Repeated, efficient, and extensive use of prototypes is a vital activity that can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful entry of new products into the competitive world market. In this respect, physical prototyping can prove to be very lengthy and expensive, especially if modifications resulting from design reviews involve tool redesign. The availability and affordability of advanced computer technology has paved the way for increasing utilization of prototypes that are digital and created in computer-based environments, i.e. they are virtual as opposed to being physical. The technology for using virtual prototypes was pioneered and adopted initially by large automotive and aerospace industries. Small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing industry also need to take virtual prototyping (VP) technology more seriously in order to exploit the benefits. VP is becoming very advanced and may eventually dominate the product development process. However, physical prototypes will still be required for the near future, albeit less frequently. This paper presents a general survey of the available VP techniques and highlights some of the most important developments and research issues while providing sources for further reference. The purpose of the paper is to provide potential SME users with a broad picture of the field of VP and to identify issues and information relevant to the deployment and implementation of VP technology.

Abstract.The concept of vibration controllability with smart fluids within flexible structures has been in the centre of interest in the past two decades. Although much research has been done on structures with embedded electrorheological (ER) fluids, there has been little investigation of magnetorheological (MR) fluid adaptive structures. In particular, a body of research on experimental work of cantilever MR beams is still lacking. This experimental study investigates controllability of vibration characteristics of magnetorheological cantilever sandwich beams. These adaptive structures are produced by embedding an MR fluid core between two elastic layers. The structural behaviour of the MR beams can be varied by applying an external magnetic field to activate the MR fluid. The stiffness and damping structural characteristics are controlled, demonstrating vibration suppression capabilities of MR fluids as structural elements. MR beams were fabricated with two different materials for comparison purposes. Diverse excitation methods were considered as well as a range of magnetic field intensities and configurations. Moreover, the cantilever MR beams were tested in horizontal and vertical configurations. The effects of partial and full activation of the MR beams were outlined based on the results obtained. Controllability of the beam's vibration response was observed in the form of variations in vibration amplitudes and shifts in magnitudes of the resonant natural frequency.

The energy leakage is an inherent deficiency of Discrete WaveletTransform (DWT) which is often ignored by researchers and practitioners. In this paper, a systematic investigation into the energy leakage is reported. The DWT is briefly introduced first, and then the energy leakage phenomenon is described using a numerical example as an illustration and its effect on the DWT results is discussed.Focusing on the Daubechies wavelet functions, the band overlap between the quadrature mirror analysis filters was studied and the results reveal that there is an unavoidable tradeoff between the band overlap degree and the time resolution for the DWT. The dependency of the energy leakage to the wavelet function order was studied by using a criterion defined to evaluate the severity of the energy leakage. In addition, a method based on resampling technique was proposed to relieve the effects of the energy leakage. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been validated by numerical simulation study and experimental study.

The rotary machining process as applied to timber is introduced and compared with the milling and grinding of metals. The emphasis of this work is on the waviness surface quality of the machined timber and initially focuses on a review of the techniques applied to improve surface quality at higher workpiece feed velocities—typically 120 m/min. The main work concentrates on mathematical and computer-based modelling of surface waviness defects generated by two classical woodworking machine engineering science phenomena, caused primarily by forced structural vibration. Surface assessment of machined timber is discussed, with results from contact and non-contact methods highlighted. The causes of surface waviness defects are presented and possible solutions are outlined.

In spite of interest in the dynamics of the billiards family of games ͑for example, pool and snooker͒, experiments using present-day inexpensive and easily accessible cameras have not been reported. We use a single high-speed camera and image processing techniques to track the trajectory of snooker balls to 1 mm accuracy. Successive ball positions are used to measure the dynamical parameters involved in snooker. Values for the rolling and the sliding coefficients of friction were found. The cushion-ball impact was studied for impacts perpendicular to the cushion. The separation angles and separation velocities after an oblique collision were measured and compared with predicted values. Our measurement technique is a simple, reliable, fast, and nonintrusive method, which can be used to test the numerous theories for the dynamics of billiards. The addition of a spin tracking element would further broaden its capabilities.

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Operation sequencing has been a key area of research and development for computer-aided process planning (CAPP). An optimal process sequence could largely increase the efficiency and decrease the cost of production. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are a technique for seeking to 'breed' good solutions to complex problems by survival of the fittest. Some attempts using GAs have been made on operation sequencing optimization, but few systems have intended to provide a globally optimized fitness function definition. In addition, most of the systems have a lack of adaptability or have an inability to learn. This paper presents an optimization strategy for process sequencing based on multi-objective fitness: minimum manufacturing cost, shortest manufacturing time and best satisfaction of manufacturing sequence rules. A hybrid approach is proposed to incorporate a genetic algorithm, neural network and analytical hierarchical process (AHP) for process sequencing. After a brief study of the current research, relevant issues of process planning are described. A globally optimized fitness function is then defined including the evaluation of manufacturing rules using AHP, calculation of cost and time and determination of relative weights using neural network techniques. The proposed GA-based process sequencing, the implementation and test results are discussed. Finally, conclusions and future work are summarized.

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