A Practical Approach for Uncertainty Management in Rubber Manufacturing Processes Using Physics-Informed Real-Time Models.

Industrial manufacturing management can benefit from the use of modeling. For a correct representation of the manufacturing process and the subsequent management, the models must incorporate the effect of the uncertainty propagation throughout the stages considered. In this paper, the proposed methodology for uncertainty management uses a nonintrusive method that is based on building a deterministic physics-informed real-time model for the a posteriori computation of output uncertainties.

Rubber Material-Model Characterization for Coupled Thermo-Mechanical Vulcanization Foaming Processes.

A novel experimental methodology is developed for the characterization of the vulcanization and foaming processes of an ethylene propylene diene (EPDM) cellular rubber and for establishing the relationship of its physical and mechanical property evolution with vulcanization and foaming process temperature. To establish this relationship, the vulcanization and foaming reaction kinetics and their coupling have been determined, as well as important parameters in the behaviour of the material, such as conductivity, specific heat capacity and coefficients of expansion and foaming. This aforementioned strategy allows the setting of a material model that can be implemented into finite-element (FE) codes to reproduce the material changes during the vulcanization and foaming processes.

Numerical Approach for the Assessment of Micro-Textured Walls Effects on Rubber Injection Moulding.

Micro-surface texturing of elastomeric seals is a validated method to improve the friction and wear characteristics of the seals. In this study, the injection process of high-viscosity elastomeric materials in moulds with wall microprotusions is evaluated. To this end, a novel CFD methodology is developed and implemented in OpenFOAM to address rubber flow behaviour at both microscale and macroscale.

[Diagnosis and radiological follow up of urinary lithiasis.].

Urolithiasis is a common disease with increasing prevalence worldwide and a lifetimeestimated recurrence risk of over 50%. Imaging techniques play a critical role in the initial diagnosis, follow-up and urological management of urinary tract stone disease. The are many useful tools for diagnosing urolithiasis, including conventional plain radiography, intravenous urography, ultrasonography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.

Unenhanced CT findings can predict the development of urinary calculi in stone-free patients.

Objectives: To determine if calcium deposits in the papillae can be identified by unenhanced computed tomography (uCT) even before renal stones develop.

Methods: A retrospective review of 413 patients with calculi identified 31 patients (stone-forming group) with a history of urinary tract calculi with a calculus demonstrated by uCT and a stone-free uCT before calculi had developed. The control group (n = 31) was composed of live kidney donors with no history of calculi and a stone-free uCT.

[Diagnosis and management of adrenal incidentaloma].

The growing demand for imaging tests and the progressive aging of the population have led to a progressive increase in the detection of indeterminate adrenal lesions. Once an adrenal incidentaloma is detected, clinical and hormone tests together with a battery of imaging techniques (CT, MRI, PET/CT…) make it possible to determine the cause in most cases. In this article, we discuss the advantages and limitations of each technique.

Characteristic nonreflecting boundary conditions for open boundaries in lattice Boltzmann methods.

A boundary condition for lattice Boltzmann methods, based on the movement of information through Euler characteristic directions, is developed. With respect to the similar conditions used in finite-difference or finite-volume implementations, some corrections are needed to compensate the isothermal compressible nature of standard lattice Boltzmann methods for fluid flow. The results show that the proposed method for inlets and outlets is highly nonreflecting, and mass conserving.