CDRsp - Comunicações em conferências internacionais
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- Numerical study on injection parameters optimization of thin wall and biodegradable polymers partsPublication . Santos, Cyril; Mendes, A; Carreira, P.; Mateus, Artur; Malça, C.Nowadays, the molds industry searches new markets, with diversified and added value products. The concept associated to the production of thin walled and biodegradable parts mostly manufactured by injection process has assumed a relevant importance due to environmental and economic factors. The growth of a global consciousness about the harmful effects of the conventional polymers in our life quality associated with the legislation imposed, become key factors for the choice of a particular product by the consumer. The target of this work is to provide an integrated solution for the injection of parts with thin walls and manufactured using biodegradable materials. This integrated solution includes the design and manufacture processes of the mold as well as to find the optimum values for the injection parameters in order to become the process effective and competitive. For this, the Moldflow software was used. It was demonstrated that this computational tool provides an effective responsiveness and it can constitute an important tool in supporting the injection molding of thin-walled and biodegradable parts.
- A method for automatic detection of rectangular regions of interest in arbitrary imagesPublication . Martins-Ferreira, Nelson; Ferreira, Lino; Pascoal-Faria, Paula; Cruz, Luis A. da Silva; Assunção, Pedro; Alves, NunoThis paper presents a computational method to extract optimum rectangular Regions of Interest (RoI) in images with an associated saliency map. Although saliency maps provide an individual relevance measure for each pixel, to find the sub-image (i.e., rectangular region) that contains the set of the most relevant pixels requires an optimisation procedure to define the boundaries of the best RoI. This is achieved by the method devised in the paper, by following an approach based on balancing the amount of relevant information that is included and excluded from the RoI. The results show that such method is capable of finding the most relevant rectangular RoI and thus to extract the optimum sub-images according to the relevance measure given by a generic saliency map. Since the method is not tied to any particular type of images, it finds application in quite different fields, such as salient object extraction and processing in industry and surveillance, image compression using attention modelling, biomedical imaging, etc.
- Finite element analysis of a human temporomandibular joint disc: Preliminary resultsPublication . Gomes, Sara; Ângelo, David; Pascoal-Faria, Paula; Mateus, Artur; Alves, NunoThe temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is an important joint that plays a paramount role during the mandibular movement. TMJ disc is an essential component in the normal TMJ, interposed between the mandibular condyle and temporal fossa with the following functions: it distributes the intra-articular load, stabilizes the joints during translation and decreases the wear of the articular surface. The mechanical behaviour study of this element is therefore essential to provide alternative solutions when its replacement becomes essential. The aim of this study is to present a preliminary three dimensional mechanical model to study the stresses distributions at TMJ disc and to provide an efficient tool as an alternative to experimental preclinical studies. The human mandibular condyle, the TMJ disc and the temporal fossa were considered to build the finite element model; additionally, two types of connections were used between the disc and the bone simulating the retrodiscal tissue and lateral pterygoid muscle: frictionless and bonded. At this stage, the elastic behaviour of materials was taken into account. Results show that the computed von Mises stresses are in accordance with previous studies.
- Micro-cooling constructal design: An application to mold inserts thermal managementPublication . Clemente, Miguel R.; Panão, Miguel R.; Pascoal-Faria, Paula; Alves, NunoMold thermal performance has a direct influence on part properties, quality and defects, and mold productivity. Through additive manufacturing, inserts can be developed with features that respect the necessary high complex geometries the part requires and that increase thermal performance. Constructal design is explored as a design tool to produce guidelines for cooling channels development.
- Quantification and Modulation of Tremor in Rapid Upper Limb MovementsPublication . Faria, Paula; Leal, Adriana; Freire, António; Januário, Cristina; Patrício, Miguel; Castelo-Branco, MiguelTremor is a manifestation of a variety of human neurodegenerative diseases, notably Parkinson’s disease (PD), a chronic disease that affects one in 100 people over age 60 years. Recent research indicates that more than five million worldwide have PD. This disease is primarily caused by a progressive loss of dopamine neurons in the nigrostriatal system that leads to widespread motor symptoms such as bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor and postural instability. Although the diagnosis of PD remains clinical, advances in functional and structural imaging have improved the ability to differentiate between PD and Essential Tremor (ET), as well as between different akinetic-rigid syndromes. No definitive test or biomarker is available for PD, so the rate of misdiagnosis is relatively high. It is therefore crucial to be able to characterize tremor in PD and ET as it is a very common feature at the onset of both diseases. This is made possible with a combination of a neuroscientific and methodological multi-modal imaging approaches, namely kinetic recording methods using accelerometers to quantify tremor amplitude and frequency and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). These allow the identification of the neural underpinnings of tremor in both PD and ET patients, which in fact have been surprisingly difficult to decipher. In this work we aim to find which tasks involving upper limb movements are suitable to modulate both PD and ET tremor. The same tasks are considered with and without added loading. The resulting analysis will allow designing an efficient fMRI protocol aiming at the identification of the cortical circuits responsible for the modulation of tremor.
- A finite element method to study multimaterial wind towersPublication . Pascoal-Faria, P.; Dias, C.; Oliveira, M; Alves, N.Wind towers are used to produce electrical energy from the wind. A significant number of towers is manufactured using tubular separately steel or concrete, having limitations such as maximum diameter and height imposed essentially by transportation limitations. Developed computational studies on structural design of towers have been mainly focused on a single material. This investigation aims to develop a finite element method able to study structural design of wind towers combining different materials. The finite element model combines solid and shell elements encompassing different geometries. Several case studies are considered to validate the proposed method and accurate results are obtained.
- Numerical Calculations in Tissue EngineeringPublication . Almeida, Henrique de Amorim; Bártolo, Paulo J.The design of optimized scaffolds for tissue engineering is a key topic of research, as the complex macro- and micro- architectures required for a scaffold depends not only on the mechanical properties, but also on the physical and molecular queues of the surrounding tissue within the defect site. Thus, the prediction of optimal features for tissue engineering scaffolds is very important for its mechanical, vascular or topological properties. The relationship between high scaffold porosity and high mechanical properties is contradictory, as it becomes even more complex due to the scaffold degradation process. A scaffold design strategy was developed, based on the finite element method, to optimise the scaffold design regarding the mechanical and vascular properties as a function of porosity. Scaffolds can be considered as a LEGO structure formed by an association of small elementary units or blocks. In this research work, two types of family elementary scaffold units were considered: non-triple periodic minimal surfaces and triple periodic minimal surfaces that describe natural existing surfaces. The main objective of this work is to present the undergoing research based on numerical simulations for the evaluation and prediction of the scaffold's behaviour under structural and vascular loading, and its topological optimisation.
- Study on the aerodynamic behavior of a UAV with an applied seeder for agricultural practicesPublication . Felismina, Raimundo; Reis Silva, Miguel; Mateus, Artur; Malça , CândidaIt is irrefutable that the use of Unmanned Airborne Vehicle Systems (UAVs) in agricultural tasks and on the analysis of health and vegetative conditions represents a powerful tool in modern agriculture. To contribute to the growth of the agriculture economic sector a seeder to be coupled to any type of UAV was previously developed and designed by the authors. This seeder allows for the deposition of seeds with positional accuracy, i.e., seeds are accurately deposited at pre-established distances between plants [1]. This work aims at analyzing the aerodynamic behavior of UAV/Seeder assembly to determine the suitable inclination - among 0°, 15° and 30° - for its takeoff and for its motion during the seeding operation and, in turn, to define the suitable flight plan that increases the batteries autonomy. For this the ANSYS® FLUENT computational tool was used to simulate a wind tunnel which has as principle the Navier-Stokes differential equations, that designates the fluid flow around the UAV/Seeder assembly. The aerodynamic results demonstrated that for take-off the UAV inclination of 30° is the aerodynamically most favorable position due to the lower aerodynamic drag during the climb. Concerning flying motion during the seeding procedure the UAV inclination of 0° is that which leads to lower UAV/Seeder frontal area and drag coefficient.
- Optimization of a Wood Plastic Composite to Produce a New Dynamic Shading SystemPublication . Martins, G.; Antunes, F.; Mateus, Artur; S. Baptista; C. MalçaThe shading systems of the windows may play a protagonist role in the reduction of energy consumption in lighting, artificial ventilation and air conditioning, contributing to sustainable development regarding bioclimatic architecture and improvement of the energetic efficiency in buildings. This work, resulting from a partnership between architecture and materials science, reports the development of an innovative and dynamic shading system that simultaneously fulfils various aesthetic, functional and environmental requirements. The original design of the system, derived from this collaboration, enables an industrial low cost production in virtue of the selection of technologies and materials concurrently adequate to multiple objectives. This work also aims at contributing to a sustainable construction through the use of eco-friendly materials such as biocomposites produced from recyclable polymers and vegetable fibres, using extrusion as processing technology both for blending the raw materials and for the shutter units production. The optimization of materials for this specific application involved wood plastic composites (WPC) based on high density polyethylene (HDPE), industrial residues of pine sawdust and additives such as coupling agents, pigments and UV protectors. Results showed that the optimized WPC made from recycled industrial pine wood residues presents thermal stability, mechanical strength and water absorption appropriate to be applied in the production of the new architectural solutions such as the innovative shading system presented.
- Further remarks on the "Smith is Huq" conditionPublication . Martins-Ferreira, Nelson; Van der Linden, TimWe compare the Smith is Huq condition (SH) with three commutator conditions in semi-abelian categories: first an apparently weaker condition which arose in joint work with Bourn and turns out to be equivalent with (SH), then an apparently equivalent condition which takes commutation of non-normal subobjects into account and turns out to be stronger than (SH). This leads to the even stronger condition that weighted commutators in the sense of Gran, Janelidze and Ursini are independent of the chosen weight, which is known to be false for groups but turns out to be true in any two-nilpotent semi-abelian category.