POISSON’S RATIO

When an element is stretched in one direction, it tends to get thinner in the other two directions. Hence, the change in longitudinal and lateral strains are opposite in nature (generally). Poisson’s ratio ν, named after Simeon Poisson, is a measure of this tendency. It is defined as the ratio of the contraction strain normal to the applied load divided by the extension strain in the direction of the applied load. Since most common materials become thinner in cross section when stretched, Poisson’s ratio for them is positive.

For a perfectly incompressible material, the Poisson’s ratio would be exactly 0.5. Most practical engineering materials have ν between 0.0 and 0.5. Cork is close to 0.0, most steels are around 0.3, and rubber is almost 0.5. A Poisson’s ratio greater than 0.5 cannot be maintained for large amounts of strain because at a certain strain the material would reach zero volume, and any further strain would give the material negative volume.

Some materials, mostly polymer foams, have a negative Poisson’s ratio; if these auxetic materials are stretched in one direction, they become thicker in perpendicular directions.Foams with negative Poisson’s ratios were produced from conventional low density open-cell polymer foams by causing the ribs of each cell to permanently protrude inward, resulting in a re-entrant structure.

An example of the practical application of a particular value of Poisson’s ratio is the cork of a wine bottle. The cork must be easily inserted and removed, yet it also must withstand the pressure from within the bottle. Rubber, with a Poisson’s ratio of 0.5, could not be used for this purpose because it would expand when compressed into the neck of the bottle and would jam. Cork, by contrast, with a Poisson’s ratio of nearly zero, is ideal in this application.

It is anticipated that re-entrant foams may be used in such applications as sponges, robust shock absorbing material, air filters and fasteners. Negative Poisson’s ratio effects can result from non-affine deformation, from certain chiral microstructures, on an atomic scale, or from structural hierarchy. Negative Poisson’s ratio materials can exhibit slow decay of stress according to Saint-Venant’s principle. Later writers have called such materials anti-rubber, auxetic (auxetics), or dilatational. These materials are an example of extreme materials.

POISSON'S RATIO

When an element is stretched in one direction, it tends to get thinner in the other two directions. Hence, the change in longitudinal and lateral strains are opposite in nature (generally). Poisson’s ratio ν, named after Simeon Poisson, is a measure of this tendency. It is defined as the ratio of the contraction strain normal to the applied load divided by the extension strain in the direction of the applied load. Since most common materials become thinner in cross section when stretched, Poisson’s ratio for them is positive.

For a perfectly incompressible material, the Poisson’s ratio would be exactly 0.5. Most practical engineering materials have ν between 0.0 and 0.5. Cork is close to 0.0, most steels are around 0.3, and rubber is almost 0.5. A Poisson’s ratio greater than 0.5 cannot be maintained for large amounts of strain because at a certain strain the material would reach zero volume, and any further strain would give the material negative volume.

Some materials, mostly polymer foams, have a negative Poisson’s ratio; if these auxetic materials are stretched in one direction, they become thicker in perpendicular directions.Foams with negative Poisson’s ratios were produced from conventional low density open-cell polymer foams by causing the ribs of each cell to permanently protrude inward, resulting in a re-entrant structure.

An example of the practical application of a particular value of Poisson’s ratio is the cork of a wine bottle. The cork must be easily inserted and removed, yet it also must withstand the pressure from within the bottle. Rubber, with a Poisson’s ratio of 0.5, could not be used for this purpose because it would expand when compressed into the neck of the bottle and would jam. Cork, by contrast, with a Poisson’s ratio of nearly zero, is ideal in this application.

It is anticipated that re-entrant foams may be used in such applications as sponges, robust shock absorbing material, air filters and fasteners. Negative Poisson’s ratio effects can result from non-affine deformation, from certain chiral microstructures, on an atomic scale, or from structural hierarchy. Negative Poisson’s ratio materials can exhibit slow decay of stress according to Saint-Venant’s principle. Later writers have called such materials anti-rubber, auxetic (auxetics), or dilatational. These materials are an example of extreme materials.

INDUCTIVE CHARGING

In the future all electronic devices will be wirelessly powered. Small, battery-powered gadgets make powerful computing portable.

The battery charger should be capable of charging the most common battery types found in portable  devices today.  In addition, the charging  should be  controlled from the base station and a bidirectional communication system between  the pickups  and base  station  should be developed.

Inductive Power Systems:

Inductive Power Transfer (IPT)  refers to the concept of transferring electrical power between two isolated circuits across an air gap.  While based on the work and concepts developed by pioneers such as  Faraday and Ampere, it  is  only recently that IPT has been developed into working systems.

Essentially, an IPT system can be divided into two parts;

• Primary and
• Secondary.

The primary side of the system is made up of a resonant power supply and a coil. This power supply produces a high frequency sinusoidal current in the coil.  The secondary side (or ‘pickup’) has a smaller coil, and a converter to produce a DC voltage.

Working of Inductive Power Transfer:

In this system communications signals are encoded onto the waveform that provides power to the air gap. Communication from the primary side to the secondary is implemented by switching the power signal at the output of the resonant converter between its normal level  and a lower level which is detectable by the pickup but still provides enough power to control the pickup microcontroller. This process is called Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK). This is achieved by varying the output voltage of the buck converter which provides an input DC voltage to the resonant converter.

Communication from the secondary to the primary is achieved by a process called Load Shift Keying (LSK).  This involves varying the loading on the pickup.   Any load on the pickup will reflect a voltage on the primary circuit proportional to the load.  Therefore a variation in the load on the pickup can be detected by the charging station.

The communications system must provide two discrete levels of voltage reflected onto the primary side,  to represent the on and off states for digital communications. The difference must be easily detected on the primary side to provide a robust communications channel. Signals are decoded by simple filters and comparators which feed a  digital signal to the microcontrollers.

Advantages:

IPT has a number of advantages over other power transfer methods  – it is unaffected by dirt, dust, water, or chemicals.  In situations such as coal mining IPT prevents sparks and other hazards.  As the coupling is magnetic, there is no risk of electrocution even when used in high power systems.  This makes IPT very suitable for  transport  systems where vehicles follow a fixed track,  such as  in factory materials handling.