STATEMENT OF PROBLEM The conservation of sound tooth structure helps preserve tooth vitality and reduce postoperative sensitivity. Innovative preparation designs, like those for porcelain laminate veneers, are much less invasive than conventional complete-coverage crown preparations. However, no study has quantified the amount of tooth structure removed during these preparations. PURPOSE The ...

We report results on a nite element simulation of a needle-like martensitic microstructure observed in biaxial loading experiments conducted by Chu and James on single crystals of the shape-memory alloy Cu-14at.%Al-3:9at.%Ni. This microstructure was observed near an interface between twinned layers of two variants and a pure variant of martensite. We used a geometrically nonlinear theory of mar...

Shrinkage behavior and crack formation during firing have been investigated for Al2O3/Ce-TZP composites that have been fabricated by colloidal rolling and folding. These composites show improved sinterability and sinter isotropically after repeated rolling. Interface instability in rolling creates corrugated interfaces with large layer waviness; therefore, rolling can substantially alleviate th...

We present a reconfigurable spiral antenna for use in adaptive MIMO systems. The antenna is capable of changing the sense of polarization of the radiated field. It is fabricated by using an RF-MEMS technology compatible withmicrowave laminate substrates developed within the author’s group. The proposed antenna structure is built on a number of rectangular-shaped bent metallic strips interconnec...

A finite element evaluation of local stresses in the adhesive and adherends is presented for a tongue-and-groove joint of a homogenized thick composite laminate to steel plate. The quasi-isotropic laminate is made of glass fabric/vinyl ester plies. Most results are obtained for elastic response of the Dexter-Hysol 9338 adhesive that was used in recent experiments (Compos Sci Technol 61 (2001) 1...

We present a two dimensional model describing the elastic behaviour of the wall of a curved blood vessel. The wall has a laminate structure consisting of several anisotropic layers of varying thickness and is assumed to be much smaller in thickness than the radius of the vessel which itself is allowed to vary. Our two-dimensional model takes the interaction of the wall with the surrounding tiss...

The problem of minimizing by genetic algorithms the weight of a composite laminate subjected to various failure constraints is considered. Constraints are accounted for through penalty functions. The amount of penalty for each constraint violation is typically controlled by a penalty parameter that has a crucial innuence on the performance of the genetic algorithm. An optimal value of each pena...

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the clinical performance of laminate veneers placed in the anterior segments of the dental arches over a 12-year period at two different private dental practices. Forty-six patients were restored with 182 porcelain laminate veneers. The veneers were studied for a mean observation time of 5.69 years. Color match, porcelain surface, margin...