Design of Syntactic Foams | Knowledgeable audience | Thriving today
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Dear Reader, I have been filming and editing a series of videos about Syntactic Foams. In this reflection, I will explain what I have been up to in this regard as well as reflecting on other issues. Here is the plan for today:
Let us get into the newsletter Technical ReflectionsDesign of Syntactic FoamsI have been exploring a new type of material which I never published on the CM Videos YouTube Channel and this is Syntactic Foams. Strangely, when it is called a foam, people tend to think it is a fluffy material that is like a true foam, but this is far from it. It is actually a solid structure, just that its microstructure will often resemble that of a foam. Syntactic Foams are a type of composite material formed by putting together hollow spheres (e.g. glass, ceramic, polymer or even metal) which are held together by a polymer. In fact the word, “Syntactic” means “put together” which is a reference to the fact that the microstructure is an assembly of microspheres held together by a matrix medium which can be polymeric, metallic or simply any binding agent. Below is a picture of a syntactic foam. It has a very unique microstructure which is shown in the micrograph above. A distinctive feature of this is that the walls of the microspheres are quite thin and so subject to collapse due to tangential stresses imposed on the spheres during the binding, compaction of the microspheres within the binding agent. My interest in these materials is in their material behaviour which requires that we undertake a representative volume element modelling of these. The modelling will require that the user isolates a representative volume element, which will then be modelled with adequate boundary conditions, material behaviour and analysis type to be able to extract their constitutive behaviour under say compressive loading. The work I have been doing include first, creating using ABAQUS a framework for obtaining, relatively straightforward, the randomly distributed thin-walled microspheres of the syntactic foams. This should show not only the microspheres, both locked within the RVE and also the ones on the edges. This is because for such materials, edge effects play a significant role in the resulting constitutive behaviour of the material. All these were done and completed successfully and I recorded and published a video showing how I did this on the YouTube channel. If you are interested or have not watched that video, below is the said video. The next stage in the study of syntactic foams, and something I am going to reflect further on in future newsletters are: (a) compressive (b) tensile and (c) pure shear responses of the syntactic foams. It is important to explore if the size, distribution and wall thickness of the microspheres has a particularly significant influence of the numerically-determined constitutive behaviour of this type of material. Behind the Scenes at CM VideosKnowledgeable audienceI have been running these short technical quiz for the week on the Community Tab of my CM Videos YouTube channel. They cover mostly the sort of videos I make on this channel but the plan is to create a lot of buzz around the community by engaging with them beyond video to even mini-quizzes. It has been going really well with a lot of people participating in the quizzes. In the most recent version of the quiz (this week's), I have had over 100 persons participate in the quiz. Here is the question: WHICH ABAQUS ANALYSIS TYPE WOULD YOU USE?
A lecturer presented this case study to his students: You are to assess and quantify the deformation of a very slender pillar (with aspect ratio of length to with being many times higher than one (a = L/d >> 1)). The pillar is subjected to an axial compression, fixed at the base and and free ends at the top.
Which of the following Analysis type would give the student the critical lateral deformation profile for assessing how the pole will bend under the effect of the axial load?
The options are:
Nearly 7 out of every 10 respondents got the correct answer which is Linear Perturbation with buckling. I can also see why about 30% thought it was static general with static compression. The only reason why the former is the answer is that the high aspect ratio (and in turn the slenderness ratio) will favour buckling-initiated structural failure ahead of compressive failure of the structure. Note: What I have noted by running these quizzes is that my audience are super-engaged and very knowledgeable. I have been pleasantly surprised and if you are one of those, I am grateful to everyone who participates on the quizzes. Quote of the weekThriving today and Cal NewportA while ago, I read Cal Newport's highly impactful book: "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" and it really blessed me a lot. There is an epidemic of scarcity of deep work! Deep Work speaks to the sort of work one does which requires extreme concentration, commitment and with a guarantee of impactful results. The quote for this week is taken from the book which goes: If you don't produce, you won't thrive - no matter how skilled or talented you are.
- Cal Newport, author of Deep Work! Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
The summary of the quote essentially is that for anyone to thrive in today and emerging world system, you must be skilled in how to produce impactful results. AI is impacting the world of work in every sector, with a recent oil company announcing a reduction of their work force by 40% over the next couple of years. The jobs to be replaced are now going to be done, by AI with a few human oversight. Increasingly, this sort of things will be happening as the pace of development across all sectors is being impacted more and more by AI an new technologies. Therefore, if you are not going to be one of those to receive their redundancy letters, you must bring something to the table. Traditional career pathways are now seeing a significant warpage by these new technologies. So, aptness in production of deep outputs, is the only immunity we can have against a world disrupted and set to be disrupted more by technology. According to Cal, these sort of outputs are only possible when someone commits to deep work, now allowing any form of distraction, and viciously oppose to making yourself less available for every Tom, Dick and Harry to come in an mess up your schedule. This is what we need to do, to keep developing new sets, sit in new environments and gain insight into issues, and their probable solutions. These will equip you, to produce and thrive in this new world order.
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