Liquid Force and Rupture Distance between Two Particles

The study of liquid force has a special meaning to industrial manufacturing. By taking the liquid bridges between equal and unequal particles as objects, the liquid force-displacement curves were measured and recorded by using a novel Nano UTM T150 tensile system. The influences of diameter, diameter ratio, liquid volume, and the surface tension on the liquid force-distance curve, the maximum liquid force, and rupture distance were compared and sorted. The results show that the maximum liquid force and rupture distance both increase with the increase in liquid volume, particle diameter, diameter ratio, and surface tension. The diameter plays a decisive role in determining the value of the maximum liquid force compared with surface tension and liquid volume, which only influence the force value in a local range. The rupture distance shows a positive correlation with liquid volume and surface tension and a negative correlation with the diameter or diameter ratio. The maximum liquid force between unequal particles is about half of the sum of the force between the equal spheres of larger and smaller size in that system.

Textural characteristics and sensory evaluation of yogurt fortified with pectin extracted from steeped hawthorn wine pomace

To comparatively investigate the applications potential of pectin from steeped hawthorn wine pomace (SHP), pectin-enriched yogurt was produced at set/stirred form using apple-sourced commercial pectin (CP) as control. The focus was mainly on the effect of pectins on the texture and stability of yogurt, as well as the analysis of appearance and taste, which were mainly characterized by texture analysis and sensory evaluation. Texture analysis indicated that the performance of SHP was better than that of CP, which could increase the gel rupture strength and rupture distance of set yogurt. SHP could also improve the firmness, denseness and viscosity of stirred yogurt. In other respects, SHP could also significantly increase the water holding capacity and sensory acceptance of both types of yogurt. The utilization of SHP for improving the quality of yogurt demonstrated its great potential in developing the sustainable applications of the by-product from steeped hawthorn wine.

An updated database for ground motion parameters for KiK-net records

This article presents a database of ground motions parameters for earthquakes recorded in Japan by the Kiban Kyoshin network (KiK-net). The database includes all earthquakes in the KiK-net website with magnitude larger than three and recorded between 1996 and the end of 2017. In addition to the information KiK-net provides for each event, we have enriched the database using moment tensor solutions provided by the F-net website and, when available, finite-fault source models from the literature. Various distance measures are computed for each ground motion, including estimates of rupture distance for sufficiently large events, including those with finite-fault source models. Each ground motion is processed using an automated algorithm. Several intensity measures (i.e. spectral acceleration, smoothed and down-sampled Fourier amplitude, Arias intensity, and duration measures) of the processed ground motions are presented in the database. Intensity measures are computed both for surface and borehole records. Finally, the database includes parameters for the recording sites based on shear wave velocity profiles provided by KiK-net.

Ground-Motion Models for the Prediction of Significant Duration Using Strong-Motion Data from Iran

ABSTRACT In this study, new prediction equations for significant duration (DS5–75 and DS5–95) are developed using an Iranian strong ground-motion database. The database includes 2228 records of 749 earthquakes with small to large magnitudes up to the year 2018. The functional form of the model is an additive natural logarithm of four predictor variables, namely moment magnitude (Mw), rupture distance (Rrup), time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the top 30 m (VS30), and the style of faulting effect (Fm), which is considered as an indicator directly in the functional form for the first time. The proposed models can be used to estimate significant durations of earthquakes with moment magnitudes (Mw) from 4.5 to 7.6 and rupture distances of up to 200 km. The models are compared with four existing significant-duration prediction models. The results indicate proper agreement between the proposed models and the models that use the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center-Next Generation Attenuation-West2 Project (PEER-NGA West2) database (say PEER models). Based on the results, our proposed models indicate an increasing trend of significant duration with an increase in the rupture distance. However, unlike the PEER models, the rate of increase in significant duration is decreasing in our model.

Study on the Interaction between Soil and the Five-Claw Combination of a Mole Using the Discrete Element Method

A mole is a born digger spending its entire existence digging tunnels. The five claws of a mole’s hand are combinative to cut soil powerfully and efficiently. However, little was known in detail about the interaction between the soil and the five-claw combination. In this study, we simulated the soil cutting process of the five-claw combination using the discrete element method (DEM) as an attempt for the potential design of soil-engaging tools to reduce soil resistance. The five-claw combination moved horizontally in the soil bin. Soil forces (draught and vertical forces) and soil failure (soil rupture distance ratio) were measured at different rake angles and speeds. Results showed that the draught and vertical forces varied nonlinearly as the rake angle increased from 10 to 90°, and both changed linearly with the speed increasing from 1 to 5 m/s. The curve of the soil rupture distance ratio with rake angles could be better described using a quadric function, but the speed had little effect on the soil rupture distance ratio. Notably, the soil rupture distance ratio of the five-claw combination in simulation was on average 19.6% lower than the predicted ratio of simple blades at different rake angles indicating that the five-claw combination could make less soil failure and thereby produce lower soil resistance. Given the draught and vertical forces, the performance of the five-claw combination was optimized at the rake angle of 30°.