The lateral line system (LLS) is a mechanoreceptive organ system with which fish and aquatic amphibians can effectively sense the surrounding flow field. The reverse Kármán vortex street (KVS), known to be a typical thrust-producing wake, is commonly observed in fish-like locomotion and is known to be generated by fish's tails. The vortex street generally reflects the motion information of the fish. A fish can use LLS to detect such vortex streets generated by its neighboring fish, thus sensing its own state and the states of its neighbors in a school of fish. Inspired by this typical biological phenomenon, we design a robotic fish with an onboard artificial lateral line system (ALLS) composed of pressure sensor arrays and use it to detect the reverse KVS-like vortex wake generated by its adjacent robotic fish. Specifically, the vortex wake results in hydrodynamic pressure variations (HPVs) in the flow field. By measuring the HPV using the ALLS and extracting meaningful information from the pressure sensor readings, the oscillating frequency/amplitude/offset of the adjacent robotic fish, the relative vertical distance and the relative yaw/pitch/roll angle between the robotic fish and its neighbor are sensed efficiently. This work investigates the hydrodynamic characteristics of the reverse KVS-like vortex wake using an ALLS. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the effectiveness and practicability of an artificial lateral line in local sensing for adjacent underwater robots, indicating the potential to improve close-range interaction and cooperation within a group of underwater vehicles through the application of ALLSs in the near future.

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The flame-retardant properties of asphalt for some building applications are very important. This article is mainly focused on the influence of particle size and content of magnesium hydroxide (MH) on the flame-retardant properties of asphalt. The limit oxygen index and cone calorimeter results indicate that as the MH content and mesh number increase, the flame-retardant properties of MH-filled flame-retardant asphalt show a rising trend. But the role of particle size in smoke suppression is not obvious. Several tests confirm that the dispersion of the MH have some influence on the flame-retarding effect of asphalt. The 3000 mesh MH for the preparation of flame-retardant asphalt shows optimal performance. The experimental data show that the softening point of flameretardant asphalt increases, but the ductility and penetration decrease with increasing MH content. MH affects the asphalt viscosity, but not affects the adhesion of the asphalt to gravel.

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Bone mechanical properties vary with age; meanwhile, a close relationship exists among bone mechanical properties at different levels. Therefore, conducting multilevel analyses for bone structures with different ages are necessary to elucidate the effects of aging on bone mechanical properties at different levels. In this study, an approach that combined microfinite element (micro-FE) analysis and macrocompressive test was established to simulate the failure of male rat femoral cortical bone. Micro-FE analyses were primarily performed for rat cortical bones with different ages to simulate their failure processes under compressive load. Tissue-level failure strains in tension and compression of these cortical bones were then back-calculated by fitting the experimental stress-strain curves. Thus, tissue-level failure strains of rat femoral cortical bones with different ages were quantified. The tissue-level failure strain exhibited a biphasic behavior with age: in the period of skeletal maturity (1-7 months of age), the failure strain gradually increased; when the rat exceeded 7 months of age, the failure strain sharply decreased. In the period of skeletal maturity, both the macro- and tissue-levels mechanical properties showed a large promotion. In the period of skeletal aging (9-15 months of age), the tissue-level mechanical properties sharply deteriorated; however, the macromechanical properties only slightly deteriorated. The age-related changes in tissue-level failure strain were revealed through the analysis of male rat femoral cortical bones with different ages, which provided a theoretical basis to understand the relationship between rat cortical bone mechanical properties at macro- and tissue-levels and decrease of bone strength with age.

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Long-term exposure to low-frequency vibration generated by vehicle driving impairs human lumbar spine health. However, few studies have investigated how low-frequency vibration affects human lumbar mechanical properties. This study established a poroelastic finite element model of human lumbar spinal segments L2–L3 to perform time-dependent vibrational simulation analysis and investigated the effects of different vibrational frequencies generated by normal vehicle driving on the lumbar mechanical properties in one hour. Analysis results showed that vibrational load caused more injury to lumbar health than static load, and vibration at the resonant frequency generated the most serious injury. The axial effective stress and the radial displacement in the intervertebral disc, as well as the fluid loss in the nucleus pulposus, increased, whereas the pore pressure in the nucleus pulposus decreased with increased vibrational frequency under the same vibrational time, which may aggravate the injury degree of human lumbar spine. Therefore, long-term driving on a well-paved road also induces negative effects on human lumbar spine health. When driving on a nonpaved road or operating engineering machinery under poor navigating condition, the auto seat transmits relatively high vibrational frequency, which is highly detrimental to the lumbar spine health of a driver.