Advanced Materials

The design of interior space encompasses cognition of many factors such as site conditions, functional and behavioural relationships, structural form, symbolic meaning, and sensory responses. These factors influence materiality, and have been influenced by materials, forming a central principle in design. The narrative that we establish in the design of our spaces has to begin with material as a starting point of the story. Materiality within an interior sits within a nexus of the context and the body. The user who dominates the analysis of the program of use is not an abstract entity, but predominately a human being that relates to the concrete conditions of their world — a material world that is in constant flux and demands innovation.

Designers are change agents, as we are charged with the task to encourage and direct change. Design deals with the responsibility of releasing or reducing tensions in the network of social practices. These social practices ultimately involve the user and their relationship with materials. Materiality becomes the driver for a user-centered view of innovation. This paper builds upon Ilkka Tuomi’s analysis of innovation, in which he comments on the systematic relationship of innovation to other elements of society and not just an outcome of a single business or individual.

Using theoretical frameworks of innovation and materiality as a foundation, this paper will examine the material/space/form continuum as explored in an intensive studio experience. This experience was aimed at providing the design student with an alternative strategy to dealing with innovative idea generation in a user-centered social system in which material, form, and space all play vital roles.

By using the increasingly varied and exciting new developments in new material technology, this educational experience reported here – in the form of a design studio and a masterclass, examined how the junction of materials could develop a strategy for form development. The students explored the various paradigms of joining as proposed by Warren Wake. Using this knowledge, further exploration was undertaken based on the work of Eskild Tjalve in a clear and systematic manner through a microanalysis of form, and was later extrapolated towards a generation of spatial experiences for the human body. These methodologies, usually associated with industrial design, but now transferred to the discipline of interior design will be outlined here.

The amalgamation of these methods into a new approach to conceiving interior space will then be proposed. The mapping of this alternative method for innovative thought, supported by case studies from the studio experiences, will provide design students and designers with an alternative strategy to the usual spatial precedents, natural forms, and linguistic constructs that are commonly used as instigators for innovative design ideas.

The exploration in this new model of a studio, an alternative understanding of the relationship of material and form to space and how they are all part of a design continuum. Future designers will now have a rich, varied, and versatile methodology for dealing with form-making.

A ternary blend system with two donors and one acceptor provides an effective route to improve the performance of organic solar cells. A synergistic effect of polymer and small molecules is observed in ternary solar cells, and the power conversion effi ciency (PCE) of the ternary system (8.40%) is higher than those of binary systems based on small molecules (7.48%) or polymers (6.85%).

The Simpson model proposes that the rate of wood drying is directly proportional to average moisture content. In this work was done the fitting and the reproduction of drying curve for Heveabrasiliensis wood through of Simpson model and the chi-square statistical method. The curves were obtained by drying 108 specimens Heveabrasiliensis wood with size 10 mm x 20 mm x 100 mm that were drying in a laboratory kiln. The drying control was performed through gradual temperature increase in order to minimize the errors arising due the drastic loss of moisture by wood. The gravimetric method was used to evaluate the drying process, the specimens have theirs mass measured every 6 hours until the timber reached the theoretical anhydrous state. The drying curve of rubber wood obtained here can be used to estimate the drying time of this species for different kiln temperature settings.

The present investigation was carried out using 51 diverse bitter gourd accessions as material for studying genetic diversity and relatedness using morphological and SSR markers. A wide variation was observed for morphological traits like the number of days to the first female flower anthesis (37.33–60.67), the number of days to the first fruit harvest (47.67–72.00), the number of fruits/plant (12.00–46.67), fruit length (5.00–22.23 cm), fruit diameter (1.05–6.38 cm), average fruit weight (20.71–77.67 g) and yield per plant (513.3–1976 g). Cluster analysis for 10 quantitative traits grouped the 51 accessions into 6 clusters. Out of 61 SSR primers screened, 30 were polymorphic and highly informative as a means to differentiate these accessions. Based on genotyping, a high level of genetic diversity was observed, with a total of 99 alleles. The polymorphic information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.038 for marker BG_SSR-8 to 0.721 for S-24, with an average of 0.429. The numbers of...

Abstract. The Paderno d'Adda Bridge is a marvellous riveted iron viaduct with a doubly-built-in parabolic arch that crosses the river Adda near Milano, between Paderno d'Adda (Lecco province) and Calusco d'Adda (Bergamo province), in Lombardia, northern Italy. It ...

In this project, the alternating torsion fatigue test was carried out to investigate the effect of the nitrided case produced by gas and plasma nitriding processes on the fatigue endurance of the JIS SACM 645 steel. The surface layers of the nitrided specimens exhibited hardness profiles in the range between 1000–1100HV0.1, and the white layer of the nitrided specimen was consisted of Fe3N and Fe4N. Wear test result indicated that the mass loss of JIS SACM 645 steel was greatly improved by nitriding processes. From the mass loss data, the wear resistance of the steel was significantly influenced by nitriding time. The fatigue strength of the 35C-GN48 nitrided specimen rose 51.9% to 632 MPa, which was the maximum fatigue strength in this study.

Mg–6Zn–5Al–4RE (RE= Mischmetal, mass%) alloy was prepared by metal mould casting method. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the as-cast and heat-treated alloys were investigated. The results show that the phase compositions of the as-cast state alloy are supersaturated solid solution α-Mg, lamellar β-Al12Mg17, polygonal Al3RE and cluster Al2REZn2 phases. The mechanical properties, especially the ultimate tensile strength and elongation of the alloy were significantly improved by the heat treatment. Fracture surface ...

An experimental study on buoyancy driven-storage device is presented in the paper. The proposed device is forced to descend into a tank filled with a certain fluid the tension of a nylon wire that allows it to remain stationary at the bottom of the tank until the energy is needed. It is then released to reach the surface of the fluid liberating energy during that process. This paper also briefly presents the theoretical background and compares it with the experimental results. The application of this research is related to energy storage by non-conventional energy sources during off-peak timings. The experiments performed, have confirmed the validity of the approach and efficiency of the current system exceeds more than 40%. Other advantages like compact storage setups, higher energy density retrieval, longer life and low maintenance cost has made it more authentic than chemical storage devices.

Aluminum hybrid metal matrix composites are the field of interest of researchers because they are widely used in aerospace and automobile industries. A hybrid composite benefits the properties of two or more reinforcement materials and could contain unique physical, mechanical and tribological properties which are not achievable in other materials. In this study different amounts of SiC microsize (37 μm) particles were added to Al-Mg2Si composite using stir casting method. Then, hot extrusion was applied to the specimens. Finally, the effect of different amounts of SiC on the mechanical properties of Al-Mg2Si in-situ composite was investigated. The microstructure characteristics of the composite was studied using optical and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that SiC particles had a good dispersion in the Al-Mg2Si matrix. The hardness increased from 110 for the bas composite to 135 brinell for the composite containing 9 wt. % SiC. The amounts of YS and UTS of the Al-Mg2Si composite was 90 and 160 MPa respectively and the addition of 9 wt. % SiC enhanced these values to 125 and 260 MPa respectively. However, the addition of SiC reduced the elongation from 6.7 % to 1 %. Moreover, the addition of 9 wt. % SiC increased the ultimate compressive strength from 280 to 430 MPa.