There has been limited research on clay mineral transformation in serpentinitic soils under humid tropical conditions. In this study, four soil pedons were selected along a toposequence from the summit (Entisol), shoulder (Vertisol), backslope (Alfisol) to footslope (Ultisol) positions to explore the contributions and the significance of landscape and weathering status of serpentinitic rock with regard to clay mineral transformations in eastern Taiwan. Experimental results indicated that the large amount of dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate-extractable Fe (Fed) and clay in the subsurface horizon were mainly caused by the strong leaching potential from intensive rainfall and weathering of the fine-grained parent rocks. The clay mineralogy reflected the clear weathering trend of the soils along the toposequence: (1) the soils on the summit and shoulder contained smectite and serpentine, which are predominant in the young soils derived from serpentinitic rocks; and (2) vermiculite gradually increased in the relatively old soils on backslope and footslope. The mineralogical transformations observed along the toposequence indicated that chlorite and serpentine, initially present in the Entisol on the summit, weather into smectite and interstratified chlorite-vermiculite in the intermediate soil on the shoulder under strong leaching and oxidizing conditions. Furthermore, vermiculite formed as the major weathering product of chlorite and smectite in the soil developed on the backslope. In addition to vermiculite, kaolinite and quartz formed in the soils on the footslope with the greatest concentration of Fed along the toposequence.

Nutritional therapy is a cornerstone of burns management. The optimal macronutrient intake for wound healing after burn injury has not been identified, although high-energy, high-protein diets are favoured. The present study aimed to identify the optimal macronutrient intake for burn wound healing. The geometric framework (GF) was used to analyse wound healing after a 10 % total body surface area contact burn in mice ad libitum fed one of the eleven high-energy diets, varying in macronutrient composition with protein (P5−60 %), carbohydrate (C20−75 %) and fat (F20−75 %). In the GF study, the optimal ratio for wound healing was identified as a moderate-protein, high-carbohydrate diet with a protein:carbohydrate:fat (P:C:F) ratio of 1:4:2. High carbohydrate intake was associated with lower mortality, improved body weight and a beneficial pattern of body fat reserves. Protein intake was essential to prevent weight loss and mortality, but a protein intake target of about 7 kJ/d (about 15 % of energy intake) was identified, above which no further benefit was gained. High protein intake was associated with delayed wound healing and increased liver and spleen weight. As the GF study demonstrated that an initial very high protein intake prevented mortality, a very high-protein, moderate-carbohydrate diet (P40:C42:F18) was specifically designed. The dynamic diet study was also designed to combine and validate the benefits of an initial very high protein intake for mortality, and subsequent moderate protein, high carbohydrate intake for optimal wound healing. The dynamic feeding experiment showed switching from an initial very high-protein diet to the optimal moderate-protein, high-carbohydrate diet accelerated wound healing whilst preventing mortality and liver enlargement.

This paper reported the designed approaches of cycloidal mechanisms, studied its dynamic forces and failure characteristics using finite element methods (FEM). A simplified cycloidal mechanism (CM) is constructed to fulfill dynamic analysis and reliability evaluation. The studied results show that the loads of the mechanism are shared mainly by a half of the outer rollers and the inner pins. The possible failures of the mechanism will occur at the inner pins caused by the bending stress, and at the cycloid disc induced by the contacting stress. The failure of the inner pins will dominate the damage of the mechanism. A method of evaluating stress variation is proposed for fulfilling reliability design. The stress variations are derived according to the data in dynamic analysis by regression analysis. The methods of design modification are reported for improve the reliabilities. The allowable loads of the CM can be decided accordingly based on the analyzed information.

Origami, the ancient paper folding art has inspired the engineering equipment and design for decades. The basic concept of origami is very general, which leads to applications ranging from small scale to large scale. Recently, researchers are interested in being able to create self-folding structures. Such a structure enables kinematic manipulation by external forces or moments without folding and/or unfolding operations. This is a beneficial application for many fields including aerospace systems, robots, small devices and self-assembly systems. In this paper, the investigation and analyses of the previous literatures on the key driving force of the actuation structure, including the heat, light, electricity, gas and other actuation methods. The aims are to provide researchers and practitioners with the support to systematically understand the latest technologies in this important and evolving field, with inspiration and direction for follow-up.

In the recent years, the development of wind turbines has been so hectic in Taiwan. The design of the turbine blades directly impacts power effectiveness. In this study, the effects of manufacturing parameters and environmental factors on the mechanical properties of carbon fiber/epoxy composites that are used in turbine blades are discussed. Parameters of the manufacturing process affect the mechanical properties. Carbon composites made by a different numbers of layers are tested on various aspects of performance such as mechanical strength and corrosion resistance.

This study investigated the flow bifurcations of flows driven by a pressure gradient in a rectangular curved tube. When fluid flows within a curved tube, due to the centrifugal effect, secondary vortices can be induced in the cross section of the tube. The secondary flow states are dependent on the magnitude of the pressure gradient (q) and the aspect ratio (γ). In this study, the continuation method was applied to investigate the flow bifurcations in a curved tube with increasing pressure gradient (1 < q < 6000) and aspect ratio (0.9 < γ < 1.4).

The bifurcation diagrams are composed of solution branches, which are linked by limiting points or bifurcation points. The flow states in a solution branch belong to the same group. The ranges of the flow states and the relationship between the states can also be derived from the bifurcation diagrams. In this study, two types of bifurcation were found, one in the range of 0.9 < γ < 1.17, and another in the range of 1.18 < γ < 1.4. The ranges of stable flow solutions and the distributions of limit and bifurcation points in both pressure gradient and aspect ratio are derived in this study.

Prior to integrated circuit (IC) packaging, die performance must be verified using probe cards to screen for defective products. With the decrease in IC line width, the dimensions of the pads used for performance verification and the spacing between adjacent pads have also decreased. However, when the pad pitch is reduced to less than 30 μm, commonly used probe cards will face manufacturing problems in miniaturization. To resolve probe card manufacturing problems caused by the miniaturization of IC components, the use of an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) in probe cards was proposed in this study. Theoretical calculations and experimental testing of this probe structure were conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of this concept.

In theoretical calculations, composite material and buckling theory were utilized to evaluate the buckling behavior of the ACF. In experimental testing, photolithography and electroplating techniques were used to control the line width and spacing intervals of the micron-scale metal wires in the ACF. After the ACF was fabricated, the mechanical properties of the ACF during wafer testing were assessed. Theoretical analyses and experimental testing verified that ACFs can potentially be applied to the performance verification of IC products. In the ACF structure, multiple probes came into contact with each pad. Therefore, ACFs can potentially be applied to the performance verification of IC components with pad diameters of less than 20 μm. The results of this study directly benefit the miniaturization of ICs.

In recent years, compact camera modules (CCMs) have been widely used in consumer electrical and electronic products. CCMs with low cost specially are necessary for portable devices. Therefore, the present group recently developed a miniaturized open-loop controlled camera module with low cost for cellphone applications, in which the Lorentz force is balanced by a magnetic restoring force. To enhance the performance of the camera module, this article reports a pattern structure to modify the linearity of the magnetic restoring force. We fabricated a CCM prototype with the dimensions of 8.5 mm × 8.5 mm × 5 mm and demonstrated the usefulness of the pattern structure with the CCM prototype. Its potential applications are foreseeable in portable devices, such as cellphones, web cameras, personal digital assistants and other commercial electronics.

EVA foams, like all other polymers, also exhibit strain-rate effects and hysteresis. However, currently available approaches for predicting the mechanical response of polymeric foam subjected to an arbitrarily imposed loading history and strain-rate effect are highly limited. Especially, the strain rates in the intermediate rate domain (between 100 and 102 s–1) are extremely difficult to study. The use of data generated through the drop tower technique for implementation in constitutive equations or numerical models has not been considered in past studies. In this study, an experiment including a quasi-static compression test and drop impact tests with a high speed camera was conducted. An inverse analysis technique combined with a finite element model for material parameter identification was developed to determine the stress–strain behavior of foam at different specific strain rates. It was used in this study to simulate multiple loading and unloading cycles on foam specimens, and the results were compared with experimental measurements.

Reducers are extensively used in many machines for reducing the speeds of mechanism. This paper proposed a new design of speed reducers to meet the performance requirements in high rigidness and large speed-reduction ratios. The movements of the reducer are designed based on the principles of differential displacements of the deceleration gear rings. The geometric models of the related components were designed using CAD software. The motions of mechanism were simulated for identifying the feasibility of designing including acquiring the kinematic properties. The mathematical models of structural stresses analysis were proposed so that the bending and contact stresses of the gear rings could be evaluated, accordingly. Finite element methods (FEM) were also used to analyze the structural stresses of the reducer. The studied results showed that the bending fracture of the gear rings would prior to its contacting fracture. The allowable loading of the reducer was then established according to the analyzed results of the maximum stresses on various transmitted torques. The methods of reliability evaluation were reported for considering the strength variation and calculating the reliabilities of the reducer at various loadings. The studied results are useful in structural design, stress analysis and reliability evaluation for developing high speed-reduction mechanisms.

The effects of various parameters, such as thermal properties of substrates, thermal interface materials (TIMs) and heat sinks on the thermal performance of the light emitting diode (LED) light bars and backlight module are investigated experimentally and numerically in terms of junction temperature (Tj ) and thermal resistances from junction to air (Rj-a ). The results show that the measured Rj-a of the light bars by powering-on five LEDs in the test is different from one by powering-on only one LED, resulting from the extra heat coming from the adjacent LED packages affecting the Tj for the case of powering-on five LEDs. For the modules, Rj-a is significantly reduced by using the heat sinks for all backlight modules, and aluminum and iron heat sinks do not show any obvious difference in heat dissipation along with any substrates and TIMs. Furthermore, both experimental and simulation results show that the thermal conductivity of the substrates are more important and dominant than TIM and heat sink for the Rj-a of the backlight modules concerned, and also demonstrate that the thermal field for the local model can represent the one in full-scale backlight module.

Through silicon via (TSV) is the critical structure for three dimensional (3D) integration, which provides vertical interconnection between stacking dies. In TSV structure, large coefficient differences of thermal expansion exist between silicon substrate, dielectric material, and filled metal. Due to the large thermal mismatch, the high thermal stress occurring at the interface of different materials would result in delamination. Therefore, thermal-mechanical reliability is a key issue for 3D integration. In this study, we investigated the thermal-mechanical stress distribution of TSV under the condition of the accelerated thermal cycling loading by finite element analysis based on a 3D model of TSV structure. Due to the thermal expansion, that the TSV structure squeezed the surface area between TSVs at a high temperature resulted in compressive stresses at the surface area between TSVs. Therefore, a proper distance between the stress-sensitive device and the TSV should be kept. The stress analysis shows that the maximum thermal stress occurs in the outside region of TSV interface and in the annular region of TSV at a high temperature and at a low temperature, respectively. This study helps to obtain a clear thermal stress distribution of TSV and possible failure regions can be determined.