. The unsteady flow model was
simulated
with the general-purpose software package
"FLUENT", to study the flow
characteristics
of the fire extinguishing agents in
the system.
The effects of the rupture surface
area and
tube diameter on the flow characteristics
were investigated for optimal system
design.
From the analysis results, it was clarified
that the characteristics of the halon
discharge
from the end of tube are very sensitive
to
the rupture surface area and significantly
affected by the tube diameter. Recently, the manipulation of a single cell
has been receiving much attention in
transgenesis,
in-vitro fertilization, individual
cell based
diagnosis, and pharmaceutical applications.
As these techniques require precise
injection
and manipulation of cells, issues related
to penetration force arise. In this
work
the penetration force of living cell
was
studied using an atomic force microscope
(AFM). L929, HeLa, 4T1, and TA3 HA
II cells
were used for the experiments. The
results
showed that the penetration force was
in
the range of 2~22 nN. It was also found
that
location of cell penetration and stiffness
of the AFM cantilever affected the
penetration
force significantly. Furthermore, double
penetration events could be detected,
due
to the multi-membrane layers of the
cell.
The findings of this work are expected
to
aid in the development of precision
micro-medical
instruments for cell manipulation and
treatment. Nano-mechanical measurements and manipulations
at the single-cell and single-molecular
levels
using the atomic force microscope (AFM)
and
optical tweezers are presenting fascinating
opportunities to the researchers in
bioscience
and biotechnology. Single molecule
biophysics
technologies, due to their capability
to
detect transient states of molecules
and
biomolecular complexes, are the methods
of
choice for studies in DNA structure
and dynamics,
DNA-DNA and DNA-protein interactions,
and
viral DNA packaging. The aim of this
review
is to describe the recent developments
of
scientific tools and the knowledge
gained
in single molecule DNA mechanics such
as
DNA elasticity, electrostatics, condensation
and interactions of DNA with surrounding
fluids during its hydrodynamic flow.
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