In this study, the deformation and damage mechanisms on meso and macro scales in a particulate composite and a polyurethane material, Solithane 113, were investigated. The particulate composite contains 87% by weight of hard particles embedded in a rubbery matrix. Experimental data were analyzed and the effect of material’s microstructure on the deformation and failure mechanisms are discussed.

Recently the nonparametric predictive approach to inference for competing risks was introduced [1]. In this paper further results for such inferences are presented, with focus on four important and closely related aspects. First, the effect of defined failure modes which thus far have not yet caused failures is studied. Secondly, the effect of re-defining (groups of) failure modes is considered...

This paper proposes an alternative mechanism of pile failure in liquefiable deposits during earthquakes. This failure mechanism, based on pile buckling, is formulated by back-analysing 14 case histories of pile foundation performance during earthquakes and verified using dynamic centrifuge tests. A new parameter, the slenderness ratio of a pile, is introduced to classify pile performance in liq...

Prognostics is a method that permits the assessment of product reliability under its actual application conditions. While there are various methods to perform prognostics, including physics of failure and data-driven methods, these methods have some key disadvantages. This paper presents a fusion prognostics approach, which combines or “fuses together” the physicsof-failure and data-driven meth...

Determining battery lifetimes is beset with difficulties. Performance data are not generally available and costly to generate since large numbers of batteries must be tested to destruction. Furthermore, the required test period to verify the predictions is often greater than commercial decision lead time. While the reliability predictions in the following section are very useful, they are desig...

Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis (CHF) is a rare disease that affects both the liver and kidneys.  Congenital hepatic fibrosis (CHF) is an autosomal recessive inherited malformation defined pathologically by a variable degree of periportal fibrosis and irregularly shaped proliferating bile ducts. Affected individuals also have impaired renal function, usually caused, in children and teenagers, by an...

In this paper, a statistical model is presented for decision making in repairing water pipes network. The water distribution system has been considered as a “repairable” system which is under repeating failure modes. From this, a practical model for anticipating the failure of the water pipes in repairable systems has been presented using the trend renewal process concept. In this process, the ...

This paper aims at characteristic failure mechanisms of cohesive frictional materials at two levels of observation: (a) at the macroscale of continuum elastoplasticity, and (b) at the microscale of active microplanes with arbitrary orientation. Thereby, the criteria for the loss of uniqueness and the loss of ellipticity will be discussed for a macroscopic as well as a microplane-based anisotrop...