Due to their outstanding stiffness-to-weight ratio, fiber-reinforced plastics are established materials for weight reduction in the aerospace and automotive industries. To improve certain properties, such as low thermal electrical conductivity, metallic coatings can be applied polymer surface. One of methods used this purpose is spraying. Studies have shown that adhesion strength on surfaces lo...

This paper reports the design, fabrication, packaging, and testing of a relay-type threshold accelerometer array. The array includes 15 different sense elements ranging from 10 to 150 g in 10 g increments, and triply redundant 20 and 100 g sense elements for a total of 19 elements. The devices were fabricated using a modified sacrificial LIGA technique that creates a 100–300 m thick nickel stru...

This paper investigates the pricing and production game in a decentralized assembly system that consists of one assembler and two independent suppliers. One supplier is able to exert the push contract on the assembler so as to transfer all his inventory risk, while the other supplier has to accept the pull contract from the assembler and consequently bears the overstock risk. Under this hybrid ...

In this paper, a nonlinear theory applicable to the design of nanotube based devices is presented. The role of finite kinematics for a doubly clamped nanotube device is investigated. In particular, we analyze the continuous deformation and instability (pull in) of a clamped-clamped nanotube suspended over an electrode from which a potential differential is imposed. The transformation of an appl...

Patterned surfaces have proven to be a valuable design enhance adhesion, increasing hysteresis and the detachment stress at pull-off. To obtain high adhesive performance, soft materials are commonly, used, which easily conform countersurface, such as polymers elastomers. Such viscoelastic; i.e., they show rate-dependent properties. Here, of two half spaces is studied, one being flat other havin...