In this paper, we present the development of a tire rubber deformation sensing system that provides the critical information for understanding and estimation of wheel/ground interactions for mobile robots and vehicles. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)based sensors are designed and fabricated to embed on the inner tread surface to measure the tire rubber tread deformation. Analytical models of the...

Footwear influences balance and the subsequent risk of slips, trips, and falls by altering somatosensory feedback to the foot and ankle and modifying frictional conditions at the shoe/floor interface. Walking indoors barefoot or in socks and walking indoors or outdoors in high-heel shoes have been shown to increase the risk of falls in older people. Other footwear characteristics such as heel c...

The equations for wheelchair caster wheel shimmy are presented along with experimental data. The report includes the theory and performance of single wheel casters for a variety of tires, and a new design for wheelchair casters using a grooved dual-tread tire or co-rotating caster wheels. The dual-tread tire was found to significantly inhibit caster shimmy. The turning resistance due to a groov...

Unreinforced masonry spiral staircases have been built for more than two thousand years in castles, churches and palaces, these require structural assessment. For a few decades, the behaviour of “cantilever” has debated among scholars. Several methods used, but due to complex 3D geometry substantial number treads, priori assumptions made about magnitude point application contact forces between ...

This paper provides a case study of the effect of labor relations on product quality. We consider whether a long, contentious strike and the hiring of replacement workers at Bridgestone/Firestone’s Decatur plant in the mid-1990s contributed to the production of defective tires. Using several independent data sources, and looking before and after the strike and across plants, we find that labor ...

Tires manufactured from polyurethane (PU) have been espoused recently for reduced hysteretic loss, but the material provides poor traction or poor wear resistance in the application, requiring inclusion of a traditional vulcanized rubber tread at the contact surface. The tread can be attached by adhesive methods after the PU body is cured, or the PU can be directly cured to reception sites on t...

Lubrication on sharp curves has been commonly adopted as a method of reducing friction between the wheel flange and rail gauge face to minimize wear and energy consumption. Additionally, lubrication between the running surface of the low-rail and the wheel tread has recently been recognized as a significant factor in reducing the likelihood of low-rail corrugation, squealing noise and rail gaug...

Forensic tools are emerging to help digital investigators preserve evidence on live, remote systems. These tools are applying the precepts of digital forensics to incident response, enterprise policy enforcement, and electronic data discovery. This paper discusses the strengths and shortcomings of ProDiscover IR and EnCase Enterprise Edition in the context of the overall digital investigation p...

This paper describes a repeatability test, comparing conventional X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses with the technique of quantitative X-ray diffraction (QXRD) as a determinant of mineral abundance. The conjunctive use of both methods allows specific mineral abundances to be matched between scene of crime (SOC) and suspects where soil or substrate mineralogy is similar. In our test, samples from...